Post Office Directory of 1865.
BENTLEY is a parish and station on the Eastern Union Railway and
Hadleigh branch, and on a small rivulet, a feeder of the Stour, 63 � miles from
London, 6 south-west from Ipswich, and 7 � south-east from Hadleigh, in Samford
hundred, union, and rural deanery, Ipswich county court district, archdeaconery
of Suffolk, and Norwich diocese, East Suffolk. The church of St. Mary has a
square tower; the interior of the nave was restored in 1856, and a new aisle
added in 1858. Early registers, irregular; earliest date, 1678. The living is a
discharged vicarage, valued at �190 15s. per annum, in the gift of the Rev. C.
E. R. Keene, and held by the Rev. Henry Ruck Keene, M.A., of University College,
Durham. The National schools were built in 1854. There are four manors; the Rev.
C. E. R. Keene is lord of three, and A. W. J. Deane, Esq., of one. The
population in 1861 was 453 ; and the area is 2,801 acres.
Parish Clerk, Robert Rolfe.
POST OFFICE.�James Dowsing, sub-postmaster. Letters received from Ipswich at
8.30 a.m. dispatched at 5.30 p.m. Ipswich is the nearest money order office
INSURANCE AGENT.�Royal Farmers' & General Fire, Life & Hail, J. C. Bolton, Water
mill
National School, Miss Julia Chambers
Railway Station, John E. Ellis, station master
Gosnall John Walford esq, The Lodge
Keene Rev Henry Ruck, M.A. Vicarage
Alderton William, farmer
Daking Robert, farmer
Goocher Charles, farmer
Gosnell J Walford, farmer
Hawkins Thomas, farmer, The Hall
Lay James, farmer
Long Charles, farmer & shopkeeper
Moss Bartholomew,
Railway tavern
Reynolds Jacob, farmer
Warden Jonathan, Tankard
Wood William,
Case is Altered