Post Office Directory of 1865.
RUSHBROOKE is a parish, on the east side of the river Lark, in
Thedwestry hundred and rural deanery, Thingoe union, county court district of
Bury St. Edmund's, archdeaconry of Sudbury, and diocese of Ely, West Suffolk, 3
miles south-east from Bury St. Edmunds station. The church of St. Nicholas is a
small neat building, and has nave, chancel, and south aisle, a square tower, and
3 bells: the chapel in the south aisle and the chancel contain several monuments
of the Jermyns, and there are marble monuments to the Rushbrooke family in the
south aisle, and tablets to the Davers and Moyle families: there is a handsome
painted window over the communion table: the nave is richly decorated in the
cathedral style with oak carvings, as is also the pulpit. The living is a
rectory, consolidated with that of Bradfleld St. George, tithes commuted at
�700, in the gift
of the Marquis of Bristol, and held by the Rev. Charles Johnson Cartwright,
M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge; the Rev. Edward Pattison, B.A., is
curate. Rushbrooke Hall, a splendid moated mansion, the property and residence
of Major Robert F. Brownlow Rushbrooke, stands In an extensive and well wooded
park: this mansion forms three sides of a quadrangle; the east wing was built in
the reign of King John; the west wing is of the Elizabethan period: the front
faces the south : the entrance hall contains many instruments of warfare: in the
cast wing are the dining room and other apartments: the library is in the west
wing, where many old manuscripts and paintings of the early masters are
preserved: passing through this apartment you enter the drawing-room, where
Queen Elisabeth held her courts in 1578; it contains some of the furniture used
at
that time, which is in good preservation; adjoining is the old Catholic chapel,
now used as a billiard-room, near to which is the royal chest, where the richly
embroidered day and night dresses of the Pretender are preserved: here you
ascend the grand staircase, leading to the royal and other bedrooms, hung with
tapestry. The almshouse here was rebuilt in 1700, and endowed by Thomas Lord
Jermyn, for the residence of three poor women and one poor man, who are also
allowed 2s. per week, with a supply of coals and clothing yearly, arising from a
yearly rental on a house in St. James's-square, London. There are several small
charities, still kept up by the benevolent proprietor of Rusbbronke Hall.
The population in 1861 was 185, and the area is 1,060 acres.
Parish Clerk, James Cook.
Letters through Bury, which is also the nearest money order
Rushbrooke Major Robt. F. Brownlow, Rushbrooke hall
Andrews Alfred, brick & tile manirfacturer, & at Bury St. Edmund's
Battle Robert, farmer
Sturgeon Henry, farmer, Green farm
Sturgeon Joseph, farmer, Hall farm
Wicks George, farmer, Bridge farm