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West Stow Public Houses
STOW, (WEST) a small scattered village and parish, in the vale of the river
Lark, 5 miles N.W. by N. of Bury St. Edmund's, has in its parish 279 souls, and
3,050 acres of fertile land, including Chimney Mills, an extra-parochial place
of 20 acres, having a large mill on the river, and a house with 6 inhabitants.
The village adjoins the extensive park of Culford Hall, the seat of the Rev. E.
R. Benyon, M.A., the lord of the manor and owner of all the parish. He has a
great part of the parish in his own occupation, and is patron of the Church,
(St. Mary) which is a discharged rectory, valued in K.B. at £9 17s. 3d., and in
1835 at £302, with that of Wordwell annexed to it, in the incumbency of the Rev.
Thomas Hubbard. The manor passed to its present owner from the late Richard
Benyon De Beauvoir, Esq. West Stow Hall, now a farm house, has been much reduced
in size. It formerly surrounded a quadrangular court, and was moated, and well
adapted by its interior arrangement to baronial customs and festivities. It is
supposed to have been built about the beginning of the 16th century, and it
formerly contained a large collection of armour. Its embattled pediments,
diamond shaped tracery, and finial statues, are curious and unusual appendages
in buildings of this order. The Crofts held the manor in the reign of Edward
Ill., and it was afterwards held by the abbots of Bury. After the Dissolution,
it passed successively to the Kitsons, Bacons, Progers, and Fowkes; and was one
of the estates sold by the late Marquis Cornwallis. The sum of £10 left to the
poor parishioners, by William Firmage, in 1599, was laid out in the purchase of
3a. 3r of land, at Rattlesden, now let for £3 a year, which is distributed at
Christmas. The Church Land comprises one acre, in the In-field, worth only 5s. a
year, and 2a. in Culpho Field, let for £l 10s., a year. Directory-
Rev. Thomas Hubbard, Rectory;
William Day, corn miller, Chimney Mills;
William Bilham, farmer, Hall;
William Foulger, farm bailiff, North Stow;
George Fenner, blacksmith and beer seller;
and Jas. Murrell, shoemaker.
