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Woodbridge in the
Loes hundred
Woodbridge 1855 Whites Directory
Transcribed by Colin Ager
Part one ;
Part two ; Part three ;
Part four ;
Part five
WOODBRIDGE, a well-built market town and port, is pleasantly situated on the
western bank of the Deben, about nine miles above the mouth of that broad river,
eight miles E.N.E. of Ipswich, 11 miles W. of Orford, 13 miles S.W. of
Saxmundham, 11 miles S. of Framlingham, and 77 miles N.E. of London. Acts have
been obtained for making railways from Ipswich to Woodbridge, and thence to
Halesworth, &c., and it is hoped they will be completed in a few years. The
population of Woodbridge amounted, in 1801, to 3020; in 1811, to 4332; in 1821,
to 4060; in 1831, to 4768; in 1841, to 4952; and to 5161 souls in 1851. Its
parish comprises 1053A. 3R. 13P. of fertile land. Forming a detached member of
Loes Hundred, from which it is separated by Wilford Hundred. It gives name to
the Woodbridge Union, which has its Board-room and principal officers here, but
its Workhouse is at Nacton, eight miles from the town, as already described at
page 235. It is a polling place at the election of the parliamentary
representatives of the Eastern Division of Suffolk, and may be considered the
capital of the Liberty of St. Ethelred, which comprises the neighbouring
Hundreds of Loes, Colneis, Carlford, Wilford, Plomesgate, and Thredling,
commonly called the Woodbridge Division, for which QUARTER SESSIONS are held
here in January, April, June, and October; and Petty Sessions every Wednesday.
The manors of Woodbridge-Hasketon and Woodbridge-late-Priory belong to Mrs. E.
S. Smith, and Rolla and Wm. Rouse, and John May, Esqrs. R. Rouse, Esq., is the
steward. The parish is partly in three other manors, of which the following are
the names of the lords, viz., Woodbridge-Ufford, J. Cuddon, Esq.; Thorpe Hall,
G. T. Cornett, Esq; and Kingston, Wm. Hartcup, Esq. The other principal land
owners are the Rev. P. Bingham, Rev. E. J. Moor, C. N. Hastie, Esq., and J.
Cobbold, Esq. In Domesday Book, this town is called Udebryge, of which its
present name is no doubt a corruption; though some writers have asserted that it
derived its name from a wooden bridge, built over a hollow way between two
parks, near the road to Ipswich, where, in Kirby’s time there was a house called
Dry Bridge. On the south side of the church, formerly stood a PRIORY of
Augustine canons, founded by Sir Hugh Rous, or Rufus, and endowed with the
church, one of the manors of Woodbridge, and many other possessions. It stood
near the house called the Abbey, and within it were interred many individuals of
the knightly families of Rouse, Breos or Brews, and Weyland. On its dissolution,
in the 33rd of Henry VIII., it was valued at �50. 3s. 5�. per annum, and was
granted, with the advowson of the church, to John Wingfield, and Dorothy his
wife, in special tail male; and on his death without issue, it was granted in
fee to Thomas Sekforde, Esq., the founder of the richly endowed almshouses here.
In his family it remained till 1673, when it passed, by the will of Mrs. Dorothy
Seckford, into the family of the Norths, of Laxford, from whom it passed to the
Carthews. After the decease of the Rev. Thomas Carthew, in 1791, the priory
estate was divided and sold, at which time the mansion called the Abbey, was
purchased by Francis Brook, Esq., of Ufford; but it is now the seat and property
of the Rev. Peregrine Bingham, who purchased it in 1853, and has recently
restored the house and embellished the grounds with great taste. In 1666,
Woodbridge was visited by the plague, which carried off the minister, his wife,
and child, and upwards of 300 of the inhabitants. The parish of Melton forms a
handsome suburb of Woodbridge, and in it is situated Suffolk Lunatic Asylum.
Woodbridge Public Houses
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