Acton, Suffolk


Acton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. The parish also includes the hamlets of Cuckoo Tye and Newman's Green.

Etymology

According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the name is "Village by the Oaks".

History

The Domesday Book records the population of Acton in 1086 to be 83 households along with 50 acres for farming, wood for 40 pigs, 1 mill, 11 horses at hall, 31 cattle, 160 pigs, 423 sheep, and 7 beehives. The land was held by Ranulf Peverel, before the Norman Conquest, the village was held by Siward Barn.
All Saints is the local church. Five bells are hung in the tower for change ringing with the heaviest weighing 8cwt-1qr-4lb, and the oldest dating from 1659 cast by Miles Graye III, the tower is affiliated to the Suffolk Guild of Ringers.

Historical writings

In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described the village as:
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In 1887, John Bartholomew also wrote an entry on Acton in the Gazetteer of the British Isles with a much shorter description:

Industry

Between 2001 and 2002 the Reliant Robin was produced in the village's industrial estate.

Notable former residents

was known as "William the Miser" and the "Acton Miser". Jennens made his money loaning money to gamblers and was Britain's richest man at the time of his death in 1798, but aged 97 he had outlived the nominated executors and beneficiaries under his will. According to the BBC QI series, Jennens vs Jennens commenced in 1798 and was abandoned in 1915 when the legal fees had exhausted the Jennens estate of funds. The case of Jennens v Jennens formed part of the inspiration for the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case at the centre of the plot of Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
Another Acton resident, Catherine Foster, was believed to be the last woman to be hanged at Bury St Edmunds, in 1847. At the age of 17 she poisoned her husband by putting arsenic in his dumplings. The propriety of this case was discussed in the House of Lords and reported in Hansard.
Ronald Blythe, writer, essayist and editor, best known for his work Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, was born in the village.

Population change