A Brief History of Middleton-cum-Fordley

 

 

There is plenty of evidence that Middleton [meaning middle homestead or village] has been inhabited from very early times. Flint arrowheads, tools and scatterings of ancient pottery have been found particularly around Middleton Moor and in the fields on the higher ground.

By the time the Romans arrived in the area there would have been at least five or six small Iron Age farm settlements established here. Many Roman artefacts have been found across the river on the edge of the meadows in Fen Street indicating the likelihood of a settlement there, and Roman pottery has also been found at Watermill Farm and on the rise from Fordley Road up to the Moor.

The river would have been navigable to the sea at Minsmere where there was probably a harbour. So it is easy to imagine the flat bottomed Saxon boats finding their way up to the low hills of Middleton and deciding to settle here and build their wooden church on the slight rise where our church still stands today overlooking what was then an estuary. [There are small cliffs along the edge of the meadows near Watermill Farm which are thought to show the extent of the old estuary.]

When the Doomsday book was written in 1086 Middleton and Fordley had a total of 58 inhabitants, but this would not have included women and children. A mill is mentioned in Fordley, but this is more likely to have been the Watermill at Middleton, although this can’t be proved. The medieval farming methods of dividing the land into three or four large fields each divided into long strips or furrows would have been used, [a few of these were still privately owned as late as 1839]. Permission to hold a fair was granted to the village in 1270, but there is no record of it having been held or when it closed.

A ford crossed the river where the Rackford Bridge now stands, and it is thought that the name Fordley may have come from the connection between this ford and the ‘ley’, or woodland, on the higher land. The ford would have been an important crossing point and ancient tracks can be seen on old maps radiating from it to many places including what was then the large port of Dunwich and through Middleton, along the Causeway and to Middleton Moor and Yoxford and beyond. There was probably a landing place down stream from the ford from which a track can still be traced along the Drift, and the Packway to Kelsale, which was once an important market town.

The church has always been at the heart of the community and was built in Norman times on the site of the Saxon church. Fordley church was in the same yard as Middleton but fell into disuse as the result of a controversy over the ringing of the bells. The two parishes were united in the sixteenth century although Fordley was still thought of as a separate parish by some residents until quite recently.

Middleton has never been owned by one lord and much of the better land has belonged to the large landowners of Yoxford and Theberton and for this reason it has never been a wealthy parish as can be seen by the lack of endowment to the church. However both Moor Farm and Fordley Hall are buildings showing some substance and there is evidence of some prosperity to be seen in the many timber framed farmhouses in the parish which were built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and are still standing to this day.

As the river gradually silted up what had once been estuary became marsh and flood lands and the meadow drains and ditches must have been dug at this time, probably by the landowners from Yoxford who owned Beveriche Manor Farm and the lands up to the watermill.

With the exception of a few eighteenth century memorials in the church and the rebuilt frontages of one or two houses, there is no lasting evidence of change or much prosperity in the parish during the eighteenth century.

In 1792 the lane that wound its way from Aldeburgh toYoxford, [then known as Meadow Lane, now the B1122] was made into a Turnpike Road and a Toll House and gate were erected at the north entrance to the Moor causing great annoyance to many villagers who tried to find various ways around the obstacle.

The threat of invasion was always very real in Middleton because of its close proximity to the coast and to the continent. In Napoleonic times this caused considerable alarm and the national problems of poverty and famine as a result of the French wars and a run of bad harvests would have severely affected the village. At the same time enclosure of common lands was causing great hardship in some parishes but there is little evidence of this in Middleton, perhaps because there was very little common land to enclose.

In 1839 the parish was surveyed for the tithe map which meant that every bit of land had to be carefully surveyed and its ownership confirmed so that the old habit of paying tithes in kind could now to be paid in cash. The survey shows that there were twenty farms spaced out fairly evenly across the parish. The cottages, many tiny and crowded together, and some with gardens and orchards, were clustered around the church and around the separate hamlet of Middleton Moor. There was an excellent corn mill on the hill above Mill Street and the miller, Mr Thomas Geater, lived in Mill House.

In 1840, Dutch engineers arrived in the area and work proceeded to cut a canal from the ford at Middleton to the sea at Minsmere. A system of drains and pumps was installed to turn the marshy ground into safe grazing. Although not quite in the parish of Middleton this must have caused much interest and commotion. The old river bed can still be seen meandering down to the sea across the meadows.

The mid-nineteenth century also saw the opening of Middleton Church School which, while not without problems, helped to broaden the lives and add to the opportunities of the children of the village

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel opened to much acclaim in 1828. People came each week from as far as Darsham and Kelsale often bringing their dinners with them and staying for the whole of the Sabbath day. The Chapel and Sunday School outings were a popular annual event and the chapel band continued to play until well into the twentieth century. There were several local preachers who toured the area preaching in chapels and sometimes in the open air. A baptism service was performed in the pond on Middleton Moor by some itinerant evangelists.

The population had risen considerably during the nineteenth century and overcrowding became a serious problem. Many of the tiny cottages contained very large families and some of the larger houses were divided into two of three in an attempt to help the situation. The school log books indicate the poor living conditions of most of the villagers. Many children were under fed and poorly clothed and contagious illnesses spread quickly from family to family causing an alarming number of child deaths. Poverty amongst both old and young often meant being sent to the dreaded Bulcamp workhouse at Blythburgh where discipline was strict, families were split up (and sometimes never saw each other again) and long days of hard work were rewarded with a diet of dry bread and gruel.

The Lowestoft to Ipswich railway line opened in the1850s which meant that a short walk to Darsham made it possible to find work or visit relatives as far as Halesworth, Lowestoft or even London. Young men took the train to Lowestoft to look for work on the fishing boats and girls travelled to Ipswich or London to find work in the shops or as domestic servants. With the coming of the railways country people from every county flocked to the towns and cities to look for work and a better life.

The early part of the twentieth century was a time when daily life in Middleton improved. There were several shops in the village including two grocers and a post office with a daily collection of letters and parcels, and a carrier took passengers and goods to Saxmundham on certain days of the week. There were three public houses which included the Bell Inn which still thrives. With a good school, a blacksmith, carpenters, plumbers, dressmakers and other village trades, the village was almost completely self sufficient.

Bicycles brought places of work and seaside excursions nearer and many men bicycled to Leiston to work at Garretts the huge agricultural implement makers. Even a few cars appeared in the village and bus and coach services were available. A Church Room was opened in Rectory Road, the Women’s Institute was started as well as the Mother’s Union, and a Men’s Club was built in the Causeway. The Parish Council, which had been started in the 1890s, was beginning to make some improvements to village life. The Recreation Ground was provided and planted with trees and a pavilion was built for the whole community to use and enjoy. All these were the result of an endless number of meetings, committees, fund raising and hours and hours of voluntary work.

The war memorial in the churchyard is a constant reminder of the devastation brought to many village families during both world wars. The fear of invasion was again strong. Many airfields were built and troops, including American service men were billeted in the area. Children were evacuated here from London, the skies were lit up by search lights, and bombs were dropped in and around the village.

A different disaster struck the village in 1955 when the thatched roof of the church caught fire. A gallant band of villagers, some risking their lives, managed to save much of the church furniture, but the church was gutted and although a tiled roof was made and the church whitewashed and refurbished it was never quite the same again.

It wasn’t just the church that was never the same again. Farming, that had been the life blood of the village since the Iron Age, was in serious decline. Over the years more and more people had left the village to seek work in other parts of Suffolk and beyond.

But by the nineteen fifties some people who could afford to were beginning to leave the overcrowded towns and cities to return to the peace and quiet of the country. At first they came for holidays and weekends, but gradually they were able to settle in the village and start a new life here and bring up their children in the country. Many were the decedents of those who had been forced to leave the countryside during the years of poverty, and perhaps they had inherited the longing to get back to country life.

New lifestyles may have made changes, but Middleton is still very much alive. The church still stands in the centre of the village as a symbol of the community and the clock still strikes the hours away. Even though the Chapel, so beloved by the people of Middleton, is now a holiday home, and many of the fields that had been worked so diligently over the years now lie untended, there is a new spirit in the village. There is no more real poverty. Houses are being enlarged and those that had been divided are back to their original size and are made warmer and more comfortable. Food is plentiful, contagious diseases no longer cut down our children, and there is no longer any fear of the workhouse or of starvation.

In 1939, Alan Jobson, the popular writer known as ‘Mr Suffolk’ wrote in the Leiston Observer:

“To-day, despite the various annoyances and disturbances of modernisation, the people of Middleton still press forward with the valiant spirit of those who sleep in yonder churchyard.”

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Christine Stephenson

Village Recorder

October 2006

The above brief history was written using many sources which, because of restrictions of space, are not attributed. However anyone wanting further information is welcome to contact me at christine@paintingsofplants.com when I shall try to answer questions, or accept reprimands.