The Trimley Villages can trace their history back to the Domesday Book. In 1991 the Suffolk WEA produced “Glimpses Of The Trimley Villages”. Three of the authors - Rosemary Gitsham, Mona Berryman and Audrey Thomson are STAG supporters. For those of you who are interested in our past we have reproduced a few Chapters from this book.

The Domesday Book was compiled about 1086 AD. from information gathered on the instruction of William the Conqueror. Land was catalogued by County, by its Hundred (Colneis for the Trimley area) and under its owner's name. We find thirty one entries in the Domesday Book related to Trimley which tell us of the several big landowners and the complex pattern of landholdings in the eleventh century.

The first written record of the twin parishes of Trimley St Mary and Trimley St Martin is the Domesday Book where the landholdings in the parishes are described at great length. Then as now they were included in the Colneis Hundred. A Hundred was originally defined as an area in which taxes to support 100 knights could be raised. It is thought the name Colneis may be derived from "Cold Ness" (a cold headland).
The Domesday Book entries, listed at the end of this chapter, show that the pattern of the landholdings in Trimley was very complex in the late Saxon and early Norman periods. The sheer number of names given as being estates and manors within the Trimley area in the Domesday period seems to be quite exceptional. It would appear the area was attractive to incoming peoples for three main reasons:
1) Its geographical position at the mouth of a major trade route - the River Orwell - on the eastern side of England, an area with ancient links with continental Europe.
2) The probable presence of a Roman road, the course of which is now the village High Road.
3) Though situated in the eastern coastal "Sandlings" of Suffolk, the soils of the Trimley -Felixstowe area are markedly better than the sandy soils around them. Indeed Arthur Young, writing in 1813, considered they could (for depth and richness) "scarcely be exceeded by any soils to be found in other parts of the county, and would rank high among the best in England."
As a result of this attractiveness to settlers eleven vills (spelt in a variety of ways) were listed for the Trimley area:
Alteinestuna - later known as Alston
Candelenta - Candlet
Grimestuna - Grimston
Leofstantestuna - Leston or Lestaneston (?"Leofstan's tun")
Morestuna - Morston or Moston
Mycelegata - Mickelgate (the "Great (Roman) Road")
Nortuna - Norton
Plugeard - Plumyard
Tremlega - Trimley
Torp - Thorpe
Turstanestuna - Thurston
With the exception of Trimley these names have all declined in importance since the eleventh century. Several names are now recognisable only as farm names (such as Candlet Farm listed in Entry 6 and Grimston Hall listed in Entry 4) while others have disappeared altogether. Alteston or Alston (Entry 7) was united as a parish with Trimley in 1362, but the evolution of the other local estates is less certain.

The disappearance of these various names points to changes in local economic activity over the centuries. The eleventh century seems to have been a period of decline in the Trimleys. The beginnings of this decline are, despite the complex and often ambiguous descriptions, visible in the Domesday evidence itself. While it is difficult to generalise, it would appear that the number of "ploughs" (a useful indicator of prosperity) declined in the years following the Conquest. Numbers of ploughs either remained static or fell.
In one of the Plugeard estates (Entry 23) there were two ploughs before the Conquest while "now" (in 1086) there is only one :
In Plugeard [Trimley St Martin] (were) ....Twoplough, now one.
Similarly in Morestuna (Entry 29) there was half a plough "then" (when a Norman took control of the estate after the Conquest) but "now" there is no plough :
In Morestuna....then half a plough, now none.
Other examples could be quoted to the same effect. By 1086 the Trimley density of ploughs per square mile was at the lower end of the (admittedly high) density range for the Colneis Hundred. However the decline in the number of ploughs may have been only temporary and may have been the result of short term shifts of settlement rather than a long-term decline in local economic activity.

The geographical area covered by the two Trimley parishes was, at the tune of the Domesday survey, made up of numerous small estates, two of which are described as "manor" in 1086 : Tremlega (the modern centre of the parishes) and Nortuna (Entry 21).
The manor of Tremlega has, confusingly, two entries in the Domesday book, one (Entry 25) relating to pre-Conquest times when it was held as "Lands of St Etheldreda" (that is, Ely Abbey) and one (Entry 8) relating to "now" (that is, 1086) when it was held by Roger Bigot:
At Tremlega [Trimley] Godric under commendation to Norman in King Edward's time held 50 acres of land as a manor. Now Torold (holds) of Roger Bigot -3 bordars [low class villeins] and 1 plough (and) 2 acres of meadow. And a freeman Leuric under him holds 4 acres. And (the manor) renders 35 shillings. A church with 20 acres worth 40d. It is 4 furlongs long and 3 broad. And (pays) 4d in geld. A church with 8 acres worth 8d. Others hold (land) therein.
This entry describes Trimley's best known feature - it's two churches.
From later records in 1254 (recorded in Norwich Archaeology vol 17) the benefice of the Church of St Mary was listed as being worth 20 marks while that of St Martin's was 10 marks (1 mark = 13s 4d). So it is probable that the Tremelega church described in the Domesday Book as having "twenty acres worth 40d" was St Mary; the other having "eight acres worth 8d" was St Martin.
As to the reasons for having two churches side by side, these are obscure.
It is possible that St Martin's is the earlier church and was established by Danish settlers. These early settlers left place name evidence in the local area. Norman Scarfe in his book "The Suffolk Landscape" considers the name Trimley to have been derived from the Old English "treo mael" indicating "the island or ... clearing of the tree cross" -in other words, the site of an early cross. It may be that St Martin's was established close to this spot.
As to the later church of St Mary's, Ely Abbey which held Tremlega manor in pre-Conquest times may well have played a significant part in its establishment. Ely Abbey was influential in another well-known example of two churches side by side - that of Swaffham Priory in Cambridgeshire. At Swaffham, as at Trimley, while one of the churches has an early dedication (in this case to St Cyriac and St Julitta), the later church is also dedicated to St Mary.
Interestingly, the Domesday Book entries also reveal a third local church, that at Altinstuna (Entry 7). This was also on Roger Bigot's land and was endowed with only five acres of free land worth 16d.

The vast majority of the holdings for Trimley in the Domesday Book were occupied by freemen under Roger Bigot (one freewoman is included). Freemen would be expected to undertake military service for the landowner and to attend the Manorial Court. Bordars are also listed and these men, while not free, would have had control of some of their own land while also undertaking some labour for the landowner. Almost all of the landholders were men holding small pieces of land from Roger Bigot, at that time Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. They were usually described as having formerly been "under commendation" to men such as "Norman". The "distinctive characteristic" of Roger Bigot's "fief was (according to "The Victorian County History") :
"the large number of freemen who held under the Earl. Many had perhaps previously been under William and Robert Malet or commended to the sheriffs Toll and Norman, or held by a "Norman" who may be the ex-sheriff. Roger may have acquired lordship over them in connection with the East Anglian shrievalty."
It would seem likely that while "free" the Trimley freemen were not in a strong position - their holdings were small (generally ten acres or less) and they held their land from one of the most powerful men in East Anglia. Bigot's lands were listed third in the Suffolk Domesday entry, only the King and Robert Mortain, the King's half brother (who also held some land in Trimley) appear before him.

Given the complexity of the Trimley information relatively little detail other than landholdings appears. There are no animals listed apart from the plough teams of perhaps eight oxen per plough. Only one small demesne is included which may explain the scarcity of animals. The majority of the land is described as plough land with numerous small meadows of about one acre. The smallest meadow was at Mycelgata with just one rood (one quarter of an acre).

The difficulties in interpreting the local entries are increased by the fact that it appears that much of Trimley may not have been recorded in 1086. Most of the lands held by freemen under Bigot have furlong dimensions. The areas of land thus implied add up to only a fifth of Trimley's modern acreage. The Domesday Book is difficult to analyse but the clues it provides remain fascinating.

This walk of a mile and three quarters through the lanes and footpaths of Trimley St Martin passes many features of historical interest. Comfortable shoes are recommended. It is also possible to follow the track on a bicycle, but in dry weather only.
Starting at Payne's corner where Grimston Lane meets the High Road in Trimley St Martin, walk down Grimston Lane a little way and you will soon come to a fork in the lane [B], and a field gate on your left, through which is a pleasant view across the fields towards the Hand In Hand, the village and the two churches.
The nearest field, shown on the 1839 map as Great Hook Field (arable) was shown as The Aliens on the earlier map of 1784. Within living memory it was the smallholding of Messrs Morgan and Jennings with an orchard, farm buildings (housing pigs, chickens and a carthorse) and surrounded by arable land. All the buildings are gone now, the only reminder being fragments of broken brick here and there in the soil.
From this point, take the left fork in the lane and you will soon arrive at the railway line from Ipswich to Felixstowe, built by Colonel Tomline of Orwell Park and opened in 1877.
In the summer of 1891 a Royal train passed this way taking two of the young sons of the German Empress, holidaying in Felixstowe, to visit Queen Victoria, their great grandmother.
Cross the railway through the wicket gate. These days the crossing is for pedestrians only but was formerly for vehicles and was manned by a full-time crossing keeper living in the adjoining gatehouse.
The lane continues with a large field on the right-hand side, originally a series of small fields known in 1839 as Little and Great Bonds, Great Barn Field, Church Field, Knight's Pightle, the Nine Acres, Whin Hedge and Common Piece (these last five backing onto and including the cluster of cottages seen in the distance to the right). Old trees show the position of some of the vanished hedges. A footpath from Trimley village joins the lane a little way down on the left.
The modern dwellings on the left side of the lane occupy what were in 1839 Little Hook Field and Kettles; on the 1808 map they were called St Martin's Glebe, whereas in 1784 they were known as Little Gears Glebe, a field belonging to Mr Bruce and sundry demesnes. This would account for their exceptionally long back gardens which follow the ancient border of the Aliens (cut in two when the railway was constructed).
On reaching the T-junction past Flory's Farm there is a glimpse of Grimston Hall in a hollow to the left with a backdrop of the cranes at Felixstowe Docks.
The previous house on or near this site was the family home of Thomas Cavendish, the second Englishman to circumnavigate the world in  1586/88, and in his tune and until as late as 1843, the lands around the house were known as Grimston Hall Park, but by 1839 it had been divided into fields. Fragments of the original Elizabethan house remain and have been incorporated into the rear of the early 18th Century farmhouse still standing. This is timber-framed and plastered with a plain tile roof and is a listed building. The old barn at the back of the farm contains interesting roof timbers dating back to about the 15th century. the walls being of timber with red brick nogging in between.
Grimston is mentioned in Domesday Book 1086 as Grimestuna, again in the 1327 Subsidy Rolls when Richero de Grymeston paid tax, and again in 1568 when William Caundishe Esquier was taxed. By 1621 Grimston Hall had passed to Sir John Fytch Barker and by 1770 the estates had come to George Nassau, while in 1824 they passed to William Henry, Earl of Rochford, his brother.
From this T-junction on a clear day there is a good view over the Orwell Estuary to Harwich, the spire of St Nicholas Church being particularly prominent. You can also see the Stour Estuary, Shotley Peninsula and, in the far distance to the left of Harwich, the tower and cliffs of Walton on the Naze.
This area where you are now standing is steeped in history. Alston Hall is on your right, the Alteinstuna of Domesday and Altingston of 1327, and the site of St John's Church, disused by the early 15th Century, is nearby. Traces of human bones were found behind the black barn at Alston Hall while workmen were digging foundations for farm buildings and these were thought to have come from the burial ground of St John's Church. The stone font from this church is now in the churchyard of Trimley St Mary Church to the left of the path. Local people have been brought up to believe in the existence of a tunnel linking Alston Hall and Grimston Hall, possibly for smuggling purposes, but in spite of many attempts over the years to prove its existence, no firm evidence has yet been found.
Turning right at the T-junction alongside a small field known jokingly by the farmer as Thousand Acres, but not much more than one acre, and occupied in 1784 by a cottage (now gone) owned by a Mr Bruce. Alston Cottage is on the bend in the lane to the right, while on the left hand corner stood Marsh House Farm, appearing on maps for 1784 and 1839, no trace of which now remains. The last dwelling in the lane is Alston Hall, known for a time during the 1700s as Everetts, presumably after the man who farmed there. The oldest part of the building probably dates from the middle of the 16th century The lane now degenerates into a rough cart track leading to such ancient fields and meadows as First and Back Meadows, First and Middle Marshes, Slayton Marsh and Rush Fen, little changed for centuries.
Retracing one's footsteps past Alston Hall, a newly made cart track, bordered by saplings, leads beside :Alston Cottage northwards, giving wide views over the River Orwell towards Collimer and Bloody points tom the south, and northwards towards Stratton, Levington and Ipswich.
This track crosses what were known at various times as Home Field, Thorpe Field, Thorpe Great Field and Great Common Field, now inevitably merged into one as a result of modern farming practices. Within living memory one of these areas was known as Thorpe Common, though on the 1784 map Thorpe Common was shown as a small area the other side of the valley, beyond where the derelict waterworks is now. The comparatively high ground between the track and the river is Sleighton Hill (Slayton in Rathborne's Survey of 1613). In his book "Orwell Estuary" W G Arnott suggests that Sleighton Hill might be the site of a bloody encounter with marauding Danes, though no archaeological evidence has been found to substantiate this. About two thirds of the way along the track it would, until about thirty years ago, have been crossed by Common Lane, leading from Thorpe Lane towards the River, a delightful byway bordered on both sides by tall hedges of hawthorn, brambles and wild roses.
Soon the track meets another at right angles].
The left turn takes one to Trimley Shore. The far side of the marsh on one's right going to the shore (now a trout lake) is the Sawyers Marsh mentioned in Rathborne. Assuming that the site of Thorpe Common of 1613 was the same as in 1784 and 1823, it is fair to deduce that ahead of [G] on the other side of the valley must have been Bloyse's House and Bloyse's Hill Close (probably where the red brick Hill Cottages now are), Gaymer's Tenement and Hempland, Murrell's Meadow, Alleyn's Meadow, Leeche's Close, Comefield's Tenement and Little Sparman's Tenement described in Rathborne, but the exact location of each is proving difficult to pin-point without further research.
The Wills of several of these landholders are detailed in a previous chapter whilst Adam Sparman was mentioned in the 1524 Subsidy Return, and Thomas Stone (whose Home Close was also nearby) and Edward Goymer appear in 1568, and William Comfield, Philip Bloyse and the Widow Leech were all taxed in the Ship Money Returns of 1640. In the bottom of the valley among the trees can be seen the remains of Little Grove Pumping Station, perhaps the site of Grove Pightle of Richard Leech in 1613, which fits in with the  position of Thorpe Common at that time -north of Grove Pightle. Beyond Hill Cottages can be seen the roofs of Morston Hall (Morestuna of Domesday).
Turning right at the junction of these two tracks, across the 1784 Thorpe Field, you soon reach the farmyard of Goslings Farm.
This area is known as Thorpe (Torp in Domesday) and is probably the site of a lost mediaeval village (Johanne de Thorp appeared in the 1327 Subsidy Rolls). The first part of the tarmacadamed lane is shown on the 1784 map as Thorpe Street, and the cottage opposite the farmyard is 18th Century with recent additions. In the 19th Century it was advertised for sale as "having a seam of coprolite underlying the site", and the top pond facing you along a track as you turn the corner by Shore Cottage was a coprolite pit and was assessed for rates on November 6th 1856. This material, once thought to be the phosphatic nodules found at the base of red crag, was found to be beneficial as a fertiliser by the Reverend Professor Henslow in 1843, while holidaying in Felixstowe. This distinguished man, who recommended his pupil Darwin as naturalist on the Beagle, was Professor of Minerology at Cambridge, Rector of Hitcham and was engaged by Prince Albert to instruct the Royal Children. Professor Henslow was also instrumental in setting up the Ipswich Museum and was its second President between 1850 and 1861. His portrait still hangs on the staircase there. Coprolite was widely dug in this part of Suffolk and by 1880 there were five firms in the Ipswich area grinding it for fertiliser, three of which (Joseph Fison & Co, Edward Packard & Co and J Prentice Bros) formed the basis of the giant Fisons plc which we know today.
The lane now bends to the right abutting on the garden of Shore Cottage.
Built in 1857 (though much altered externally) Shore Cottage contains a kitchen which was the original communal wash-house or "back house" used by all the inhabitants of this group of cottages. On the 1784 map dwellings are shown in this area and a hempland in 1839. It is interesting to note that as recently as 1839 the whole area to the left of Thorpe Lane on both sides of the railway and right up to the High Road was in the Parish of Trimley St Mary.
Thorpe Lane now bends to the left, heading for the railway.
The last pair of cottages on the right before the open fields, recently sympathetically renovated and enlarged, occupy what in 1839 was Knight's Pightle, although their exact age is uncertain. They are said to be haunted by the ghostly smells of rabbit stew and tobacco smoke which have been sensed even when no physical reason existed for them. In December 1909 the smaller cottage of the two, now called Lynn but formerly Pretyman's Cottage, was the scene of a tragedy when four members of the Rouse family died in less than a month from what was at the time described as food poisoning, but was later thought to have been the last outbreak of the bubonic plague in England. The father, eldest daughter and youngest son also became ill but survived. The cause was thought to have been rabbit pie, and the disease was thought to have been brought ashore by rats from ships moored in the Orwell.
The wood that can be seen over the fields to the left is known as Broom Hill Wood, and the field this side of the wood is Broom Hill, thought to be the site of the original village of Thorpe from the evidence of crop marks in aerial photographs taken in a dry summer a few years ago. Bromehill Close is mentioned in Rathborne's Survey of 1613, and in this same area were also Rowe's tenement, Stone's Home Close and Clarke's Cottage, but it is impossible to find the exact locations. William Barbor, mentioned in Rathborne as having lands elsewhere in Trimley, also had land in this part of Trimley. He must have been an important man in the village as he witnessed several Wills. In his own Will he was very charitable and left money for the poor of the village and church repairs. He was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in 1652 and his red brick tomb can be seen directly outside the South Porch of the church.
On this last stretch of lane you will notice that the level of the carriageway is a good three feet or more below that of the surrounding fields. This is an indication of an ancient track, worn down by feet and cartwheels over many centuries, and known in Suffolk as a "grundle".
On reaching the railway crossing, you will notice that the new stretch of lane running alongside the railway between the two pairs of gatehouses lacks this strange feature and is on a level with the field. Cross the railway and bear left and a few more steps will bring you once again to Paynes Corner and the beginning of the walk.