Yoxford

Yoxford is a village in East Suffolk, England close to the Heritage Coast, Minsmere Reserve (RSPB), Aldeburgh and Southwold. It is also known for its antique shops and (as "Loxford") for providing the setting for a Britten opera.

This article is about the English village. For other uses, see Yoxford (disambiguation).

Yoxford
St Peter's Church, Yoxford
Yoxford Location within Suffolk
Population	726 (2011)[1]
OS grid reference	TM396687
• London	94 miles (151 km)
District	East Suffolk
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Saxmundham
Postcode district	IP17

Location and governance

Yoxford, some 94 miles (151 km) north-east of London and 25 miles (40 km) north-east of Ipswich, is surrounded by the parkland of three country houses, in an area known as the "Garden of Suffolk". It takes its name from a ford across the nearby River Yox, where oxen could pass. The village includes the junction of the A12 trunk road and the A1120.

An electoral ward bears the same name. This stretches east to the sea, with a total population at the 2011 census of 1,901.[2] The village belongs to the district of East Suffolk.

Facilities and sights

The Church of St Peter has a 15th-century Perpendicular-style exterior, but is mainly Victorian inside. However, it possesses a number of 15th–17th-century monumental brasses, which are displayed on the walls, the finely carved font dates from the early 15th century, and the pulpit from the 17th century.[3]

The church parish belongs to the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Up to about 1830, the village came under the Blything Hundred.

Yoxford village sign

On the edge of the village is Cockfield Hall, once the old home of the Blois family. The village is known for its antique shops. It also has a general store, a restaurant and a village hall.

Benjamin Britten and librettist Eric Crozier are believed to have adapted the name of Yoxford to create the fictional town of Loxford, which provides the setting for Britten's opera, Albert Herring.

Education

Yoxford and Peasenhall Primary School caters for children aged 3–11. The school has an Early Year Centre purpose-built for pupils aged from 3–6. The school works in partnership with Middleton Primary School in Middleton, Suffolk and Southwold Primary School in Southwold, Suffolk, the three making up Yox Valley Partnership of Schools.[4]

Hospitality

Yoxford's two pubs are the Griffin Inn, a medieval house that reopened in 2013, and The King's Head. The Griffin Inn offers accommodation, as does the 18th-century Satis House. This is sometimes described wrongly as the original for the Satis House in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. In fact the book describes Restoration House in Rochester, Kent, referred to as satis by Queen Elizabeth I of England. Yoxford's Satis House was known as plain Yoxford House until well after the novel appeared, as old Ordnance Survey maps confirm.

Public transport

The village is served by Darsham railway station on the East Suffolk Line, one mile (1.6 km) away. The line offers hourly weekday services (two-hourly on Sundays) between Ipswich, with connections to London, and Lowestoft, with connections to Norwich. It is also served by four weekday buses a day between Aldeburgh and Halesworth and a once-daily Monday-to-Friday service between Leiston and Framlingham.[5]

See also

• The Blois family

References

1. "Parish population 2011". Retrieved 19 September 2015.
2. "Ward population 2011". Retrieved 19 September 2015.
3. Britain Express Retrieved 29 November 2017.
4. "Yox Valley Partnership of Schools". Retrieved 26 March 2019.
5. Bus times Retrieved 29 November 2017.