Kelly's Directory 1912

Parish

Occold is a parish and village 2 miles south from Eye terminal station on a branch from Mellis of the Great Eastern Railway. In the North Eastern division of the county, Hartismere hundred, petty sessional division and union, county court district of Eye, rural deanery of North Hartismere, archdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of Norwich.

Church

The church of St Michael, an edifice of flint with stone dressings, was originally a Norman building, repaired in 1854, reseated and reroofed, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch and western embattled square tower with pinnacles, clock and 5 bells. The tower was built in 1426, but has since undergone considerable alterations. The church was reseated with open benches in 1877; there are 150 sittings. The registers date from the year 1681.

Buildings

The living is a rectory, net yearly value £270, with 46 acres of glebe and residence, built in 1846, in the gift of and held since 1908 by the Rev Herbert Edward Champion MARSHALL, M.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge.

Ed: Glebe - also known as Church furlong, Rectory Manor or Parson's Close(s), is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. A holder of a benefice could retain the glebe for his own use, usually for agricultural exploitation, or he could lease it to others and retain a rent as income.

The burial ground was enlarged by the addition of half an acre in 1902.

There is a Baptist chapel, erected in 1832, with sittings for 300 persons.

St Catherine's Hall was erected in 1909 in memory of Mrs Frances Catherine TODD, wife of the Rev Horatio Lovell TODD, M.A., rector 1868-1908.

Charities

Lee's charity arising from the rent of land, produces about £58 yearly; £13 annually is distributed in equal portions, every Friday, in bread to the poor; the remainder of the net income being given in clothing.

Denny's charity of £1, arising from the Occold Hall farm, is distributed in bread every Ash Wednesday.

Henman's charity produces about £50 yearly; part of the net income is distributed to the poor in coal at Christmas and part goes toward repairing the church.

Lords of the Manor

The rector is lord of the manor of part of Occold. The trustees of the late Rev Charles CHAPMAN, vicar of Church Coniston, Lancs, are lords of the manor of Occold Hall and Mrs BURROWS has the manorial rights of Benningham. The chief landowners are the trustees of the late Rev Charles CHAPMAN and the trustees of the late Douglas MILLER.

Land

The soil is good heavy land, subsoil clay. The chief crops, which are on the four course system, are wheat, good barley, clover, roots, peas and beans. The area is 1,508 acres, including the hamlet of Benningham Green. Rateable value is £1,593. The population in 1911 was 436.

Sexton

John BAKER

Ed: A sexton is an officer of a church, congregation, or synagogue charged with the maintenance of its buildings and/or the surrounding graveyard. In smaller places of worship, this office is often combined with that of verger. In larger buildings, such as cathedrals, a team of sextons may be employed.

Post Office

Mrs Clara PATRICK, sub-postmistress. Letters through Eye arrive at 6:40am and dispatched at 9:30am and 6:55pm. Sundays 9:40am.Eye is the nearest money order and telegraph office, 2 miles distant. Wall letter box, near the Church, cleared at 9:45am and 7pm, Sundays at 9:30am.

School

Public Elementary School (mixed), Opened in 1879, for 126 children, average attendance 101. George BOSWORTH, master.

Private Residents

GOOCH, Edmund, Winfields
OLIVER, Mrs, The Cedars
MARSHALL, Rev Herbert Edward Champion (rector), Rectory

Commercial

BALLS, Frederick William, farmer, Benningham Green

BREESE, Frank, farmer, Benningham Hall and Poplar Farm

BREESE, William, farmer, Occold Hall and at Wood Farm, Rishangles and Southolt Park Farm, Southolt

BRUNDLE, Cornelius, carpenter

BRUNDLE, George, bricklayer

CAPON, Edwin Benjamin, maltster
Ed: Son of Edwin Benjamin CAPON, landlord of The Beaconsfield Arms, ~1881-1901

EVERSON, Ezekiel, news agent

EVERSON, John, shopkeeper

HAVERS, David, blacksmith

HINES, Thomas, farmer

LAST, Herbert Henry, grocer, draper, boot, shoe, china & glass, patent medicine dealer and farmer, Grove Farm

LAST, James, threshing machine owner, High House

LAST, William, farmer, threshing machine owner and landowner, Church Farm
Ed: Father of Eric WIlliam LAST who sold off the Threshing Tackles in 1947

MILLS, William Samuel, beer retailer.
Ed: Landlord of The Beaconsfield Arms and also father of Ernest Arthur MILLS, KIA, France & Flanders, 1917

MOORE, Thomas Spencer, farmer and landowner, Benningham Grange & Winfield's Farm

MOYSE, George, boot and shoe maker

PALLANT, Henry, farmer

PALMER, Francis & Son, wheelwrights

PATRICK, John, tailor

REYNOLDS, Ambrose, Bottles PH
Ed: Landlord of The Bottles Inn

SHULVER, James, blacksmith

WOODS, Alfred, farmer, White House Farm
Ed: Father of Frank Carter WOODS, KIA, France & Flanders, 1916

Reading Room & St Catherine's Hall, George BLAKE, Hon Sec