Hawstead is a small village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is located 5 kilometres (3 mi) south of Bury St. Edmunds between the B1066 and A134 roads, in a fork formed by the River Lark and a small tributary.

Hawstead
All Saints' Church, Hawstead
Hawstead is located in Suffolk
Hawstead
Hawstead
Location within Suffolk
Population134 (2011 Census)[1]
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBury St Edmunds
Postcode districtIP29
List of places
UK
England
Suffolk
52°11′53″N 0°43′08″E / 52.198°N 0.719°E / 52.198; 0.719

The place-name 'Hawstead' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Haldsteada. The name is thought to mean 'a place of shelter for cattle'.[2]

Hawstead Place, previously the seat of the Drury family, is now a farmhouse. Sir William Drury was sheriff and knight of the shire for Suffolk.

Lady Drury's Closet (also known as the Hawstead Panels), now in Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, is a series of painted wooden panels of early 17th-century date. They originally decorated a painted closet adjacent to a bedroom in Hawstead Place. It is believed they were made for Anne Drury, Lady Drury, wife of Sir Robert Drury, who died in 1624.


Lt Col Edward Robert Drury, son of Rev Sir William Drury, was the first general manager and president of the Queensland Bank of Australia now the National Australia Bank; he named his Queensland home 'Hawstead' in 1875.

Demography edit

According to the Office for National Statistics, at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, Hawstead had a population of 334 with 121 households.[3] falling to a population of 134 in 56 households at the 2011 Census.

Population change edit

Population growth in Hawstead from 1801 to 1891
Year 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1881 1891
Population 392 409 404 414 457 520 321 325
Source: A Vision of Britain Through Time[4]
Population growth in Hawstead from 1901 to 2001
Year 1901 1911 1921 1931 1951 1961 2001 2011
Population 297 292 266 228 256 248 334 134
Source: A Vision of Britain Through Time[4]

Notable residents edit

  • Robert Drury (1539–1614), Knight, Lord of the Manor of Hawstead, and Knight of the Body to Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. Speaker of the House of Commons (elected 4 October 1495), and Privy Councillor.

Location grid edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  2. ^ Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, pp.227 and 213.
  3. ^ "Suffolk County Council - 2001 Census Profiles" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  4. ^ a b "A Vision of Britain Through Time". University of Portsmouth & others. Retrieved 22 February 2011.

External links edit

  Media related to Hawstead at Wikimedia Commons