Place:Leiston cum Sizewell, Suffolk, England

Leiston cum Sizewell was an urban district formed in 1895. It consisted of two neighbouring civil parishes, Leiston, inland with a railway station, and Sizewell, on the coast. In 1974 urban districts were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and Leiston cum Sizewell reverted to being a civil parish. In size it could be considered to be a "town". It had a population of 5,508 at the 2011 UK Census. The parish is now part of the East Suffolk District of Suffolk, England. It is close to the towns of Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, and 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Ipswich.

History

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Walesof 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

"LEISTON, a small town and a parish in Blything [registration] district, Suffolk. The town stands on the Aldborough railway, 2 miles from the coast, and 4 [east southeast] of Saxmundham; is connected with the extensive manufacturing works of the Messrs. Garrett, and lighted with gas supplied from these works; carries on a manufacture of waterproof roquelaires; and has a post office under Saxmundham, a railway station with telegraph, a church, three dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institution, a parochial school, and charities: £73.

"Messrs. Garrett's works manufacture agricultural machinery and implements; were established, on a very small scale, in 1788; and have gradually increased to such magnitude as to occupy about 7 acres of ground, and to employ about 600 men.

"The church stands about ¼ of a mile W of the town; was originally early English; was rebuilt in 1853; and is a handsome edifice of nave, transepts, and chancel, with a tower of flint.

"The parish contains also the hamlet of Sizewell; extends to the coast; and comprises 4,500 acres of land, and 140 of water. Real property: £8,813. Population in 1851: 1,580; in 1861: 2,227. Houses: 470. The increase of population arose from the extension of Messrs. Garrett's works.

"Leiston Abbey is the seat of W. Rose, Esq.; Sizewell House is the seat off A. Ogilvie, Esq.; and the Cupola is the seat of Lord Beauclerk. Some new marine villa residences, and a coast-guard station, are at Sizewell-Gap. A pre-monstratensian canonry was founded on the coast section, in 1182, by Ralph de Glanville; was rebuilt, on a site about a mile further from the sea, and about ½ a mile from the town, in 1363, by Robert de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk; was destroyed by fire before 1389, and rebuilt in that year; had a church 168 feet long; was given, at the dissolution, to the Duke of Suffolk; and is now represented by massive ivy-clad walls, two lofty pointed windows, and half-enclosed underground cells. A modern farm-house stands among the ruins; and a flower garden occupies the inner area. The living is a [perpetual] curacy in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £435. Patron: alternately Christ's Hospital, London, and the Haberdashers' Company, London.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Walesof 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

"SIZEWELL, a hamlet in Leiston parish, Suffolk; on the coast, at [Sizewell] Gap, 6 miles E of Saxmundham. It contains some recent marine villa residences; has a coastguard station and a fishery; and ranks as a chapelry, annexed to Leiston. [Sizewell] Bank is a shoal lying off the hamlet; measures 6 miles by ¾; and has from 4 to 9 fathoms water."

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Leiston thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a manufacturing town, dominated by Richard Garrett & Sons, owners of "Leiston Works", which boasted the world's first flow assembly line, for the manufacture of portable steam engines. The firm also made steam tractors and a huge variety of cast and machined metal products, including munitions during both world wars. The works closed in 1981. The "Long Shop Museum", showing the history, vehicles and products of the works, remains as a heritage tourist attraction.

In the Second World War, RAF Leiston, 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest of the town in the neighbouring village of Theberton, sent fighter squadrons of the American 357th Fighter Group to fight the Luftwaffe.

Since the closure of Garrett's, the town's economy has been dominated by two nuclear power stations on the coast at Sizewell: the now decommissioned Magnox reactors of Sizewell A, and the more modern 1,200 MW Pressurised Water Reactor of Sizewell B. The 850 MW Greater Gabbard and Galloper offshore wind farms connect to the Leiston substation adjacent to the Sizewell nuclear power station; all supplying power to the 400kV National Grid.

Research Tips

• A map of Suffolk from 1900 provided online by A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography) can be enlarged to view individual parishes. Careful inspection will usually lead to the discovery of smaller hamlets founded before 1900. The rural districts (marked with their names printed in blue) are those in existence in 1900, not those introduced in 1934. The more ancient hundreds are marked in red. Most (but not all) parish names are underlined in red.

Suffolk Information

• Suffolk Family History Society A community of people who are interested in the local and family history pertaining to Suffolk.
• Suffolk Archives (Record Office) ( e-mail archives@suffolk.gov.uk) - The Suffolk Archive has branches in Ipswich (at The Hold, 131 Fore Street, Ipswich, IP4 1LR), Bury St. Edmunds (at 77 Raingate Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 2AR) and Lowestoft (at Lowestoft Library, Clapham Road South, Lowestoft, NR32 1DR). Includes: a good-looking website, research services and publications.
• Suffolk Churches This is an excellent guide to most of the Suffolk Churches with lots of pictures and descriptions of the architecture and history. It includes many chapels. If you have trouble visiting Suffolk to see where your ancestor were baptised, married and buried, or even those who want to just add to their knowledge, this is the site for you.

For those whose families may have wandered over the county borders:

• Cambridgeshire & Huntingdon Family History Society - One of the three counties adjoining Suffolk. The Isle of Ely is included in their area.
• Essex Family History Society - Another of the three counties adjoining Suffolk, stretching south to the outskirts of London.
• Norfolk Family History Society - The third of the counties adjoining Suffolk. There was a realignment of the border in 1974.
• Romany & Traveller Family History Society - British family history society for people with Romany Gypsy, Traveller and Fairground roots.

British Government Information

• The National Archives or "TNA" - More than 850,000 Probate Wills from 1610-1858 (PCC wills dating back to 1670 have been completed). Free access to indexes but copy of a will costs £10.00. (Ancestry has an index to wills published after 1858.) Access also available to the Domesday Book, World War One Diaries and various other information. Their catalogue called Discovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country including County Record Offices. Over 9 million records are available for download.
• The British Library - This vast collection contains millions of bibliographic records, British newspapers, many now digitised and searchable on-line and much more.
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission - The database lists the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other locations world-wide where they are commemorated. The register can also be searched for details of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action in the Second World War.
• General Register Office - provides official copies of birth marriage & death certificates for England & Wales.
• FreeBMD - provides Civil Registration index information for England and Wales. The transcribing of the records, by volunteers, is ongoing and contains well over 279 million records at August 2020. Records are complete from 1837 to 1983. Later records are not complete.
• FreeCEN - provides a "free-to-view" online searchable database of the UK census returns from 1841 to 1891. The transcribing of the records, by volunteers, is ongoing and contains well over 39 million records at August 2020. At that time Suffolk records appeared to be only for the 1891 census and a few for the 1871 census.
• FreeREG - provides baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been transcribed, by volunteers, from parish and non-conformist church registers in the UK. There are over 49 million entries with just under 300,000 records for Suffolk at August 2020.
• Ministry of Defence (url not found)- provides information for obtaining details about service records post 1920
• Royal Air Force Museum (url not found) - for information on the archive and library research material available.