Place:Whitton cum Thurlston, Suffolk, England

Whitton

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Whitton is an ancient parish and once a separate village within the county of Suffolk in England. Part of it was absorbed into Ipswich, but the remainder remains as a civil parish outside the boundary of the town. (The date of this change was not found.) The site of a Roman villa, the village is thought to have been a Saxon colony, possibly dating from the Saxon invasion of around 430 AD. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Widituna, possibly meaning "Hwita's farm" or "White's farm".

The parish of Whitton is bordered by the former Borough of Ipswich to the south, the parish of Westerfield to the east, the parishes of Akenham (since 1974 part of the enlarged parish of Whitton with Thurlston and Akenham), Claydon to the north and Bramford to the west. It would appear that the former name of Whitton cum Thurlston has been dropped.

The parish church is dedicated to St. Mary and St. Botolph. The dedication to St. Botolph is a reminder of all that remains of the now demolished church at the tiny hamlet of Thurleston. St. Botolph's Church was still in use in 1500, but after being amalgamated with Whitton it fell into disrepair. It remained in use as a barn until 1862, and when the barn was demolished much of the building material was used to construct a south aisle and tower for St. Mary's at Whitton.

The dedication of the church at Whitton has been the subject of confusion over the years. At various points in its history it has changed back and forth between St Mary and St Botolph. The confusion arose because Thurleston Church, dedicated to Saint Botolph, was often mentioned in the same sentence as Whitton Church, which was dedicated to Saint Mary. In 1990 it was decided to bring the confusion to an end, and an official application was made to change the name to St. Mary and St. Botolph.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Whitton-cum-Thurlston from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WHITTON-CUM-THURLSTON, a parish in Ipswich district, Suffolk; 1½ mile N of Bramford [railway] station, and 2 N of Ipswich. Post town: Ipswich. Acres, 1,459. Rated property: £2,578. Population: 565. Houses: 114. [Thurlston] Lodge is the seat of Mrs. Steward; Lilburne House, of T. Cheesright, Esq.; and Sparrow's Nest, of S. Westhorp, Esq. The living is a rectory and a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £273. Patron: the Bishop of [Norwich]. The church has been recently restored and enlarged."

Thurlston

From the discussion of the parish church above it would appear that Whitton and Thurlston were merged into one parish in the early 1500s, probably at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535. However the parish continued to be known by the combined name of Whitton cum Thurslton until sometime in the 20th century.

Research Tips

There is no article in Wikipedia for Thurlston. However, it should be noted that there are several communities in England with similar names:

• Thurlstone is a suburb of Barnsley (now in South Yorkshire);
• Thurlestone is located in the South Hams District of Devon; and
• Thurlton is in the neighbouring county of Norfolk.
• To add to confusion Thurston is another village in Suffolk and GENUKI identifies Thurlston in Suffolk as "Thurlton".
• 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.