South Cove, Suffolk Explained

Official Name:South Cove
Country:England
Region:East of England
Static Image Name:St Lawrence's church in South Cove - geograph.org.uk - 2077697.jpg
Static Image Caption:St Lawrence's church
Area Total Km2:4.9
Area Footnotes:[1]
Population:20
Population Ref:(2005 est.)[2]
Os Grid Reference:TM499809
Coordinates:52.369°N 1.67°W
Post Town:Beccles
Postcode Area:NR
Postcode District:NR34
Dial Code:01502
Constituency Westminster:Waveney
Shire District:East Suffolk
Shire County:Suffolk
Hide Services:yes

South Cove is a civil parish in the east of the English county of Suffolk. It is 3miles north of the coastal town of Southwold and 1miles south of the village of Wrentham in the East Suffolk district. Neighbouring parishes include Covehithe, Frostenden and Reydon as well as Wrentham.[3] The village lies to the east of the main A12 road, on the B1127 road between Wrentham and Southwold,[4] and is around NaNmiles from the North Sea coast.[5]

The parish is sparsely populated.[4] At the 1981 United Kingdom census it had a population of 35 in 11 inhabited houses;[1] in 2005 the population was estimated to be around 20.[2] [6] The parish council operates as a joint council with Frostenden and Uggeshall.[7]

History

Archaeological remains in the parish include flint tools from the Neolithic period (4,000 to 2,000 BCE)[8] [9] [10] and two possible round barrow sites that may date to the Bronze Age (2,400 to 700 BCE).[11] [12] A series of earthworks in the west of the parish were partially excavated during the 1950s and may be the remains of a camp used by Danish invaders during the Anglo-Saxon period or of a dock recorded in the Domesday Book as being at Frostenden.[13] [14] [15] Claude Morley discussed the possible origins of the site in 1923.[16]

South Cove is mentioned in the Domesday Book, at which point it was known simply as Cove, as part of Blything Hundred. The population was listed as 12 households, with Count Alan of Brittany and Robert Malet holding land in the village.[1] [17]

By the 13th century the parish church was owned by Rumburgh Priory, a Benedictine priory established during the 11th century.[18] The manor, which was combined with Covehithe to form the manor of South Cove and North Hales, was held by a variety of owners until it was bought by the Blois family in the late 17th century.[19] [20] A second manor, named Polfrey or Blueflory-Cove, was owned by the Gooch baronets of Benacre Hall by the start of the 19th century.[20] The family owned most of the land in South Cove and in neighbouring Covehithe by the middle of the century and remain the major landowners in the area.[1] An Act of Parliament to enclose land in the parish was passed in 1797.[1] [21]

The population of the parish peaked during the mid-19th century at around 200. It declined rapidly after the 1930s.[1] The land has always been primarily used for agriculture, although clay dug in the parish was used for brick making at Cove Bottom from the 1870s until 2005.[1] [22] [23] During World War II the parish formed part of the immediate invasion defences and a number of anti-tank ditches and other invasion defences were built.[24] [25] From 1944 a heavy anti-aircraft battery operated in the east of the parish.[26]

Geography

The majority of the land in the parish is used for agriculture, primarily arable crops.[1] The underlying geology of Norwich Crag Formations is overlain with glacial clays, sands and gravels. The majority of the parish is classified as forming part of the North Suffolk Sandlings landscape with quick draining sandy soils. The Sotterley and Benacre farmland plateau, with clay soil, extends into the north-east of the parish area. This produces a gently rolling landscape suited to arable crops.[27] [28]

The southern and eastern boundaries of the parish feature areas of low-lying wetlands with marshland and reed beds classified as estuarine marsh.[27] These form part of the Pakefield to Easton Bavents coastal Site of Special Scientific Interest, with areas in the south-east of the parish falling into the Benacre National Nature Reserve and the Benacre to Easton Bavents Lagoons Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area.[29] Much of the parish is designated as part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.[30]

The B1127 roads crosses the marshland at Potter's Bridge, linking the parish to Reydon and Southwold to the south. The area has been subject to flooding, leading to extended road closures.[31] [32] The marshland areas were navigable in the early medieval period, with a port recorded at neighbouring Frostenden at the Domesday survey.[33] The coast at Covehithe to the east and the former parish of Easton Bavents to the south-east, are subject to rapid coastal erosion.[28]

Religion

The Church of England parish church of St Lawrence is in the centre of the parish alongside the B1127. It possibly dates from the late Saxon period[5] [34] [35] and may have been included as one of the two churches listed at Frostenden at the Domesday survey.[36] It is certainly Norman at the latest, with a 12th-century nave with original doorways and a chancel that dates from the 14th-century. It has a thatched roof and a tall, flint-built tower which dates from the 15th-century. Windows in the nave date from as early as 1300 and a piscina in the chancel has been dated to the 13th-century.[5] [36] [37]

Part of the rood screen survives, and a 15th-century painting of St Michael was rediscovered in 1929 and restored by Ernest William Tristram in the 1930s.[38] Many of the original features of the church were destroyed by William Dowsing in the 1640s as part of the Puritanical movement,[1] and it is possible that this painting was white-washed or plastered over to protect it from Dowsing.[38] The church was restored in 1877 and the building designated as Grade I listed in 1953.[37] Today the parish is part of the Sole Bay benefice, a group of eight churches administered from St Edmund's Church, Southwold.[5] [34] The weathered 15th-century font in the church may have been moved from Dunwich after the loss of one the town's churches to coastal erosion and flooding.[38] [39]

The churchyard features a war memorial with five names from World War I and three from World War II. It is Grade II listed and also mentions the loss of an American Air Force plane in the parish in March 1945.[40] The B24 Liberator bomber of the 409th Bombardment Squadron, 93d Bombardment Group, crashed near the church with the loss of all nine crew members. A hand-written memorial inside the church lists their names alongside the names of the men on the war memorial.[41] [42]

The church was used as a filming location for the 2001 film Iris, a biopic of Iris Murdoch.[43]

Culture and community

The population of the parish is concentrated in a small cluster of buildings around the church and another at Cove Bottom, close to the site of the former brickworks.[1] The Five Bells public house on the northern edge of the parish is technically within the parish area but generally considered to be within Wrentham.[6] It has operated since at least 1835.[44] Another pub, The Chequer, is known to have been put up for sale in 1801, although this may have been an earlier name for the Five Bells.[45]

Other than the church and pub, the parish has no services,[4] although it shares a village hall with Frostenden.[46] A Sunday School is known to have operated during the 1830s.[1]

Notes and References

  1. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/media/pdfs/south-cove.pdf South Cove
  2. http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/38314C3E-02A0-4515-92FE-8909C6FDB3A3/0/Parishestimates01to05.pdf Estimates of Total Population of Areas in Suffolk
  3. https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/assets/Planning/Neighbourhood-Planning/Town-and-village-profiles/South-Cove.pdf South Cove
  4. https://www.healthysuffolk.org.uk/uploads/Frostenden,_Uggeshall___South_Cove-_Parish_Profile.pdf Frostenden, Uggeshall & South Cove
  5. https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=3717 St Lawrence, South Cove, Suffolk
  6. https://suffolk.camra.org.uk/place/273 South Cove
  7. https://infolink.suffolk.gov.uk/kb5/suffolk/infolink/service.page?id=80VV8LHUeR4 Frostenden Uggeshall & South Cove Parish Council
  8. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF1323 Monument record SCV 003 - Chipped flint axe dark grey found in ploughsoil about 1971
  9. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF9127 Monument record SCV 005 - A very fine polished Neo axe head of dark grey flint found beneath the foundations of Half Way house situated there when demolished
  10. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF1357 Monument record SCV 004 - Scatter of flints. (Neo)
  11. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSX27509 Monument record SCV 021 - Possible Bronze Age round barrow
  12. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSX27535 Monument record SCV 025 - Cropmarks of possible Bronze Age round barrow
  13. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF1355 Monument record SCV 001 - Mound with surrounding ditch
  14. https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=392236&resourceID=19191 Monument Number 392236
  15. http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/3431.html South Cove: The Mound
  16. [Claude Morley|Morley C]
  17. https://opendomesday.org/place/TM4980/south-cove/ (South) Cove
  18. Page W ed (1975) Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Rumburgh, A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2, pp. 77-79. (Available online at British History Online. Retrieved 2023-03-26.)
  19. Page A (1844) South Cove Parish, Topographical and genealogical, The County of Suffolk. (Available online. Retrieved 2023-03-26.)
  20. Copinger WA (1908) The Manors of Suffolk : notes on their history and devolution, vol. 2, p. 44. Manchester: Taylor, Garnett, Evans. (Available online. Retrieved 2023-03-26.)
  21. Tate WE (1952) A Handlist of Suffolk Enclosure Acts and Wards, Proceedings of the Suffolk Insititue of Archaeology, vol. XXV, part 3, pp.224–263. (Available online. Retrieved 2023-03-28.)
  22. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF14968 Monument record SCV 007 - Cove Bottom Brickworks
  23. Reeder MG (November 1987) South Cove Brickworks Suffolk, British Brick Making Information, no. 43, p. 9. (Available online. Retrieved 2023-03-26.)
  24. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MXS18860 Monument record SCV 016 - World War II strongpoint overlooking Pottersbridge Marshes
  25. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSX27549 Monument record SCV 032 - World War Two anti tank ditch
  26. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MXS18866 Monument record SCV 013 - World War II 'Diver' Heavy Anti Aircraft battery T19
  27. Waveney District Landscape Character Assessment, Waveney District Council, April 2008. ( Available online. Retrieved 2023-03-28.)
  28. Holt-Wilson T Tides of Change: 2 million years on the Suffolk Coast, Suffolk Coast and Heaths. (Available online. Retrieved 2023-03-28.)
  29. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/suffolks-national-nature-reserves/suffolks-national-nature-reserves#benacre Benacre
  30. https://www.suffolkcoastandheaths.org/managing/about-the-aonb/ About the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
  31. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-59547476 Suffolk MP urges court action against landowner over flooded road
  32. Powell M (2021) Hundreds sign petition to fix closed Suffolk road as MP visits site, East Anglian Daily Times, 3 December 2021. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  33. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF15555 Monument record FOS 046 - Record of a Medieval port and former salthouse in the Domesday Survey of 1086
  34. https://www.solebayteamministry.co.uk/st-lawrence-south-cove St Lawrence's, South Cove
  35. Goode W (1994) The Round Tower Churches of South East England. Round Tower Churches Society.
  36. https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF13949 Monument record SCV 006 - Church of St Lawrence
  37. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1032143 Church of St Lawrence
  38. History of the Church, St Lawrence, South Cove.
  39. St Lawrence Church, South Cove.
  40. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1458742 South Cove War Memorial
  41. https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/42-51241 42-51241
  42. https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/256617/ South Cove parishioners and B24 USAAF crew
  43. Sapsted D (2001) Vicar stars with Dench in film of writer's life, The Daily Telegraph, 3 May 2001. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  44. https://suffolk.camra.org.uk/pub/860 Wrentham Five Bells
  45. https://suffolk.camra.org.uk/pub/3970 South Cove Chequer
  46. https://infolink.suffolk.gov.uk/kb5/suffolk/infolink/service.page?id=v25vkzr8KwY Frostenden and South Cove Village Hall