DmECIORY.] . STOKFe-BY-CLARE. 313

STERNFIELD is a parish and village abou~ I mile at a cost of [,1,400, and has 100 sittings. The register south from station on the and dates from the year 1560. The living is a rectory. Lowestoft line of the Great Eastern railway, in the North net yearly value £219, with 84 acres of glebe and resi­ Eastern division of the county, Plomesgate hundred and dence, in the gift of W. E. Long esq. and held since won, Blything petty sessional division, 1880 by the Rev. John Longe, of St. Bees. The Town and Saxmundham county court district, rural deanery Lands now produce £61 yearly, which sum is applied to of Orford, 31rchdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of Nor. the relief of the poor ·and other purposes. William wich. The church of St. Mary Magdalene is an edifice Evelyn Long esq. J.P. of Hurts Hall, who is lord of the flf flint and rubble, in part of Norman date, and consists manor, Mrs. &hreiber and Sir Hugh Edward Adair bart. ef chancel, nave, south porch and a low embattled western of Flixton Hall, are the principal landowners. The soil is bower of flint containing 4 bells: the chancel was rebuil1l mixed; subsoil, sand and clay. The chief crops are by the Rev. Montague North D.D. in 1764, and has for wheat, barley, beans and roots. The area is 1,105 acres; an altar-piece a. fine painting by West, of the "Blind rateable value, £944; the population in 1891 was 212. Restored to Sight," presented by Lord Farnborough: Sexton, Simon Jordan. there are escutcheons of the Long and North families: Pillar Letter Box, cleared at 11.15 a.m. &; 6.20 p.m.; the communion plate bears the date 1568: the stained sundays, 10.30 a.m. Letters received by foot post east window is a memorial to the Rev. James Drummond from Saxmundham, arrive at 6.30 a.m. & 2.30 p.m. Money, a former rector: in 1891 a memorial window was Saxmundham, I mile distant, is the nearest money erected by the Rowley family to the late Mrs. W. order k telegraph office Beeston Long, of Hurts Hall, Saxmundham, d. 1889: The children of this place a:ttend Saxmundham &; the church was completely restored and re-seated in 1877, schools Longe Rev. John. Rectory Jordan Simon. shoe maker &; sexton Packard Robert. farmer. Glebe farm COMMERCIAL. Precious Robert Clutten. surveyor &; Reynolds George Edmund, farmer. Baldry Robert. farmer . sanitary inspector for Plomesgate hall Durrant Thomas &; Son, farmers·, Rural District Council &; attendance Wisby Martha (Mrs.). farmer &; horse Town farm. ; officer for Plomesgate union slaughterer STOKE-BY-CLARE is a parish with a station on a quently removed here, and in 1415, by grant of Henry V. branch of the Great Eastern railway from Long Melford to Edmund (Mortimer). 5th Earl of March. was converted to Cambridge, 70 miles from London, 2! south-west from into a college with a dean. 6 prebendaries, 8 vicars, 4 Clare and 12 from Sudbury, in the Southern division of clerks and 6 choristers. and so continued till the general the county, Risbridge union, petty sessional division and dissolution of religious houses in 1534, when the college hundred. Haverhill county court district, rural deanery became a mansion, and in 1557 was purchased by the of Clare, archdeaconry of Sudbury and diocese of Ely. Elwes family: Matthew Parker, second Archbishop of The river Stour flows on the south side of the parish and Canterbury (1559). after the Reformation, was the last separates it from Essex. The church of St. John the dean of Stoke College: Sir Gervais Elwes bart. 1660. Baptist is a handsome edifice of flint, with stone 'dress­ owner of Stoke College estate, was succeeded by his ings, in the Perpendicular style. and consists of chancel, grandson, Sir Hervey Elwes. who in his later life becam~ \South transept, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, a miser; with him the title lapsed: he was followed by north and south porches and an embattled western tower his nephew, John M. Elwes, the second and better known -containing a clock and 6 bells: the aisles are continued miser. The ancient and interesting mansion house now on either side of the chancel, opening into the same standing on the site of the Priory, under the name of through one arch on the n