- Onehouse
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Onehouse St John the Baptist
Onehouse is a small village in the English county of Suffolk, about 3 miles west from the centre of Stowmarket near to the Golf Club.
Recorded in Domesday variously as "Aneus", "Anehus" "Anuhus" and "Anhus" (means a lonely cottage or house), today it is mainly modern housing for commuters with a few scattered older buildings.
Robert Drury was granted, in 1510, licence to crenellate Battlement his manors of Hansted Hall, Buknahams and Onhowshalle, Suff. Three fragments of a moat around the site of Onehouse Hall (VCH). Homestead Moat, in good condition, comprising two waterfilled arms and one dry arm. The remaining N. arm has been destroyed by farm buildings. The Hall was pulled down before 1847 (Copinger), probably in the mid C17 when the Callum's (the Drury heirs) constructed Hardwick House. They seem to have destroyed the other two properties at this time.
The House of Industry was built in 1779 to serve the entire hundred of Stow (hundred). Later it became the Union Workhouse on Union Road (extreme east). Nearby is the Paupers' Graves, now a conservation area owned and maintained by the parish council.
Until the 1950s it was a scattering of some dozen houses along Lower Road (to the south) and about 15 houses on Upper Road (to the north) with another 5 on Union Road leading to Stowmarket. By the late 1960s housing development had begun but there are still people in the village who remember streams and ditches where houses and roads now stand. With the major build of 150 houses in the 70's Upper Road became Forest Road and the Northfield Estate came into being.
With a population of 920, it has a small number of businesses including a computer company and a local hair stylists. There is also a community centre shared by neighbouring villages, Shelland and Harleston (further northwest), where children and adults alike enjoy a wide number of activities including a weekly youth club. The 3 villages also share a monthly magazine named OHSmag.
Shepherd & Dog is the only pub in the village and is at the east end of Lower Road near to the old animal pound.
The playing field has play equipment such as swings and an assault course and two football goals but no current football team.
Its church, St John the Baptist, is one of 38 existing round-tower churches in Suffolk and was close to the Hall. The Church of St John The Baptist sat in the fields midway between Lower and Upper Road. The church of St John the Baptist is a beautiful small flint, stone and brick structure, with a round tower containing two bells, close by the ancient site of Onehouse Hall. There was a church in Saxon times, as recorded in the Domesday Book, but the present church is thought to have started its life during the great Norman build and rebuild period following the Conquest. Archeologists now date the earliest part of the building as of the 12th century. The round tower of the parish church has recently been restored.
Notable people
- Charles Davy (Rector) (1722–1797), Rector of Onehouse, miscellaneous author (Conjectural observations on the origin and progress of alphabetic writing, London 1772)
- John Wark, Ipswich Town and Scotland footballer
- Trevor Whymark, Ipswich Town and England footballer
External links
Categories:- Mid Suffolk
- Villages in Suffolk
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