Wissett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wissett is a village and parish in the Waveney district of Suffolk, England located at 52.35N 01.46E TM3679 about 2 km (about 1.5 miles) northwest of Halesworth. Historically, it was in the hundred of Blything. It has a population of about 200.

Wisset manor was held by Ralph the staller, Baron of Gael in Brittany before the Norman Conquest. Ralph was created Earl of Suffolk and Norfolk in 1067, but his son lost the title and the manor passed to Count Alan of Brittany and Richmond in 1075. The Domesday Book shows that in 1086 Wissett had a church [at Rumburgh] with 2 carucates of free land, 12 monks and a chapel in the village.

The eleventh century flint parish church dedicated to Saint Andrew has a circular church tower with a floor dated to the 12th Century. This is the oldest recorded church tower floor in the United Kingdom. Built as a chapel to the Benedictine priory at Rumburgh, the surviving elements of the Norman church are two doors to the nave and the tower arch. The parish is now part of the Blyth Valley Team Ministry in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and David Garnett lived in Wissett for the summer of 1916. Virginia Woolf (Vanessa's sister) said after visiting them: "Wissett seems to lull asleep all ambition. Don't you think they have discovered the secret of life? I thought it wonderfully harmonious."

Wissett Hall is a red brick manor house owned by Colin Holmes, cofounder of Dencora PLC.

The village pub is the Plough Inn.

Wissett Wines are produced at the Valley Farm Vineyards by Janet and Jonathan Craft, who established the business in 1987.