.Welcome to the Hemingstone village website.  You will find here details of our Parish Council meetings and decisions, and also information about village events and organisations. On the Village Footpath Map tab, you'll find a copy of our local map. 

A little bit of history:

Hemingstone is a rural parish of 1449 acres nestled in beautiful undulating countryside of Mid Suffolk. Its origin is Anglo-Saxon with several mentions in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The present Grade 1 Parish Church of St. Gregory, built on ancient earthworks, is mainly 14thcentury but still has evidence of  its Anglo Saxon past seen in the S.W. corner of the nave – one of only 13 in Suffolk to do so. Inside, there is a fine example of a late 14thcentury limestone octagonal font with 15thcentury cover. 

The bell chamber houses 3 bells, two of which (tenor and second) are mediaeval c.1485 with Latin inscriptions cast in a Bury St. Edmunds foundry. The third (treble) was (probably) cast in Colchester  by Charles NEWMAN in 1686. 

Fine examples of 15thcentury flint flushwork panels by ALDRYCHE of North Lopham, Norfolk, can be seen in the parapet of the tower. The east side has a ‘G’ thought to have been inadvertently placed ‘upsidedown’ by a mediaeval labourer.

At this time the village had 2 manor houses– now known as Hemingstone Hall, Grade 1 and Stonewall Farm, Grade 2. The second was the home of Ralph CANTRELL, a recusant Catholic. He is reputed to have built a chapel on the north side of the church known as ‘Ralph’s Hole’ (now the vestry) to avoid going into a protestant church.

Other 16th/17thcentury notable families:  CHURCH AND THORNE. 18th/19thcentury: LEEDES and MARTIN.

National folk singer, Percy WEBB, was born in the village in 1897.

The affectionately named ‘Hut’is the social centre of the village, situated along Bulls Road. It is a WW1 hut from Rendlesham Forest gifted to the village in 1920 by the MARTIN family of Hemingstone Hall.

A more detailed history of Hemingstone can be found in the ‘History Corner’ situated within the tower space of the church.