The name "Edwardstone" means 'Eadweard's farm/settlement'.[3] Edwardstone was listed in the Domesday Book as Eduardestuna.[4]
Edwardstone Priory was a priory in Priory Green and was founded by Peter, Bishop of Winchester during the reign of King John,[5] the priory was a cell to Abingdon monastery, before the monks resident were moved to Colne Priory.[6] The priory may be the origin of the place name "Priory Green".[7]
EDWARDSTONE, a parish in Cosford district, Suffolk; on an affluent of the river Stour, 4½ miles E of Sudbury r. station, and 5½ W of Hadleigh. Post town, Waldingfield, under Sudbury. Acres, 1,872. Real property, £3, 851. Pop., 462. Houses, 103. The manor belongs to the Bishop of Ely. A cell to Abingdon abbey was founded here, in 1114, by the Munchenses; and given, in 1160, to Colne priory. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £203.* Patron, Hon. H. Corry. The church has an ancient brass; and there are an Independent chapel, and charities £45.
In 1887, John Bartholomew also wrote an entry on Edwardstone in the Gazetteer of the British Isles with a much shorter description:[10]
Edwardstone, par., W. Suffolk, 4½ miles E. of Sudbury sta., 1872 ac., pop. 438; contains E. Hall.
Edwardstone was in the Babergh hundred, from 1894 until 1974 it was in Cosford Rural District in the administrative county of West Suffolk.[11] In 1974 it became part of Babergh non-metropolitan district in the non-metropolitan county of Suffolk.
In 1960 the village school closed.[12] Edwardstone House School, an independent school closed on 31 August 1993.[13]
Listed buildings
There are 31 listed buildings in Edwardstone,[14] some include:
Mill Green has 9 Grade II listed buildings, all timber-framed and plastered houses, Crossways,[16] Earls Cottages,[17] General Stores,[18] Mill Green Cottage,[19] Mill Green End,[20] Moat Farm Cottage,[21] Sans Souci,[22] The Thatched Cottage[23] and Tudor Cottage.[24]
Priory Green contains 5 Grade II listed buildings, the Barn to the North of Lynn's Hall,[25] Lynn's Hall,[26] Priory Cottage,[27] Priory Farmhouse[28] and Priory Green Cottage.[29]
There are 4 Grade II listed buildings in Round Maple, all timber-framed and plastered: Flushing Farm, an 18th or early 19th century building;[30] Little Thatch, a renovated 17th to 18th century single-storey building;[31] Quicks Farm, a house with a red brick front, gable ends;[32] and Seasons, a single-storey thatched building with attics.[33]
