Saint Thomas Hall
Today there is no evidence for a location of a building called Saint Thomas Hall, but Neil Langridge has found intriguing references for a rough location and also some people who were associated with it.
Williamus Browne for a tenement and x11 acres of land & pasture sumtyne Henry Feteries . {Rental of Thorney Hall Manor 1618 from manorial documents in Hadleigh Archive – Neil Langridge}
From research by Neil Langridge (02/2020)
The will (dated 1688) of Thomas Blackerby, Lord of the Manor in 1687 bequeathed,
‘all that Capitall Messuage of farme called Saint Thomas Hall als{-} Browne Baston or by whatever name or names the same bee called or knowne with the lands meadows pastures underwoods and other the Appurtenances containing together one hundread and forty Acres bee the same more or less scituate in Stow Upland Mendelsham and Gipping aforesaid and Earle Stonahm now or heretofore in the occupation of Margaret Clarke widowe’ {retrieved by Neil Langridge from Norwich Consistory court deposition at Norfolk Records Office 2024}
Further deeds NL found relating to Samuel and Thomas Blackerby names their Stowmarket and Stowupland manors as inc Thorney Kebles and Thorney Lezons, then in 1704 ‘the Capital Messuage in Stowupland by the name of Browne Costneyes heretofore in the occupation of Richard Whistlecroft and now of Margaret Clarke widowe’.
Although no house by either of the above names exists today but Neil conjectures that St Thomas Hall may have been the precursor to Stowupland Hall. The farm must have been to the north of Thorney as ‘the estate extended into the neighbouring parishes of Mendelsham and Gipping. By 1801 Stowupland Hall was built as the manor house of the manors of Thorney Campsey and Thorney Kebles, so there must have been an earlier manor house.
The manor of Thorney Campsey had been owned in pre reformation times by the nunnery of Campsey Ash. The nunnery also housed a college of chantry priests dedicated to St Thomas the Martyr (Thomas Becket). The chantry priests’ were to pray for the souls of Robert and William Ufford. The Uffords had been lords of the manor of Thorney Hall (the main Stowupland manor). Neil continues that the manor of Thorney Campsey had been gifted to the nuns of Campsey Ash by the Uffords out of land that was formerly part of their large Thorney Hall manor with the rents being used to maintain the chantry.(NL)
From the 1716 Terrier – The vicar of Stowmarket and Stowupland recieved income from the tithes for giving a weekly lecture, and preaching two annual sermons ( one on the festival of St Peter and one on the festival of St Thomas).
Ena Carter, a local historian, recorded that in 1820 Does House was somewhere near Stowupland Hall but this was demolished by the Freeman’s. There may have been an association with the Cooper family. She added that Stowupland Hall was Georgian but there may have been traces of an older house still remaining in the cellar. Ena’s father-in-law owned the hall during the 1930s and 40s and family tradition said that an earlier house had stood where the Rook plantation was.
