KENNETT
The parish of Kennett, c. 4 km. (2½ miles)
north-east of Newmarket (Suff.) and c. 8 km. (4
miles) north-west of Bury St. Edmunds (Suff.),
covering 560 ha. (1,431 a.), lies in a projection
of the county that stretches eastwards into
Suffolk. (fn. 96) The name Kennett is of Celtic origin,
and has been associated with kun-, or cwm-, top
or summit. (fn. 97) Early spellings vary, but from c.
1604 Kennett has been the commonest. (fn. 98) The
modern southern settlement is called Kennet
End.
The northern, southern, and western parish
boundaries are at right angles to each other. The
irregular course of the river Kennett forms the
southern end of the parish's eastern boundary
before running northwards through its northeastern section. There are alluvium and river
terrace deposits on the river's north-east and
south-west banks, and glacial silt and gravels,
eventually worked-out, underlie its central loop.
A ford crossed the Kennett c. 1161, and in the
late 13th century a ferry crossing was known as
Kentfayre. (fn. 99) The river was navigable at least
until the early 14th century, connecting the
parish to the fenland waterways, and on to
King's Lynn (Norf.). (fn. 1) Occasional overflows
from the river caused serious damage to property in the eastern section of the parish,
destroying the railway bridge in 1968, but in
1977 a pumping station was built at the northern
end of the central loop to control the water flow.
In 1995 the river had ceased to flow. A tributary
of the river Snail rises 600 m. east of the middle
of the western parish boundary, and then flows
northwards. In the centre of the parish there is
an elevated plateau (30 m. high), with Dane hill
at its north-western tip. The ground then falls
away to the north and south before rising at the
southern edge of the parish to 30 m. The topsoil
of chalk, clay, and gravel overlies Lower Chalk,
which runs from north-west to south-east. In
the 1790s gravel beds yielded high quality marl. (fn. 2)
A bridge stood at the south-east corner of the
parish from 1604 or earlier, linking Kennet End
and Kentford (Suff.), and was known as the old
bridge in 1797. (fn. 3) It was crossed by the main
Newmarket-Bury St. Edmunds road. That was
a major route during the 17th century, and a
turnpike during the late 18th and 19th centuries. (fn. 4) In the mid 12th century the road which ran
north-eastwards through the north-west corner
of the parish, along the route of the ancient
Brandon way, was known as the Freckenham
road, but since c. 1797 as the Norwich road. (fn. 5)
Tree-lined since 1820, it was widened in 1929. (fn. 6)
It was crossed by the Chippenham Road,
recorded in 1161. (fn. 7) In the early 19th century, and
probably before, the Chippenham Road divided
into two roads, running eastwards towards the
village. (fn. 8) The northern route ran over the heathland, but was closed off at inclosure in 1823.
The southern road, on the boundary between
the heath and South field, met other roads, running north-eastwards to Herringswell (Suff.),
and southwards to Moulton (Suff.), at a triangular junction south of the village. From c. 1820
the Moulton road was named Kennet End road,
and from c. 1854 Station Road. (fn. 9)
Kennett c.1810
The Newmarket to Bury St. Edmunds railway
line, existing in 1854, runs south-eastwards in a
cutting through the south of the parish; Kennett
railway station was built midway between
Kennett village and Kennet End on Station
Road. (fn. 10) The station also served neighbouring
parishes during the 19th and 20th centuries,
with a staff of four including a station master
between c. 1861 and 1891. (fn. 11) From 1965 it was
closed to goods traffic, and after 1967 it became
an unstaffed halt on the Cambridge-Ipswich
line. (fn. 12) The Newmarket bypass, built c. 1972-5,
runs parallel with the railway line, the two separating the northern part of the parish from
Kennet End. (fn. 13) Between 1989 and 1998 there was
only one bus service daily from Kennett village,
but there were better bus services from neighbouring Kentford (Suff.). (fn. 14) One in five households in Kennett had no car in 1991, double the
proportion in neighbouring parishes. (fn. 15)
In 1086 Kennett was inhabited by 19 peasants. (fn. 16) By 1279 it included 30 landholders; in
1327 there were 27 tax-payers at Kennett and
Badlingham; and in 1377 the poll tax was paid
by 48 adults in Kennett and Kentford. (fn. 17) There
were 17 dwellings in 1664 in Kennett and
Badlingham. (fn. 18) Kennett's inhabitants numbered
90 in the early 1790s, 111 in 1801, 164 in 1821,
and 208 in 1851. (fn. 19) During the 1850s and 1860s
the population declined, but c. 1871-81 was
stable at c. 159-65. It had increased to 182 in
1911, and remained at 200 between 1931 and
1951, and from 1961 to 1991 at c. 270.
During the Middle Ages Kennett village
developed to the north of the parish church
along the Herringswell Road, across the valley
of the river Kennett, sheltered by the north-east
face of the central plateau. Between 1664 and
1674, apart from the manor house and a farmhouse, probably at Dane hill, no dwellings had
more than five hearths, and a third of them had
either one or two. (fn. 20) There were 15 houses in the
parish in the early 1790s. (fn. 21) In 1821 houses stood
at the corner of the Chippenham and Kennet
End roads south-east of the triangular junction,
and in 1841 there were 25 households at Kennett
village. (fn. 22) In 1849 a new bridge, with abutments
and wing walls and an iron-girder superstructure, was completed over the river in the heart
of the village. (fn. 23) Between 1865 and 1873 the
southern section of the village street was
diverted eastwards, slightly further away from
the church, on the orders of the principal landowner. (fn. 24) A council housing estate was built c.
1958-62 in the triangular junction to the south
of the village. (fn. 25) In the mid 1980s those houses
were purchased by tenants, or taken over by the
Hereward Housing Association. (fn. 26) In 1989 there
were 48 houses in the triangle, which formed
the new centre of the village, another ten houses
standing along the village street and Church
Lane. (fn. 27) The barn of Hall farmhouse at the
northern end of the village street was converted
in 1986 into a large and opulent house. Ten new
detached houses were built in 1997-8 at the
north-east corner of the triangle.
From the late 16th century there has been a
farmhouse at Dane hill, 0.5 km. west of the village, on the south-side of the Chippenham
Road. It is a timber-framed L-plan building with
an attic and a plain tiled roof, and may have had
six hearths in 1664 and 1666. (fn. 28) An adjoining
17th-century one-storeyed cottage-gatehouse
with an attic was also occupied in 1998. (fn. 29) During
the 19th century there were six cottages nearby,
but in 1903 only three. In the late 20th century
the cottages were modernized, and the farmhouse was split into two dwellings.
In 1797 at Kennet End there were houses at
Market row along the northern side of the Bury
St. Edmunds-Newmarket turnpike. (fn. 30) In 1823
there were 14 dwellings, which each had c. 1 a.,
held as freehold, stretching back from the Bury
turnpike. (fn. 31) There was further development
northwards along Station Road, with seven pairs
of cottages c. 1861, and a further 20 by 1925. (fn. 32)
Kennet End was significantly larger than
Kennett village during the late 19th and early
20th centuries, and in 1997 there were c. 40
houses there. In 1990 after much effective campaigning by Kennett's inhabitants the county
council rejected plans for an additional 1,500
houses in the parish. (fn. 33) In 1991 there were 130
dwellings, comprising 55 detached houses, 55
semi-detached houses, and 10 other types of
dwelling. (fn. 34)
The Bell Inn on the crossroads at Kennet End
dates from the 16th century. In 1737 Edmund
Bowle of Pakenham (Suff.) sold the public house
and 21 a. of land to Thomas Evans, and in 1785
it provided a change of horses for travellers. (fn. 35) It
remained in the hands of members of the
Skulthorpe family from 1783 to 1854, and from
1818 until the late 1990s it provided accommodation for travellers. (fn. 36) During the 20th century
Kennett's inhabitants relied for some social
activities upon Kentford, belonging to its
Women's Institute or British Legion branches. (fn. 37)
In 1951 Donald McClaren gave 2 a. east of
Station Road to Kentford and Kennett sports
club for use as playing fields. (fn. 38) In 1997-8 there
was an unresolved debate over whether to build
a new village hall on that site, or in Kentford.
The heathland in the north-western corner of
the parish was quarried extensively during the
early 20th century, and was then used as a waste
tip by local racing stables. From the early 1980s
scramble-bikers rode there, but in 1991 the 60-a.
site was purchased by Wildtracks Ltd. (fn. 39) The
company offered a range of off-road activities,
and was said to own the largest collection of privately owned military vehicles in the country. (fn. 40)
In the late 1970s Suffolk county council
deposited 250,000 tonnes of waste in the adjacent area east of the Norwich road. In 1996-8 the
council wished to use the site to pile up a waste
disposal mound, 38 m. high, occupying 82 ha.
(202 a.), but the plan was opposed by Kennett's
inhabitants. (fn. 41)