Description

Benacre or Binacre, a village and a parish in Suffolk, on the coast, 6 miles S by W from Lowestoft station on the G.E.R., and 6 1/2 N from Southwold. Post town, Wang-ford; money order and telegraph office, Wrentham. Acreage, 2560; population of the civil parish, 204; of the ecclesiastical, which includes Covehithe and Easton Bavents, 384. Benacre Hall is a fine country seat situated in a park of 230 acres. A lake of about 100 acres, called Benacre Broad, abounding in pike and other fish, lies about 1/2 a mile from the sea. A stone vessel, containing about 900 Roman silver coins, some of them of the Emperor Vespasian, was found at the making of a new turnpike road in 1786. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Easton-Bavents and the vicarage of Covehithe, formerly called North Hales, in the diocese of Norwich; joint net yearly value, £200 with residence. The church, dedicated to St Michael, was rebuilt in 1769. It is in good preservation, and consists of chancel, nave, and a south aisle. Easton-Bavents, now a parish consisting of a few cottages only, with a population of 18, is said to have been formerly a large market-town, and to have lost its prosperity through the encroachments of the sea.