By the late 16th century the Tasburgh family from the Flixton area had become dominant in the parish. The
Adair family from
Cratfield later became the main landowners. The two parishes of All Saints and St Nicholas were combined in 1737.[4][6]
Culture and community
The parish church of
All Saints survives, although it is formally redundant and cared for by the
Churches Conservation Trust. It is a Grade I listed building, dates from the 12th-century and is one of around 40
round-tower churches in Suffolk.[b][13][14][15][16] Other than the parish church, the village has no services.[3]
The church of St Nicholas was in ruins by the 17th-century and by the early 20th-century only a cross survived marking the position of the building.[17][18][19]
Notes
^2011 United Kingdom census population data does not report population figures for parishes where the population is small enough to potential identify individuals and the population of All Saints and St Nicholas was combined with the sparsely populated parishes of
St Peter South Elmham and
St Michael South Elmham. As a result no population figure is available for All Saints and St Nicholas South Elmham at the census. The population figure for the three parishes combined was 233.[1]
^The exact number of round-tower churches in the county is a matter of debate. Some sources list 38,[7][8] others cite between 40 and 43.[9][10][11][12] They almost all date from the late
Anglo-Saxon or early
Norman periods and were mostly built between the 11th and 14th-centuries. There are around 183 round-tower churches in England, most of them in Norfolk―which has around 124―and Suffolk.[10][12] Four of the churches now in Norfolk were previously in Suffolk before
boundary changes in 1974.[11]
^Suckling AI (1846) 'South Elmham, All Saints', in The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk: Volume 1 pp.183–189. Ipswich: WS Crowell. (
Available online at British History Online. Retrieved 2021-02-27.)
^Suckling AI (1846) 'South Elmham, St Nicholas', in The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk: Volume 1 pp.227–229. Ipswich: WS Crowell. (
Available online at British History Online. Retrieved 2021-02-27.)