History - Kesgrave Community Website

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History
Kesgrave (An introduction)
Kesgrave has grown in recent years from a place with a few houses, a church and a pub to a town with a population of approximately 15,000.  Kesgrave became a town in the year 2000.

The original church of Kesgrave was built in 1280; the other places of worship are far more recent. There is a Catholic Church, a Baptist Church, and a place of worship for Jehovah's Witnesses. Kesgrave has 2 public houses. The Bell is a public house built next to the original church and more recently, there is the Farmhouse which was the farmhouse of Grange Farm where there now stands many of the latest dwellings constructed in Kesgrave.

There are 3 schools in Kesgrave: Kesgrave High school, Heath CP School, and the Cedarwood CP School. Many children in Kesgrave also attend Gorseland CP School which is situated on the Martlesham side of Dobbs Lane.

There are numerous businesses and shops in Kesgrave, and many people work from their own homes. However, most people work elsewhere and there is a lot of traffic leaving Kesgrave in the morning and returning at night caused by people travelling to and from their workplaces. The traffic is quite heavy and many of the vehicles must use the A1214. This road, which leaves Ipswich through Kesgrave on its way to Woodbridge, is essential for people needing travel to Ipswich or Woodbridge or to get from one part of Kesgrave to another.

Kesgrave is well served by buses and there is a Park and Ride Service between Martlesham and Ipswich. The Park and Ride Buses and some other services travel along the A1214 whilst other services travel through Kesgrave using a bus track which runs beween Ropes Drive and Bell Lane. This Track runs adjacent to Kesgrave Town centre where there are a number of shops, doctors surgery and medical centre, a community hall and other social and medical facilities. Here also are playing fields and sporting facilities.

Many of the activities and events which take part in Kesgrave are recorded in the Magazine “In Touch” which also covers Rushmere.
Topics
The origin of the name "Kesgrave" is uncertain. The name appears in the Domesday Book as Gressegraua, which probably derives from the Old English words meaning grass or crest and grove or grave but there are other possible interpretations.
It was about 09:45 on Monday 29 December 1958 as two North American F-100D Super Sabres of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing of the United States Air Force rolled smoothly down the taxiway at their base at RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk.
According to one legend, John Dobbs was a shepherd in 1750 who hanged himself in a barn on Kesgrave Hall Farm (later Grange Farm), and was buried at the four crossways here with a stake through his heart.
Kesgrave maps from 1875 and soil composition.
A gospel witness commenced in Kesgrave in 1927 born out of a vision of members from a neighbouring church who saw the need of a gospel witness in what was then a small village and erected a place of worship known originally as Kesgrave Mission Hall.
The Kesgrave sign was designed by the late Alfred Ribbans of Rushmere St. Andrew and depicts one of the fine cedar trees that are a notable feature of the churchyard.
Kesgrave has a number of listed buildings and Tumuli.
Kesgrave has a number of milestones.
Photo library of Kesgrave events and places.
The collection of photographs and text contained in ‘Pictorial Kesgrave 1994’ was put together in 1994 with a view to having the collection published in some form or other.
The Kesgrave Connection by Terry Grimwood.
Road naming in Kesgrave has been the subject of many articles in Kesgrave News over the years. If you want to know who or what a road is named after, then all the articles, by Norman Bugg, have been kept on file at the Council Office or alternatively can be found in the attached document.
Population figures etc.
Youth projects in Kesgrave.
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