KESSINGLAND, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Mutford district, Suffolk. The village stands on the coast, 4½ miles S by W of Lowestoft r. station; was once a market town; and has a post office under Wangford. The parish comprises 1, 651 acres of land, and 40 of water. Real property, £3, 729. Pop. in 1851, 777; in 1861, 872. Houses, 202. The increase of pop. arose from the extension of the herring fishery. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to John M. Boycott, Esq. A thickly populated spot on the coast, called Sea Row, was swept away, about the year 1835, by the sea; and other parts of the coast are still subject to sea erosion. A coast guard station is on the beach. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £500.* Patron, the Bishop of Norwich. The church was built by the nuns of St. Clare in London; was partly rebuilt in 1694; comprises nave and S porch, with handsome lofty tower; has statues of St. Edmund and angels with thuribles on the tower door; and contains an octagonal font, with canopied effigies round the bowl. Some ancient ruins, seemingly ecclesiastical, are near the parsonage. Charities, about £70. W. Whiston, in 1696, J. Turner, in 1708, and R. Pot ter, in 1782, were vicars.—The sub-district contains also seven other parishes. Acres, 10, 621. Pop., 4, 759. Houses, 1, 060.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))