BATTISFORD, a parish in Bosmere district, Suffolk; 2 miles W by S of Needham r. station. Post Town, Needham. Acres, 1,542. Real property, £2,662. Pop., 504. Houses, 103. The property is subdivided. An hospital of knights of St. John of Jerusalem was erected here in the reign of Henry II., and given, at the dissolution, to Sir Richard Gresham. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £400. Patron, the Rev. E. Paske. The church is good.

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