The Village

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Hitcham is a parish and village situated seven miles north from Hadleigh and seven miles south-west from Stowmarket in the County of Suffolk. The area of the village is 4,308 acres and the top soil is chiefly heavy boulder clay with a subsoil of chalky clay and gravel. There is no river in Hitcham and surface water drains by means of natural water courses and artificial ditches; from the north of the village into the river Gipping and Orwell, and from the south into the rivers Brett and Stour. The official population figure for Hitcham in the year 2000 is 600, with 520 persons over 18 listed on the Register of Electors.

Political and administrative

European Parliamentary Constituency – Eastern Region
English Parliamentary Constituency – South Suffolk: Member, Mr T. Yeo
County Council Electoral Division – Cosford: Member, Mr J Pembroke (01787 210416)
Babergh District Ward – Brett Vale: Member, Mr D Keane (01449 741686)
Hitcham Parish Council – seven members: Roger Saunders (Chairman), Allan Scott (Vice-Chairman), Paul Beedham, Wendy Crease, Janice Gant, Brian Hubbard, Pauline Squirrell, Clerk Mr G. Hill (01449 740272)

Babergh District Council is the authority responsible for collecting the annual Council Tax which, in 2011/12, was £1450.29 for a Band D property. Of this, £1126.53 was claimed for services by Suffolk County Council; £160.74 by Babergh District Council; £139.01 by Suffolk Police Authority; and £24.01 by Hitcham Parish Council.

Public services

Policing of Hitcham is organised from Hadleigh and PCSO Jamie Fudge is Hitcham’s liaison police officer.
Children from Hitcham attending maintained schools travel to Bildeston County Primary School (5–11), Hadleigh High School (11–16), and Great Cornard and Sudbury Upper Schools (16–18).
Medical attention in Hitcham is provided by Bildeston Health Centre.
Domestic refuse collection is arranged by Babergh DC and each household is issued with a wheelie bin.
Water for domestic use and sewage services are supplied by Anglian Water and each household in the village has mains electricity. There is no piped gas in Hitcham but British Gas owns the Cross Green Communications Tower.

Housing

Development in the latter decades of the 20th century has been controlled by a strict planning policy, administered by Babergh DC, which has limited new development on unused land to a narrow strip of roadside land between Browns Hill and the last house before Causeway House Farm. Despite this, approximately 48% of the current housing stock in Hitcham was built in the 20th century.

The Parish Church is the only building in the village that is entirely medieval in structure but many of the farmhouses and older cottages have features dating from the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries and approximately 32% of Hitcham houses may originate from these early periods. Only about 20% of the remaining houses have predominantly 19th-century appearances and only one, Hitcham House, the former Rectory, was built in a classical/Georgian style.

Many of the older cottages and farmhouses were enlarged and modernised in the latter years of the 20th century.

Religion

The Parish Church of All Saints is within the establishment of the Church of England in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Archdeaconry of Sudbury and the Rural Deanery of Lavenham. Its priest-in-charge is the Rev Robin Excell of Rattlesden. The parish churchyard is available for the burial of any person resident in Hitcham.

Hitcham Free Church, built in 1919, offers nonconformist worship.

Both churches have regular Sunday worship.

Commercial and economic

Approximately 80% of Hitcham’s acreage is in agricultural use. Wheat is the dominant crop followed by barley, sugar beet, oilseed rape and potatoes. There are nine family-owned farms in Hitcham of which three exceed 1,000 acres, although some of these farms’ acreage extends into neighbouring parishes.
Fewer than 50 residents of Hitcham are directly involved in agriculture and many bread winners have to seek employment outside the village. There is, however, a growing number of home workers in the village, mainly working in computer-based activities, and a surprising number of small-scale family enterprises based in Hitcham. These include:

• Post Office and general store
• The White Horse public house (beverages and cooked meals)
• Household milk deliveries
• Bed and breakfast and holiday accommodation
• Coach hire and bus services
• Catering services
• Vehicle repairs
• Electrical repairs
• Horticultural repairs
• General building and repairs
• Plumbing services
• Cesspit emptying
• Haulage contracting
• Flower decorations
• Rocking horse manufacture