Rickinghall Superior

Introduction

Now by-passed, this linear settlement has many fine 16th and 17th cent. Buildings. The village consists of two contiguous parishes - Inferior and Superior - whose borders follow the course of an underground stream, crosses the street and runs through many houses and at one time through the bar of the former Hamblyn House (now a private residence). The village of Botesdale adjoins at the eastern end. The whole area has been designated a conservation area with several thatched houses. Basil Brown, the archaeologist responsible for the discovery of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, lived here for a while (and would cycle between his home and Sutton Hoo). A colony of large, edible snails still exist locally and may be descendants of those once imported by the Romans, of whom some archaeological evidence has been found.

Unusually, the two Rickinghalls' signs are on either side of the same sign-board, which stands close to Inferior's church.

The Rickinghalls are recorded in Domesday variously as "Richingehala", "Richingehalla", "Rikingahala" and "Rikinchala". Rickinghall Superior appears on John Speed's 1610 map as "Rickingale Magna".…

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