page loadingA frequent winner of "Best Kept Village" this pretty village is set around a green and duck pond and stages a week-long fair every summer. The"witch's stone" located outside the church of St Peter and according to legend no grass will grow upon it. Also, if you put a handkerchief in the grating of the wall and run around the church (from east to west) you will "be vouchsafed from the sound of the devil clanking his chains below the grating." Westleton heath is crossed by a Roman road, the course of which is still visible. The annual "Barrel Fair" has become very popular on the village green in recent years.
Bregge and Hethern are Deserted Mediaeval Villages that were located in the north-east of the parish. A third DMV, Fenstreet, is marked by Fen Street Road. Only the foundations remain of a large post mill at the western end of Dunwich Road which was built in the early 1840s. It worked until 1934 and was demolished 29 years later. Another smock mill stood on Mill Road from about 1780 until it was demolished in 1975. It had worked until 1914.
Westleton was recorded in Domesday variously as "West Ledestuna", "Wesletuna" and "Westlentuna".
See also the Parish Council website.
View Westleton in Google Earth
estimated population (2007) of Westleton: 410
Local licensing authority for Westleton is Suffolk Coastal
Acknowledgements
Some historical information from English Heritage's National Monuments Record.