Sotherton
Sotherton is a dispersed village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk. It is located approximately south of Beccles and north-east of Halesworth. The A145 road passes through the east of the parish area. The mid-2005 population estimate for Sotherton parish was 80. Uggeshall is located just to the north-east, Byford to the south and Blythburgh to the south-east. Latitude Festival takes place a couple of miles east.19th century gazetteer descriptions
In 1868 The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland:
In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales:
And in 1894-5 The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales:The parish church is dedicated to St Andrew and is located on a small dead-end lane signposted off the A145. It is a Grade II* listed building. It possesses a fine 1811 bust of John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke by Nollekens, and a good late C13 effigy of a knight, of which the British Museum possesses 2 C19 prints.In the 1970s Jeremy and James Lascelles, sons of the 7th Earl of Harewood, had a commune in Church Farm, with their band Global Village Trucking Company, roadies, etc. Jeremy Thorpe was a regular visitor. The writer Dinah Jefferies lived there, and has written about her experiences. In 1973 the BBC made a documentary film about the rock group living in a Suffolk commune with their families, friends, roadies and managers. They made a follow-up in 2003. Church Farm is now a holiday let.Sotherton Hall
Sotherton Hall is a grade II listed Tudor timber framed farmhouse or Hall house with a shaped brick gable end, set by a listed 17th/18th century timber framed and weatherboarded barn, in a small park towards the north of the parish mentioned by Nikolaus Pevsner. It belonged to the Earls of Stradbroke, as part of the Henham Park estate, until 1951 when it became part of the Blyford Estate of John Hill.