Leiston 

Visit Leiston Town Website

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Historical notes about the Town of Leiston

Within sound of a storm at sea, Leiston has a modern church and what is left of an ancient abbey.  The 19^th century church keeps its 15^th century tower, with four gargoyles that have looked down since the days of Joan of Arc.  The 13^th century font has a 17^th century oak cover, and there is an old chest with an odd three corner lid.  On one of the walls is a mosaic figure of Berney Wodehouse Raven, vicar here for 35 years till 1909; there is a bust of Richard Garrett, a citizen here in the middle of last century; and a kneeling boy in beaten silver is in memory of Michael Rope, who died at school.

Leiston’s oldest and most alluring possession is the ruined abbey standing high and away from the town.  We come upon it unexpectedly among green fields, its old grey walls and arches against the sky.  As long ago as the 14^th century it must have been one of the loveliest of our abbeys; 200 years before that there was a Leiston Abbey in the sea marshes, founded by a Lord Chief Justice.  It stood, from east to west, 55 yards long, and its north transept window stands today 45 feet high and is 700 years old.  On the dissolution of the monasteries it was turned into a farm, the church became a barn, and cattle grazed where monks once prayed.  Now the church is a chapel again, and in this place of sacred memory, of deep scars, of proud un-defeat, we walk on springy grass or paving stones, through ancient cloisters and dormitories, through refectory and chapterhouse and choir, the old stone aglow with wallflowers on a summer day.

Away and all round the Suffolk country stretches green and peaceful from the feet of this almost hidden abbey, where

A brown owl, hunting, sails on silent wings

Out through the empty chancel window there;

And in the ruined choir sweetly sings

A nightingale, where once the patient prayer

Of some pale watching monk ascended here.

Far off an ancient windmill turns its sails, looking out on a countryside in which it has seen little change.  The ruins are cared for by lovers of the beautiful in the neighbouring Tudor house, and in the cloistered garden is a peace far from the world’s ignoble strife.

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Public Events in and around Leiston

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Hotels, Apartments and B&B's in Leiston

The visitor accommodation options for Leiston listed below are supplied by LATE ROOMS and BOOKING.COM from a selection of over 16,000 hotels located throughout the UK.

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 Fieldend Guest House 

 

 Dormers 

 

 Meadow View 

 

 White Horse Hotel 

 

 Woodside Barn Cottages