Lackford Hundred in Suffolk - in 1855.

Lackford Hundred
Is the north-western division of Suffolk, and is of a triangular figure, extending about fifteen miles in length, on each of its three sides, and bounded on the north by Norfolk, on the west by Cambridgeshire, and on the south-east by Blackburn, Thingoe, and Risbridge Hundreds. It is in the Franchise or Liberty of St. Edmund, in the Western Division of Suffolk and in the Diocese of Ely, Archdeaconry of Sudbury, and Deanery of Fordham. It includes the towns of Brandon and Mildenhall, and parts of Thetford and Newmarket. Its name is a corruption of Lark-ford, and it is watered by the navigable rivers Lark and Little Ouse, the latter of which separates it from Norfolk, and the former, after crossing it near Icklingham and Mildenhall, flows northward, and forms its western boundary. The Eastern Counties Railway between Ely and Thetford, skirts it on the north, and has Stations at Mildenhall road, Lakenheath road, Brandon, and Thetford. The north-western part of it, extending from Brandon and Mildenhall to the confluence of the Lark and Little Ouse, is an extensive tract of low fens, now well drained and cultivated, and forming part of the great BEDFORD LEVEL, which extends from the sources of the Great Ouse River, in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, to Lynn in Norfolk, and has its name from the fourth Earl of Bedford, who was the principal undertaker in the stupendous work of draining this immense tract of inundated fens; for the performance of which, 95,000 acres were allotted to him and the few other " adventurers" who were induced, by his spirited example, to join in the costly and hazardous enterprise. The work was commenced in 1630, and in 1637 the Earl had expended no less than £100,000. He died in 1641, and the work was resumed by his son in 1649, and finished in 1653. In the reign of Charles II., and during the last and present centuries, the drainage of this extensive level has undergone many improvements, one of the last of which is the new channel of the Great Ouse, near Lynn. Mr. Young observes that there are few instances of such great and sudden improvements as were made during last century in the BURNT FEX of Lackford Hundred, comprising more than 14,000A. Seventy years ago, 500A. of it were let for one guinea a year; but in 1772, an act was obtained for a separate drainage, and Is. 6d. per acre levied for the expense of embankments, pumping mills, and other requisites. In 1777, the bank broke, and most of the proprietors were ruined. In 1782, the drainage was so much improved that various persons of capital and enterprise began to purchase in this neglected district, but the prices at which the lots were then sold, scarcely exceeded the present annual rental. The surface of the fens, from one foot to six, is the common peat of bogs, with an under stratum of white clay or marl; but by paring, burning, claying, and draining, they have nearly all been converted into fertile land. The central and eastern parts of Lackford Hundred consist chiefly of light sandy moor and heath land, of which many thousand acres are still in open sheep walks and rabbit warrens, rising in bold undulations, and resting on a thick stratum of chalk and flint, the latter of which is got both for building purposes and gun locks, and much of the former is ground to whiting. The whole Hundred comprises seventeen parishes, and parts of two other parishes, of which the following is an enumeration, showing their territorial extent and their population in 1851. The High Constables are Messrs. H. Manning, of Mildenball, and T. Steel, of Tuddenham. Messrs. Isaacson and Son, of Mildenhall, are solicitors to Lackford Hundred Association for the Prosecution of Felons, &c.