The name Stanstead is Anglo Saxon for "stony place" and it is easy to appreciate how this came about when viewing the surrounding fields, particularly in the lower part of the village, which are strewn with glacial flint. There is much evidence of earlier Iron Age and Roman settlements in the surrounding area.
Stanstead is situated in Glem Valley to the north east of Sudbury. The Parish borders Long Melford in the west, Glemsford to the south, Boxted to the east and Shimpling to the north.
The village is "T shaped", the lower half of the settlement (Lower Street) follows the B1066 along the bottom of the valley past the old Stanstead osier beds. The upper part of the village is reached by a 30 metre climb up the hill past Stanstead Hall towards the church and a cluster of houses, a small green and then on to Upper Street and Blooms Hall Lane.
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Stanstead like this:
STANSTEAD, a parish, with a village, in Sudbury district, Suffolk; 57hr. miles NN W of Sudbury r. station. Post town, Sudbury. Acres, 1,162. Real property, £1,983. Pop., 382. Houses, 83. The manor belongs to E. S. Bence, Esq. Spring Hall is the seat of Capt. Tyssen. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value, £277.* Patron, the Rev. S. Sheen. The church is old. Charities, £18.
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