Boulge

Boulge is a hamlet and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is about 3 miles (5 km) north of Woodbridge. The population remained only minimal at the 2011 Census and was included in the civil parish of Debach.

Boulge

St Michael's Church, Boulge
Boulge
Location within Suffolk
Population26 (2001 census)
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWoodbridge
Postcode districtIP13

The place-name is French and probably means 'bag-shaped piece of land', rather than the 'rough overgrown land' previously assumed.[1]

Boulge parish church is the burial place of the local poet and writer Edward Fitzgerald, whose most famous work was his translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The Church of St Michael and All Angels is Grade II listed[2] as are, separately, the Fitzgerald family mausoleum and Edward Fitzgerald's grave.

Boulge Hall
Boulge Hall c.1905

Boulge Cottage in the surrounding park was built c.1800 for Mrs Eleanor Short.[3] Known as the "Queen of Hell" on account of her furious temper, Mrs Short had inherited Boulge Hall in 1792 on the death of her second husband, William Whitby. She later married Henry Short (formerly Hassard) an ex-lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Dragoons.[4]

John Fitzgerald bought Boulge Hall in 1801 for his daughter Mary and her new husband, John Purcell (later John Fitzgerald), Edward's parents. The purchase was on the understanding that the hall would remain in the possession of the previous owner until death, but Mrs Short did not die until 1831, when she was 84. The couple lived instead at nearby Bredfield House and eventually moved into Boulge Hall in 1835.[5] Edward occupied a cottage in the grounds until the estate was inherited by his elder brother John Purcell-Fitzgerald in 1852.

The hall was later purchased by Sir Robert Eaton White, 1st Baronet (1864–1940), Chairman of the Suffolk County Council, whose descendants held it until c.1950.

It was demolished in 1955 owing to its general dereliction.

References
  1. Keith Briggs: Boulge, Suffolk. Journal of the English Place-name Society 45 (2013) 5–11
  2. Historic England. "Church of St Michael and All Angels (1284161)". National Heritage List for England.
  3. "BOU 008 - Boulge Hall". Suffolk County Council. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  4. Simpson, Jacqueline; Westwood, Jennifer (2008). The Penguin Book of Ghosts: Haunted England. Penguin Books Limited. p. 470. ISBN 978-0-14-192074-0.
  5. Lingwood, Harold R. (January 1952). "Madam Short of Boulge". East Anglian Magazine. 11 (5): 289–296.


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