By 1086 there were 20 households, composed of villeins, bordars and serfs, all dependent on Walter the Deacon, the absentee Lord of the Manor.

One hundred years later the church was said to have been re-built by Lady Helewise de Gwerres, whose family, the Loveynes, later became the lords of the Manor.

Despite mythology explaining the move of the village down to the Brett valley as being caused by the Black Death of 1349, Matthew de Loveyne, then lord of the manor, was granted a charter for a market on the Stowmarket to Hadleigh Road in 1264.

The Bildeston Hall still survives but is now split into two private residences on the corner of High Street and Ipswich Road.

But by the reign of Queen Mary (1553–58) scarcity and high prices lead to reports 'whereby this town of Bilstone hath decayed'.

Changes in fashion and foreign policy that interrupted trade meant the main employment became the supplying of yarn to Norwich instead of quality cloth to London.

The weekly Wednesday market failed in 1764 and traveller John Kirby described Bildeston as 'a town in a bottom, meanly built and the streets are dirty'.

So called 'professional' people settled in the 19th century, there were plans to build a railway station on Dansford Meadow and the Riot Act was read during the 1885 elections.

St Mary's also boasts a glorious window by the Kempe workshop, depicting the Annunciation and richly adorned with subsidiary scenes Countryside The countryside around the village showing a farming scene with a farmer on quite an old tractor Kings Pightle Nature Reserve Country scene representing Kings Pightle Nature Reserve depicting a kingfisher and mallard ducks on the river Clocktower The clock tower in the Market Place built in 1864.

Weaver The wool cloth industry which commenced in the year 1350 Today, Bildeston is a thriving village once more, boasting a post office and general provisions shop and three pubs.

[7] The King's Head, a Grade II listed freehouse dating from around 1530, organises an annual beer festival at the end of May.

St Mary's also boasts a glorious window by the Kempe workshop, depicting the Annunciation and richly adorned with subsidiary scenes.