Sotterley, originally Southern-lea from its situation south of the river,[2] is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk, located approximately 4 miles (6 km) south-east of Beccles and 1.5 miles (2 km) east of Willingham St Mary and Shadingfield.

[6] A saw mill operates in the village,[7] often making use of wood from the 160 hectares (400 acres) of mixed woodland managed by the Sotterley estate.

[2][13] A descendant, also called Thomas, was High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1606 at which time the estate was valued at £2000 per annum and was the last Baron created by King James I in August 1623.

John Walker in chronicling the sufferings of the clergy records that when 'rebels brake open the stable doors and stole two horses' from the parsonage he challenged them, whereupon one said 'Pistoll the Parson' and two pistols were discharged at him.

[2][12] The parish was enclosed in 1796 leaving his son Miles Barne, with 1,085 acres (4.39 km2; 1.695 sq mi), as the largest landholder.

for the rotten borough of Dunwich at the time of the 1832 Reform Act,[15] his son Frederick St John Newdigate Barne, M.P.

for East Suffolk from 1876 to 1885 and his son Michael Barne, Royal Navy officer and the last surviving member of the 1901–04 Discovery Expedition to Antarctica.

The village is dispersed around a crossroads with a road pattern of unlit lanes which is largely unchanged from that seen on Hodgkinson's map of 1783.

[29] The parish church, a Grade I listed building with many medieval elements,[30] is located on the Sotterley estate and is dedicated to St Margaret.

[17] The roll of honour in the church records that 15 men from Sotterley died during World War I, including two Barnes.