Kentford takes its name from a crossing of the River Kennett, and the river still marks the western edge of the parish. Parish records show just 12 inhabited houses here in 1674. Even by 1951 there were only 74. For most of its life this was a small roadside village on the road from Newmarket to Bury St Edmunds, until the A45 bypass opened in 1975 and took the through traffic away to the north.
A small village that has grown quickly
The last few years have changed Kentford more than the previous three centuries. West Suffolk Council’s site assessments record 21 new homes at Kentford Lodge on Herringswell Road, 30 on meadow land behind The Kentford, and 63 at the former Meddler Stud on Bury Road alongside a racehorse training yard. The 2021 census counted 1,125 residents.
If you have moved into one of the newer houses, the usual first projects are a garden office, a kitchen that suits the way you live, or turning a garage into a usable room. The village was also one of the first in Suffolk to get full fibre broadband, through an Openreach trial in 2019, which makes working from the bottom of the garden very practical. Our garden rooms and garage conversions pages show what is involved.
Three listed buildings worth knowing
Only a handful of Kentford buildings are listed. St Mary’s Church is Grade II*, a Decorated building known for its 18th century box pews. The Kentford and Cock Inn Cottage is a late 15th or early 16th century timber frame that was wrapped in red brick in the early 19th century, so the old structure hides behind a later face. Regal Cottage, from around the 18th century, is timber framed and roughcast with a thatched gambrel roof and thatched dormers. Nearby Regal Lodge began as a farmhouse and was greatly enlarged around 1863.
Old timber frames like these need patient carpentry and the right materials. Where a building is listed, consent can cover the interior as well as the outside, so speak to West Suffolk Council before anything is altered.
Building near the Kennett
The ground here varies: shallow loam over chalk in places, sandy soils elsewhere, and gravel pits and heath in the north of the parish. The river matters too. When the Meddler Stud site was assessed, parts of it fell in flood zones 2 and 3, and the council asked for a detailed flood risk assessment. If your home is close to the water, check the Environment Agency flood map early; it can affect floor levels and drainage on an extension.
A&F Building Services is a family firm working around Newmarket since 1993. We have not yet published a Kentford project, but our nearest finished jobs are in Newmarket, about four miles west, one of them a bathroom refurbishment built around an oval soaking tub, slate-blue wall panelling and a back-lit mirror.
