Church Farm is over 450 years old, but the site has been occupied for much longer. Within the boundaries of the house and garden is the moat of Kettleburgh Old Hall, built by Sir William Charles in 1261. This is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The church and manor complex may have formed the core of the village back to the pre-conquest period.
The moat is 88 yards by 84 yards. The map on the right shows it in relation to the farm buildings. At Domesday this was the main manor of Earl Alan of Richmond.
A Wednesday market was granted to Sir William Charles by Henry III in 1263. The exact site of the market is unknown but is thought to lie just south of the farm and to the west of the Church.
Metal detector finds at the farm include a medieval figurine fragment (probably a part of a figure of Christ from a French Limoges-style Crucifix). A medieval coin and a bell have also been found.
On the right is a Limoges Crucifix from the early 14th Century in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Kettleburgh was known as Ketelbria at Domesday. An area known as Great Cockstool in 1747 is the possible site of a ducking or cucking stool. A Chair fastened to a beam and pivot was used to immerse errant people (mostly women) in the Deben.
To the SE of the church is Kettleburgh New Hall built by by the Stebbing family in 1527.
In 1867 James Brighton Grant, owner of the Deben Brewery then next to The Chequers Public House, was the last man in England to be imprisoned for non-payment of Church Rates. He gathered support from two Members of Parliament and was released. Gladstone subsequently repealed the Act.