The Sign
The village sign is located at the junction of the B1437 (the High Street) and Whites Lane, standing opposite the Livingstones public house. Many of the features of the sign are related to the sea including a ships wheel and bell, fishing boat, fish in a net and anchor. The wheatsheaf and scythe represent the agriculture in the area. The three crowns represent St Edmund, which is the church dedication. The rising sun is related to the proximity to the east coast. The sign was designed by Thomas Downs who was a London miniature painter and retired to Kessingland. Even the church pulpit has a reminder of the sea with the ships wheel attached.

The Name and Population
Kessingland is a large village to the south of Lowestoft in the northeast part of the county; the parish had a population of 4,327 at the 2011 Census. The village is home to many caravans and chalets for the tourist industry being very close to the sea; it also includes a large zoo. Kessingland was known as Kessingalanda in the Domesday book, meaning Kings Land. Roger Bigod owned a lot of land here around the time just after the Norman Conquest.

Other Points of Interest
Notable people included Henry Rider Haggard, the novelist who spent his summers in Kessingland in a cliff-top house called the Grange, which is now demolished; there is a local road called Rider Haggard Lane here. His friend Rudyard Kipling often visited. Haggard wrote ‘King Solomans Mines’ and ‘She’.