The decayed town of Orford is one of those interesting examples on the east coast of England of a twelfth-century port, like Dunwich and Ravenspur, which, by the action of the sea, has been rendered derelict. Unlike Dunwich and Ravenspur, however, which were invaded and washed away by coast erosion, Orford's importance was lost by the throwing up by the sea of a long bar running south from Orford Ness, to the east side of the Alde river. After the Conquest Orford was an integral part of the Honour of Eye and was administered along with it, being part of the possessions of the Malet family. Domesday makes no mention of either town or church, and its first appearance ecclesiastically is as a chapel to Sudbourne, evidently elevated into an independent rectory on the growth of Orford as a port. This growth must have taken place at an early date as Robert, the second of the Malet family, in 1101 granted ‘mercatum et thelonium de Oreford’ to his Priory of Eye. Probably then a church of some kind appeared about this time, first as a chapel, but later always referred to as ‘the church of St. Bartholomew in the parish of Orford’, and also termed ‘libera capella aut cantaria de Orford’.