Long Melford was visited by Daniel Defoe, who mentioned the village in his book "A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain". Defoe wrote, "Near adjoining to it [Sudbury] is a village call'd Long-Melfort, and a very long one it is, from which I suppose it had that addition to its name; it is full of very good houses, and, as they told me, is richer, and has more wealthy masters of the manufacture in it, than in Sudbury itself."