Then and Now

 This was the old Edwardian photo of Hollesley church, one of those I found and wrote about a couple of weeks ago. 

And how it looks now, the house in the foreground is long gone, you can just see the top of the roof of the house behind which is still there and can just be seen on the old photo. All the other buildings that can be glimpsed on the old photo have also gone.

And as I pulled into the entrance way to park I realised that I HAD been here before and because I thought I hadn't I didn't even check my new checklist of A-Z churches - what an idiot woman!

A couple were doing some tidying in the churchyard, so I showed them the old photo and they were really interested to see it and hadn't seen it before although they were both local people. I left the photo with them to show others in the village. Better for it to be in the village than 30 miles away in my house.

It was almost exactly 4 years ago  that I visited Hollesley after a tour of the Woodbridge charity shops and I did the same last week and  went round all of them and found nothing, although there was a Grey Persephone book but it was £5 - more than I wanted to pay simply to add to the shelf as it wasn't one I'd want to read. I was hoping to find a Nativity scene of some sort for a friend at the Keep Moving group, who is trying to collect lots (donated or loaned) for a display as a fundraiser for her church. No luck with finding anything in Woodbridge, in fact few charity shops had Christmas stuff out yet.

I'm loaning the two I have 

But it will need dozens more to be anything like the display I visited in 2018 when there were 200 on display at Grundisburgh Church, where they were lucky to have many loaned by Libby Purves and more from their vicar at that time. They've never had another display there , the vicar moved away and Libby Purves doesn't loan out her collection - she was looking for a new home for it at the time.

So if you know anyone who has a nativity scene they don't want anymore, there's a new home for it here in Mid Suffolk!

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More of the Old Suffolk Photos

 More of the old Suffolk photos I found at the small Sunday boot sale. More information on yesterday's post.

The next two I knew. The first is at the top of Bent Hill in Felixstowe, one of the few places in Suffolk with a town by the sea and this bit is high above the sea which is why there is nothing in the distance.

And below is Woodbridge. The loading/weighing structure thing is still there and the building is a pub called 'The Old Bell and Steelyard". One of the oldest pubs in the UK. It's a Grade 1 Listed building

The one below could be almost anywhere in Suffolk, although the building left of centre could be a chapel which I thought might be still there. It was recognised by someone on the East Suffolk in Old Photos Facebook page as being Chapel Lane, Gt Glemham. So both church and chapel in Gt Glemham have featured and I've not seen either.

Another below that I didn't know, luckily again someone knew it as Hollesley church. Not far from the coast and another church I've not visited yet.

Below is Wickham Market, the road through the village that I now use when going back and forward to the Auction yard at Campsea Ash and one of the ways we used to go from Suffolk Coast to Mid Suffolk when we lived at the small holding. The road layout is still the same

Another photo of Wickham Market, just a bit further on from the one above. I got the magnifier out to read the name on the delivery bike! The houses on the right of the road are still the same, as are those on the left but the garage on the left of the road in the centre of the photo has long gone.

Another mystery photo but recognised by several people as Martlesham, another village now bypassed just north of Ipswich.

Again I didn't know this one but others said it was Alderton, a village I have visited for the church but don't know well at all.

This one below was labelled as Ufford, another church I have visited, tucked away in the village .

All the photos except the one in Essex and the two of Felixstowe, are near the A12, the main road from Ipswich to Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. 

I had fun looking at them all and finding out where they were, lots of people looked at them on the East Suffolk in Old Photos Facebook page and said it was a good find and they were glad I'd shared them all.

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Suffolk in Old Photos

 I found a bundle of photographs at one of the last Sunday car boots of the season,  they were in a box among other house clearance stuff . The man selling them said £5 for the lot or 50p each, then he said "what are they? I've not even looked at them". 

They are probably Edwardian photos, mainly of Suffolk, some have village names pencilled on the back others just said Suffolk, he accepted my offer of £4 for the lot as I wanted to take them home for a better look.

I put them up on a Facebook Group called East Suffolk in Old Photos and lots of people responded and identified a few that weren't named. 

What I can't find out is if they are copies of well known old photographic views that are already with local history groups or unknown - probably the former.

This is Laxfield - it's on the shop name, although it's a scene I would have known anyway .The shop is still there, it's a Co-op now. The building on the right was and still is a pub and the church still has the railings.

Below is Felixstowe Pier back when it was very long and had a tramway all the way to the pier head.

I didn't recognise this one below, but after putting it on the facebook page someone said it was Great Glemham, and that's a church I've not visited yet.

This one below was identified by someone on the Facebook group as Badingham with the school which is now a village hall

I had no idea about the one below, which said Sproughton on the back, but I couldn't recognise it. Luckily several people knew it was Parham, a village not far from Framlingham and another church still on my list to visit.

The one below said Rowhedge on the back, a village in Essex. It was the only photo from Essex and a place I don't know at all.

I had no idea about the one below, luckily someone recognised it as Wangford, a village just off the A12 towards Lowestoft. 

More tomorrow

It Was Once A Town With A Stagecoach Stop

 First of all must say thank you for all the comments yesterday and apologies for not replying, the day just got away from me. I'll try harder today!!

A  couple of weeks ago I had a sunny morning walk round the small town of Eye.

It was once more important than now as it had a Registry office where people living in the villages all around had to go to register Births, Marriages and Deaths. It was also the name of the Parliamentary Constituency for many years. It had two banks, more than two dozen shops and a community cottage hospital and maternity unit as well as everything else you would expect in a small town serving many villages. 

I visited what remains of the castle - just the motte and ruins - in 2021 HERE and the church in 2018 HERE and wrote about the Turnpike and Tollhouse HERE last year and the Crinkle Crankle wall HERE in January.

So now a look at some of the other things in the town.

Once a pub or hostelry  this is where the stagecoaches travelling the turnpike road would have halted to change horses or for an overnight stay

This was what they would have looked like

The townhall, dating from 1857 stands in the middle of the town - I've been inside many times for jumble sales. It has offices where the Town Council meet.

The Eye coat of arms over the town hall entrance

And on the notice board outside the town hall -  a poster for a Jumble sale in a nearby village- must make a note in the diary!

The building on the right below has recently been refurbished although it stands empty. For many years it was the Eye offices of Suffolk County Council Highways Department. The car park beyond was the SCC depot and where Colin went everyday to pick up his lorry when he was driving for Highways through the early 1980s.

The library isn't very old and was built on the site of more of the SCC highways buildings. I worked in Eye library on Saturday mornings for a while around 1985 but that was when it was in a much older building in a different place in the town.

The town centre is blighted by traffic and so many huge trucks full of chickens go in and out of this large factory, the photo is only a small part. The factory has been there for years and is now owned by Shazan. It would be better if it was situated on the outskirts of the town on the old airfield which is home to many other factories and four huge wind turbines.

Narrow roads in and out

Occasionally I get a takeaway from here - The Happy House Chinese takeaway. Haven't had one for months - must remedy that sometime

The Hexagon was Barclays bank until about 5 years ago. Luckily they've retained the Barclays ATM........for now. The town lost it's Post Office a year or so ago too which isn't good for a town. 

The Co-op small supermarket and a hardware shop

The monument below is one of those things I've walked past umpteen times without looking at so had investigate who it was for.

This is a monument to Lieutenant-general Sir Edward Kerrison. Kerrison fought in the Napoleonic wars and was slightly wounded in the Battle of Waterloo, after his horse was shot under him. He was also a Conservative MP for Shaftesbury, Northampton and then Eye, the site of his monument. The commemoration was made in 1888 by J. K. Colling

Kerrison also gave his name to a "Reform School" in the nearby village of Thorndon which took boys who had been expelled from school or committed  minor crimes. Kerrison school shut many, many years ago and is now the site of a new housing estate.

More old buildings in the town.

And a weird thing that marked the town 'twinning' with towns abroad. Twinning was a big thing at one time with tours to twinned towns- mainly in France or Germany - arranged. I doubt these tours still happen due to economic circumstances.

And at the other end of the carpark is another odd thing. I have no idea of the whys and wherefores!

And this is another reason for going to Eye as it is where I get my eggs if possible - still only £1 for half a dozen - bargain!

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Sue

The Karnser

 When I was a child we went to Stowmarket on the bus and got off before the town centre to walk to see Grandma and then we would walk into town which meant going over a raised path, which I've always known as the Karnser. Grandma and Mum were Stowmarket born and bred so that's what they called it.

There WAS a picture  below which I copied from a local 'Stowmarket In Old Photo's' Facebook page and several people commented that they'd never heard the word. Some references say that it's an East Anglian dialect word but below the report says it's much older.

The picture vanished and I couldn't find it again despite searching all the Stowmarket facebook sites - luckily I'd copied the text.......................

The raised pathway on one side of Station Road, whether it is spelled with a 'c' or a 'k', is an old word of Anglo-Saxon origin. There are other places in East Anglia with a reference to the word, such as Mellis Common in Suffolk and Blakeney in Norfolk, which refer to a raised footpath or causeway across a marshy area.

The Stowmarket spelling with a 'k' is quite unusual, but the meaning still has the same derivation of a raised footpath. In this case it was developed to allow brewers' drays to pull up beside Steven's Brewery, that later became part of the Greene King Group, so that barrels could be rolled directly onto the back of the carts without involving heavy lifting or rolling heavy casks up sloping ramps etc.

Information from Stowmarket Local History Group.

While searching for the picture that I copied here from facebook and which later vanished, I came across this one from a bit later when the brewery had been taken over by Greene King. It doesn't really show the Karnser except for the railings.

And here's what it looks like today. Back in the 60's there were breaks in the barriers with steps built into the wall to get down to road level, but they are long gone. This road is a very busy one now leading in and out to the town centre and the main carpark beside Asda.

It's a very, very long time since the building was a brewery and it's been rebuilt, stood empty or used as offices for many years.

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Sue

Thanks for comments yesterday, I thought I'd answered but I hadn't and then it was late!

Crinkle Crankle Walls

Many of the Crinkle Crankle, Serpentine or Wavy walls in the country are in Suffolk.

This one isn't far from home, it's in the small town of Eye . A few  others I know are in the villages of Bramfield, Bacton, and Easton and in Saxmundham town centre.

In Eye it is around Chandos Lodge

I was parked right by this one when I visited Bramfield church months ago. (The spots are rain on the lens)

There are now over 100 in Suffolk as they are still being built but  many of the older ones have been Grade II Listed, so can't be altered. 

 These walls are actually cheaper to build than a long straight wall as they needed no pillars, buttresses or bracing and were better at reducing wind damage, some were built around kitchen gardens and those south facing used as protection for fruit trees grown against them

It's thought the idea may have been brought here by Dutch Engineers who arrived in the mid 1600's to sort out the drainage of the Fens, the Dutch called them slangenmuur or snake walls. At that time the word crink meant 'twisty'. Some references say that Crinkle Crankle are Suffolk Dialect words that have spread across the country.

. 

 The words Crinkle Crankle are an example of Ablaut Reduplications!! 

(....Ablaut reduplication, or ablaut-motivated compounding, is a type of word formation of "expressives" (such as onomatopoeia or ideophones), in which words are formed by reduplication of a base and alternation of the internal vowel.)

There's lots more about the walls and the words on wiki of course and as usual someone in Suffolk with plenty of time has compiled a list!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

St Distaff's Day

 Who knew there was such a thing as a 'Fake/Joke Saint'?

In some Folklore books it says January 7th is St Distaff Day but he is not in any books of Saints and he or she, didn't exist.

Way back in history 7th January was the day that women went back to work at their spinning after the 12 days of Christmas merryment  and the Distaff is the tool used to hold the unspun wool or flax.

Queen Berthe, Instructing Girls to Spin by Swiss artist Albert Ankar 1888

Men didn't go back to work in the fields until Plough Monday - the first Monday after Epiphany and often used Distaff Day to cause mayhem to the women.

There was an old saying

On St. Distaff's Day

Neither work nor play. 

And from Hesperides by Robert Herrick dating from 1648

Partly work and partly play

Ye must on St Distaffs Day:

From the plough soon free your team;

Then come home and fodder them.

If the maids a-spinning go,

Burn the flax and fire the tow:

Scorch their placket, but beware

That ye singe no maiden hair.

Bring in pails of water then,

Let the maids bewash the men.

Give St Distaff all the right:

Then bid the Christmas sport good-night

And next morrow, every one

To his own vocation.

 

Distaff later became the word for the female side of a family and  the word Spinster from the spindle used by the women.

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Sue

On This Day in 1957............

.................. the very first Today programme was broadcast on BBC radio. 

It's on Radio 4 nowadays, Monday to Friday mornings from 6am to 9 am and from 7am -9am on Saturdays. I can't cope with music early in the morning so Radio 4 is usually on from the time I wake up until I change to Radio 2 at 9am. I find an hour and a half or so of politics, finance and world news is enough to know what's happening in the world without making me depressed. I am, apparently, one of 6 million people who listen at some time each week.

The Today programme has had a lot of changes of presenters recently after the elderly John Humphrys was presenting seemingly forever. I hated the way he interrupted everyone he interviewed. Mishal Husain is very brusque but Amol Rajan is much nicer and brings a sense of humour. Their newest presenter is Emma Barnett who was a Woman's Hour presenter and is younger.

People have said that if the Today programme is missing from your radio at breakfast time then you know something really terrible has happened in the country!

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 On Saturdays post  I forgot to mention that it was 'Clocks Back' weekend, I would never have forgot a few years ago because it was a much hated event. I'm getting so laid back in my old age that I can now embrace it rather than hate it!

And I forgot to say hello and welcome to some more followers, it was stuck at 817 for ages but now suddenly 820. 

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Sue 

On This Day in 1834

 ............the artist JWM Turner sketched the fire that was burning down the houses of Parliament.

Along with thousands of others standing on the south shore of the Thames he watched and sketched and later painted two different paintings.

The Houses of Parliament website tells the story of the fire............

The Great Fire of 1834

In 1834, the Exchequer was faced with the problem of disposing two cart-loads of wooden tally sticks. These were remnants of an obsolete accounting system that had not been used since 1826. When asked to burn them, the Clerk of Works thought that the two underfloor stoves in the basement of the House of Lords would be a safe and proper place to do so.

Parliament on fire in 1834

On 16 October, a couple of workmen arrived in the morning to carry out his instructions. During the afternoon, a party of visitors to the House of Lords, conducted by the deputy housekeeper Mrs Wright, became puzzled by the heat of the floor, and by the smoke seeping through it. But the workmen insisted on finishing their job. The furnaces were put out by 5pm, and Mrs Wright, no longer worried, locked up the premises.

Fire!

At 6pm, Mrs Wright heard the terrified wife of a doorkeeper screaming that the House of Lords was on fire. In no time, the flames had spread to the rest of the Palace. It was a great sight for the crowds on the streets (who were kept back by soldiers) and a great opportunity for artists such as J.M.W. Turner who painted several canvases depicting it.

Both Houses of Parliament were destroyed along with most of the other buildings on the site. Westminster Hall was saved largely due to heroic fire fighting efforts, and a change in the direction of the wind during the night. The only other parts of the Palace to survive were the Jewel Tower, the Undercroft Chapel, the Cloisters and Chapter House of St Stephen's and Westminster Hall.

I've got a couple of books full of "what happened on this day in the past" so I might use more when I'm short of ideas.

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Sue 

On This Day - October 11th

 My eldest Granddaughter is 8 today and one of my nephews has a birthday too -  I think he must 40  -  the years just fly by - it's not the only day in the year with two family or friend's birthdays on the same day which seems odd but apparently it's not. You only need 23 people from the same family and friends in a room to find two have birthdays on the same day. You would think it would have to be 366 people so I've no idea why it's 23. It's called 'The Birthday Paradox' and is one of the few odd facts that I remember, which would be totally useless if I didn't have a blog to fill!

On this day in 1982  the Mary Rose  saw the light of day again after 437 years. The flagship of the Tudor fleet had sailed from Portsmouth on July 18th 1545 watched by Henry VIII, to do battle yet again against the French. She had already been at sea many times but had been rebuilt in 1536. Sadly she sunk just a mile off Portsmouth taking up to 400 men to be their death in the Solent sands. Only 179 skeletons were found among the wreckage and only 35 men survived.

As well as the remains of the ship over 10,000 artefacts telling the story of Tudor sailors have been brought to the surface.

We visited the  hull remains where they are on display in Portsmouth in about 1990, before the timbers had been stabilised and the museum properly established . I wish I could remember more about the visit but I do have a tea towel.

There's lots more about the ship on Wiki and on the Mary Rose Museum website.

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Sue

Once Upon A Time .....................

.................many years ago, there was a Castle in  Haughley. ( A Mid Suffolk village few miles from home)

This is the sign by the moat - sadly in poor condition for reading.

So I copied all the wiki info onto this page after my photos and intended to type it up properly but haven't got round to it. In case it vanishes all the info is HERE

The three photos below are what things look like today - all that's left of Haughley castle is the outer moat and  a huge mound - the Motte - surrounded by the inner moat now in private ownership and luckily open to view on the day they had open gardens in Haughley village - so I was able to take photos.

You can see the height of the Motte with the pine trees atop of it and the inner moat surrounding it.

Below the remains of the outer moat are still clear to see besides Duke Street  Haughley and I've been visiting here to feed the ducks ever since I was a little girl.

And here's the information from Wiki

Haughley Castle

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Coordinates: 52.2226°N 0.9633°E

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Haughley Castle
Suffolk, England
Part of the moat of Haughley Castle
Haughley Castle
Coordinates	52.2226°N 0.9633°E
Grid reference	grid reference TM025624
Type	Motte and bailey
Site history
Events	Revolt of 1173-4

Haughley Castle was a medieval castle situated in the village of Haughley, some 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north-west of the town of Stowmarket, Suffolk. Prominent historians such as J. Wall consider it "the most perfect earthwork of this type in the county," whilst R. Allen Brown has described it as "one of the most important" castle sites in East Anglia.^[1]

Details[edit]

Haughley Castle was built in the late 11th century by Hugh de Montfort.^[2] The castle had a motte and bailey design, with a very large motte, 210 feet (64 m) wide at the base and 80 feet (24 m) tall.^[3] D. J. Cathcart King in his summary of mottes in England and Wales questioned this measurement, and suggested that the motte was probably closer to 40 feet (12 m) in height.^[4] The bailey is rectangular, 390 feet (120 m) by 300 feet (91 m) across, with the entrance on the west side.^[3] Both the motte and the bailey were protected by a deep ditch, fed from a diverted stream from the west to produce a wet moat.^[3] Earlier investigations suggested that a stone shell keep had been built on the motte, but the foundations of this, if correct, can no longer be seen.^[5] A further bailey may have originally surrounded the surviving earthworks, enclosing the local church as well.^[6] The dimensions and scale of the castle has led J. Wall to describe Haughley as "the most perfect earthwork of this type in the county," whilst historian R. Allen Brown considers it "one of the most important" castle sites in East Anglia.^[1]

Plan of Haughley Castle

The castle formed the caput, or main castle, at the centre of the Honour of Haughley.^[2] The honour was sometimes known as the "honour of the constable", because the owner was obligated to provide castle-guard soldiers and knights to the constable of Dover Castle.^[7] Hugh de Montfort became a monk in 1088 and the castle passed through his family until the mid-11th century.^[7] Towards the end of King Stephen's reign the castle was given by the king to Henry of Essex, one of his supporters.^[7]

By the late 12th century the Bigod family had come to dominate Suffolk, who held the title of the Earl of Norfolk and who were in competition with the Crown for control of the region.^[8] Henry II had taken the throne after the death of Stephen and Henry d'Essex lost favour after being accused and convicted of cowardice during the 1157 Welsh campaign - Haughley Castle was seized by Henry II in 1163, and by the mid-1170s, the castle was controlled on his behalf by Ralph de Broc and a garrison of 30 soldiers. Conflict broke out again in 1173, during the revolt of Henry's sons and the Bigod's ally Robert de Beaumont, the Earl of Leicester, landed on the East Anglian coast and marched west, placing the castle under siege.^[9] Ralph surrendered the castle, which was then smoked out by Robert's forces, although the revolt subsequently failed. The castle was fully rebuilt after its destruction in 1173 and a Manor House was built within the Inner Bailey and the Outer Bailey gradually filled. The remaining parts of the keep tower still standing were removed by Richard Ray in 1760. The circular foundations of over eight feet in thickness are visible today.^[10] A major excavation in 2011 cleared the site and revealed extensive foundations and many remnants of intricately carved and dressed stone.

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Sue