A Suffolk Birthday

It was my birthday earlier this month and I spent it in Suffolk with my younger son and his family. I decided to travel by train for once and discovered that most of the journey is through lovely countryside, the route goes down through Lincolnshire and then into the Fen country. I had my little Canon Powershot in my bag and I suddenly wondered whether it would be possible to take photographs through the window of a moving train and discovered that it is. You only get one chance and the quality isn't that great but I was quite pleased with some of them. Above is the marina at Ely and if you enlarge it you will see Ely cathedral in the background - one of these days I intend to go there. It was built by William the Conqueror and is a really beautiful building.


As we thundered through March I saw a low flying plane, then I realised there were three of them and that the big one was a Lancaster bomber and the two little ones were Spitfires - it was the Battle of Britain flight coming in to land at an airfield near March! It was the weekend of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2 and there must have been a display of some sort. I just had time to snap this photo. Edited to say that the two small planes are actually a Spitfire at the top and a Hurricane at the bottom. Thanks Roy:)



On the Sunday it was a nice day and we decided to take Gabriel and George to Jimmy's Farm which is pretty close to where my son lives. Jimmy Doherty rears rare breed pigs and there have been several documentary series' about the farm on Britsh TV. It's a really good place for children, plenty for them to see and do including these Red Poll cows.



We spent quite a lot of our time on the woodland Nature Trail, it's an ideal place for small boys to run about and bears like it too:)



Francesca plans to have an autumn nature table for them at home and we collected some specimens for it - acorns, sweet chestnuts, hazel nuts and a pretty bird's feather.



Once Gabriel discovered the little tractor we had a hard time parting him from it!



George enjoyed the woodland nature trail too, he's collecting sticks for the nature table:)



Gabriel and George both loved this living willow house and spent ages playing in it. We shall go back to Jimmy's Farm again as it's that kind of place, always different things to see and do through each of the seasons. On the photos it looks as though we have the place to ourselves but actually there were many family groups and also several coach loads of Brownies and Rainbows having a wonderful day out - they were very well behaved too.



My actual birthday was on Monday and in the morning we went to a small market town called Needham Market, it's an attractive place with quite a few small interesting shops and a great antique centre - the sort where there is masses of interesting, affordable everyday stuff to look at rather than an upmarket antique shop. I bought two 1950s copies of The Countryman magazine which I still haven't read because I managed to leave them behind when I came home! The one building in Needham Market that is truly ugly and uninspiring on the outside is the church of St John the Baptist. It looks neither old nor interesting and I wouldn't even have bothered going inside if it hadn't been for Francesca's mum. Once through the door though, you realise that it is much older than it appears. It was built as a chapel of ease in the late 15th century for pilgrims travelling to visit St Edmund's shrine at Bury St Edmunds and only became a parish church in 1901. It gives a real feeling of what medieval churches must originally have been like when there were no seats or pews and everyone stood through the services. There would be just one or two benches against the walls for elderly or infirm people and this is the origin of the saying that 'the weakest go to the wall'.



The real hidden secret of this church though is the double hammerbeam roof which is mentioned in Nicholas Pevsner's 'Buildings of England'and he described it as 'the climax of English roof building'. Apparently it's the finest double hammerbeam roof in the country. The leaflet in the church suggests that you lie on the floor and look up and then you get the impression of looking at a ship's hull - and it's quite true. I did and you do! It's thought that it may have been crafted by shipwrights brought in from the nearby coast.



As always in Suffolk many of the houses in Needham Market are painted in pretty colours especially the Suffolk pink which was originally made by mixing animal blood with lime. I loved this tiny cottage which must originally have been a 'one up and one down' and looks as though it was tacked on to the end of this row as an afterthought.



This hare is my birthday present from my husband bought in one of the lovely little shops in Needham Market. I absolutely love it.



My birthday cake baked for me by my lovely daughter-in-law Francesca, she gave a little party for me and I had more cards and presents than I've had for years. Gabriel and George had been practising singing 'Happy Birthday' and the cake was delicious. It was a really lovely birthday weekend.

My Anglo Saxon Warrior!

I spent last weekend in Suffolk and on Saturday we went to the Anglo-Saxon village at West Stowe. It is built on the site of an original Anglo Saxon village which was occupied between 420 and 650AD by people who migrated to this country from the area that is now part of Northern Germany. Around 650AD the village moved to a site about a mile away which is where it remains today but the reason for the move isn't known.
The original site was gradually covered by sand dunes until it was discovered quite by chance during trial quarrying for sand and gravel.

It was decided to do an archaeological excavation of the whole site and this took place between 1965 and 1972. When the excavation finished the decision was taken to reconstruct the village using the tools and materials available to the Anglo Saxons. There are no written records for this period of English history so the venture was experimental archaeology as they tried to discover how the Anglo Saxons built their houses and lived their day to day lives. Huge numbers of artefacts were found so there was plenty of material to build on. Some weekends during the year it really comes to life when an Anglo Saxon living history group lives there and carries out all the activities of daily life including storytelling round the fire which was one of the great sources of entertainment for the Anglo Saxons, children and adults alike. This way the history and legends of the family and tribe were passed from one generation to the next. I'm hoping to manage a visit to Suffolk when one of these events is on.



Before you go into the actual village there is a room with a short video telling you about West Stowe and also a display of various artefacts. Above on the right of the display case is the Brandon Hoard which is on loan to West Stowe but was discovered near by. It dates to the lst century AD and consists of an iron bound bronze cauldron, a wine strainer, a skillet and a bronze bound wooden vessel. It probably belonged to a wealthy chieften and was hidden during the Roman invasion of Britain. The owner may well have lost his life when taking part in Boudicca's rebellion around AD60 - she was the legendary female warrior chieftain of the Iceni tribe who led a revolt against the Roman invaders and East Anglia was her territory.



Permanent residents of the village - at least until the autumn when they will probably be providing a selection of hams, bacon and pork sausages! Gabriel liked these a lot.


The interior of one of the buildings showing a central hearth in a wooden frame. Several of the houses had these so it must be a recognized style of hearth. I have a feeling that oak doesn't burn very easily so it may be safer than it looks. Any experts who could comment on this? Against the wall are warp weighted looms with the clay loom weights hanging from them.



George was having a good time and he thinks he'd like to be an Anglo Saxon.



Gabriel sees himself as the tribal chieftain and is trying out the chair for size:)



One or two of the Romano British re-enactors who were in the village when we were there, not a full scale presence but giving a little authentic atmosphere.


One of the houses had a built in box bed not unlike the stone box beds found at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands. Neil prodded the straw filled mattress and announced that he didn't think it would be very comfortable!


There is an excellent small museum at West Stowe and on the way in this splendid gentleman flew up onto the fence and cried 'cockadoodledoo!' very loudly several times much to Gabriel's delight. I managed to catch it in full flow.

It was a serious museum but also had things for children to touch and feel including this replica of the helmet found in the burial at Sutton Hoo which is not far away and is scheduled for a visit sometime this summer. He was thrilled at having it on and wanted to see himself in the mirror. It's a poor photo because of all the lights.

Then mummy discovered a dressing up box and he became a small Anglo Saxon. At this point daddy got in on the act as you can see at the start of this post. Gabriel thought it was hilarious seeing daddy dressed up like this. I think he rather looks the part!



I had to leave after lunch on Sunday but in the morning we went to Shotley Gate which is on the estuary where two rivers, the Stour and the Orwell, meet to flow into the sea. Shotley Gate is on a little peninsula in the middle and on one side is the port of Felixstowe and the other is the port of Harwich. The cranes are in Felixstowe which is the largest container port in the UK.


Shotley Gate itself has a nice marina and the estuary is full of boats both cruisers and sailing craft.



There are little sandy beaches and it's possible to walk for 10 miles along a path that goes by the river and through lovely countryside so Neil tells me.



The beaches are thick with seashells, crab skeletons, beautiful coloured pebbles, seaweed and the occasional stranded starfish. Neil and Gabriel are looking for shells so that Francesca can make a shell necklace.


Time to go and get some lunch at the local pub but on the way there we were able to see the lock opening for a boat to move out of the Marina and onto the estuary.
This will be my last post for a while as early in the morning I am off to Sussex and Dorset for a week. A week in the pouring rain by the looks of it too! The forecast is dire for tomorriow and I'm not much looking forward to the drive but hey ho - maybe I'll be lucky and the sun will shine:

A Suffolk Summer Part Two

This lovely Elizabethan timber framed farmhouse caught my eye as I drove into Brent Eleigh. For some reason it looked vaguely familiar.



This is the reason why! One of my favourite artists is A R Quinton and in the early 1900s he travelled all round England painting local scenes which were published as postcards by the firm of J.Salmon Ltd. I like his work because he paints the kind of scenes that appeal to me and he has left a pictorial record of the England that existed before the advent of the car. The scene that appealed to me obviously appealed to Alfred Quinton as well and the wonderful thing is that apart from the fact that the lane has a modern tarmac surface the scene is virtually unchanged a hundred years later. Alas the lovely working horses and the geese are no longer there but the green is there and even better is what is not there - no modern buildings have appeared.



St Mary's Church is tucked away up a long quiet lane and hidden away behind trees. It is fortunate in having escaped a Victorian 'restoration' and therefore the outside looks now pretty much as it did when it was built around 1400.


Inside it still has the old box pews and in the chancel behind the altar are some rather special medieval wall paintings. They were whitewashed over at the Reformation and rediscovered in 1960 and are among the most important in England.


This is 14th century and was designed as an altarpiece, it depicts the Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary and St John standing on either side. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it.



This is a detail from the painting on the south side of the altar and shows the priest who was its donor. This painting is late 13th century. Clicking to enlarge this will make the priest's face very clear - a little window into the past.



The Colmans were Lords of the Manor until the male line died out in 1739.



The classic view of Kersey said to be the prettiest village in Suffolk. It shows the little River Brett flowing across the road and the church at the top of the hill. You may be relieved to know that there are no interior photographs as this was the only church I came cross in Suffolk that was actually locked! Although John Appleby (see Part One) doesn't seem to have visited Brent Eleigh he did go to Kersey and was rather disappointed by it though he did like the church which, unlike me,he did get to see the inside of!


Kersey is a typical linear village laid out mostly along one long main street. This is looking from the watersplash in the opposite direction to the church.



I think this cottage is just beautiful with it's pink walls, thatched roof and pretty cottage garden.


The medieval Bell Inn - it has stood here for 700 years and watched all the joys and sorrows of village life. What stories it must have locked in its memory.



Another of Kersey's beautiful old houses.


I'm rather keen on weather vanes and always photograph them if I see attractive or unusual ones.


A final view of Kersey. These lovely houses are on a lane off the main street at the top of the hill near the church.



Hadleigh is a small Suffolk town with a very long history, it was settled first of all in the 5th and 6th centuries by Angles and Friesians from across the North Sea and a century or two later the Vikings made an appearance and also eventually settled in the area though not before they'd done a little raiding and plundering first! Guthrum, the Viking leader who was defeated in battle by Alfred the Great, was converted to Christianity and became the King of what is now northern and eastern England. He died in Hadleigh and is supposedly buried in the church of St Mary pictured above. The present rather splendid church is 14th century but stands on the site of an older Saxon church which is where Guthrum would have been buried.



The 15th century Guildhall which is now a rather splendid venue for weddings. Hadleigh was another of the places visited by John Appleby, he had tea in a tea shop on the High St - now long gone I imagine. He considered Hadleigh to be 'the dullest place in Suffolk' which is perhaps a little harsh!



Some of the many fine old medieval buildings in Hadleigh.



Suffolk is full of lovely old lanes like this, you can see from the patches of grass growing in the middle of the road that there isn't a lot of traffic along here. Who knows where this leads - perhaps back into the past........

A Suffolk Summer Part One

I mentioned in a recent post a book I have called Suffolk Summer by John Appleby, he was a member of the USAAF who was stationed at Lavenham in Suffolk and then Thorpe Abbots in Norfolk during WW2. He acquired a bicycle and spent his leaves and days off exploring Suffolk. Quite early on he discovered the art of brass rubbing and from then on he visited as many churches as he could that had brasses worth seeing. Like John Appleby I spend as much time as I can exploring the villages and countryside when I go to Suffolk and since the life and history of the people largely centred around the church I tend to visit a lot of them.


The church in the photograph at the top is St Lawrence, Little Waldingfield which was built in the 14th century. John Appleby came here to do rubbings of the brasses - this one is John Wyncoll, a clothier who died in 1544.


The South Porch with its sundial - it looks very mellow and peaceful in the sunlight.


The Charity Boards on a wall inside the church. Wealthy people often left charitable bequests to assist the poor of their parish, many are still being distributed today. Whether this is the case with the 'Ten Loads of Wood' I don't know, a load of wood would have been very welcome to a poor family in a bitter winter but these days it may have been somehow converted to a cash payment.



This venerable old parish chest is over 700 years old, it dates from about 1300 and would have held the church valuables. There were three locks with each key held by a different person so that there was no danger of anyone making off with the contents.



This is the 14th century church of St Peter, Monks Eleigh, another church built with the wealth that came from wool and the manufacture of cloth. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will see the bell which chimes the hours set in a cage on top of the tower.



You never know quite what you are going to come across in old churches, this is the parish bier made by the local carpenter in the late 1500s and used to carry coffins to and from the church. At each end there are two folding handles for the pall bearers to use.


Another unusual item in this church is the alms box fixed to a pillar and dated 1636 - three keyholes again you'll notice. They didn't seem to trust their vicars all that much in those days!


The beautiful stone font dates from the 13th century - I wonder how many babies have been baptized there in the last 800 years? Even in a small village like Monks Eleigh it must number several thousand.



As I walked down the road from the church I saw this charming scene which must be what most people visualize when they think of an English country cottage.



Chelsworth is one of the places that John Appleby mentions in his book, he calls it 'the loveliest village in Suffolk' and I'm inclined to agree with him. All Saints church is 13th century.


This medieval wall-painting of The Last Judgement was discovered in 1849 when the church was being re-decorated. During the Reformation all the brightly painted walls in churches were plastered or painted over and many were destroyed completely. Clicking on the photo will make it possible to see it more clearly.



I had a friendly little companion while looking round Chelsworth church.



One of the lovely cottages in the village, I love all the odd angles of the walls. The jetty ( where the top storey overhangs the lower one) is a sure sign of a medieval building.



Another of Chelsworth's attractive cottages, in June each year the village has a 'Gardens Open' to raise money for the upkeep of the church. There are around 20 gardens to visit and it's well worth going if you are in the area on Sunday June 28th. There's a plant stall and a cake stall, two of the gardens do teas, there are flowers in the church and best of all a chance to get a closer look at all these fabulous old places including the local manor house. I'm rather hoping to go myself this year - depends on my husband's cricket fixtures though!