Results tagged “Suffolk”

Lavenham Guildhall is located in the beautiful little village of timber-framed medieval buildings, Lavenham in Suffolk. Lavenham was one of the wealthiest towns in Tudor England, and the building is a museum of information about some of the people who are associated with the building with some rooms open for display. Unfortunately, there was only one guide giving information about the building and answering questions from people, so I did not get a good introduction of the building. 

Lavenham was the centre of the wool trade of East Anglia, and its special was a broadcloth known as Lavenham Blue. Due to its wealth, there were four guilds in the town, and the Guild of Corpus Christi (known as Lavenham Guildhall today), founded in 1529, was the most important.

Burn marks and symbols burnt into the wooden beams (above the fire place) promise to ward off evil and fires. There is also a deceased cat in a case, which was found in the walls. Placing cats in the walls is thought to have also warded off evil and witches.

After the decline of the wool trade, the guildhall was used as a workhouse. Prison and mortuary buildings were set up in the grounds behind the guildhall. It was purchased in 1911 for social use. During the World War, the building was used as a social club for American troops, and it was a restaurant in the second World War. The owner gifted it to the community in 1946, and it became managed by National Trust in 1951.

One of the upstairs rooms contains information about the Lavenham railway station, which closed in 1961.

There are several timber-framed Tudor houses in Lavenham.

Lavenham has a cafe, shop, and bookshop and is worth a visit.

Sutton Hoo is the famous ship burial of an East Anglian king from the 600s. The story of Sutton Hoo has appeared in a documentary called "The Dig" earlier this year, and I believe that this has brought more people to the National Trust-owned site in order to explore the story.

The site contains a visitor centre, replica ship sculpture, and two exhibition areas. Visitors can also explore the burial area or have a walk in the grounds near the river.

When I arrived, I headed toward the burial mounds first. These are located a short walk away, beyond the home that the owner lived in during the excavations.

Edith Pretty was living in the house, which overlooked the earth mounds from the southern windows, when she requested for the excavation work. She had an interest in archaeology as excavations were made when she was a child. The Woodbridge Flower show has a discovery in 1937, and this rekindled her interest in the mounds. She hired local archaeologist Basil Brown to do some work. Some of the mounds had been robbed.

In the summer of 1939, he went to work on the largest of the mounds at Sutton Hoo. It ended up being an Anglo-Saxon ship burial, and the grave robbers did not dig down far enough to discover the treasures. In August of 1939, Edith Pretty donated the finds to the nation. The UK prepared for war, and the escavator Basil Brown covered the ship trench to protect it. 

The new observation tower was only opened up a week ago when I visited Sutton Hoo in early September. The tower can be climbed for views over the mounds.

The landscape of Sutton Woo was settled for at least 3,000 years. Before the mounds, the lands were farmed, and 1,400 years ago, the land became a sacred burial place by the Wuffing dynasty. Each mound was a memorial to an individual who had passed. After the Anglo-Saxons, medieval farmers used the mounds as rabbit warrens, and robbers stole from them in the 17th century. Gradually, farming and other activities reduced the height of the mounds. The mounds would have been much higher, and one of them has been reconstructed to its original height.

The great ship burial mound contained a 27-meter long ship with space for 40 oarsmen. The markers at each end of the mound dictate its length. The wood rotted away in the acidic soil, but the iron rivets remained in place. The ship burial was a symbolic ceremony for the deceased king to take his next journey to the afterlife. The possessions were located along the king's body in the boat, including the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet.

The burial is thought to be King Raedwald, who ruled East Anglia in the 600s. After the Roman occupation, Germanic and Scandinavian people (known as Anglo-Saxons) came to live in parts of England. King Raedwald died in the 620s, and he had an impressive ship burial in the customs of the time in his ruling dynasty of Wuffings.

After visiting the mounds, I walked back to the house to see the exhbition inside the house. This talked about the excavations of the burials and those involved. The first iron rivet discovered as a piece of iron with five additional ones in a position, marking the stern of the ship. It is on display in the house.

Some of the original objects are located at the British Museum, but there are replicas and some original objects at the museum at Sutton Hoo. The findings are the considered the greatest treasure discovered in Britain. The helmet is a replica.

One of the mounds at Sutton Hoo contains the grave of a young man buried with his horse. Weapons and harness for the horse was included in the grave. He was of high social standing and semed to be valued by the king due to the lavish items in the grave.

The king's grave contained a purse with several golden coins and other gold items, placing them within northern Europe. The items in the graves connected East Anglia with the rest of the world - garnets from India or Sri Lanka and items from throughout Europe. 

Ship burials were common in Sweden, and the helmet and shield in the grave may have been gifts from connections with relatives in the North Sea. 

In addition to the expensive items, there are buckets and remains of bowls from funeral feasts. Some of the other mounds contained cremated human remains.

The visit to Sutton Hoo is fascinating and contains a lot of information about the items discovered and their importance in this area of England.

I visited Melford Hall at the end of a long weekend in Suffolk at the start of September, and the weather was beautiful on my visit. Melford Hall's history is a varied one; it was home to medieval monks before the Hyde Parker family came into possession of it. The family still live in the house. One of its claims to fame is its connection with Beatrix Potter.

When I visited, we had a really good guide who gave us in-depth history of the house and told us about the 1942 fire. The fire was started by soldiers who had requisitioned the hall during the war. The fire destroyed one of the wings of the hall, and it was rebuilt. Originally, the site of the hall was a medieval building held by abbots of the Bury St. Edmunds monastery. The hall was primarily built in the 16th century and incorporated these medieval rooms into its layout.

The entrance to the manor opens into the Great Hall, which is thought to be the oldest part of the house.

A guest book is signed by Beatrix Potter with a little drawing of a clothed rabbit.

Off of the Great Hall (on the right), is the entrance to the wing that burned in the 1942 fire that the soldiers started in the upstairs floor when they decided to pick a lock to play cards and smoke. The wing was rebuilt, and the rooms are not nearly as lavish.

Additional rooms include the parlour and library.

Up the stairs at the top of the stairs is the boudoir, which was created for the wife as a wedding present.

It is a small room with chandelier, piano, mirrors, and several seats.

The upstairs hallway contains some paintings and stained glass windows, such as the one below that features Elizabeth I.

Further along the hallway are additional bedrooms for nursery and guests.

The connection with Beatrix Potter to the house is via a cousin of the family. She frequented the hall from the late-1800s. The below room is where Beatrix Potter stayed during her visits. Some of these upstairs rooms contain her drawings.

The original Jemima Puddle-duck is on display in the house, and these were Potter's toys that helped her make her drawings. This one was a gift to the Hyde Parker children. Potter often brought animals with her, and the children loved to see them.

There are quite a lot of Potter's illustrations around the house.

Further along is one of the main bedrooms.

There are some lovely views over the grounds from the upper windows.

Near the exit and cafe is a series of Potter's drawings of different items or areas around Melford Hall. Her studies of different objects helped her in her illustrations, and visitors may recognise many that she used in her illustrations.

A garden room or gate house could also be visited, and it sits at one corner of the garden.

National Trust have been managing the property since 1960, and it was first opened to the public in 1955. It is a pleasant visit, but the property has few opening hours for the house. I would recommend a visit if you are in the area.

My visit to Landguard Fort in Felixstowe took place at the beginning of September, and the Suffolk Regiment Living History Society were hosting events at the fort and demonstrating the life of soldiers and firearms and grenades, so it was a great atmosphere in addition to lovely sunny weather. This fort is well worth a visit because of its varied history; its history dates from the 1500s and up until the Cold War. It is a Grade I listed building, and there is so much to explore.

The fort was originally known as Langer Fort, and it was first built around 1540. In 1667, the Dutch landed 2,000 men on the beach at Felixstowe in attempt to sieze the fort. There is a reconstruction of this battle on video at the fort. The Dutch were held back by 500 men at Felixstowe. A new fort was built in 1717 and remodelled later on for additional security and defense. 

During the second World War, the fort was used as a balloon launch site. Hydrogen-filled balloons with steel wires intended to damage power lines in Germany were launched.

In addition to exploring the rooms in the fort, visitors can see some items and interact with some of these displays.

The showers, baths, and sinks were the first set of rooms to explore.

There are various anti-aircraft guns and cannons around the site.

The cobbler's shop was one of the rooms as mending shoes was highly important to the life at the fort. Apparently, the glue used to mend the shoes smelled really bad because it was made from animal byproducts.

The mining room and area was next to explore. The mining room was built at the end of the 1800s for submarines to protect the estuary. The mines would have been transported by a narrow tram onto the jetty with adapted boats used to fit them to the submarines. A couple of these deactivated mines are on display as they were previously used as buoys at Ipswich.

The room below is one of the entries into the magazines. The soldiers had to de-robe and put on special clothing and boots for handling the weapons. Their usual boots may have created sparks, so the spcial uniform prevented this.

The magazine is below, and it was used for storing gunpowder, ammunition, and shells. Shells and cartridges had special lifts to put them on the top level with a pulley.

An example of one of the cartridge lifts is below.

The soldiers gave a demo to us on firearms and grenades.

Fire buckets are located around the site for safety reasons. In this section is the fort clock - the Landguard fort clock. My photograph did not come out very well as it is behind glass and behind a door. It was made in 1747, and it has to be wound every eight days.

The middle of the fort contains living quarters and offices. Today, it contains a gift shop and 1940s vintage tea room.

Opposite the living area are some of the important rooms, such as the control room.

Telecommunications was important, and visitors could try their luck with the morse machines. There are a few rooms to look at here for radar, radio, and other telecommunications.

Various offices are set up, but most of the rooms were shut. Visitors could only peer through a window for a glimpse of the interior of the rooms.

The commanding officials had their own toilets.

The 1940s tea room serves drinks and snacks to visitors.

The barracks is set up in another room, and eight men would have been in one room.

The Suffolk Regiment completed some marching around the fort for the remaining visitors at the end of the day.

The last room to see was an office and the prison cell, which leads off of the office. The cell was for soldiers who needed disciplined for being late, drunkeness, gambling, fighting, and so on.

I was not sure what to expect at Landguard Fort, but I really enjoyed my visit. There is so much to see here, and it is all very interesting as it spans different centuries, and the rooms are like a maze with little expectation of what awaits around the corner.

Over 1,800 acres make up the Ickworth estate in Suffolk, which has been managed by the National Trust since 1998. Ickworth House is the neoclassical building on site, and part of the building is a museum today, and part of it is a luxury hotel. The house was built in the early 1800s, and it was built as an art gallery. Unfortunately, the owner's collection was taken by Napoleon.

The estate was given to the National Trust in 1956 with a 99-year lease on the 60-room east wing. The lease was sold in 1998 to the National Trust, and it is now run as The Ickworth Hotel. The west wing at Ickworth was left uncompleted until 2006 with a partnership as a centre for conferences and events.

The rotunda, the main part of the house, started renovation in 2019. The house was built from inspiration of an Italian design. Friezes are located around the rotunda.

The items on display are changed from time to time, and there is a collection of paintings, silver, and porcelain.

In the entrance hall, which is looking dark at the moment due to the scaffolding still in place, is a statue depicting "The Fury of Athamas", a Greek story about a man killing his son.

A few of the rooms were open to either peek inside or walk around, but the majority of the house was not yet fully open to the public. 

After looking around the house, I explored the formal gardens, which do look beautiful in the sun.

I then decided to go on a wander to see the lake and walled garden. On the way to it is St. Mary's Church. I peeked inside to have a look before continuing on my way.

The walled garden is primarily empty today. It did have some fruit trees. There is a large lake at the bottom.

I resumed my walk around the estate, which led me through woodland and bordering pastures and meadows of grazing sheep. 

The path led me through a pasture amongst the grazing sheep, but there was not a clear way to exit the pasture for some reason, and I had to climb over a locked fence. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, but I did not see any other place to go. 

Ickworth is a remote place, and there are some decent walks here, but the house/museum seemed a bit cold and dark to me. It felt as if it lacked "soul", which is strange because it is a highly-decorated building and certainly built to look luxurious. It just felt like it was missing something to me. I will have to re-visit it at some point; a lot of the house was locked down, and the dark entrance hall (due to scaffolding) probably was not the best for the house to show off.

Framlingham Castle is located in Suffolk, England. A wooden fortress which stood on the site of the current castle was built in the early 1100s, but the stone castle itself was built in the late-1100s in the medieval market town of Framlingham soon after the stone buildings were constructed. In the middle ages, Norfolk and Suffolk were in disagreement so the castle saw conflict then. It was also controlled by the monarch via the Howard family and owned by Queen Mary, who restored the castle back to the Howard family. It would have been a lavish castle with its royal connections, but it is only a shadow of its glory today. In the 17th century, it was sold and housed poor people, becoming a workhouse.

There is not much of the castle left, but visitors can walk the castle's old walls as well as to visit the workhouse, which is now a shop, cafe, interactive museum for children, and a smaller museum that includes some antiquities from more recent times (such as wood-working tools, shoes, old newspapers, and an 1980s Apple computer). Where the walls have collapsed, walkways have been created to join the different parts of the castle.

There is a large lake near the castle, which reflects the castle. The lake would have been five times larger than it is. There also would have been landscaped gardens. 

One of the most noticeable features of the castle are the chimneys. The castle has several brick chimneys designed with different brickwork, but only a few of these were genuine and the rest were for show or decoration.

Framlingham Castle is open in the summer months but has reduced opening hours in the winter months. The castle, wall walk, and museum can be done in about an hour with extra time to walk around the outside of the castle.