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.
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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Well done leaving the photo where it belonged, to be enjoyed by local people. What a shame so many old houses were cleared away.
ReplyDeleteThe lady said she would take it to village meetings for people to see.
DeleteI have a half knitted Nativity Set in the loft. But it is not the popular Jean Greenhowe one and having done Mary and Joseph I really don't like it, the figures are notvat all attractive. It may be unwound and the wool repurposed soon! If I find any other, better, ones I will get back to you
ReplyDeleteHopefully my friends church will find enough to put on a bit of a display
DeleteYou might have just started a new 'thing', taking the photos that you bought to their original locations and seeing if there's anyone there that would like them. Or at the very least taking up to date photos to compare them against for us to see. :-)
ReplyDeleteShould make a few blog posts!
DeleteI know life moves on and changes happen, but it is sad to look at that scene now. It's lost so much character.
ReplyDeleteI looked back at your crib festival blog post - absolutely amazing.
It was an incredible display in 2018 and I'm glad I visited it as it was their last
DeleteActon Book Fair this Saturday, if you are coming down this way.
ReplyDeleteI notice the NSPCC fair this year is their last one.
Had the date of the Colchester one in the diary but didn't know it was the last - that is so sad.
DeleteThank you for the Acton info - will make a good effort to get there and I can 'do' the church at the same time!
We went to the spring sale. If I recall all books were 50p - which seemed too cheap to me so gave them more and were still happy bunnies.
DeleteIf you haven’t already “done” St Mary’s Chiltern is worth a look - not far from Acton, closer to Sudbury. And if you want to get depressed by visiting a humongous “garden centre” that is full of lovely, but expensive, Christmas stuff Pennywood has opened.
Shame the house in the foreground is no more. A great idea to leave the old photo with the local folk.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
I was pleased to hand the photo over to someone local I'll try and find homes for the other photos too
DeleteI love that first nativity! Very simple and beautiful. And the photo of then and now -- wow. It always hurts me to see something like the house in the first photo torn down -- and replaced by -- what? Nice to have left the photo in the village, too.
ReplyDeleteThe house taken down would have been in the garden of the house behind and only a few feet apart 100 years ago, probably in poor repair, at least there is still one house there and the lovely church
DeleteNice nativity scenes are hard to find. I looked last year before the holidays and saw a few very plastic scenes but nothing worth buying.
ReplyDeleteI hope you friend finds a few for her church display.