Two Completely Different Things. From the Ridiculous.................

Apologies but I have to swear!.......... Bloody Hell!! Reform are now in control of Suffolk County Council. We all thought that the end of SCC after Local Government Reorganisation in April 2028 was going to cause problems but it's now a Very Good Thing as at least Reform have less than two years to B****r Up Suffolk. 

The councillors elected this week will serve a foreshortened mandate. Suffolk's two-tier system is being replaced with three new unitary authorities, including the new Ipswich and South Suffolk council — known to many as Greater Ipswich. Elections for those bodies are due in May 2027, with the new councils running as shadow bodies for a year before formally taking on power in April 2028.

Here are the final seat count results for the Suffolk County Council election:

• Reform UK: 41 seats
• Green: 13
• Conservatives: 9
• Labour: 3
• Liberal Democrats: 2
• Independent: 2

The bottom line: A party that did not exist locally five years ago now controls Suffolk County Council. How it intends to use that majority remains to be seen.

This is what we have to cope with............

The party refused to engage with the media at today's elections, having been instructed to only speak with GB News. They also declined interview requests throughout the campaign, with the chairman of Ipswich Reform instructing all of the party's candidates not to take part in our Meet the Candidate interviews. Only Tony Gould, who stood in Whitton, responded.

The Green party won enough seats here to be the opposition party on SCC and our little bit of Suffolk voted Andrew back in for the Green Party.  A County that was Conservative for as long as people can remember is now in the charge of a whole lot of unknowns.

Image source,Louise Parker/BBC

Image caption,

Andrew Stringer (right) is also on Mid Suffolk District Council, which is controlled by the Greens

Andrew Stringer, the group leader for the Greens in Suffolk, has been re-elected for the Upper Gipping division.

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And Now for something Completely Different............

Tomorrow Is Rogation Sunday

" It is celebrated as the fifth Sunday after Easter (or the sixth Sunday of Easter), serving as a day of prayer and blessing for the land, crops, and the community, often marked by the tradition of "beating the bounds" "

Rogation isn't a word used very much. It means " a solemn supplication, prayer or request. Used in Christian contexts to ask for God's blessing during the rogation days, the three days before accension day to bless crops."

Accension Day is 40 days after Easter, a Christian festival celebrating Christ's Accension to heaven. It's a holiday in some European countries - not here - we have fewer Public Holidays than many other countries.

The church in my village says prayers for farmers on the day and for many years the villagers would 'Beat the bounds' on Rogation Sunday. Many villages did this - it was a walk around all the Parish boundaries, stopping for prayers at various points.It was important for churches as I believe the income for the vicar was once based on the size of the parish.

This old photo from  'East Suffolk in Old photos' facebook page is of the villagers here gathering sometime in the 1800's to walk around the village.

Somewhere I've seen a more recent photo from 1975, which has a very young vicar - and 51 years later he is still the vicar today, which is probably why they don't head out from church to beat the bounds now he's over 80!

Beating the Bounds Illustration from the book The English Year by Steve Roud .Illustration by George Cruikshank Comic Almanac 1837.

Mute Swans

Don't ask me why, but I've been watching the very cringingly cosy and unrealistic crime series 'The Marlow Murder Club' on the 4 Catch up channel or maybe on the U channel- can't remember which. In one programme they  mentioned Swan Upping on the Thames which reminded me I had this cutting from last years folklore diary.

The nearest swans to visit from home are at Needham Lake - next to the car-boot sale field, so I went to take a photo- as you do when you have a blog and posts to fill!!

There is a really good page about Swan Upping HERE. It looks like a very colourful occasion.

A toast to Queen Elizabeth II

Back Tomorrow

Woolpit

Woolpit is a large village just off the A14 not far from home and it was just a couple of miles from where I grew up and we all knew the story of "The Green Children"

The two green children, who climbed out of the ground, speaking a strange language and afraid of the sunlight. The boy died soon after, but the girl grew up and married; she learned to speak English, and told of St Martin's Land, from where she and her brother had emerged. There are holes in the ground around Woolpit, quarries where bricks were made in the 19th century and gravel extracted through much of the 20th. But perhaps there was once something much older, for every Suffolk schoolchild knows that the name 'Woolpit' is nothing to do with wool, but with the wolves that once lived in the pits here...........

A page from last years Folklore Diary

 This is another story............... St Martins Land. https://www.norfolkfolkloresociety.co.uk/post/the-norfolk-entrance-to-the-magical-st-martin-s-land

It’s a legend that will delight those who believe in the little people and who dream of being able to visit Fairyland. On the road between Bawdeswell and Swanton Morley, in a field next to the thoroughfare, a hole was found – a potential portal to The Otherworld. 

In an article written by Michael Sidney Tyler-Whittle entitled ‘Witchcraft’ in the East Anglian Magazine of October 1952, it read: "I have heard it said that until quite recently there was a hole in a field beside the Swanton Morley-Bawdeswell road.

I wonder if Ang at Tracing Rainbows who lives not far away from here has come across this hole in a field!

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!

Back Soon

 

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.

Back Soon

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!

Back Soon

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.

Back Soon

Sue

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