Thorndon Church and Garage/Yard Sales

 The church of All Saints at Thorndon isn't one of those featured in the 100 Treasures in 100 Suffolk Churches book so despite it being so close to home I'd not visited until the Saturday the village had a garage/yard sale event.

Most villages in Suffolk (and many other counties) have fascinating village signs .......maybe I should start another new hobby!

I couldn't get a good photo because of the trees but the tower of the church is on the south side rather than at the west end. So the bottom of the tower forms the entrance porch 

The Lych Gate is very large and doubles up as the village war memorial

 The church was open as they were doing refreshments while the garage sale event was happening. I didn't really need a cuppa - being only 10 minutes from home -  so as my donation to the church I bought a couple of cup-cakes to take home.

 The church is unusually wide compared to many others in Suffolk yet only has a centre aisle. Just one  stained glass window which is also unusual.

 

 This magnificent reredos wood carving of The last Supper behind the altar  was lit up from inside, which made it really stand out on a gloomy morning. I looked at the Suffolk Churches website which says the carving was done in Belgium and paid for by the Poet Laureate(1913-1930) Robert Bridges which is odd as I didn't know he had any connections with this area.

Before the church visit  I went round most of the houses that were selling stuff - probably about 15, spread out through the whole length of the village, but didn't find much of interest. Came home with just a brand new window bird feeder and this basket with lift up lids on each side for £2 each.

 Seems I've decided I will be feeding the birds here after all! and I thought the basket would do for one of the Christmas Hampers but I'd rather keep it myself!.......need to find a really good use for it to stop the guilt (although at £2 there isn't an awful lot of guilt!)

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Woodston, The Biography of an English Farm

 

I first came across this author in 2009 when his book  "The Wild Life: A Year of Living Wild was published. 

Walking around his Herefordshire farm one October, John Lewis-Stempel saw a trout flash in the brook, mushrooms sprinkle the fields, a squirrel eat hazelnuts, and thought: Wouldn't it be wonderful if one could live just on what Nature provided for free? 

 He spent a year foraging, catching and eating only food from his farm. 

Then more recently I read his books....... 'The Running Hare' , 'The Secret Life of the Owl' and the small Candlestick Press booklet 'The Wood In Winter. I've owned his book 'Meadowland' but must have sold it in the pre-move clear out. He has written many others, both Natural History and books about the soldiers of World War I.

 

Woodston, The Biography of an English Farm, is his most recent book. It tells the story of a farm situated on the Herefordshire/Wales border from Neolithic to the present. Using old books and records he finds the owners through history and details of the way they farmed the land. His family have had links to the farm from times long gone and his Grandfather became Farm Manager there in the 1930's and he, himself, has farmed not far away for many years so is ideally placed to write this fascinating book.

Amazon describes it well....................

With his combined skills of farmer and historian, Lewis-Stempel digs deep into written records, the memories of relatives, and the landscape itself to celebrate the farmland his family have been bound to for millennia. Through Woodston's life, we feel the joyful arrival of oxen ploughing; we see pigs rootling in the medieval apple orchard; and take in the sharp, drowsy fragrance of hops on Edwardian air. He draws upon his wealth of historical knowledge and his innate sense of place to create a passionate, fascinating biography of farming in England

Although this is a history of one farm it applies to many in the area and (apart from the growing of hops) many more across the country.

I loved it - it should be compulsory reading for anyone moving from town or city to the countryside! 

 

The piece included in the  Notes at the back of the book about Foot and Mouth disease which JL-S got published in UnHerd magazine in 2001 should be read by everyone too, especially since the pandemic.

I'm going to reserve some of his other books from the library as soon as I have space to do so(they have a limit of 25 books on reserve per person). Oddly they don't have a copy of The Wild Life which I decided I'd like to re-read so I've found a cheap copy on Abebooks.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

An Unusual Sight for 2021

 Well....... this isn't something I thought I'd see on a bike ride around one of the village back-lanes.

Sheaves of Wheat - looking just as they would have done a hundred years ago and that reminded me that among my treasured photos is this little photo from about 1929 or 30 showing a binder just as they used above.

 The photo is of my Gran (who I never knew as she died when I was one) on the binder, my grandad standing on the right by the horse and up on the horse are my Auntie Winnie, her twin brother - my real Dad Edwin and my Uncle (who became my Dad after my real dad was killed in a motorbike accident just before I was born). The man on the left is named on the back of the photo as Bill Green who must have been helping with the harvest on the farm at Ringshall, a village not far from Stowmarket. 

Sadly after my Gran died my Grandad sold up the farm so I never got to experience farm life but maybe our 23 years on the smallholding was always meant to be.

Back Tomorrow

Sue