Museum of East Anglian Life with Izobelle

Where shall we go today with Izobelle? Well, not far from her home is the Museum of East Anglian Life, and that is where we headed.

The Museum of East Anglian Life is one of the biggest Museums in Suffolk. It occupies over 75 acres of countryside in the heart of Stowmarket.

The land was originally part of the Home Farm for the Abbot’s Hall estate. The estate's history dates from medieval times when it was an outlying manor for St Osyth’s Priory in Essex. It passed through numerous owners until it was purchased by the Longe family in 1903.

Huge changes in the 1950’s and ‘60s meant England was in danger of losing long established skills, equipment and buildings if something was not done to rescue them. Individual collectors, local farmer Jack Carter and the Suffolk Local History Council worked to collect, preserve and display objects from rural East Anglia. After several years of temporary exhibitions the Misses Vera and Ena Longe placed 70 acres of farmland, Abbot’s Hall, its gardens, as well as 18/20 Crowe Street, in trust to be used as a Museum.

The Museum of East Anglian Life opened in 1967 and is a modern memorial to this foresight and vision.

This is the Blacksmith`s forge from Grundisburgh and built C 1750. For nearly two hundred years this smithy was a bustling and vibrant place, hot from the glowing furnace and filled with the din of metal being hammered. 

Its last owner, Frederick Joseph Crapnell, took on the premises in 1913. Both his father and grandfather had been blacksmiths. It was from his father that Frederick learnt the trade. In 1968 he retired at the age of 86. Four years later the timber built smithy and travis (where the horses were shod) were saved from demolition and re-erected here.

Settling House from Bury St Edmunds. Built 1864. The historic Settling House, also known as the Round House, Tally House, or Counting House, sat at the heart of Bury St Edmunds cattle market for over 130 years. The Victorian Gothic building, with its distinctive octagonal design, was rebuilt on the museum site in 2011.

The Settling House was originally used by traders to complete their business, with the toll collector given permission to sell ginger beer and buns. The building soon became the central hub of the cattle market, the place where traders met and tickets to the auctions were handed out.

At the Museum, this building represents a time when the market was not just a place for meeting people and doing business but the symbolic meeting point between town and country, and the place where the dependence of one upon the other was most apparent.

Izobelle just ran straight to the cow and started `milking it` - she doesn't miss a trick!

Doing some exercise before we move on.

An ancient caravan parked for an event the following weekend. 

Among the things Izobelle tried her hand at - a spot of weaving. I think that another time we will bring Izobelle back to try her hand at a few other things. She was very interested in the parts we did see.

'Friends of the Lake' sculpture, Needham Lake is a wooden sculpture by Ben Platt-Mills, commissioned and funded in 2001 by Mid Suffolk District Council, is situated on the bank of Needham Lake. It represents a mother and daughter, with the former holding the neck of a swan.

In the afternoon we visited Needham lakes where the sculpture above is situated, and after a short walk and some playing in the play area, headed for home.

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Great medieval churches - Woolpit

The church of The Blessed Virgin Mary in Woolpit is one of the great medieval churches of Suffolk, a county blessed with some of the finest country churches in England. Like so many other Suffolk villages Woolpit owes its superb church to the wealth of the medieval wool trade, but there was a church on this spot centuries before Suffolk wool merchants gained their wealth.

Woolpit became a destination for pilgrims during the medieval period, when it held a richly decorated statue of Our Lady in its own chapel. No trace of this chapel now survives but it was probably on the north side of the chancel, where the vestry now stands. Alternatively, it may have stood at the east end of the south aisle. Pilgrims began arriving at least as early as 1211 when the Bishop of Norwich ordered that their offerings be given to St Edmundsbury Abbey.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Woolpit became extremely popular during the 15th and 16th centuries. Henry VI visited twice, and Queen Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII, ordered that a pilgrimage be made on her behalf in 1501.

How old is it? 

Victorian tower apart, this is a medieval building and the original church went back even further to before the Norman Conquest. The chapel and statue of Our Lady of Woolpit was popular with pilgrims in medieval times, which accounts for the expensive detail, and records go back to 1211 when the church was still in the hands of the St Edmundsbury Abbey. The present nave and chancel date back to the 14th century; the pews and chancel screen 15th century, although considerable renovation took place to the screen in 19th century. 

The magnificent tower / spire of St Mary`s in Woolpit

St Mary's is worth visiting for its superb double-hammer beam roof, decorated with carved figures of angels.

Iconoclast William Dowsing did his best to destroy the angels in 1644. His deputy found 80 'superstitious Pictures' some of which he destroyed and others he ordered to be taken down. Many of the angel's heads were defaced but these were sensitively restored in the 19th century.

Other highlights include beautifully carved medieval bench ends decorated with a wide variety of carved figures. These figures probably survived because the Puritans considered them heraldic symbols rather than religious. Eye-catching figures include griffins and a very mournful looking dog.

Another highlight is a finely crafted south porch dating to 1430-1455. Over the porch arch is a parvise, a small chamber possibly used for storing important documents. The porch roof is vaulted with exceptionally detailed lierne vaulting and decorated bosses.

The eagle lectern is a rare early Tudor relic, made around 1520 and one of just 20 surviving examples made to accept a chained Bible. A local tradition suggests that Elizabeth I gave the lectern to the church, though there is no proof of this. The queen did visit nearby Haughley Park in 1600 and sent one of her knights to visit Woolpit on her behalf. It is certainly possible that he gave the parishioners money that was used to buy the lectern.

The screen is 15th century, though the gates are Jacobean. The screen is painted and gilded, and retains the medieval beam made to hold the rood, or crucifix. The base of the screen is painted with figures of saints including St Withburga, St Edmund, St Etheldreda, and St Felix. The face of St Felix is actually a portrait of Henry Page, the serving rector at the time of the Victorian restoration. 

Over the arch is a beautifully vaulted painted dedication board, decorated with figures of angels.

Each end of the chancel choir stalls has a bench end with an intricate figure of a Green Man. Set against the wall is a fascinating carving of a woodwose, a wild man of the woods figure found throughout East Anglia.

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