Sudbury - home of Thomas Gainsborough

Sudbury in Suffolk has several interesting features, but of them all, I suppose being the birthplace of the famous painter Thomas Gainsborough, must rank as its greatest.

It is a town that I used to visit on a regular basis, indeed the office of the company I worked for was in the market square. Sudbury has some beautiful walks, especially across the water meadows and along the riverfront. So many places to point my camera!

Painter Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury in 1727, and was educated at Sudbury Grammar School. His birthplace, now named Gainsborough's House (below), is a museum to his work and is open to the public. It houses many valuable pictures and some of his family possessions. A statue of Gainsborough (above) was unveiled in the town centre outside St Peter's Church on Market Hill in 1913.

The house in Gainsborough Street (naturally) where he lived.

Sudbury has some lovely old properties such as this fine block with The Chantry, a grade I listed building, 15th century, next door to the similarly aged Salter's Hall to the right.

Salters Hall was home to a private fee-paying school from the 1880s until the late 20th century. The last school to be housed in the building was the Preparatory School known as Salters Hall.

The Old Moot Hall, used as such before the later hall was built on Market Hill in the reign of Mary Tudor. There is some evidence that this building continued to be used for civic purposes in the reign of James I. His arms are painted on the chimney breast of a downstairs chamber.

A plaque affixed to the birthplace of Sir George Murray Humphry, M.D., F.R.S., surgeon, anatomist and physiologist by the Sudbury Freemen’s Trust, may be seen on the gable of Hardwicke House, Stour Street, Sudbury. It is fitting that the birthplace of so eminent a surgeon is now a doctors’ surgery.

Vanners was founded in 1740 and was originally based in London. In the late 18th century, the company moved to Suffolk. They designs, develops, and manufactures silk fabrics and products for the luxury menswear, fashion, and furnishing markets. In fact, silk woven by Vanners has been worn by the Queen at her coronation, royal brides, former US First Lady Michelle Obama, and singer Adele.

Unfortunately, markets change, and in 2019, Vanners called in administrators after losing nearly 70% of its market. This was due to the US retailer Brooks Brothers going into receivership and the closure of airport shopping centers due to the pandemic.

Built for the Sudbury Silk Weaving Company which became Vanners and Fennell in 1924. Still occupied by Vanners, housing their shop and offices. Local people have worked in the silk mills behind this Gregory Street frontage for over 100 years.

The Church of St Gregory is a Church of England parish church. First mentioned in the 10th century, most of the present building dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. However, by 1860, the fabric of the building had deteriorated to such an extent that the church had to be closed. The restoration work was completed in 1862. It is now a Grade I listed building.

The church famously possesses the head of Archbishop Simon Sudbury, who was beheaded by rebels during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

Simon was born in Sudbury in circa 1316. He had various roles during his life including, Bishop of London, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England. He had also helped to found a college in Sudbury and a lepers hospital. In the early summer of 1381 however, A group of artisans and officials from Brentwood rose up in protest against demands to pay the hated poll tax. They also had other demands such as the end of serfdom (a kind of labour where you are tied to work for a particular manor or lord).

Simon had helped to introduce this poll tax and so it was on 14 June 1481, peasants stormed into the Tower of London where Simon was and murdered him by chopping off his head. It allegedly took 8 blows of the axe to remove his head. His body was sent to Canterbury Cathedral but his head was placed on a spike on London Bridge for a while, a notorious place for traitors heads to be placed. The head however was taken by friends of Simon back to Sudbury.

The exceptionally tall and elaborate font cover, dating from the 15th century, was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "One of the finest medieval font covers in the country".The lowest section of the 12-foot (3.7 m) tall cover was adapted in the 19th century to telescope upwards, so as to avoid having to lift the whole edifice in order to use the font - clever!

In 1999, a statue in memory of Bishop Aelfhun of Dunwich was unveiled by Terry Waite after Sudbury’s annual civic service. It is situated on the Croft, just outside the east wall of St. Gregory’s churchyard. The Bishop died in Sudbury in 798 AD, and it is thanks to him that reference was made to Sudbury in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – so making it Suffolk’s oldest remaining recorded town.

St. Peter's Church is now known as Sudbury Arts Centre. This vast, magnificent medieval church dominates the town of Sudbury from the top of Market Hill. It is largely a fifteenth-century rebuilding of a much earlier structure. Butterfield restored the stunning Victorian interior in 1854-1858.

On this day I was trying to capture the various Armistice Day celebrations around the area and was captivated by this one. Especially as a rainbow appeared briefly in the sky behind. Magic!

Another attraction of Sudbury are the Water Meadows which are great areas in which to have a stroll, something we have done on numerous occasions.

Two images by the river looking toward the town. Taken early(ish) in the morning on a frosty day.

In the meadows, but in late December, with large areas flooded and looking toward Sudbury Mill.  A watermill was recorded here in 1086. It is likely that there were two or more mills here throughout the medieval period, at least one cereal mill and one fulling mill. The present mill retains traces of a timber-framed building but is mainly of about 1890. The waterwheel of 1889 (which still turns) was augmented by steam powered rollers in the early twentieth century. The mill was taken over by the Clover family about 1850 and they owned the mill until it closed in 1964 when it was producing animal feed rather than flour. The mill has since been developed as the Mill Hotel.

Picnic anybody?

More images of the flooded Water Meadows

The Old Bathing Place was opened on the river in 1898 and was in use until the late 1930s when it was closed after an outbreak of diphtheria in the town. There are steps for the bathers to descend into a semi-circular section for non-swimmers which divided by an iron rails from the deep water. Once they could swim they could go out further - there are also steps on the opposite bank. Local historical significance - generations of Sudburians used this bathing place.

All in all, a lovely town which I have enjoyed being in.

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Wingfield - a short visit

The story of Wingfield, Suffolk, is the story of two powerful families; the Wingfields and the De la Poles, Earls of Suffolk. The church of St Andrew nextdoor is tied to both families.

St Andrew's was begun in its present form by Sir John de Wingfield in 1362, as a collegiate church, that is, administered by a college of priests rather than placed under the care of a rector. Sir John's tomb lies within the chancel that he built, and there are later memorials to generations of Wingfields and de la Poles. 

Wingfield College is now a private family home. But its history goes back over 650 years. It has kept the name of college because it is the remnant of the chantry college founded by Sir John de Wingfield in 1362. Sir John was a soldier of high reputation in the reign of Edward III, and Chief Counsellor of the Black Prince. In 1355 he accompanied him to Languedoc, and some letters of Sir John’s written during the campaign still survive as important records of the War. He fought at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 and made a fortune from ransom money, by selling the captured members of the French aristocracy. 

In the church there are in fact three outstanding tombs to be seen. The earliest one is of Sir John Wingfield himself, whose widow Alianore carried out his wishes in 1362 to found the Chantry College and to make Wingfield a Collegiate Church. The college buildings survive at the heart of later buildings just to the south of the church.

The college chaplains were required to say Mass daily for Wingfield's soul, and to provide parish priests for Wingfield and the surrounding parishes. The college also had an educational function, preparing students for university entrance.

Sir John Wingfield, whose family had owned the manor of Wingfield for generations, survived the Black Death, and perhaps as a form of thanksgiving he established the college of Priests here in Wingfield in his will of 1361. Wingfield's personal fortunes had been bolstered by marrying his daughter into one of the parvenu families which rose to prominence in the 14th century. These people were merchants and traders in the northern coastal city of Kingston upon Hull, nearly two hundred miles away, but theirs was a name which would come to be intimately linked with the county of Suffolk. They were the de la Poles.

Another of the impressive memorials in the church is to Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who died of dysentery at the Siege of Harfleur in 1415, while on campaign with Henry V. Sir Michael and his wife Katherine are represented by life-sized effigies. Unusually, both effigies are made of painted wood.
Wingfield's grandson, Michael de la Pole, inherited the Wingfield estates. He built the fortified manor house known as Wingfield Castle, and in the later decades of the century and the early years of the next, he oversaw a massive rebuilding of the church. Only the low tower was left from Sir John's day.

You can see where the church was extended by Michael de la Pole in or around 1430. Also note the tower which was the only part of the original John Wingfield building.

The son of Michael de la Pole, John de la Pole, second Duke of Suffolk, was a notable figure in Shakespeare's Henry VI parts I and II. Wounded at Harfleur, he watched his brother die at Agincourt: All my mother came into mine eyes and gave me up to tears. 

The most powerful man in England, equivalent of Prime Minister and leader of the military, he surrendered at Orleans to Joan of Arc in person, and his family paid £20,000 for his release, roughly ten million in today's money, but a drop in the ocean to them.

John ended up in his grave rather earlier than he might have expected. Exiled for five years under tenuous circumstances, he was murdered by Henry VI's henchmen as the ship taking him into exile left Dover. 

The alabaster effigies (above) lie on an elaborate tomb chest carved around the base with quatrefoils enclosing shields. Sir John's head rests on a Saracen's head and helmet to which paint still clings. The Duchess is far less warlike; her head rests on a pillow, supported by angels. Both of the effigies are shown with their feet resting on lions. 

At the west end of the church is a beautifully carved font in East Anglian style, dated 1407. The font bowl is carved with alternating figures of lions and angels holding heraldic shields. The stem is supported by carved figures of lions.

A device to allow you to mount your horse, with dignity, in the churchyard at St Mary`s, Wingfield.

Glorious mixture of flowers in the churchyard.

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