Chelmondiston
Chelmondiston maps (2 available)
Map of Suffolk
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
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Chelmondiston books (4 available)
Chelmondiston memories
Read and share memories of Chelmondiston and Suffolk inspired by Frith photos
Buying a new drum for the Whitethorn Morris Band in Chelmondiston
I have been the band leader for the Whitethorn Band for more than twenty years and in 2002 we decided we needed a new drum. By chance we discovered Barry Askew in Chelmondiston who used his woodworking skills to hand make perfect drums suitable for morris musicians.
We commisioned a new drum and one fine Autumn day in 2002 I drove several of our band for a day's outing to Suffolk where we met Barry Askew and tried his drums. Having seen his workshop and completed our purchase we then had a splendid meal and dirnks in a river side pub at nearby Pin Mill. It was a lovely outing in a beautiful part of the country and ...read more here
Contributed by John Howard Norfolk
Suffolk memories
Buying a new drum for the Whitethorn Morris Band in Chelmondiston
I have been the band leader for the Whitethorn Band for more than twenty years and in 2002 we decided we needed a new drum. By chance we discovered Barry Askew in Chelmondiston who used his woodworking skills to hand make perfect drums suitable for morris musicians.
We commisioned a new drum and one fine Autumn day in 2002 I drove several of our band for a day's outing to Suffolk where we met Barry Askew and tried his drums. Having seen his workshop and completed our purchase we then had a splendid meal and dirnks in a river side pub at nearby Pin Mill. It was a lovely outing in a beautiful part of the country and ...read more here
A memory of Chelmondiston contributed by John Howard Norfolk
The Gates to 'Hell'
I remember Shotley Gate 1954/55. I wish I could erase it from my memory. 12 months of sheer Hell at the infamous Ganges. I enjoyed my Naval Service and I did well, but Ganges almost defeated me. I danced a jig when they demolished the place!
JW
Family History
My ancestors owned this public house in the late 18th century. Prior to this they were tenants of the Duke of Bristol and the head of the household was the ferryman. He was mentioned in a letter to the Duke from a disgruntled customer claimed that his attitude was unbecoming!
We have visited the area many times during my search for my ancestors.
A memory of Shotley Gate contributed by Mark Cuckow
Extracts From Chelmondiston & Suffolk books
St Mary’s, one of the largest
in Suffolk, is not a typical
Suffolk wool church, and has
an elegant lead spire. Inside is
the 600-year-old Angelus Bell,
one of the oldest in the country,
which is inscribed ‘Ave Maria
Gracia Plena Dominus Tecum’.
Perhaps the man who made the
bell had other things on his mind
when it came to putting in the
inscription, as he forgot to invert
the words laterally in the mould,
and they appear backwards on
the finished article!
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".
A 20th-century means of pro-
ducing power shares the banks
of the Orwell with vessels which
harness one of the oldest forms
of power. With shallow mudflats
along the banks of the tidal
Orwell estuary, moored sailing
boats end up on their keels twice
a day.
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".
We are looking east along Tavern
Street from Cornhill. On the left
is the red brick and stone Lloyds
Bank building, with its fretted
skyline, while to the right is the
neo-classical Post Office, built
in 1881.
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".
Wolsey fell from grace when he failed to support Henry VIII’s wish to
marry Anne Boleyn, and it was never completed. The brick gateway,
with its barely discernible royal cipher, is all that remains.
Just a few years later, Christchurch Mansion was built on the site of
the 12th century priory of the Holy Trinity. This Tudor country house
is now a museum, and its adjoining art gallery houses a fine collection
of paintings by Constable and Gainsborough. It is interesting to recall
that this marvellous house almost became a housing estate in the
late 19th century. The Cobbold brewing family bought the building
and then presented it to the town, thus enabling us still to enjoy this
monument to gracious living.
Tavern Street contains the Great White Horse Hotel, which, despite
its Georgian facade, is a timber-framed building dating back to the
16th century. Famous visitors have included Dickens (who wrote about
it in ‘Pickwick Papers’), George II in 1736, Louis XVIII of France in
1807, and Lord Nelson in 1800. Opposite the hotel stands a group of
buildings which appear to be Tudor, but are in fact reproductions, built
in the 1930s when such imitations were in vogue. Today, despite the
presence of the two major ports of Harwich and Felixstowe only ten
miles away at the mouth of the Orwell, Ipswich remains an important
industrial and commercial centre.
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".