Assington, Suffolk

Society Farm

In 2001 my husband Derek and I visited Assington. We had been researching Derek's family history, and had discovered that his great-great-grandfather John Crisell was the bailiff, in the middle of the 19th century,at Society Farm, Assington.
We were unable to find the farm, but called at a farm shop in the middle of the village, and were told that this had been Society Farm, but had changed its name to Willow Tree Farm. The reason it had been called Society Farm was that Sir John Gurdon, of Assington Hall, had set up a co-operative agricultural experiment on the farm in the 1830s in an effort to help the villagers. Some years later, John Crisell was appointed bailiff, and had lived in the farmhouse with his family, including his daughter Sarah who would become Derek's great-grandmother.  

Suffolk - A Second Selection Photographic Memories

The post office (note the recruiting posters on its wall, right) was kept by Henry Chatters. Beyond is the Shoulder of Mutton, whose landlord Frederick Godday was also a butcher. The white gabled building (centre left) has been the post office since the 1940s. At the end is the School House, occupied by Richard Cobb. The school was built in 1844 and closed in 1984.

Suffolk Villages Photographic Memories

This stands close to the site of Assington Hall, which burnt down in 1957. Parts of the outbuildings survived, including the range to the left of the church. The interior is lined with monuments to the Gurdon family dating from the 16th to 20th centuries. Since 1907 the porch windows have been blocked. The chest tomb of c1800 is for three members of the Klopfer family of Boxford and Ipswich.

Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Photographic Memories

The church of St Andrew with its distinctive wooden spire was restored in 1862. The south aisle with its square-headed windows was rebuilt in 1887 by a bequest of William King. The gable cross has gone, and clock faces have been inserted into the tower roundels; otherwise the view is unchanged today.