Hawstead, Suffolk

Steel's Grocers

In 1861 my Great, Great, Great Grandfather Charles Frederick Whiskin worked for the Steel family in their grocer's shop situated in the Butter Market.  Charles came originally from Black Friars in London and was born in 1832.  He learnt his trade from the Steels and went on to own his own shop in Aylesbury Buckinghamshire which he ran with his wife Susannah.   

So Many Happy Hours

I spent so many happy summer holidays in Great Barton, and in particular Conyers Green where my Aunt Norah Lovelace lived in a cottage next to the old chapel building.  I cycled often to the village store/post office, and to my friend's parent's farm up the lane at the side of the cottage, their name was Rolfe and we had many lovely Sunday lunches there, going to Sunday school afterward.  There was no great television to watch in those days, my aunt only watched the news on her black and white, but it didn't matter as there always seemed to be something to do and living most of the year round in a city the countryside was great, I loved it so much.  My last visit there was in 1980 and although most of the village appeared just the same I was sad to see my aunt's cottage with a fence around it, it had always been open plan with a very pretty garden. I didn't get to see too much but I have nothing but wonderful memories of this beautiful place and its people, I just wish I could have spent the rest of my life there, but I have found something similar living in a very small town, smaller than Bury St Edmunds, in South Africa. Living next door to my aunt in the little thatched cottage lived Dorothy and Bert Hitchcock, but they moved to a farm, but I know they still had family living in Great Barton, Ralph Hitchcock and his family.  I remember the Mason family very well also.  It was a very close knit community in the old days, we were always at someone's house for tea or lunch, I don't know today if that close bond still exists, but it was part and parcel of the making of the village then,
I am going back some 50 to 55 years and obviously my friends there would now be my age, 65 or thereabout, obviously many of the old residents of Conyers Green have either left or passed away, but I sincerely hope that it has retained its old world charm and hasn't fallen prey to the modern buildings of today, it would be so sad if another of England's beautiful spots was spoiled because of urban sprawl.

Harry Elmer

I'm sure I remember a Harry Elmer......did he have a shop in Elmswell or did he rent out motor cars or even caravans from Woolpit?

I was born in Elmswell in 1947 and the name certainly rings a very loud bell and was constantly mentioned in our household at the time.

Elmers Mill - Family History

Hi there. Harry Elmer (who I understand was my GGrandad's brother) owned and ran this Mill into the 1940s. The Muggeridge Collection has some wonderful images of him replendent in the very gentlemanly working clothes of a miller of his ilk, and still working in his 80's.  Anecdotally Elmers Mill in Woolpit and Drinkstone Mill close by were dead ringers for each other, except they ran (i.e. their sails rotated) in the opposite direction to each other. This has recently been questioned on the Suffolk Mills site which has some memories posted about the structure of Elmers Woolpit Mill after it was tail-winded in 1963 and collapsed, saying it was built of "inferior materials" and therefore of much more recent (perhaps 19th century) construction than the recognised ancient (and still-standing) Drinkstone Mill. It's recognisably old design however would seem to counter this argument, and it's more likely I believe that the "inferior materials" found after it collpased may have been due to the need for successive and ongoing repairs, required due to the hard life a constantly used mill was subject to. I would greatly welcome any further information on both these Mills and/or on the Elmers of Woolpit, or my particular branch of the family who are recorded as living in Elmswell; Great Ashfield; and Walsham-le-Willows at various times throughout the 17th to 19th centuries. Please email me to elmers@xtra.co.nz  Many thanks. Les Elmer, Auckland, New Zealand.