Leiston
Leiston maps (2 available)
Map of Suffolk
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Leiston books (15 available)
Ispwich Pocket Album
Paperback
- 6 photos on Leiston appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Leiston
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Leiston and Suffolk
Leiston memories
Read and share memories of Leiston and Suffolk inspired by Frith photos
Garrett's of Leiston
Aerial photo AFA77116TR: "Leiston from the Air 1959" Is a view taken looking toward the East and clearly showing the Garrett's "Bottom Works", which formed a large part of the town centre at that time. This very old facility, part of which is now preserved as a Museum, housed some of the main manufacturing facilities for the "Richard Garrett Engineering Works". Garrett's were the towns main employers and were involved in doing work for a variety of other companies. Shaping machines for Elliot's of London, Corrugated cardboard box machinery for S&S of New York, Portable Compressors for Broomwade, Radio chassis for Pye's of Cambridge, Peat bog harvesters for Bord na Mona of Ireland, were some of the many products being engineered ...read more here
Contributed by Derek Stanbridge
Suffolk memories
Garrett's of Leiston
Aerial photo AFA77116TR: "Leiston from the Air 1959" Is a view taken looking toward the East and clearly showing the Garrett's "Bottom Works", which formed a large part of the town centre at that time. This very old facility, part of which is now preserved as a Museum, housed some of the main manufacturing facilities for the "Richard Garrett Engineering Works". Garrett's were the towns main employers and were involved in doing work for a variety of other companies. Shaping machines for Elliot's of London, Corrugated cardboard box machinery for S&S of New York, Portable Compressors for Broomwade, Radio chassis for Pye's of Cambridge, Peat bog harvesters for Bord na Mona of Ireland, were some of the many products being engineered ...read more here
A memory of Leiston contributed by Derek Stanbridge
International Stores
A previous shared memory recalling International Stores reminds me that my father worked there, as a roundsman. He would cycle every day from Leiston, then do the equivalent all over again in Saxmundham, several times a day as he delivered groceries.
He had his own band - he played piano - and met my mother, Joan Spatchet, at a dance in the Market Hall. They married in 1937, my sister Ann was born a year later and I arrived on February 23rd 1944 - just a few weeks after my father was killed on a bombing raid over Germany on January 1/2nd, when his plane was attacked by a night fighter. Two years ago we travelled to Germany from our ...read more here
A memory of Saxmundham contributed by John Fisher
blacksmiths
Apparently my Gr Grandfather John Freeman owned a blacksmith shop that was situated just on the left hand side of the road here at the beginning of the 20th century. He also made the 'fences' that protected the bases of many of the trees on the Hurts Hall estate. I've never been able to find any written infromation about him or the 'smithy' though.
A memory of Saxmundham contributed by carol allen
Extracts From Leiston & Suffolk books
North of Leiston are the flint and brick ruins of the 14th-century Leiston Abbey. Of the church, only the Lady Chapel remains as a complete building, a result of its usefulness for storing grain after the Dissolution.
An extract from from"Suffolk Photographic Memories".
The headline on the newsagent’s billboard refers to the continuing turmoil that followed the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, and the Germans’ obligation to pay reparations.
An extract from from"Suffolk Photographic Memories".
The rather smart youngsters show no reaction to the news of the ‘new crisis’ on the newspaper
placard on the left: the Germans had defaulted on their reparations payments. Such news seems out
of place and irrelevant in a street of elegant Victorian villas in a small town in rural Suffolk.
An extract from from"Southwold to Aldeburgh Photographic Memories".
There’s a delightfully pensive look on the face of the little girl in this picture. Did the photographer capture a genuine moment, or was she posed? On the other side of the street, well-known shoe retailers Freeman, Hardy and Willis announce the best bargains since the beginning of the Great War.
An extract from from"Suffolk Photographic Memories".
Awnings are out on the
sunny side of the street, and
the long shadows point to
the end of the afternoon.
The children are just out of
school. Locals bought their
shoes at Freeman Hardy &
Willis (right), we note.
An extract from from"Southwold to Aldeburgh Photographic Memories".