Stowmarket, Suffolk

family connection to the Shoulder of Mutton

My great great grandfather was Richard Thurston and I believe that his family lived at the pub about 1845.
They had several children Deborah,John Palmer,Mary Jane,Richard and William Mumford (thurston) His wife was Susannah.
John Palmer Thurston was my great grandfather.
My grandfather William John Thurston emigrated to Australia in 1910 with his wife Agnes Alice Thurston(nee Stillwell) from Sussex.

happy days

this is only one  of  many wonderful memories i went to school in needham market the junior school and lived at darmsden we were picked up and taken to school by a mini bus we lived in three places in  darmsden the 2nd place was right next door  to a strawberry  field one of many owned by tarston farms further up our road .When it  was time for  picking strawberrys a lot of my friends were bought up in a lorry   and  i  was put  in  charge   to  make  sure  they  picked properly and  didnt  mess about  i was  the  first  one  picking  and  the  last  one  to  finish  i  was  as  brown  as  a  berry  and  loved  it .  one  day  my  mum  came  over  and  and  said  shhs she  then laid  this  very  real  looking  grass snake  amongst  the  strawberrys  well you  should  have  seen  my  mates run  they  screamed   with laughter when  they  saw  what  it  was.  mum used to  litTereally  drag  me  of  i  loved  it  and  i  earnt quite  a bit  pocket  money  i  was  allowed  to  pick  the  special  strawberrys  that  were sent  to  the  tiptree jam  factory  my  friend  susan  used  to  stay  with  us  she  suffered with  hayfever  funny  though  after  staying  with  us  for  a week  she  never  had  it  any  more.she  would  beg  my  dad  to  do  the  gorilla  he  would  come  up  the  stairs  on  all fours  and  making  sounds like a gorilla  and  then  jump  from  one  bed  to  another  thankgoodness they  were  strong  iron  beds.my  brother  and  myself  were christened in  darmsden  church  we  moved  from  darmsden  in  1973  happy  days,

New Beginnings

We visited Gipping in 2003 to try to get a sense of the place our ancestors left in 1859 to start a new life in New Zealand. The flatness of the area was a significant contrast to the rugged coastal lands they farmed on their arrival in Little Akaloa, Canterbury. William Henry Elliss and his wife Sophia Rebecca Davey were resident in Gipping in 1858 when they married at the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Stowmarket. Their parents were Frederick and Caroline Elliss (nee Bass) and William and Eliza Davey (nee Fox), husbandmen, whose families had been in Gipping and Mendlesham for some generations. When William and Sophia left for NZ on the Mary Ann, bound for Canterbury, April 1859 they had been living in Haughley, William was a dealer, and they had a 7 month old son who died on the voyage out. Their parents stayed and died in Gipping, and Old Newton, and indeed Frederick and Caroline have a headstone  erected in their memory in St Mary's Old Newton by William Elliss. This still stands and was easily readable when we visited. We would very much like to learn more about what life was like for their families and neighbours in the 1850-70s, and what happened to any other family. There no longer appear to be Elliss or Davey family in the village, and indeed there do not appear to be cottages left where the census of the times suggests there would have been. Any descriptions, drawings, or other information that would fill in those memories for us would be greatly appreciated. Sophia Rebecca is rumoured to have died on board ship on a trip back to Britain in 1873, but no record of this has yet been found. They had two daughters and three sons in New Zealand most of whose descendants we have tracked down, and a reunion is to be held Easter 2010 at Little Akaloa to re-trace their early years in NZ. More information about when and why they came from Gipping, and what contact they may have sustained, and what life was like for the village at that time would be appreciated if such records exist with anyone reading this. Also the names of other families who may have left with or at the same time, as we do know for instance that a cousin of William's went to Canada from Gipping about 20years later and we have contact with that branch also - please email me, Barbara, at agbaallan@hotmail.com

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.