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Stowmarket
Stowmarket maps
Historic maps of Stowmarket and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Stowmarket maps
Stowmarket area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Stowmarket and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Stowmarket
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Stowmarket.
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or of a photo of Stowmarket.
Combs Fords Tragedy
In World War II I attended school in Stowmarket. My home was in the neighboring village of Needham down by the railway station, so I would catch the local bus at the Swan Public House and ride it to the Market Square in Stow. As the bus traveled north there were three other young children who joined the same bus, and on arrival we would walk to school together. (I was about eight years old at the time. One of the girls was about one year older as I remember)
After school we would stand in the Market Square to catch the bus back.
One day we stood waiting for our bus back home and it didn't come. No one seemed to know why. Eventually on our own initiative we decided to walk home to Needham. When we arrived at the edge of Combs Fords the road home was completely blocked. There had been a terrible... Read more
Suffolk memories
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... Read more
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... Read more
Shepherds Hut
My father Eric Welham is still living in Barking Tye and will be 90 this year. A 'Shepherd's Hut' which was originally from a farm on Barking Tye around the early 1900s was bought by my Grandad Welham and he moved it across the tye to 'Mill Cottage' along the top of Barking Tye. It was then moved again across the Tye in 1950 to where my father still lives in Fox Meadow and used as a work shop. I have great memories of this old shepherd's hut where many family photos were taken. The shepherd's hut is now at the 'The Museum of East Anglian Life' in Stowmarket. This time it was moved using a tractor and trailer with help from a local farmer, through the adjoining fields, having waited for the harvest to be gathered in. We are trying to trace any history of shepherds that may have used this hut! This picture could very well be that shepherd.
Robert James
My great great great grandfather Robert James was born in Darmsden in 1816. He married Maria ? when. They had a daughter Emily b.1852. Is there anyone in the area with the surname James that may be able to help me with my geneology search? Others in my family were born in and around Bosmere, Needham Market. Looks like a lovely part of the country that I will have to visit soon.
Melanie Gibson
I went to Elmswell primary and I would like to find a few friends from there, one in particular, Jessica.
