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1-20 April 18_vv 21/03/2018 19:35 Page 1 The local magazine for Hollesley, Boyton, Shingle Street, Capel and Alderton AprilVillage 2018 Voices 1-20 April 18_vv 21/03/2018 19:36 Page 2 April diary Sun 1 6.15 am Sunrise Service Shingle Street Sat 7 10.30-12 Boyton Coffee Morning, Boyton VH Mon/Wed 9/11 10-12.30 EvnU Easter Holiday Club, Hollesley church Wed 11 2 pm Shottisham WI Shottisham TH Wed 11 Meet Chrisalis the Clown, Suffolk Punch Trust Thurs 12 7 pm Church Annual Vestry Meeting, Bawdsey VH Thurs 12 7.30 pm Sutton Ladies group, Sutton MH Fri 13 7 for 7.30 Sutton Ladies night out, Sutton MH, 411793 to book Sat 14 2-4 pm Bawdsey Spring Bazaar, Bawdsey VH Sun 15 Children’s Easter Trail, Suffolk Punch Trust Wed 18 7.30 pm Hollesley Gardening Club, Bowls Club Fri 20 7.30 Quiz with Fish & Chip Supper, Sutton MH, 411530 Fri/Sat 20/21 The Legend of Black Shuck, St Bartholomew, Orford Sat 21 2-4 pm Bawdsey market, Bawdsey VH Fri 27 2-4 pm Knit and Natter, The Anchorage, Bromeswell St. Mary’s Woodbridge Choral open day, Andrew Clarke Sat 28 10-5 pm 410449 or Bob Pegnall 01394 386822 for details Regular Events Day Time Activity Where Who 6.30-7.30pm Monday Hollesley VH Sandy 410530 7.40-8.40pm Pilates Tuesday 9.30am Tai Chi Ali 411717 Tuesday 2nd and 4th Hollesley Bay Day Club Alan 420092 Tuesday 2pm Welcome Club Hollesley VH Marian C 411262 9.45-10.45 Wednesday 11.00-12.00 Pilates Hollesley VH Sandy 410530 Weds/Sunday 2-4pm Bowls Club Hollesley Terry 411458 Wednesday 7.00pm Short Mat Bowls Butley VH Marian 411262 Thursday 10.00-11.00 Zumba Hollesley VH 07917145300 Thursday After school EVNU All Saints’ Ruth 412052 Thursday Judo Club Tunstall Julie 410483 Thursday Week 2 7.30pm Hollesley WI Hollesley Gerry 411376 Thursday Week 3 7.30pm Jazz Society Bawdsey VH Tony 410353 Friday 10-30-12.30 Coffee morning Boyton VH Isobel 411409 Friday 11.00am Coffee morning Shepherd and Dog Friday 7.15pm Whist Drive Boyton VH Les 411642 Sunday (last) 8pm Charity Quiz Shepherd & Dog please email [email protected] with updates to this information Page 2 April 2018 www.villagevoices.org.uk 1-20 April 18_vv 21/03/2018 19:36 Page 3 From the Editor John Richardson John Fieldfare in the snow What can I say about the Beast from the East that hasn’t already been said? The Little and Large of the JCB world did a grand job on the drift near Dumb Boy. The front cover (Cheryl Gray) shows Neville from Mortiers Farms clearing snow from Rectory Rd. Letters of thanks to the Editor and fantastic photos show the contrast of experiences during that week, from the children enjoying their snow day off school to that of a very sick man waiting for a path to be cleared so an ambulance could get through. Community spirit lives on. Mind you, even the beautiful Fieldfare above looks a bit glum. Our usual thanks to all contributors, advertisers and Village Voices team. We are looking for a new editor to join the team. If you are interested, please contact us at [email protected] to arrange to have a chat with us. Editorial copy Advertising Editors: Cheryl, Nick, Diane Gerry Bathe [email protected] [email protected] Copy on paper to Laurie Forsyth 1 Rectory Road, 11a Parsons Hill Hollesley, IP12 3JS Hollesley IP12 3RB Tel: 01394 411376 If you do not receive your copy of Village Voices, contact Laurie Forsyth on 01394 411727 Please note that the opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the editorial team. Copy deadline is the 10th of each month. www.villagevoices.org.uk Page 3 April 2018 1-20 April 18_vv 21/03/2018 19:36 Page 4 A lovely life’ – the verdict on farming at Hollesley Bay Colony The best job in the world - that’s 88-year-old John Bramley’s verdict on nearly two decades working on the farm at Hollesley Bay Colony. Reminiscing from his home in Orford about his long career in the prison service, John reckons his days spent as Estate Manager at Hollesley were the best. I’ve enjoyed my life, particularly at Hollesley. That’s where everyone wanted to end up. It was the biggest of all the prison farms in the country, at over a thousand acres. It was definitely the acme of prison farms. John joined the prison service in 1953 and arrived at the Colony – then a Borstal for boys aged between sixteen and eighteen – after university and agricultural college. Contributed We had cereals at Hollesley when I first John Bramley at home came here as farm foreman in the 50s. We moved from growing cereals into animal husbandry. The prison service used to buy up farms and my job was to get them off the ground so they could be worked by young offenders. After a couple of years in Suffolk, I transferred to prison farms in Devon, Shrewsbury and Yorkshire – we’ve been round a lot - and it was a good few years before I came back to Hollesley as Estate Manager, in 1972. Over the next sixteen years John, with his wife Elizabeth at his side, established the farm as a highly productive and profitable business. There were over a hundred boys working on the farm. We had hundreds of pigs, sixty sheep - the largest flock of Suffolk sheep in the world, cattle galore – over 500 head. We had one herd on the heath, one in the middle of the farm and one on the Oxley Marshes. Each unit had a stockman and he had a team of boys to look after them and do the milking. We also ran a pasteurising plant and so we were able to deliver milk to different prisons. We also supplied other prisons with vegetables ready for the pot because we prepared the crops we grew, like potatoes, and had a packing shed. The Borstal also boasted several acres of orchards, so the fruit was peeled, turned into pulp and made into jam in their own jam factory. The boys manned both the factory and the vegetable preparation plant. Our ten acres of nurseries included glass houses and polythene tunnels. We grew flowers, tomatoes and cucumbers. One year we tried melons, but the rats got them before we did. We put in ten miles of water mains so we could irrigate the fields. Page 4 April 2018 www.villagevoices.org.uk 1-20 April 18_vv 21/03/2018 19:36 Page 5 Our turnover was over three million pounds, so you see it became a very extensive operation, he told me. We had a staff of 35, including a shopkeeper especially in the rehabilitation of the Borstal boys. John is very modest about his role in fostering the Suffolk Punch breed. We had over forty Suffolk Punches at the peak and had to sell some of them. I would like to think I played a part in keeping the breed going, otherwise we wouldn’t have them now. One boy who was working in the stables got so attached to the horses that he was reluctant to leave when his time came. He said to me, If I can bring my girl-friend here, I’d like to stay! Contributed John with the Suffolk Punch horses There were so many activities, aside from the farm, such as carpentry, that the boys were asked where they’d like to work. ‘My personal aim was that they should learn the work ethic,’ John explains. ‘Whenever possible, we offered them the jobs where they wanted to go. For example, we’d start milking at 5.30 in the morning and then again at 3.30 in the afternoon. So the boys had to get themselves to the dairy units on time, of their own accord. If they didn’t turn up for work, they were fired.’ He admits the boys got very attached to the animals. They wouldn’t have got up at 5am unless they wanted to. Some of them would come back to the Suffolk Show after they’d left, just to say hello to the horses. As farm manager I’d set everyone off to work, then I’d go down to the stables, saddle up a pony and ride round the farms on the pony until it was broken in. When it was broken in and schooled it was shipped off to another farm, and I’d get another one. The boys used to wait in the road and laugh when I fell off the horse – which wasn’t very often! The lifestyle was a healthy one, so did John think they’d produced better citizens as a result? John believes they did. They left not only with the work ethic, but a love of animals as well. Also, those working in the carpentry shop learnt a useful trade. www.villagevoices.org.uk Page 5 April 2018 1-20 April 18_vv 21/03/2018 19:36 Page 6 The Suffolk Show played an important part in the life of the Colony farm, too. Every year we used to take a party of boys to the show. Their job was to help put up the jumps in the showring and take the flowers we’d grown in the greenhouses to the tents and marquees.