NewsletterNewsletter AutumnAutumn 20202020 Editorial Tim Cornford In this Issue

Editorial Tim Cornford In this Issue

In the hope that you have come through the lockdown 2 Society membership, meetings and website update safelyIn the and hope have that started you have to movecome aboutthrough the the town lockdown again, 2 Society membership, meetings and website update welcomesafely and to have the startedextra-length to move Autumn about theissue town and again, to a 4 Planning Matters welcome to the extra-length Autumn issue and to a 4 AlanPlan nVaughaning Matt ers new year in the Society's life. Alan Vaughan

new year in the Society's life. 6 Replacement of the Airey Houses Despite the fact that we had to cancel the final 6 RDaphneeplacem Lloydent o f the Airey Houses

Despite the fact that we had to cancel the final speaker meeting and the entire summer visits Daphne Lloyd

8 Woodbridge's Green Spaces programme,speaker meeting the Society'sand the work entire has summer continued :visits the 8 WEamonnoodbrid O'Nolange's Gre en Spaces programme, the Society's work has continued: the Planning Group has been monitoring and commenting Eamonn O'Nolan onPlanning planning Group applications has been monitoring as usual. andThe commenting Planning 1 0 Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB on planning applications as usual. The Planning 1 0 SSimonuffolk Amstutz Coast & Heaths AONB Matters article provides an update. Simon Amstutz Matters article provides an update. 1 1 Research on Nature & Health

Your committee has planned a slightly truncated year 1 1 RJulesesea rPrettych on Nature & Health ofYour activities, committee starting has planned with a a speakerslightly truncatedmeeting on year 4 Jules Pretty

November.of activities, Full starting details with are ona speakerpage 3. meetingThe summer on 4 1 3 The Earth's Three Trillion Trees 1 3 TJameshe Ea Lerth Fanu's Thr ee Trillion Trees November. Full details are on page 3. The summer visits programme will be announced in the Spring James Le Fanu newsletter.visits programme If circumstances will be announced require anyin thechange Spring to 1 5 Deben Community Farm thenewsletter. programme If wecircumstances will advise you require by email any andchange on the to 1 5 DHeathereben C oHeelismmun ity Farm the programme we will advise you by email and on the Heather Heelis website. 1 6 Cemetery Grass Cutting website. 1 6 CEasteme Suffolktery Gr aCouncilss Cutt ing

This issue includes a special focus on green spaces. We East Suffolk Council areThis fortunate issue includes to be surrounded a special focus by so on much green countryside spaces. We 1 7 The Story of a Street: Church Street & Turn Lane are fortunate to be surrounded by so much countryside 1 7 TBobhe SMerretttory of a Street: Church Street & Turn Lane but within the town we have lost many trees, gardens Bob Merrett andbut withinsmaller the green town spaces we have (along lost with many their trees, attendant gardens 2 2 Woodbridge & Great Bealings and smaller green spaces (along with their attendant wildlife) to housing development in the last half 2 2 WNormanoodbrid Porterge & G reat Bealings century.wildlife) Eamonnto housing O'Nolan development talks on pagein the8 about last whathalf Norman Porter thecentury. Town Eamonn Council O'Nolanis doing talksfollowing on page their 8 declarationabout what 2 4 Jetty Lane—a home for Just42 and much more. 2 4 JCarolineetty Lan Rutherforde—a home for Just42 and much more. the Town Council is doing following their declaration of a climate emergency while Prof Jules Pretty gives Caroline Rutherford usof a anclimate important emergency survey while of Prof research Jules Prettyinto giveshow 2 5 What Lies Beneath? importantus an important the natural survey world ofis researchfor our healthinto andhow 2 5 WKirkhat Weir Lies Beneath? welfare.important the natural world is for our health and Kirk Weir welfare.

There is much else in this issue. Please introduce your E ditorial Tim Cornford There is much else in this issue. Please introduce your friends and neighbours to the work of the Society. We PErdoidtourcitaiol n CarolTim Cornford Wiseman do,friends after and all, neighbourshave the wellbeing to the work of the of thewhole Society. town Weat Production Carol Wiseman heart.do, after all, have the wellbeing of the whole town at Photography Anthony Mather (except where stated) heart. Photography Anthony Mather (except where stated)

R enewing Woodbridge Society Membership Lindsay Dann

Historically Woodbridge Society members have used cheques or cash to pay annual subscriptions and fees for excursions. Starting with our next financial year in October 2020 the Society wishes to encourage members to move to paperless payment, which offers savings in postage, stationery and (possibly) in bank charges. This will not be compulsory but already several members have paid the Society this way for their convenience.

The Society’s preferred option for receiving annual subscriptions will be familiar to most: BANKER’S STANDING ORDER where the member has control over what is paid and can at any time cancel or amend future payments.

Members using internet banking should find the procedure very simple.

1. The Beneficiary is THE WOODBRIDGE SOCIETY. Our account number is 50628568 and our sort code is 30-90-89

2. For subscriptions please make a payment of £8 (individual) or £14 (two people at the same address) as appropriate, larger if you wish, preferably starting on a date convenient for you in October 2020.

3. IT IS VITAL THAT YOU INCLUDE YOUR SURNAME AND INITIAL AS REFERENCE ON THE PAYMENT otherwise the Treasurer will be faced with a mass of indistinguishable payments!

4. Step 3 also applies if in the future you use internet banking to pay for Society visits.

5. Set the payments for ANNUALLY thereafter, until further notice.

Members not using internet banking: for you a standing order form is enclosed. Please complete the shaded boxes on the form and give/send it to your bank. Again, IT IS VITAL THAT IN THE “REFERENCE” BOX YOU ENTER YOUR SURNAME AND INITIAL.

Please direct any enquiries to the Treasurer on 01394 382459 or the Society mailbox [email protected]

Members opting to pay by standing order need not return the personal details form enclosed with this Newsletter unless your details have altered since your last return in Autumn 2019, in which case please use the form or email the Membership Secretary on [email protected]. For members who have previously signed to have their subscription considered as a donation and thereby qualify for Gift Aid, their previous signature holds good.

Thank you in anticipation of your cooperation.

We welcome the following members who have recently joined the Society.

Jackie Bendall; Sue Cox; Tim & Christine Cutler; Angela Fleming-Brown; Anne Gartley; David Goldsmith; Oliver Houchell; Angela Liddle; Wendy Melia; Martin & Lesley Minta; Norman & Virginia Porter; Cordelia Richman & Rockey Singh; Jeremy & Pauline Tambling; Anne Tate; Bram & Penny van der Have.

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WOODBRIDGE SOCIE TY TALKS 2020/21 The Society has planned the following talks and we hope that, by the Autumn, we will be able to meet as usual: at 7.30pm in the Abbey School Hall. Please note these dates in your diary. These arrangements depend, of course, on the lifting of coronavirus restrictions and on the ability of Woodbridge Preparatory School to make the Assembly Hall available for our use. In the event that arrangements have to be changed, we will notify you by email and on the Society's website.

4 November 2020 'Homestart Suffolk' A talk about the charity that supports families with young children. Wednesday 3 March 2021 Annual General Meeting and 'The Rise and Fall of the Medieval Port of Goseford' Peter Wain Wednesday 7 April 2021 'Thomas Clarkson: key player in the abolition of the slave trade and local hero' David Kelling

The programme of summer visits will be published in the Spring 2021 Newsletter

Online updates Dan Cornford Second, the Home page now features a What's New section highlighting the latest By the time you are reading this, the content on the website. This enables visitors Woodbridge Society website - to see at a glance the most recent updates www.woodbridgesociety.org.uk - will be a from the Society and to catch up more easily year old. In that time, we have received over on current information, be it a new planning 1,200 visits, while the Society email has application, meeting details or a newsletter

publication. made communication with members

significantly easier. We have made several recent additions and changes to the website Third, you may already have seen that we to which I would like to draw your attention. now have a Society newsletter archive on the Newsletter page. Digital copies of spring and First, we have added an interactive map to autumn issues from 2010 onwards are the Planning page. This shows the locations available to view or download. We will add to and details of the local planning applications this as further issues are published. We which our Planning Group is currently would like to extend the archive as far back monitoring and responding to. Each pin on as possible so if you still have hard copies of the map represents one planning application older newsletters, please get in touch!

and clicking on a pin will display further

information below, including a link to the Lastly, we have created an About Us page in application documents on the East Suffolk order to keep all the basic information about Council website. As and when the Planning the Society in one place. Details of the Group responds to an application, this will Society rules and current committee also be available to view. We hope these members, originally on the Home page, can changes will make this key aspect of the now be found here, along with links to other Society's work more transparent and local organisations which may be of interest.

accessible to our members and the general

public. We are also keen to hear from you: if you have a view on any of the featured If you have suggestions for further applications, please contact the Planning improvements to the website, do not hesitate Group via [email protected] . to contact us.

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For many years there have been concerns Planning Matters about its condition and it is on the District Alan Vaughan Council’s Buildings at Risk register. On

Quay Street, it is on a prime site that visitors Former Council Offices at Melton Hill

will see as they go to the Thoroughfare or The appeal by the applicant against the Market Hill from the station or the nearby refusal by East Suffolk Council to grant car parks. It is an important Woodbridge Vacant Building Credit in the second building, which needs to be brought back into application was dismissed. A Judicial Review use. is deciding whether the arguments put forward in support of the third application At the time of writing, planning permission were correct. At the time of writing, we await has just been applied for and some the decision. information on the plans has been published. The determination date is 20 September. The We hope that the Council will soon remarket application is for the assembly rooms to be the property and produce a prospectus for converted into town houses and apartments, sale that requires any development to with the currently boarded up windows on provide the needed social housing on site and Quay Street opened up. in accordance with policy, and is of a design that takes into account the context of this As part of the redevelopment, the current important site. We also hope that the Council motel-type accommodation across the will have a robust process for choosing the courtyard will be demolished and replaced by preferred developer and that any application a new block containing flats and a Mews will follow the sales prospectus, and not be House. The coronavirus pandemic has meant altered after the bid to the advantage of the that there has not been an opportunity for developer. We must maintain our pressure members of the public to see a model of the on the Council to deliver what Woodbridge plans, but we understand that a website may needs and deserves. be created so people can have a look.

Assembly Rooms 10/12 Market Hill

This building at the rear of the Crown Hotel These former antique shop premises have has been empty since the 1970s. It is a grade been granted planning permission to be II listed building, being listed in 1971. refurbished and for change of use. The site Originally it was a granary and maltings includes a garden that backs onto Chapel attached to the Crown Hotel and was Street. The new owners of the site submitted adapted to be used as assembly rooms. Older plans to build a modern four bedroom house long term residents may remember it being in the garden. We considered the proposed used as a dance hall. Sometimes it was design to be wholly inappropriate for this known as the Old Hall. location within the conservation area not 4

only because of its design but also it was too Road. A similar application on this site has tall. It would also involve the removal of previously been refused. some valuable trees. Access to the house would be from Chapel Street, on a blind We objected to this new proposal. The site bend, giving rise to considerable concerns has not been earmarked for development in about safety for vehicles and pedestrians. the Melton Neighbourhood Plan. There is The Society objected and we were pleased to therefore a presumption against see that the application was withdrawn. It development. We thought that the design may be that a new application will be was not attractive, a view also put forward by submitted, but it is difficult to see how the Council’s Design and Conservation Team. concerns about access to Chapel Street can In comments made about the application be alleviated. there has been a significant objection from the Clinical Director at Framfield House. The King’s Knoll, Broomheath applicants claim there is an increasing need for care homes in the area. This claim is disputed. There are already seven care homes in the area with another dementia care home under construction on Bredfield Road. The supply is considered sufficient for the local population. Therefore a new home, it is argued, will attract residents from outside the area. This will put severe pressure on our current health provision. It is now considered that new care facilities This spectacular house, Grade II listed, should be provided where people live rather overlooks Martlesham Creek. It was built in than put pressure on health care provision 1933 and designed by Hilda Mason, one of elsewhere. the relatively few woman architects practising before the Second World War, for The objection made by the Clinical Director her own use. She is considered as one of the was supported by Ipswich and East Suffolk pioneers of women in architecture. She Clinical Commissioning Group. worked for many years as an architect for the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury, involved in Review of the Local Plan many projects, the most prominent of which The long process of creating a Local Plan has was St. Andrew’s Church in Felixstowe, reached the next stage. The Council has which is now Grade II* listed. A number of published modifications to the earlier draft her designs are mentioned in the Suffolk for comment. Anything in the earlier draft volume of Pevsner’s Buildings of England. which has not been modified cannot be commented on, so the scope was relatively Hilda Mason lived there until her death in limited. Nevertheless we made a number of 1955. Since then, a number of changes have points. been made to the house. It now has new owners and plans were recently submitted to In the original draft, any development restore its exterior to its original design. The outside existing settlement boundaries was Society supported this application which has to be ‘strictly controlled’. The new wording is been approved by East Suffolk Council. ‘carefully managed’. This is significant weakening of wording. This would be of Yarmouth Road, Melton concern to Woodbridge if development north An application to build an 80 bed care home of the A12 would be allowed. Fortunately this and 75 assisted care bungalows has been is not the case, nevertheless the proposed submitted for a green field site on Yarmouth change in wording is worrying.

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The wording relating to parking standards In the original draft, Woodbridge was to has been changed so that developments now contribute 3% of new housing in the district. need only to have regard to the County Woodbridge has had more new houses Council’s standards rather than meet them. planned (336) than anticipated (103) at this We think the original wording should be stage in the plan period. Despite this the retained. number of houses planned for the remainder

In the draft, there was protection against of the plan period has not been reduced so development of specific green areas, such as that it is now planned that Woodbridge will parks and parklands. The Planning contribute 223 more houses than originally Inspectorate sought justification for this planned or 5% of the District total. We have policy but, rather than providing that, the said that the original figure of 3% should be reinstated. Council is relying on other policies to protect

such sites. The sites in Woodbridge When the plan has been signed off by the potentially affected would include Elmhurst Planning Inspectorate and formally adopted Park, Fen Meadow and Kingston Field. by East Suffolk Council, it will guide There is little likelihood of any of these green planning policy in the area of the District spaces being under threat but it is covered by the old Suffolk Coastal District disappointing that the Planning Inspectorate Council. There is a separate plan for the old took the view it did. It reinforces the need for Waveney District. Once adoption has taken us all to be vigilant.

place, we will add to our website the policies A welcome change in the plan is that the that are particularly relevant to Woodbridge football ground will not be redeveloped until and when planning applications are the club has a new and functioning site. considered. The Replacement of the Airey Houses During her time as the Woodbridge Recorder (1989 - 2009) and in addition to her annual report, Daphne Lloyd wrote a number of Letters from Woodbridge. This Letter was written in September 1992.

There is a large building project known as the Springfields development taking shape on the Peterhouse estate in Queens Avenue, Pembroke Avenue and Bullards Lane. It is financed by the new Suffolk Heritage Housing Association, on the site of 50 council houses built in 1947 and 1948 which have come to the end of their useful life and are being demolished. These are known as Airey houses after their designer in the Ministry of Works, Sir Edwin Airey. Many thousands were erected throughout Britain. Suffolk

Coastal's Housing Department inherited responsibility for nearly 300, of which 50 After the two-foot thick concrete slab which were in Woodbridge. formed the base was ready, the houses could be completed within 2-3 weeks. They were The Airey houses were designed to cope with semi-detached, with three bedrooms and a the urgent post-war need for family housing. bathroom upstairs, and downstairs a hall, They were made of concrete and could be put kitchen, living room and sitting room. There up quickly and without a highly-skilled was a traditional felted and tiled roof, and a workforce. They had almost no foundations. solid fuel range (Rayburn) in the living 6

room. The sitting room and one bedroom had Tenants found that the houses were cold in open fires. There were outhouses with a winter. Airey by name and airy by nature! copper, a sink and a wc built in twos between Despite their drawbacks, the houses were each pair of houses. The Woodbridge firm of spacious and very popular with tenants. Banyard and Houchell put up the Bullards They have lasted well, considering they were Lane and Pembroke Avenue houses while designed for a life of 25 - 30 years. For the those in Queens Avenue were erected by District Council they have proved a good Allens of Wickham Market, who are no investment as they originally cost under longer in business. £1,000 to build. Many of the tenants who moved in when they were newly built were

Quite a number of Airey houses are now in a ex-servicemen, like Mr Alec Wiseman who very poor state. The main problem has been lived at 13 Pembroke Avenue for 43 years caused by the vertical studs which were of until he moved to a bungalow in the new concrete reinforced with steel tubing. This development. He has his first rent book: tubing has rusted in some cases, causing fifteen shillings per week including rates! expansion which has split the concrete. A secondary problem was caused by the 2'6" Living in an Airey House concrete cladding panels which formed the Laurie Wiseman, life-long Woodbridge exterior of the houses. These were attached resident and a Society member, remembers to the frame with copper wire which very clearly as a five-year-old moving from a sometimes corroded, so that some of the flat in the Thoroughfare to one of the new panels were in danger of falling off. The Airey houses: 13 Pembroke Avenue. "There concrete slab bases were also often cracked was my father, then still in the RAF, my due to shrinkage of the soil beneath. The site mother who worked at The Bull Hotel, was, and remains, a very difficult one, with myself and my sister and brother. We had a soil ranging from very stiff clay on the west lounge, dining room, kitchen, three side near Queens Avenue to sandy ballast on bedrooms, indoor bathroom and outdoor Bullards Lane. Residents remember ponds toilet, a wash house and a back garden being there during the First World War, about 125ft long and 25ft wide." where soldiers from a cavalry regiment watered their horses. "The thing I remember most," says Laurie,

"was the space we had as kids. The back

The demolition and redevelopment is by garden was partly lawn but mostly ground Persimmon Homes of Lowestoft. The site where we grew vegetables and had fruit foremen told me they were surprised at how trees. My mother grew her flowers in the insubstantial the Airey houses were. On the front garden. Also at the back we had inside there was only plaster board and foil chickens and I had a pigeon loft. There was lining. They estimated that a pair of Airey a dog kennel because we had a large guard houses would comprise about 8 lorry loads of dog chained to a concrete post - until he material. This would compare with about 24 pulled it out of the ground!" loads for houses of the same size built to today's more stringent regulations. They said "The land where Kyson School is now was a that the only diagonal bracing in the design sports field with two football pitches, a was at the stairwell, so that the stairs and cricket pitch and a long jump pit. We could the chimney were holding the houses up. For also play out in the street or on other green this reason mechanical demolition was very spaces on the estate. The worst thing about fast. The roof timbers were in very good the house was that it was really cold in condition, but as soon as the roof was taken winter. There was no insulation in the loft down, one blow at each end and one in the and of course the windows were single middle with the bucket of a JCB caused the glazed. We had to scratch the frost off the whole structure to collapse. inside on cold mornings!"

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Woodbridge's Green Spaces other is to develop our biodiversity.

Eamonn O'Nolan Our initial work in relation to reducing our carbon footprint is to tackle traffic control. Woodbridge Town Council is responsible for We need to slow traffic down and reduce its eight green spaces totalling about 9 hectares presence in the town centre. You will have or over 22 acres and ranging in size from the seen that we have worked with East Suffolk small grassed area opposite The Angel public Council to close the Thoroughfare for part of house to the historically interesting Fen the day. While the driver for this was of Meadow. Everybody will agree that these course the need to enable social distancing for spaces are a vital feature of the town and shoppers during the Covid emergency, we are part of its attraction to residents and visitors very interested in how residents take to this alike. We may be surrounded by a lovely in the longer term. river and beautiful countryside but having green spaces in the town is an important Caroline Page, our County Councillor, has component of the built environment and worked tirelessly to establish a 20mph speed essential to our wellbeing. So I want to talk limit throughout the town. The Town Council about the Council's strategy for these areas. fully supports this and we are actively working to make it a reality. The benefits will be very noticeable. Through traffic will reduce, the roads will be safer for cyclists and pedestrians, and air quality in the town will improve. Coupled with this, a new Traffic Regulation Order for the Thoroughfare will bring significant benefits for shoppers.

Our second objective is to take some first steps in restoring biodiversity. It is impossible to ignore the scientists' warnings about the need to reduce carbon output and the naturalists' warnings about the depletion Wild flowers in Fen Meadow. (T Cornford) in our insect, small mammal and bird Last year the Town Council voted to declare populations. a climate emergency for Woodbridge. This may sound very grandiose but the We have been impressed by the work of Peter Government and the District and County Hobson, Professor of Biodiversity Councils did the same. Our point is a simple Conservation and Sustainability at Writtle one: the impacts of climate change have to be University College and he is advising us. We tackled at a geopolitical level but that has to are also working with two PhD students from be backed up by concerted local actions, such Writtle and their input has been invaluable. as those undertaken for the past decade by Transition Woodbridge and now also by the Peter has a wonderful way of translating his Town Council. decades of experience into a local action plan for non-experts, and he has introduced us to Structurally the Council has formed a a number of possible courses of action. These Climate Emergency Committee and allocated include: it a budget of £20,000 for this financial year. a) a practice of 'chop and drop' (this phrase We do not have a 'grand plan' but we do have refers to the late cutting of long grass and a couple of important initial objectives. One leaving it to discharge seeds into the soil before being removed); is to begin to reduce our carbon footprint the ;

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b) the creation of habitats (such as the introduction of what are called Tiny Forests: the planting of a densely-packed area of trees and undergrowth into a space the size of a tennis court, which is a way of bringing carbon capture, biodiversity and improved air quality into the heart of urban spaces); and

c) the planting of native flowers to provide food sources for the insect population.

Working closely with Transition Woodbridge, we plan to follow a policy of 'green-veining' through the town. This means linking up small green spaces such as pavement verges and individual gardens with the wide open spaces of the town's parks. The amount of building that has gone on in the past 70 years has reduced the number and size of these spaces but, in order to help build up our biodiversity we need to make the most of what green space we have. This does mean change for the town and it is important that the community is involved. We plan a number of walks and online presentations to explore and explain ways in which we hope to regenerate biodiversity. Early re-wilding in Elmhurst Park

A first step was to re-plant the flower beds in Committee and supported the three courses Elmhurst Park and introduce a wild area. All of action I have listed. of our beds are now populated by perennials. Pollinators now abound! A central area in the The open spaces managed by the Town park has been designated for re-wilding and Council are: Elmhurst Park; Kingston Field; we stopped grass cutting in March. Already Fen Meadow; Broomheath; Quaker Burial we are finding grasshoppers in this area and Ground; Fitzgerald Green; Garden of in September we will ask volunteers to help Remembrance; Theatre Street grassed area; sow a variety of meadow flowers. This has Market Hill and Whisstocks Place. been well received by residents and we have achieved the changes without reducing the facilities which are most used by the public.

In planning for our green spaces we are working closely with our contractors, East Suffolk Norse, with whom we recently signed a new contract. This covers not just grass cutting but the collection of litter, reporting vandalism, care of shrubs and trees, agreeing new planting, and so on.

At its meeting in July the Town Council endorsed the work of the Climate Emergency The Quaker Burial Ground. (D Cornford)

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Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB: th e Woodbridge Connection Simon Amstutz, AONB Manager For many people Woodbridge is a beautiful and vibrant market town on the banks of the river Deben. It has fascinating architecture and a well documented history and associations with nationally important heritage. It is a fine place.

What is perhaps less understood is its relationship with a nationally designated landscape, known as the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). AONBs are designated by Government and have a prime purpose to conserve and enhance natural beauty. Around two miles of the boundary of the Photo courtesy of Mike Page. national landscape follows the Ipswich to planned events are on hold while the Lowestoft railway that runs through restrictions due to the current Coronavirus Woodbridge. pandemic are in place.

The AONB covers around 155 square miles A survey in 2019 identified that the value of of east Suffolk. The AONB is cherished for tourism in the Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB its relatively undeveloped, tranquil was worth £210M and supported around landscape and stunning natural and cultural 4,655 jobs. Given the current pandemic the history. It stretches from Kessingland in the tourism industry has never been so north to Shotley Peninsula in the south, and important to support economic recovery, and is characterised by shingle beaches, the outstanding landscapes and vibrant heathland, forest, estuaries and iconic market towns in the area have an important coastal towns. The AONB is one of 34 such part to play. The AONB team, and its designated landscapes in England and Wales associated partnership, work with the and has similar protection in planning law to tourism industry to ensure that tourism National Parks. projects reflect the nature of the area and do not have a significant detriment to the area's A small team, funded by the Department of key characteristics. This is done by Environment, Food and Rural Affairs promoting low impact visitor behaviours such (DEFRA) and local authorities, seeks to as walking and cycling, food and heritage promote the statutory purposes of the AONB. trails and wildlife watching. This team works with a partnership of around 25 organisations, drawn from the Woodbridge is well placed to benefit from the public, private and third sectors to conserve national designation. Being adjacent to the and enhance the AONB. AONB brings benefits in terms of grants for projects that benefit the social, economic and The Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB was environmental well-being of the area, designated on 4 March 1970. 50th planning considerations to ensure new anniversary celebrations had been planned developments are appropriate for the area and a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant and a focus for wildlife and landscape had been secured by the AONB team to enhancement projects. engage a broader section of society in understanding and enjoying the designated The national network of AONBs agreed the landscape. Unfortunately, many of the Colchester Declaration in 2019. Named 10

after the town where the declaration was It is widely acknowledged that access to developed, this is a commitment by the ‘green space’ is a precursor to better mental AONB network to do more to support wildlife and physical health. The AONB can provide recovery and improve access to these fine many opportunities for access to the landscapes. countryside for walking and riding. Its nationally and internationally important On the back of this declaration and of a wildlife and historic sites, run by outstanding government review of designated landscapes, organisations such as the National Trust, the Glover Review published in November RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and independent 2019, AONBs recognise they have an groups, are on the doorstep of Woodbridge important part to play in nature recovery, and contribute to the quality of life for given the current unprecedented decline in residents. wildlife.

The town of Woodbridge and the AONB make Residents of Woodbridge will be encouraged excellent neighbours and the social, economic to help develop plans and commit to and environmental benefits derived from supporting action for wildlife to meet these each partner should make for an excellent aspirations. They will be encouraged to get relationship. involved in volunteering on wildlife projects, making space for wildlife if they have a For more details of the AONB, the work of garden or engaging in consultations to the team and its grant programmes, visit ensure that the area's heritage, which includes its landscape and wildlife, is www.suffolkcoastandheaths.org sufficiently protected.

Recent Findings from Research on Nature and Health Jules Pretty, Professor of Environment and Society, University of Essex At the University, we have undertaken some farms, urban parks, wild places) has short 15 years of research into the effects and and long term positive effects on groups outcomes of green exercise and nature-based under mental stress, including at-risk activities, showing in a wide variety of children and youth, refugees, probationers, contexts that physical activity in the dementia sufferers, office workers, and presence of nature improves health and well- mental health patients. The natural being. environment in both rural and urban settings is now understood to provide vital

health services as well as other We have found no groups who have not environmental services. benefitted: all ages, genders, ethnicities and social classes respond positively to green Further research has explored inner exercise. We have shown that all natural mechanisms, external social processes, environments are beneficial, from urban interactions with place and behaviours parks to biodiversity-rich locations, from across the lifecourse. It has been shown that small local to large landscapes, from greener environments are equigenic, that is domesticated gardens to the farmed and reducing social inequality and having wild. We coined the phrase dose of nature to particularly positive impacts on mental well- articulate that exposure to green exercise is being, that physical labour in the home is analogous to a medical dose to the body, important for health and longevity, and that improving mental health. We have shown blue space is as important as green: it is not that the deliberate therapeutic use of natural the colour that matters but the opportunity environments (e.g. gardens, allotments, care to behave in a way that improves well-being.

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Table 1. The annual costs of the health externalities arising from modern lifestyles, UK

Note: obesity costs are assumed to be the same for adults and children. Condition Proportion of population Number currently Full annual cost to economy currently affected affected (£ billion)

Mental ill-health 18% of adults 8.8 million 105.0 10% of children

Dementias 13% of >65 year olds 0.75 million 20.0

Obesity 26% of adults 13 million adults 20.0 15% of children 1.9 million children

Physical inactivity 20% of adults completely 10 million adults 8.2 inactive

Diabetes 5% of adults 2.9 million 29.0 (type 2)

Loneliness 30% of >65 year olds 0.9 million 40.0

Cardiovascular disease (including 1.84 million in-patient 22.6 hypertension and strokes) episodes: 180,000 deaths Total costs (assuming one quarter 183.6 of costs double-counted through co-morbidities)

In short, the more connected to nature the emphasise non-material consumption if greater the life satisfaction. planetary and personal harm is to be avoided.

At the same time, design of human Many of the drivers of ill-health in Table 1 settlements and buildings influences human are behaviour- and lifestyle-related: too health, suggesting that natural places can be many calories consumed in food and drink, thought of as healing places. Typical urban too little physical activity, too little social settings are more discomforting, with engagement. Through a variety of consequences for metabolism and general interventions there is now the prospect of the well-being. Exposure to nature reduces UK becoming virtually tobacco-free. Yet internal stress markers and produces implementation of healthy food, activity and healthier cortisol profiles. engagement activities for whole populations seems impossible, despite advances on nudge We have calculated the annual health costs tactics. It is clear that social and economic of seven lifestyle-related conditions environments do shape behaviours. (sometimes called non-communicable Residents of London walk 292 miles per year; diseases) in the UK (see Table 1), all of but rural people walk just 122 miles. which are influenced by a lack of physical activity, links to natural places, and links to In the Japanese, Sardinian and Costa Rican community and people. These amount to longevity hotspots, cultures encourage some £180 billion per year. High levels of healthy and tasty foods, regular physical material consumption in affluent countries activity outdoors, social connections and have not necessarily brought increased continued cognitive engagement. Individual health and well-being for all. Consumption choices do not arise from failures of freewill patterns in most countries of the world are but are shaped by the interactions between converging on those typical to the affluent. the design of lived environments, transport New ways of living are required that systems, institutional inertia, advertising 12

and corporate self-interest and access to lifestyle -related conditions in Table 1. Early green space. intervention to slow or prevent the incidence of some of these conditions would save on Public organisations have a vital role to play real costs incurred by the NHS and the wider in promoting healthy engagement with economy. nature as part of their missions. Core intervention priorities should centre on hard- Healthy longevity is promoted by habitual to-reach populations and cohorts, and those consumption of healthy food, daily physical for whom current policies and treatment are activity, engagement with nature, strong struggling to find solutions. This includes social capital and cognitive engagement. those in certain age groups, such as children These also offer the prospect of living well and the elderly, and those suffering from and with contentment. The Earth's Three Trillion Trees of Life James Le Fanu

This article is reproduced by permission from The Oldie magazine.

Trees - with their branches reaching 'the great civilisations of Sumer, Assyria, upwards, their trunks rooted in the soil - China, Mycenae, Greece and Rome, Western connect the two domains of heaven and Europe and North America would never have earth in a ceaseless cycle of biochemical emerged.' transformations. For millenia, the dense forests that covered a third (or more) of the Above and beyond these manifold favours, land surface were the most essential, the greatest gift of trees is in making the seemingly inexhaustible, of all natural Earth habitable. We start most obviously resources. with the air we breathe, enriched with life- sustaining oxygen while simultaneously cleansed of those 'greenhouse' gases, notably carbon dioxide. This is the never-ending dance of photosynthesis. Moment by moment, the wondrous green pigment chlorophyll in the leaves captures the energy from the sun to split molecules of water into their constituent atoms, oxygen and hydrogen.

They were the source of the fuel for the fires Every year, the 200,000 leaves of a mature whose heat warmed our bygone ancestors, oak release sufficient quantities of oxygen cooked their food, baked their bread and into the atmosphere to meet the needs of half transmuted clay into pottery, sand into a dozen people. Meanwhile, simultaneously, glass, and metals into tools, weapons and those same leaves are combining the ornaments. Trees were the source, too, of the remaining 'free' hydrogen with carbon materials for building their homes and dioxide absorbed from the air through public buildings, the furniture and artefacts minute apertures on their under surface.

with which they filled them and every conceivable mode of transport: carts, Together, hydrogen and carbon form organic chariots, wagons, barges and ships. compounds that, through a series of chemical transformations, will become the tough 'Without this constant supply of wood felled cellulose and lignin laid down as the trees' from forests,' notes historian John Perlin, woody new growth year on year.

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The three trillion trees on the planet thus run-off into rivers which are thus less likely function as a massive carbon sink, removing to overrun their banks and flood the prodigious amounts of carbon dioxide from surrounding countryside. circulation - 300 million tons a year in the United States - and storing it inaccessibly as Hence the ecologically catastrophic the fabric of their trunks and branches. The consequences of deforestation - first and most relatively simple expedient of increasing the eloquently described by a Venetian, Giuseppe world's forest cover by one third would, the Paulini, in the 17th century. Over the journal Science claimed last year, offset the preceding centuries, the demand for timber warming effects of a century's worth of from the great shipyard at the Venice carbon emissions. Arsenal had denuded the mountains of their trees. 'Since there is now no vegetation to Paralleling this contribution to purifying the retain rainwater,' he wrote, 'after a storm, air, trees fulfil the equally crucial role of water swoops precipitously down to enriching and stabilising the soil. At its devastate the countryside, bringing all the simplest, their discarded leaves and twigs - filthiest debris to the river's mouth.' The fed on by microbes, fungi, beetles and other consequent silting up of the lagoon, he minuscule creatures - are transformed into a warned, threatened the future commerce and rich, growth-generating, nitrogenous security of the Republic.

compost. And the taller the trees grow, the more extensive the network of roots below The corollary - where reforestation restores the surface, binding the soil together and the fertility and stability of the soil - is seen protecting it from being eroded by the harsh to most dramatic effect in the re-greening of elements of rain and wind. the Sahel on the southern edge of the Sahara. Since the 1980s, a systematic The major threat posed by a heavy storm is programme of tree planting - more than one mitigated by another, less well-appreciated million a year - has rehabilitated five million attribute of trees: preventing the ground hectares of land, now producing an from becoming saturated. A large tree shifts additional 500,000 tons of food a year. water on a major scale: 500 litres a day is sucked up from the ground and transpired There can be no more persuasive evidence of out through its leaves. The presence of trees the indispensability of trees in uniting those has a significant drying effect, limiting the two domains of heaven and earth.

This year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Wordsworth, arguably the greatest English poet of the natural world. These lines are from Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798.

Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows and the woods, And mountains; and of all that we behold From this green earth; of all the mighty world Of eye, and ear, - both what they half create, And what perceive; well pleased to recognize In nature and the language of the sense, The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being.

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children and talking so much his teacher had Deben Community Farm to visit to believe it. Back at school, he Heather Heelis remained solitary and non-communicative.

This proves, without a doubt, that every child can blossom and reach their potential if they are in an environment that meets their needs as an individual.

Part of our work also includes a children’s holiday club, rated outstanding by Ofsted. Here we provide an environment that enables children to explore nature and the great outdoors without the constraints of a classroom. They have opportunities to learn where their food comes from. Despite living in rural England, there are children who come to us who have never picked a bean or Photo by Heather Heelis eaten a tomato straight from the plant, pulled a carrot or even seen the hens that Set in the heart of Melton lies a three-acre provide the eggs they eat. To pass on this farm. The Deben Community Farm was set knowledge and offer these experiences up three years ago by the directors of the provides not only learning and healthy Pitstop Out of School Club Community eating but plants the seed for new Interest Company, a not-for-profit opportunities. organization providing a pre-school, after

school club and holiday club in Melton. We welcome everyone to the farm. Every Originally set up to enable children to access Sunday afternoon we open to the community nature and animals, it has become so much and hold our volunteer sessions, bringing the more. community together. One of our regular

volunteers is a lovely retired gentleman who The farm now runs a care farm supporting has a passion for growing fruit and veg, a 36 placements for children and young people, perfect match for our overgrown fruit cage! including home education sessions. The But growing fruit and veg is only part of the young people that attend fall outside of the story. The other real value is the social mainstream education system because of aspect of getting out of the house and learning disabilities, poor mental health, low meeting other like-minded people. It is his academic achievement or low self-esteem. highlight of the week.

This is where nature and animal therapy Everyone is welcome at the farm: come along works its magic and can make a positive and meet the goats, ponies, sheep, rabbits, difference, from teaching new skills, how to hens, Heather and Cora our highland cows, work as a team and building self confidence and our rare breed Oxford Sandy & Black to turning a life around and providing new pigs. If you want to be more hands-on then opportunities. bring your wellies and get involved with the

animals, farm maintenance or growing veg One of our success stories is a boy who didn’t to sell in our farm shop. There’s always mix with his peers and wouldn’t talk. After something to do! We are a not-for-profit just three sessions of working with the animals it was like having a different child. organisation so all proceeds go straight back into the farm.

He was in his element mucking out stables,

grooming the horses and helping out around You can find us at the farm. He started working with other www.debencommunityfarm.co.uk

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As one might expect, we do receive requests Cemetery Grass Cutting for the grass both to be cut short in all areas A statement from East and also to be left long! We perfectly understand that the provision of a tranquil Suffolk Norse cemetery setting may well be considered In the majority of cases within cemeteries, from different points of view and with burials take place within what are called different expectations. 'lawn sections'. Grass cutting in these areas,

which takes place approximately every two weeks, normally commences around the Where areas are managed for conservation, middle of March and continues through to as in the case of the Woodbridge old the end of September. cemetery, these are generally cut in February prior to the first lawn section cut It is notoriously difficult to predict grass and are then cut again around August/ growth, particularly at the beginning of the September. Edges of main routes, grass year when peak growing (called 'flushes') will paths (routes used in connection with the occur and, though the aim is as above, there cemeteries' historic and natural elements), can be times when the grass is longer. frequently visited memorials and areas around the chapels and frontages are all still With many of our natural areas under cut regularly.

threat, the older less frequently used traditional sections of our cemeteries have It should be noted that a number of become ever more important sanctuaries for gravestones in the old cemetery are looked wildlife. These areas really lend themselves after by the Commonwealth War Graves to being managed for the benefit of Commission.

conservation. Long grass has many benefits for wildlife. It is a mini-jungle, moist and It is worth noting that in Paradise sheltered at its base, and also produces Preserved: An Introduction to the abundant flowers, pollen and seeds. Assessment, Evaluation, Conservation and

Management of Historic Cemeteries (a Bees, beetles, caterpillars of various moths publication from English Heritage and and butterflies, grasshoppers - they all Natural England) Woodbridge cemetery is benefit, and so then do birds, bats, hedgehogs listed as a landscape of special historic and other creatures which, including deer, interest. can all be found in our cemeteries.

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The Story of a Street: Church Str eet & Turn Lane Bob Merrett

The Area in 1560 Between this land and the dwellings on the In 1560 a document called an Extent of north side of Le Throughfare was land and Woodbridge late Priory recorded the manor’s dwellings belonging to the manor of holdings and their revenues. What is now Woodbridge Ufford. Church Street was Churchgate Street and what is now Turn Lane was Church Lane. A capital messuage at the top of Church Cumberland Street was Le Throughfare until Street is listed as being formerly occupied by sometime before 1827. the Prior’s farmer. He would have paid tenants of the manor to work on the demesne The coloured dots on the map below indicate land (or demesne farm) which covered some the dwellings listed in the Extent. There 221 acres. Most of the farm was organised were 19 along Churchgate Street and most into seven fields and 11 enclosures. By 1560 were of high status. There were three capital this land had been rented out to nine people. messuages (large houses), 16 messuages (houses with outbuildings and yard) and only William Pytman is recorded as holding 'one one cottage. The only dwellings along Church free messuage with one part of one free Lane were four cottages, which were garden to the same adjoining, late called Le described thus: 'The inhabitants of the town Guyld hall.' This was on Church Street, one of Woodbridge hold four free cottages called building below the entrance to Turn Lane. It Le Alms Houses.' was about where St Mary's Rectory now stands. Guild Halls, like the monasteries, were swept away by the Reformation. The historian Vincent Redstone believes that the Guild Hall mentioned in the Extent was for the Guild of St Loy which assisted the poor and needy during the bitter days of winter.

Churchgate Street 1560 to 1840

In 1564 Thomas Seckford purchased the manor of Woodbridge late Priory from Elizabeth I and built his third house, which he named The Abbey, on the site of the former Priory. To gain access to The Abbey an entrance way was created at the top of Le Churchgate Street. The latter, in 1606, was the first road in Woodbridge to be paved with cobblestones and by 1662 it was being called Stone Street. From the mid-19th century it was called Church Street. By 1640 stage coaches connected Woodbridge to other towns Map showing approximate locations of buildings and the Bull Hotel was an important mentioned in the 1560 Extent. coaching inn.

The three dwellings which abutted the The Poor Rate returns are the first detailed former garden of the Priory held parcels of record of families living in various streets in this land and of the former pond yard. Much the town. During the period 1748 to 1830 the of the land to the east of Le Church lane was number of families in the town increased by the garden of the former Guyld Hall. 284%, yet the number of people living on 17

Church Street hardly changed. It would thus Meeting' the Constables were to 'charge and appear that by 1748 there were no spaces command them peaceably to disperse and left between the houses that lined the street. depart forthwith to their several homes and As in 1560 this was a high status area: none abodes, and not break His Majesty's peace by of the families received poor relief. meeting in such an unlawful manner.'

Alexanders Bank was established in Church In 1749 Thomas Wood created a nursery on Street in 1794. The Alexanders were a land once part of Le Ponde Yarde of the Quaker family who had founded a bank in garden of Woodbridge Priory. Le Church lane Needham Market 20 years before. It was one had become Turn Lane by 1765. George of the first private banks to be established in Arnott notes that premises at the corner of England and it still continues as part of the lane were described in 1736 as 'situate in Barclays Bank. ye Stone Street near ye Turn' which suggests that this was the source of the later name. Church Lane 1560 to 1840

In 1601 two houses in Church Lane were The 1840 Tithe Map given by William Smith to the town for use by the poor. It seems likely that these had An extract from the 1840 Tithe Map, held in been built on what is described in the 1560 the Suffolk Record Office, is below. The red Extent as the 'parcel of free garden called Le and the orange lines have been added to Guylde Hall.' show Church Street and Turn Lane respectively. Each plot of land is numbered In 1608 the Church Wardens' Accounts and a separate Tithe Apportionment gives record that William Pitman 'released his full details of the landowners, occupiers, land rights to a house in the town, late W Smith’s, use and plot size to the use of the town of Woodbridge.' The proceeds of the rights were valued at £2 and it seems likely that this money was used to sustain the 'four free cottages… called Le Alms Houses' mentioned in the 1560 Extent.

In 1678 the Friends' Meeting House was built half way down Church Lane, only 150 yards away from the Parish Church. It was described as 'a spacious Meeting-house nigh the church in your town, lately built and erected for that purpose.' This was six years after Charles II had proclaimed an Indulgence which enabled dissenting preachers and preaching places to be licensed. By then, though, persecution of dissenting groups such as the Quakers, was on the rise. In December 1678 the Justices of the Peace issued an order to the Constables of Woodbridge complaining of 'this Meeting House newly built near the Church.' Should there attempt to meet at it 'five persons or Extract from the 1840 Tithe Map. The red and orange more, of the age of sixteen and upward, lines have been added to show Church Street and subjects of this realm over and besides those Turn Lane respectively of the same house hold, where there is a In 1560 there were 11 and eight buildings family inhabiting at such time of their

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along the eastern and western side of closed the stores in 1992 but retained the Church Street respectively. By 1840 these upper floors for their Head Office until they had increased to 16 and 14 and there was no moved to Framlingham. The gable end of space for any more. There were large their building in Church Street still bears gardens between Church Street and Turn the sign Suffolk Seed Stores. Lane (numbers 466, 465, 463 and 461 on the map) and a large nursery at the bottom of Turn Lane (224). It is on these plots of land that future building would occur.

Church Street from 1840 to the present

In 1871 Wrinch and Barnes established a thriving concern on Cross Corner. The entrance was on Church Street but most of the frontage was on Cumberland Street. They described themselves as 'wholesale and furnishing ironmongers, bar iron and nail steel merchants.' By 1892 they had also The two adjoining buildings on Church Street become agents for 'washing, wringing, acquired by Fred Smith. The orange arrow marks mangling and other machinery' and had a the centre of the archway he eventually put in. store and warehouse adjoining the railway station. Sometime in the 1890s the Cross In September 1921 eleven sisters of the Corner premises were taken over by Fred Carmelite Order came from the Order’s UK Smith whose business eventually became headquarters in Notting Hill, London, to Suffolk Seed Stores. The building burnt establish a convent in Stone House, Church down in 1917. Only part of the two storey Street. The house, previously owned by Dr building was re-constructed and is now Hubert Airy, son of the Astronomer Royal, Prezzo’s. The remainder was replaced by a was a gift from Father Cooper, a retired line of single storey shops running along Roman Catholic priest. The community grew Cumberland Street. These new buildings rapidly and in 1925 they bought properties were narrower than the original and the in Church Street on either side of Stone entrance to Cumberland Street was thus House.

widened.

The nuns had a rigorous regime of worship, After the shop was burnt down Fred Smith prayer and work. Only two of them were moved Suffolk Seed Stores across Church allowed to venture into the outside world, Street to the building next to Barclay's Bank. but there was a parlour where visitors, who It had an arched doorway and arched came to ask for advice or for a prayer to be windows. He eventually acquired the two said, could talk to the nuns through a grill. adjoining buildings which had been used by Messages and goods for the convent were put Davy Crowe, a family grocer and provision into a ‘turn’, a revolving cylinder fixed into merchant. the wall. The cylinder was then rotated so that its contents could be taken out inside Smith cut an archway through part of the the convent. Some say that this is where the ground floor of the end building to provide an name Turn Lane comes from but the name entrance to a courtyard which became dates back to at least 1765. known as Stone Place. He also converted the ground floor of the middle of the three By 1938 the premises in Church Street had buildings into a shop, probably for Suffolk become too cramped and noisy for the nuns Seed Stores. The upper floors of the two end and they moved to Rushmere. Then, in 1948, buildings were rented out as offices with they moved to Quidenham near Attleborough entrances from Stone Place. Suffolk Seeds in Norfolk, where the community remains. 19

T urn Lane 1840 to the present In 1897 Wood's Nursery was bought by Notcutts who continued to use the nursery on the Abbey grounds until 1981. Between 1920 and 1926 the town houses just below the Meeting House were demolished. Most of the site has now been incorporated into the grounds of the Abbey School. All that remains is a triangular parking space on Turn Lane. In the 1960s a bungalow was built opposite the parking space on the lower This building on the corner of Church Street and part of a yard of one of the houses on Turn Lane was a shop before it was incorporated Cumberland Street. The bungalow is shaded into the Carmelite Convent. It later became a pink on this map. private dwelling. Eventually a carriage arch was put through the part of the middle building which had formed the convent. The Church Street buildings were used by the military during World War II and afterwards were sold to the Culmark brush company who built a large factory with access on Turn Lane.

In 1983/84 the three buildings which had formed the Carmelite Convent and its garden were used to create Carmelite Place which had 10 residential units. The four houses shaded yellow on the map (right) were built on what had been the garden of the Convent and six dwellings were created in the three original buildings. One of these became 9 Church Street, a new rectory for the vicar of St Mary's and replaced the previous one at 100 Seckford Street.

By about 2000 the Antique Collectors Club The coloured blocks on this map show the buildings had moved from the old Culmark factory erected either side of Turn Lane post 1960.

which had ceased trading in 1975. The building was demolished about a decade By 1935 there were only two Quakers living later, to be replaced by five new houses. in the town and it was decided to put the Three of these were accessed by Bakers Lane Meeting House on the market. In 1937 it was and the other two were reached via the purchased by Colonel Carthew, the then upper part of Turn Lane. These five houses owner of the Abbey, who was buying any are shaded light blue on the map. property which overlooked his house and land. During his short ownership the Since 1844 the Thoroughfare has been the building was used for St Mary's Lads' Club. only street not to experience a decrease in After Colonel Carthew died his widow sold the number of shops and businesses along it. the former Meeting House, in 1949, to Mr A The decline in commercial activity on H Rushbrook who used it to store china and Church Street was less than other streets glass for his shop on Church Street. He also and replaced New Street as the second most had permission to grow vegetables on the important commercial street in the town. burial ground provided they were more than 20

8ft from grave stones. After Mr Rushbrook buildings and a car park, accessed from Turn died his son sold the Meeting House, in 1971, Lane, were erected on part of the site of the to a property developer who disposed of its former nursery. The new buildings are fittings and had plans drawn up to convert it shaded light green on the map (p20) and the into a private house. This was completed car park is shaded light brown. sometime after 1973.

In 1996 the Quaker Burial Ground was From 1890 the Abbey had been occupied by leased to the Town Council and it is now Colonel Ranulphus John Carthew JP. When managed as a conservation area to help he died in 1943 his widow sold The Abbey support and attract wildlife. Although there and its 14 acres of land to the Woodbridge are only 19 gravestones, one of which marks Endowed School. Six years later The Abbey the grave of the poet and Woodbridge Wit, open as a Junior School. Bernard Barton, records show that there were well over 350 burials in this relatively In 1981 Notcutts decided that they no longer small plot. needed the nursery on the Abbey grounds. This made it possible to expand the Abbey All illustrations courtesy of the author. Junior School in the 1990s. Two new

Painting by local artist James Rowe in 1824 of Cumberland Street seen from Cross Corner, showing part of a butcher’s shop at the bottom of Church Street. The 1560 Extent mentions a shop in the same position.

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W oodbridge and Great Bealing s Norman Porter

Great Bealings has long been a rural the lawn in Bealings than dealing with the satellite of Woodbridge. Before the by-pass French. was built the outskirts of Woodbridge and the open fields of Bealings merged into one Another visitor was Lord Hatherley, another. Human and social links were sometime Lord Chancellor (cf Hatherley strong. In the 16th century Thomas Seckford House on Market Hill). He married lived in Seckford Hall, in the parish of Great Charlotte, the daughter of Major Moor. He is Bealings, and exercised his charitable work buried in Great Bealings churchyard and the from there. The Seckford memorial in St reredos is dedicated to him. The renowned Mary’s Church, Great Bealings, together Woodbridge Wits were a network of cultured with the Tudor red brick porch gentlemen which extended beyond the commissioned by him in memory of his boundaries of Woodbridge itself. Edward parents, and the carved Talbot hunting dog Fitzgerald was a close acquaintance of (now extinct), representing the Seckford coat Canon Moor, the Rector of Great Bealings. -of-arms, all symbolise the strong Seckford He presented him with a special chair which presence within the church. The 500th still belongs in the church. Bernard Barton, anniversary of Thomas Seckford’s birth was Quaker poet, and member of the group, celebrated by residents of Great Bealings wrote a poem entitled Evening in Great with a special dinner held - where else? - in Bealings churchyard. Canon Moor himself Seckford Hall, together with a talk given by was the Woodbridge Rural Dean, based in local speaker, Mark Mitchels. Our village, Great Bealings, the sort of gentlemanly and the church in particular, both celebrate clergyman who carefully documented so and exemplify this link with Woodbridge. much of the life and times of the surrounding area for which he was responsible. We can expand on these links. In the 19th century the cultured gentry living in our Not all the links were so lofty. We also hear great houses mixed and mingled freely. One tales of how the night 'soil' was removed by of them was Sir Augustus Fraser, one of the cart from Woodbridge, with a slight heroes of Waterloo. Before service abroad, he accompanying whiff, to fertilise Bealings had been based at Bromeswell, in fields, while, conversely, milk from Bealings anticipation of a Napoleonic invasion. While farms was transported in churns to supply stationed there he became friendly with local the good people of Woodbridge. Barrack residents, particularly Dr James Lynn, of Cottages in Lower Street, Great Bealings are Woodbridge, whose daughter, Emma, he said to have been constructed of masonry married in 1809. He thus became brother-in- recycled when the Woodbridge barracks were law to Major Edward Moor of Great Bealings demolished after the Napoleonic threat had House, distinguished indianologist and local receded. landowner who, just six years earlier, had married her sister, Elizabeth Lynn. The villages of the Fynn-Lark valley used to (Moorfield Road gives us a bit of a clue as to be in one united Church of England Benefice. how far Major Moor’s lands stretched beyond That is now breaking up. However, the Fynn Bealings.) -Lark valleys remain a charming geographical entity. Bealings may be two So the good Doctor Lynn of Woodbridge adjacent villages, going off in different C of E provided two brides, whose husbands met directions: Little Bealings to join Kesgrave, quite frequently at Great Bealings House. Great Bealings joining up with St Mary’s, Sir Augustus Fraser is quoted as having said Woodbridge. In some ways that is sad, as the that he would rather be playing croquet on two parts of Bealings have an inter-linked 22

common history, with much long-established water meadows to the valley of the River co-operation and social mingling between the Lark. two. They even share a Village Hall.

Linked to the above and as a matter of possible interest the author of this piece is writing a history of the two, entitled Walking through History, rather on the model of WG Sebald's The Rings of Saturn. The model is that of taking a walk through the present, but peeling back the veneer of the present and inviting the reader by words and pictures to imagine scenes from the past. Any contributions to this venture, with anecdotes or pictures from the two villages would be very welcome. Now venture inside through the Elizabethan So, given the splitting up of the former hammerbeam-roofed porch: make sure you Benefice, this historical background helps to look at the roof. Then on through the explain why there was an attractive wonderfully carved 16th century door. Once alternative and historical logic in the linking inside you must not miss the carved wooden up of the two St Mary’s churches. The new pew heads, some medieval, some 19th partnership combines an urban and a rural century and representing the coats of arms of parish, giving Great Bealings the security of former Lords of the Manor. The motifs are association with a strong central church, and replicated in the kneelers. The pulpit is offering Woodbridge access to a nearby Jacobean, and the testa serves as an spiritual 'lung'. As the church, nationally, amplifier. The similarly carved parish chest struggles to assert itself against modern once contained all parish records. The stone secular culture, this partnership will angels now in the sanctuary once gazed out hopefully give fresh impetus locally, not least northwards for some 400 years before in adding an extra ecological dimension to crumbling and being replaced on their lofty religious faith which is not only topical, but perch by the new angels of the Millennium also increasingly, if intuitively, felt to be a Project. The quality of the stained glass strand of faith that can and should be further reflects the commitment to the church of the developed. The next Woodbridge Rector, great families of Bealings. The written Father Nigel Prior, will be installed by Zoom records give the name of the first Priest, on 24 August, and he will also be Priest-in- Anund in 1086. Now, almost a millennium Charge of Great Bealings. later, the church reflects the devotion and labours of generations of Bealings folk, and is What remains secure is the legacy of the used not only for church services, but for a past, together with the treasures of this wide variety of activities: talks, exhibitions, church. The building is close to and screened concerts, festivals, thereby engaging the by an avenue of ancient lime trees that once whole community of whatever faith. The led to Great Bealings Hall, demolished church is normally open during the day. Do around the time of the Declaration of come and visit us. American Independence. The remains of the mellow red brick wall that was once the In the same way that the Woodbridge Society perimeter of the walled garden are now is the guardian of the best of traditional adorned with espaliered fruit trees. From the Woodbridge, so is the village church of Great churchyard, a dedicated wildlife area with Bealings the silent repository of centuries of observation cabin, you look down across local history, spanning the generations, and

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welcoming back those revisiting their small village, but it has a history which can memories. The recent discovery of a Neolithic dovetail neatly with the rich history of its henge in our village has added to the sense urban neighbour. that this part of the world has a discretely rich and deep-rooted history which should be Norman Porter is Churchwarden of St treasured. Great Bealings may be just a Mary’s, Great Bealings.

Jetty Lane - a Home for Just42 and Much More Caroline Rutherford

Back in 2017 my heart sank when I heard since then, but we are still working and that the Woodbridge Youth Centre was to be supporting local young people. We’re very demolished by the following Spring. This much looking forward to restarting our would mean that Just42, the children’s projects as soon as we can. As far as Jetty charity based at the Centre and of which I Lane is concerned we have continued to meet am the manager, would become homeless. So as Trustees. We are applying for funding and I tried to find our Charity a new office. We quietly working in the background to make received plenty of offers of a desk in an our dream a reality. office, but these were all too small. I did find something just about suitable, but at too We have achieved so much since 2017 and high a cost. will continue to work until we see the

building completed and being used by local I contacted our County Councillor, Caroline groups to the benefit of the community of Page, and we worked together to find a Woodbridge and the surrounding area. We solution. Suffolk County Council gave us 12 know that there is a pressing need for months to put a Business Plan together to facilities locally. A number of groups and save the site. Amazingly, I got permission charities as well as Just42 have already from the County Council and the District pledged to hire from Jetty Lane. They Council to put two temporary cabins, funded include New Horizons lunch club for the by our District Councillors, on the site elderly, Kuk Sool Won martial arts group for following the demolition. This secured our all ages, Company of Four theatre group for future for the time being.

all ages, Woodbridge Excelsior Band,

The rest is history – Jetty Lane was formed. Gateway Club and Trefoil Guild. A company I joined as one of the founding Trustees and offering musical theatre skills for primary am now its vice chair. We were given a 125 school children is even being set up year lease by Suffolk County Council and specifically to run from Jetty Lane. were granted planning permission to build an iconic and useful centre for the future Can you help us? residents of Woodbridge. Importantly for These are particularly challenging times for Just42 it will be a proper home: one that Jetty Lane. The actual Centre is not built yet secures our future, right where we want to and funding opportunities have, quite be, in Woodbridge, in easy reach of local rightly, been diverted to provide support to schools and all the locations where we work charities working at the front line dealing and offer young people support. I am with issues arising from the coronavirus especially keen on having a proper home as pandemic. Nevertheless we believe that, as my team and I are still based in the people have become more aware of the uninsulated cabins on the site! importance of community and as we enter an

economic recession, the need for a Centre Then Covid-19 hit and the world shut down. providing accessible wellbeing and leisure Life at Just42 has been quiet in the weeks activities will become even more important. 24

Jetty Lane needs local people to get behind the project and support us! You could simply follow our social media pages on

Facebook (Jetty Lane Community Youth & Arts Centre, Woodbridge), Twitter (@JettyLaneWDB) or Instagram (jetty_lane) or sign up to receive our newsletter ([email protected]).

We also need people to talk about the project, raising awareness of it. I truly believe that the building will not only be a blessing to Just42, but to the wider community of Woodbridge. Lane site," says Cllr. Caroline Page, chair of Jetty Lane. "This enables us to open them to Do you know anyone - a business, a trust, a community groups, especially those involving foundation or other organisation - that could young people and people struggling with help us by supporting us financially or giving their mental health. The Spaces have been us their skills or time? If so, please get in gifted to us by Eric Reynolds, the new owner touch with us at [email protected] or of The Woodbridge Boatyard, to whom we are contact me at [email protected] with very grateful." any questions or suggestions.

Jetty Lane is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation “We are thrilled that we have just been given registered in England and Wales. Registered Charity two temporary Activity Spaces on the Jetty Number 1184713.

What Lies Beneath? Kirk Weir asks: Is human waste being discharged into the River Deben in risky quantities? Deben to prove the presence of dangerous levels of human faecal or viral pathogens; and to my knowledge no reported case of sickness caused by human faecal pollution of the river.

Over the years the boat population of the Deben has steadily increased. The tidal anchorages have extended North and South, but most worrying to many has been the steady increase in permanent liveaboards. At Ferry Quay, January dawn, 2020 (Kirk Weir) Felixstowe Ferry, Martlesham Creek and from Ferry Quay to Wilford Bridge the Under this placid, glassy surface do bacterial scattered and crumbling nautical remnants menaces lurk and wait to pounce on the of the past have been replaced by houseboats. unwary swimmer or paddling toddler? Plenty of people think so, but at the same There are now floating hamlets of ancient time there is no scientific evidence, and no and modern barges, converted motor boats forensic examination of the tidal upper and strange vessels defying classification.

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As you walk along the riverside paths you HM Maritime and Coastguard Agency cannot but be impressed by the ingenuity (HMMCA) advises small boat owners that, in and hardiness of those who have chosen the coastal waters, all sewage generated on spartan life on a boat with only a plank board boats should be emptied into shore providing a link to dry land. Although nearly waste facilities. If boats use holding tanks for all the houseboats appear to have mains sewage, the tanks should be emptied at on- electricity cables and fresh water supply shore pump out stations or when more than pipes, none have sewage outlets to the shore. three miles offshore in open sea. Vessels So where does it go? I mean where does the without a holding tank should not use their poo go? If you ask the houseboat residents, toilets in poor tidal flushing areas such as and a few of our members have, they will estuaries, inland waterways, inlets and say that they carry the solid elements to the crowded anchorages and should use shore nearest toilet where it is safely flushed facilities wherever possible. In addition, away, or that they accumulate the effluent since 2006, new UK pleasure boats with in holding tanks for later evacuation by a accommodation must provide the facility to contractor. Can you believe that? In many fit an on-board holding tank. In reality these years of walks on the Deben banks I have are impossible demands. There are only only seen one person carrying a toilet three pump out facilities for yacht holding container and never seen the septic tank tanks along the UK east coast sailing area lorry. But there again my walks, like those (at Wells, Lowestoft and Woolverstone of most people, are taken later in the day or Marina). This lack of facilities reflects the in the evening. Perhaps it all happens at historic laissez-faire attitude of UK sailors night, or early in the day – either the safe and regulators to marine sewage disposal. disposal, or the quiet flushing of heads and On continental Europe the disposal of holding tanks into the falling tide. sewage from pleasure boats is much more strongly regulated and pump out facilities for On the other hand, who am I to complain? In boats are mandatory and ubiquitous. 60 years of cruising on sailing boats (from 'bucket and chuck it' to electric vacuum Perhaps there is a reason for Britons’ historic flusher) I, and my family and friends, have neglect of the HMMCA guidance. Whereas happily polluted the oceans wide. Many a the sailing areas of the Mediterranean and weekend was spent with friends and their Baltic Seas and the inland waterways of the boats, often rafted up together, happy whilst Netherlands have minimal or no tidal flow, our children played and swam in the the coast of Britain is scoured twice a day by gorgeous and peaceful Suffolk rivers. We huge and powerful tides. If the 'solution to were like all boaties in those days, flushing pollution is dilution' the British Isles are the heads without a stain on our conscience, blessed with a natural defence.

the tide washing away any environmental concerns. Times have changed and such Many houseboat residents are sensitive to carefree attitudes to the environment are no environmental issues. However, there are no longer with us. standing facilities to pump out holding tanks along the Deben and many houseboats are Locally, the Deben Estuary Partnership moored at isolated spots with neither nearby Plan in 2015 and the River Deben toilets nor access for a sewage tanker. Some Association Forum in 2019 expressed of the owners of the houseboat moorings concern that excremental pollution from provide simple shore toilets and showers for houseboats could cause a risk to health. use by their tenant houseboats. Many Perhaps this is not surprising given the houseboats are converted barges/motor boats scary statistic that “One flush from a boat originally built without holding tanks. contains the same [bacterial count] as Retrofitting a holding tank is expensive (£1- 250,000 flushes through the fluid treatment 5K), and there is little point unless the tank process.” (Green Blue website 2019). can be easily and economically discharged. A 26

visit from the sewage tanker (if it can get On a more positive note Robertson’s near the boat) is expensive. There are no boatyard has made significant improvements local regulations enforcing the safe disposal in recent years by installing a treatment of sewage from boats and the advised best plant to service their yard and offices and practice is entirely self-policing. insist that houseboats moored at their yard use composting toilets or pump out to their Houseboat moorings are usually placed next mobile pump-out system. They hope to use to the shore, out of the main tidal run, and in their pump out from their landing craft along sheltered inlets. As a result, discharged raw the whole length of the Deben. However, all sewage might accumulate near the boats and plans are on hold and there is no date for the more so in certain wind conditions. However, operation of the service. we do not know the faecal pollution levels anywhere on the tidal Deben, let alone in the Where do we go from here? The Town and areas most congested with houseboats. District Councils refer all concerns to the EA Sarah Zins (River Deben Association) and I and the EA say they will only get involved if set out to discover if we could. A friendly there is a pollution incident reported. The local bacteriologist pointed out that, because good practice advised by HMMCA is of extreme dilution, it would be difficult to impractical given the absence of standing find faecal bacteria in samples of water or shore based pump out facilities, and the mud, but went on to say that any faecal difficulty of leaving and entering the Deben pollution was potentially dangerous. The entrance for a six mile round trip at the top environmentalist from the water company of the tide. Sarah Zins and I eventually stated that the Deben’s large bird population concluded that the only way forward was to also contaminates the river with faecal minimise faecal pollution by advertising the bacteria and that these were not easily best practice guidelines and urging boat distinguishable from those of humans. Thus, residents/users to do what they reasonably the expert opinion was that testing would be can to minimise faecal pollution. We also of no value and in any case even occasional thought that such a campaign would be best discharges might be dangerous! received when more facilities became available e.g. the proposed Robertson’s Anxiety about discharges from small boats service. needs to be put in perspective as raw sewage is permitted (by licence) to be discharged from the main sewage system into rivers under certain circumstances – most commonly when heavy rainstorms/high tides VACANCY create the risk of sewage back-up and overflow into domestic or public areas. Water An exciting opportunity awaits a member to companies must notify the Environment take up the position of Agency (EA) whenever this occurs. It may surprise you to learn that this occurs into the Chair of the Society Deben for between 500 and 8760 hours a year (2017-18) from each of the outlets at Any member looking for such an Wickham Market, Woodbridge and opportunity supported by an enthusiastic Martlesham – and that as a consequence it is and knowledgeable committee to promote not advised to swim in the Deben after heavy the work of the Society should apply now to rainstorms (The Rivers Trust – Is my river the Secretary for details fit to play in?). So, does the occasional effluent discharge from, excuse my language, a piddling number of liveaboards, really pose [email protected] a risk?

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The Woodbrid ge Society The Society's chief interest is in the quality of the environment in which, as residents, we live. It brings together people who are interested in Woodbridge's well-being, the preservation of its historic character and the way it develops in the future. The Society: * raises with the authorities matters of concern to do with the town; * promotes high standards of planning and architecture and monitors planning applications; * stimulates interest in the history and traditions of the town; * publishes a twice-yearly newsletter and organises talks during the autumn and winter. Our talks are, like the newsletter, free to members and are presented at the Abbey School. The Society is a registered charity and is able to claim gift aid on donations Officers and Committee President Tony Hubbard MBE 386869 [email protected] Chairman Position vacant Secretary and Membership Secretary Kirk Weir 385909 [email protected] Treasurer Lindsay Dann 382459 [email protected] Tim Cornford (Newsletter Editor) 387586 [email protected] Anne Day 387894 [email protected] Warwick Faville 385763 [email protected] Jeremy Hawksley 387848 [email protected] The Society’s email address is [email protected] Julian Royle (Co-chair) 384858 [email protected] Eddie Taylor (Co-chair) 386504 [email protected] Carol Wiseman (Newsletter Production) 383666 [email protected]

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