DISS U3A MONTHLY MEETING REPORTS (from July 2015)

Sally Cummings completed our speaker programme for the year in December with her talk entitled “Women Can Fly”.

Sally jumped out of a plane when she was 16 years old. She has always been passionate about flying. Indeed, she jumped before her brother and he was a gymnast! She told us that she has no fear of heights – an asset for someone keen to launch herself into parachute and pilot training. After 15 hours initial training for flying, she was addicted and went on to obtain her pilot licence. (1983).

Robins – Sally’s first aeronautical experience

Cessnas followed…….

Fast jet

At this time, women were not employed by the RAF as pilots, so she did ‘fighter control’, something she described as ‘3D space invaders with real people.’ When the RAF began to employ women pilots she took aptitude tests for navigation and flying and learned to fly fast jets. Sally enjoyed the company and camaraderie of a predominantly male work place. She gave us some humorous examples of living inside ‘male-designed’ uniform and using exclusively male toilets. Her comment on the uniform: ‘It’s freeing to wear a grow-bag’. Once up in the air, Sally used Wales as her ‘playground’ and told us that altitude can be measured by the sighting of sheep and cows’ legs: ‘If you can see sheeps’ legs…..too low…..if you can’t see cows’ legs…..too high.’

We learned from Sally that 20% of flyers do ‘Fast Jet’ training. However, she eventually realised that she was not willing to fly in combat and also that she has little sense of direction! Both were disadvantages for someone wishing to make a career with the RAF. Her final flight to Wales went wrong although fortunately, there were no injuries. However, after this incident Sally switched to helicopters and became a search and rescue pilot.

Once a decision had been made to start a family the flying ceased. Sally now has three children; the oldest is 21. She currently directs some of her energies to providing help for war torn parts of the world.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on

Thursday 5th January, starting at

10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be Frances Holmes, whose talk will be about:

“The Old Courts and Yards of Norwich”

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

At the November meeting of Diss U3A, Tony Diamond gave us a humorous talk entitled:

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Catherine of Aragon m. 1509 - Anne Boleyn m. 1533 - 1536 Jane Seymour m. 1536 - 1537 1533 Divorced Executed Died

Anne of Cleves m. 1540 Jan. - July Catherine Howard m. 1540 - 1542 Catherine Parr m. 1543 - 1547 Divorced Executed Widowed

This is a familiar historical topic, but his delivery was unusual and the illustrations were amusing. He even successfully encouraged the audience to participate in singing popular songs of the day, including, finally, Greensleeves.

He presented each of the wives in a sympathetic way, but regarded Henry VIII as a tyrant, determined to ensure the succession of the Tudors.

The talk began with the arrival in England of Catherine of Aragon who was betrothed to and then married Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, the Prince of Wales. She was widowed after only five months, but was kept in England so that the Crown did not lose her substantial dowry. When Henry VIII succeeded to the throne eight years later, he decided to marry Catherine. To do this he needed the permission of the Pope, and the significant question was whether the first marriage had been consummated. There was contradictory advice in the bible, but the Pope was encouraged to give consent. Catherine was popular with the people and led the victory over the Scots at the Battle of Flodden while Henry was fighting in . She bore Henry a daughter Mary, but failed to produce a son.

Henry was keen to ensure the Tudor succession by producing a male heir. Eventually he decided to divorce Catherine on the grounds that her marriage to his brother had been consummated. She was sent to Kimbolton Castle until she died in 1536.

Henry then married Anne Boleyn who was pregnant with his child. She too had a daughter, Elizabeth, but had no surviving sons. Tony Diamond was sympathetic towards Anne and did not think that she was guilty of the charges of adultery, witchcraft and incest which led to her execution. A day after her death, Henry married Jane Seymour. This appeared to be a happy marriage and Jane gave birth to a son Edward. Jane died shortly afterwards and is buried in St George’s Chapel Windsor.

Three years later Henry married Anne of Cleves. Henry disliked her as a wife and had that marriage annulled. He treated her generously however, accommodating her at Hever Castle, and referring to her as his “loving sister” She is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Catherine Howard was the next wife and was married to Henry for one year before being charged with adultery and being executed. Tony Diamond believes that Catherine was probably guilty.

The sixth and final wife was Catherine Parr. She was 31 and had been widowed twice. She was very accomplished and translated sections of the bible from the Greek into English, working closely with the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. She too was accused of witchcraft at one point, but her wise answers to Henry’s questions meant that the charge was dropped. She outlived Henry, and after Henry’s death married Thomas Seymour and lived at Wolf Hall.

Henry was buried with his third wife, Jane, at St George’s chapel.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 1st December at 10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss. The guest speaker will be Sally Cummings whose talk will be Women can Fly.

Refreshments will be served before the meeting.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

Nick Sanderson was our October speaker with his talk, entitled ‘ Authority – its History and Future’.

Nick Sanderson is the Education Officer for the Norfolk Broads. He has previously worked for and teaching about wildlife and conservation is his passion.

Nick gave us a fascinating talk about the history and development of the Broads from Roman Times. This included the management of the flood plains of the five main rivers, the protection of the marshes, with fortifications such as Burgh Castle and Caister, and the extraction of peat. At one time, 400000 turves of peat were extracted each year. This peat provided fuel for a wide area, including Norwich Cathedral. In the 14th century, the Black Death severely reduced the work force and peat digging was gradually abandoned. As a result, the lakes expanded. However, by the end of the Civil War, drainage engineers were creating dykes to drain the land and connect to the rivers. Dutch engineers, well experienced with their own water challenges, arrived to establish a network of mills and pumps, mostly to pump water into the rivers. Banks were built up to prevent flooding and to provide drier land for agriculture.

River transport was mainly by wherry. During the 19th century as the Broads became more romanticised, tourism flourished. The reeds and sedge were used for thatching. Eels were speared for domestic consumption and the surplus was sent to Billingsgate. The Norwich school of artists revelled in the Broads landscape, while tourism was further increased by the growth of the railway network. Wherry tourism increased rapidly; motor boats in the 30s, ‘booze cruisers’ in the 70s.

Damage to the ecology of the Broads was the result of an increase in sewage and the use of chemicals for farming. In 1953 the water was ‘the colour of mulligatawny soup’. It was no longer pleasant or safe to swim in the Broads.

More recent Broads management has resulted in better understanding of conservation. The Broads is a unique habitat; 26% of our rarest species can be found in the Broads but they are still vulnerable to exploitation and of course, the rise in sea level. Continued use of nitrates causes the algae to spread so rare plants cannot survive. Water fleas are in demand as they eat the algae, but fish eat the fleas! Such is the precarious balance of nature!

The Broads can boast species such as the Norfolk Hawker , the rare Swallowtail butterfly, otters, Chinese water deer, water voles, bearded tits, bittern even the Great Raft , previously restricted to the . Polish Konik ponies are used to eat the unwanted vegetation because, if left unmanaged, the Broads would return to woodland.

The greatest threat to the Broads is probably tidal surge, as this would bring salt into the rivers and lakes. Sea levels have risen 80 cms in the last 100 years so it is vital to continue this valuable conservation work if we want our grandchildren’s children to enjoy the Broads as much as we have been able to.

After Nick’s talk there were several interesting questions. We learned about the ‘depressed river mussel’ found in the river Waveney and the harmful American crayfish. We also discovered that people who set traps to catch the edible crayfish, unfortunately, also trap and drown otters and water voles!

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 3rd November at 10.30 am in the United Reform Church, Diss. The guest speaker will be Tony Diamond whose talk will be The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

Refreshments will be served before the meeting.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

September: The Fall of Yarmouth Suspension Bridge

Gareth Davies, a former schoolteacher, gave us a fascinating, yet gruelling account of the disastrous collapse of Great Yarmouth Suspension Bridge in 1845. His interest in the story stemmed from a local history project he had prepared for his class, many years ago.

The map below shows us what Yarmouth looked like 170 years ago. The town was not big, but there was a railway and a long medieval wall. The railway line from Norwich to Yarmouth (1844) was the first in East Anglia. People used to have to pay a toll to cross into town from the station. The bridge was built by a successful solicitor, Robert Cory Jnr. He had previously bought the rights to a ferry crossing. The bridge was built in 1829.

In 1845, Cooke’s Royal Circus visited the town along with 50 artists and 30 horses. This circus was extremely popular because the performance included some daring stunts and polished equestrian performances. On this fateful occasion, May 2nd 1845, Arthur Nelson, a regular stunt artist, was set to sail in a washing tub along the river, drawn by four real geese! This daring feat had already been performed successfully in several different venues. At 5.30 in the afternoon Nelson set off from Yarmouth Bridge along the River Yare towards the River Bure, to be welcomed by an exuberant crowd of local residents on the suspension bridge. Unfortunately, a strong tide pulled the tub further up the River Yare into Bredon Water. There were 400 people watching from the bridge, many jostling for the best view. As the tub surged forth into Bredon Water, there was a great rush to one side of the bridge. One side cracked and broke up, thus spilling many helpless spectators into the water. Witness comments recall: “Not a scream was heard”….only gurgles as the advancing tide buried them. Survivors grabbed and hugged each other until they were rescued. They were warmed up with barrels of hot water from the brewery while the stables were used as a morgue for the 78 people who died.

Tragically, most of the victims were women and children, enjoying a day out, while many of the men were at work in the factories. Most of the victims were 5-20 years old. The majority of the victims’ families were from labouring classes with some in trade and commerce. Harriet Bussey died aged 26. Her husband was a shoemaker earning 5-8 shillings a week. He had paid 1d a week into a burial club so he could afford a gravestone. Yet sixty-six victims would have been condemned to paupers’ funerals had not Charles Cory (son of Robert Jnr) paid their funeral costs. Most of the victims were buried in St Nicholas churchyard. William Livingstone, a draper, lost two of his children, Matilda and Joseph, aged 6 and 7. They had been on the bridge with their mother Martha and younger brother William. Matilda and Joseph were amongst 7 of the victims who were buried in the Dissenter Burial Ground. The jurors who visited the homes of the victims’ families witnessed terrible scenes of abject misery.

How and why did this tragedy occur? Henry Mackenzie, Rector of St Nicholas Church, spoke a great deal on this tragedy, claiming it was “judgement upon your sins….the result of ignorance and vanity.” (This was reported in The Sun newspaper). Others blamed the circus, “the silly exhibition of the buffoon”…. “so childish”. The jurors investigating tried to establish if any warning was given but their evidence was inconclusive. Home Secretary James Graham sent an expert engineer who stated that the cause was a defect in the chain on the south side and also blamed the “defective quality of workmanship….with no regard for the weight on the bridge”. The findings did not result in prosecution, but did eventually result in stricter regulations on bridge safety.

Why is it that we have heard more about the Scottish Tay Bridge Disaster (1879) than this terrible event that took place so close to us in East Anglia? No-one seems to know.

It took until 2013 for a memorial to be erected and this was thanks to the efforts of Julie Staff who ran a deckchair business on Yarmouth beach. In 2011, she started to collect money for the memorial. She did not want to raise money from grants like the Lottery – instead, she took her campaign to the beach. 170 years after the tragedy the memorial was officially opened.

The bridge had cost Cory £8000. He had wanted something special on which to emblazon his family crest, a legacy to his personal achievements. If only he had known how disastrous his project would turn out to be.

For more information on the Fall of Yarmouth Suspension Bridge see: www.poppyland.co.uk

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 6th October 10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss. The guest speaker will be Nick Sanderson whose talk will be: The Broads Authority Its History and Future. Refreshments will be served before the meeting.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

Jason Middleton was our August speaker with his talk, entitled ‘An Introduction to Gemstones’.

Jason has been in the jewellery trade for nearly 15 years and has acquired a wealth of knowledge about the history, science and use of gemstones. He has worked for a jewellery company, travelling the world to buy gems for its shops. More recently, he has set up his own company. He explained that empires have expanded because of their mineral wealth and that this wealth and status is reflected in royal collections, for example, the Crown Jewels – on view at the Tower of London.

Gemstones are found embedded in rocks either up mountainsides and cliffs, underground or deep down in the ocean. These gems can be divided into six categories:

1) Dia (for instance – diamonds). These gems are pure carbon, made from extreme heat and pressure. An example is the ‘round brilliant cut’ diamond with 56/7 cuts that act like a prism. Most diamonds are ‘rough cut’ and about ½ carat. It is the tectonic plate movement and volcanic eruptions that force upwards precious diamonds. Many are subsequently washed into rivers and lakes. They are usually white but can be coloured. Most are found in Central and South Africa.

2) Corundum (for instance – rubies). These are very hard and expensive. They contain impurities such as chromium and iron. Rubies can be given as 40th wedding anniversary presents. Sapphires contain iron and titanium. These are a clean blue but shades vary from soft cornflour to black. Other colours such as pink and green are less common.

3) Beryl (for instance – emeralds). These contain chromium and vanadium impurities. They are rarely flawless, being more brittle and less durable. Not to be worn when you are digging in the garden! Aquamarine is more robust. It is found mainly in Brazil. Many gemstones are heat-treated to bring out their colour. 4) Quartz (for instance, amethyst). This is commonly available and used, for example in necklaces made in Brazil. Intaglio seals use quartz – these are mined in Africa and in . Another example is citrine, which is pale yellow and very rare – found in Brazil and Spain. 5) Organic (for instance amber, jet, pearl and coral). Amber is a fossilised resin from trees found in the Baltic, and Russia. Jet is the remains of dead wood that have been immersed in stagnant water. Whitby jet is a well-known example. Pearl is found in molluscs such as oysters and mussels. Parasites get inside and lay down organisms that entomb the shell and preserve the pearls. Coral is the skeletal remains of marine creatures. Red coral is valuable, found mainly in the Pacific Ocean. Global warming has caused a threat to the survival of the coral reefs, some of which have been bleached irreversibly by warmer waters. 6) Others. Onyx, tanzanite, lapis lazuli (mainly from Afghanistan), opals, topaz, from Brazil, Pakistan and Japan, peridot, garnet, malachite.

Gemstones have also been linked to birthstones, for example, May - emerald, June - pearl, July - ruby.

There have been many famous gemstones, for example, the Millennium Star, the Hope Pearl, the Cullinan diamond. Ancient civilizations used gemstones in burials as a mark of respect for the afterlife. We also, unfortunately, know that precious gemstones can cause destructive conflicts. The black market in Sierra Leone is a grim example whereby diamonds were used to fund the war. The Kimberley Project has since been set up to free gemstone mining from conflict.

In summary, Jason gave us a fascinating tour of the mineral world with clear and interesting explanations of the properties and qualities of each type of gemstone.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 1st September at 10.30am in the United Reformed Church, Diss. The guest speaker will be Gareth Davies whose talk will be: The Fall of Yarmouth Suspension Bridge – A Norfolk Disaster. Refreshments will be served before the meeting.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

In July, Roger Kennell gave us his talk entitled ‘Pretty Corsets In Suffolk: William Pretty & Son: a Suffolk family and corset manufacturer’

Roger Kennell is a local historian with a particular interest in the history of Hadleigh, where he is the local history recorder. Roger discovered that a family drapery business with a specialism in ladies’ corsets had a factory outpost in Hadleigh, in the Old Town Hall. This led to his detailed research into the family history of William Pretty and his sons. It turns out that there was an important factory in Ipswich and later, several other outposts in Suffolk and Norfolk towns, including Diss.

1901 advert – Pretty and Sons

William Coleman Pretty lived in Botesdale (where the bus company Simonds used to be based). His experience of business began when he was thirteen, as an apprentice in a drapers shop in Stowmarket, where he slept under the counter and, of course, learnt the skills of drapery. William married in 1782, settling in Bacton, where he opened a drapery shop. Later, in the 1830s, he joined with John Footman to open a drapery business in Stowmarket, setting up the first corset factory and warehouse in the country. This prospered, due to the fashion for tiny waists and laced corsets so they moved to Ipswich where Pretty Snr built another factory, making the components for the corsets, which were sent by train to Stowmarket for assembling, then returned to Ipswich for packing and despatch. William Pretty’s first son, also William (Jnr) joined his father in 1821. He took over the management of the factory, thus freeing up his father to devote more time to his charitable interests in Ipswich. William Pretty Jnr was dedicated to profit- making and sport – fox-hunting in particular. He also was the first man in Ipswich to have a lawn tennis court.

William Pretty & Son (1930) Ltd. Ipswich factory as it was in 1938. It was built in 1881. Note this view is after William Pretty & Son went into liquidation in 1930, and was then taken over by R & W H Symington of Market Harborough.

William Pretty Jnr’s first wife died in childbirth. He later married Ann Sheringham and began to run the corset side of the business. This involved numerous trips to USA where he developed links with Warner Brothers (nothing to do with Cinema). He crossed the Atlantic forty times despite suffering from severe sea-sickness. His travels led him to desire expansion, realising that he couldn’t produce enough corsets to compete on the world market. Consequently, on return, he set up a factory outpost in Stowmarket (Royal British Legion) and employed female labourers. He also built a large new factory in Ipswich with underground tunnels. Since he could not get enough female labour, more outposts were set up, all in towns with railway stations.

When William Pretty Snr died, he left £67,000. William Pretty Junior opened workshops for making his own boxes and labels for packaging. He also began producing ‘Zairod’ corsets, where whalebone was replaced with horn, reed and stainless steel, since whalebone was becoming too expensive. Later he used ‘coraline’, becoming the sole manufacturer for Europe, the Colonies and U.S.A of ‘Coralite Corsets’. In the early 20th century there was an active resistance to corset manufacture, not least from the Suffragettes. Fashions were beginning to change with women wearing much looser clothing. As a result, sales plummeted.

William Pretty Jnr had five sons, one of whom died young. The other four became directors of the firm when their father died in 1916. Roger Kennell told us the story of one of the sons, Frank, whose painfully slow courtship with Edith Dempster lasted twenty-five years. She turned him down year after year. He went to France in 1914 with his horse and was injured. After this, he was turned down again! This rejection by Edith lasted 25 years. It is presumed that Frank was not good enough, being ‘in trade’, while Edith’s family were rather more upper crust! Nonetheless, his perseverance paid off. They married in their forties. Sadly, Frank died in 1934, aged only 56. Edith, however, went on to involve herself in the Sutton Hoo excavations.

Meanwhile, the family business was suffering from a 42% drop in corset sales. William Pretty Jnr diversified and began to produce rayon underwear. He closed the outposts in 1925 and by 1930 he had gone into liquidation. The factory was bought by a Market Harborough business and sales improved, including the sale of lingerie to Harrods and Liberty. However by 1968, with the coming of mini-skirts, hot pants, etc the trade began to collapse and in 1983 William Pretty & Son was closed for the last time. It was demolished in the same year and became the car park behind Debenhams.

William Pretty Jnr and Four Sons

A fascinating family saga of the rise and fall of an enterprising family. Innovation, success, disappointments, expansion and finally decline over a period of three generations. The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 4th August starting at 10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be Jason Middleton whose talk will be:

An Introduction to Gemstones

Refreshments will be served before the meeting.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website:

www.dissu3a.org.uk

In May, David Berwick presented Nuggets of History – Norwich Cathedral (What’s not in the Guide Books).

David has been an official guide at Norwich Cathedral since January 2008. Consequently he has met hundreds of visitors from all over the world. This has provided him with an ideal opportunity to study many topics not covered by more traditional guide books. David told our group that Norwich Cathedral has many secrets and surprising aspects to its long and glorious history. Just as pilgrims poured into the city many centuries ago, when its first Benedictine bishop Herbert de Losinga was appointed (1094), so it welcomes huge numbers of ‘pilgrims’ today. The bishop witnessed the work on the building when it began in 1096 and he saw its first stage of construction through until his untimely death in 1119. Bishop Eborard saw the final building phase completed in 1145.

Other inspired builder-bishops followed down the centuries, overseeing some considerable rebuilding and enhancing the precious fabrics. This was all necessary after some catastrophic natural disasters and following the damage and destruction of so many treasures during the Reformation.

The original Benedictine Foundation lasted, in essence, until 1538 when Henry VIII ‘dissolved’ the cathedral monastery in Norwich.

A companion to this talk is the new book with the same title published in March 2013 which can be bought in the Cathedral Bookshop.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on

Thursday 2nd June, starting at 10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be Jeremy Cameron, whose talk will be:

“Never Again – A walk from Amsterdam to Istanbul”

Refreshments will be served before the meeting.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website:

www.dissu3a.org.uk

In April, Michael Grillo presented “Two Kinds of Teardrops - The Roy Orbison and Del Shannon Story”, an entertaining talk about two famous pop icons from the 60s – Roy Orbison and Del Shannon. The talk was accompanied by many extracts from their 60s hits, as well as by anecdotes about their parallel lives. We were also privy to some rare photographs showing the stars at different stages of their lives.

Whilst the lyrics brought back memories of a golden era of pop music and culture, the stories of their lives were filled with both joy and tragedy. Roy’s marriage to Claudette ended with divorce. She remarried; he had a motorcycle accident. They were reconciled but in 1966 she died in a motorcycle accident. Later, his home in Tennessee burnt down, killing his two young sons. In 1969 he remarried – Barbara Jakobs. He became a heavy smoker and had a weight problem. In 1988, after a brief spell with the ‘Traveling Wilburys’ (including George Harrison and Bob Dylan), Roy died of a heart attack. He was only 52.

Del Shannon, born two years earlier in 1934, died in 1990, a year after remarrying. He had become a victim of ‘the demon drink’. He was found with a shotgun beside him and it is widely assumed he committed suicide. Del had originally been taught ukulele by his mother. This led on to guitar playing, singing and song-writing. He sang of heartbreak and anger, but also of hope. Despite an untrained voice he acquired an astonishing range to include an amazing falsetto. Perhaps his main strength, however, was in song-writing, whereas Roy Orbison is fondly remembered for singing broken-heartedly (as well as for those dark glasses). They both had numerous chart successes both in the UK and in U.S.A.

Roy and Del both enjoyed revivals in the 70s and gave live performances together. Five decades of joy and pain from both these musical legends but a tremendous legacy for the world of popular music. For more information on their lives, loves, highs and lows, go to: http://www.royorbison.com http://www.delshannon.com

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on

Thursday May 5th, starting at

10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be David Berwick, whose talk will be about:

“Nuggets of History”

Norwich Cathedral - What’s not in the Guide Books

Refreshments will be served before the meeting.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website:

www.dissu3a.org.uk

Richard Ellis delivered our March talk on the subject of “The Art of Theft”.

Mr. Ellis spent 30 years in the Met. He ran the Art & Antiquities Squad for New Scotland Yard from 1989 until his retirement from the police in 1999. After working for Christie’s fine Art Security Services and Trace recovery services, in 2005 he joined with security and conservation specialists to form the Art Management Group. He is also director of Art Resolve and Art Retrieval International Ltd.

In this entertaining and informative talk we learned some truths about the allegedly ‘glamorous’ world of art theft. Mr Ellis told our group several extraordinary stories about individual art thieves such as Peter Scott, born in Belfast - a great climber, who regularly bought new suits for his Knightsbridge camouflage. If he was disturbed on his expeditions he would call out “It’s only me!” Notable victims were Elizabeth Taylor from whom he stole £30, Judy Garland and Sophie Loren. In 1997 he stole Picasso’s ‘Tête de Femme’ from a Mayfair art gallery. Mr Ellis explained how the paintings stolen would only be worth 10% of the media value and that art theft is used to finance other crimes such as selling drugs.

In 1974 Rose Dugdale, daughter of a millionaire and a débutante with 3 academic degrees, stole paintings from her parents’ home in Devon in order to fund the IRA. In 1974 Dugdale took part in a raid at Russborough House in County Wicklow, home of Sir Alfred Beit. Dugdale, along with 3 other IRA members pistol-whipped Sir Alfred and his wife before tying and gagging them. Next, they stole nineteen old masters valued at £8 million, including paintings by Gainsborough, Rubens, Vermeer and Goya.

Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid – Vermeer

Another art thief, Stefane Breitweiser, a French waiter, stole 239 artworks from 172 museums between 1995 and 2001. He kept them in his darkened bedroom and never tried to sell any of them because he ‘loved art’. When he was rumbled, his mother threw some of the Old Masters into the canal realising that they were stolen! Others she shredded and put down the waste disposal unit!

Graham Harkin was a member of the National Trust. He used Google Maps to locate the best entry points in various stately homes, located the windows not covered by motion detection and then loaded up with Meissen porcelain. In 2012, the Cultural Property Crime Committee was launched as there were 200 art crimes a day reported in England and Ireland, In 2011, 750 000 crimes were recorded by English Heritage including many thefts of lead form church roofs.

This is only a sample of the stories Mr Ellis told the group. His talk was certainly a gripping account of the challenges of art crime detection as well as revealing biographical details of the most notorious art thieves.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on

Thursday April 7th, starting at

10.30 am in the United Reform Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be Michael Grillo whose talk will be:

“Two Kinds of Teardrops”

The Roy Orbison & Del Shannon Story

Refreshments will be served before the meeting – as usual.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

Our February talk was “Miss May Savidge Moves House”, which was given by Christine Adams (her niece).

For a labour of love, it was the DIY job of the century. Brick by brick, a determined old lady, Christine Adam’s aunt, demolished her precious home, pulling each medieval nail from its ancient oak beam. Dressed in a workman's apron, her greying hair tucked beneath a headscarf, she single- handedly piled high the thousands of hand-made Hertfordshire peg tiles from the roof.

Huge timbers were loaded onto a lorry, alongside Tudor fireplaces and Elizabethan diamond leaded glass, for a rebuild that would consume the rest of her life.

The Shell

May Savidge was determined to beat developers and planners who threatened to crush her historic cottage under a road-building project. Long before conservation became fashionable, she decided to move her home lock, stock and barrel from busy Ware High Street in Hertfordshire to a Norfolk backwater 100 miles away.

And move it she did, in a 23-year labour of love, during which she battled the authorities, death watch beetles, rats and her failing health, accompanied only by her faithful dog, Sasha.

So who was May Alice Savidge and why did she move 15th-century Ware Hall House from one county to the next?

Born in Streatham, South London, in 1911, May was just ten when her father died of heart failure, plunging the family into poverty. She had to go out to work, becoming a draughts-woman for the Ministry of Aircraft Production team.

At 16, May met an older man, Denis Watson, a gifted Shakespearean actor. They planned to marry, but he died prematurely in 1938.

May never recovered from this cruel blow and wore his signet ring on her wedding ring finger for the rest of her life. She retreated into herself and it was in 1947 that she bought a house to restore.

Number 1 Monkey Row, Ware, Hertfordshire, had been built around 1450 for a wealthy monk as a 'hall house', a medieval arrangement in which the living space is attached to an open hall overlooked by a minstrel's gallery.

A self-taught home improvement enthusiast, May exposed the heavy oak beams that bore the marks of medieval carpenters and lifted crumbling lino to reveal wide, hand-cut floorboards.

She employed a builder to repair the roof, but all the rest of the work - including brick-laying, carpentry, re-glazing and stripping plaster from the ceilings and 20 layers of paper from the walls - she did with her own hands.

Then, in 1953, the council told her the house was to be demolished to make way for a road - an act of vandalism unthinkable today, now that ancient properties are listed and protected.

Battle began. May dug her heels in and resolved to save the building. For 15 years, she fought the council's plans, writing to them: 'If this little house is really in the way, I would rather move it and re-erect it than see it destroyed.'

Long haul: May carried the timbers herself to the lorries that would move her house

In 1969, when she was 58, the bulldozers reached her gate. Her response was to number each beam and pane of glass so that her home could be reassembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Dismantling the heavy oak timber frame, held together with tapered wooden pegs, was both difficult and dangerous. A team of local demolition contractors helped May. She traced over a sample of brickwork using greaseproof paper and crayons so that she would know which bond to use and how thick to lay the mortar.

She continued to live in the house as it was taken down, sleeping beneath the stars in the freezing cold.

Jigsaw puzzle: Each beam is numbered according to May's floor plans

'I just won't have such a marvellous old house bulldozed into the ground,' she said. 'I've got nothing to do all day, so I might as well do the job myself.'

Strangers sent money to help her - and many became life-long friends. 'Yours is the spirit that once made Britain great,' wrote one.

She found a site in the seaside town of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, and obtained planning permission and laid foundations. A lorry made the round trip to Norfolk 11 times to carry every part of the house.

So began a life of hardship. She had no electricity and worked by the light of Victorian paraffin lamps. She used an alarm clock to set herself targets each day, noting how many nails she extracted from oak beams per hour, as she dismantled the house and prepared for rebuilding.

A caravan was her home while she began the new work. It was often unbearably cold, but, as she told the Fakenham Ladies Circle Club in 1971: 'My mother brought us up on the maxim that there is no such word as "can't".'

Two years later, the framework was fixed to the foundations by a local carpenter and May started to infill the brickwork. She had no experience of brickwork, but was determined to lay every single brick perfectly.

It would be another eight years before the roof tiles were put in place and the property made watertight.

By the time she was into her 70s, however, May had moved in and the house stood proudly in its new gardens, each old oak beam in place, the brickwork nearly complete and many of the walls plastered.

Despite her age, she continued to build, climbing scaffolding to reach the top windows. In 1986, the Queen recognised her pluck, inviting her to a Buckingham Palace garden party.

On the tiles: May, with her dog Sasha, painstakingly inspects the tons of roof tiles

By now, however, she was running out of steam. In 1992, she finally installed a small wood-burning stove to heat the house, but was having difficulty climbing ladders and found cement work 'a bit heavy'.

On her death in 1993, just before reaching the age of 82, the house was still not finished. 'The walls were up and the roof was on, but the place was little more than a shaky shell,' says Adams, who was left the house in her aunt's will. A collector extraordinaire, May had filled her home until it looked like an overstocked curiosity shop. In the garden, nine sidesaddles languished, relics of a bygone age. Boxes of unworn wartime nurses' bonnets and May's service medals lay at the bottom of heavy trunks, stacked to ceiling height.

She kept packets of old-fashioned soap powder, Omo, Oxydol and the like, alongside bottles of J Collis Browne's Mixture, the Victorian cure-all.

There were thousands of train, bus and trolley bus tickets, and even the notes left by the milkman.

In 440 diaries, she listed every action she carried out each day, revealing a Britain now lost: a world of shillings and ounces, telegrams and typewriters.

Among this archive, Adams uncovered May's tragic secret. After her fiance's death, she had entered into another secret liaison - a 17-year courtship with a man she believed would marry her.

In a devastating letter, dated 1960, he reveals to her that he has simultaneously found God and fallen in love with his cousin, writing: 'I have, thanks to God, seen my dear cousin Iris in a new and wonderful light.

'I know this will hurt you as I know only too well how you feel towards me. I pray to the Lord that you, too, may experience this most wonderful love.

'I should like nothing better than for you to regard us as a new sister and brother. I would like to bring Iris to see you when you feel like it, I know you, too, will love her - everybody does!'

Clearly cut to the quick, May wrote back: 'It surprises me that anyone so dear and lovable as your Cousin Iris should have thought it right to come between us, after 17 years. My heart is not made of stone. You often spoke of our marriage. Is it surprising that I thought you really cared? I hope you will be more faithful to Iris than you have been to me. Goodbye.'

Next to these letters was a photo of her fiancé playing Hamlet. Adams says: 'Auntie May had wrapped her broken heart in a parcel, tied it with string and hidden it at the back of the attic. Looking through those letters, I could see that she had not become a loner through choice.'

In tribute to her stoical aunt, Adams took on the project of finishing the house, and in the end it was May's hoarding instincts which breathed new life into Ware Hall House. Adams sold May's memorabilia, raising funds to renovate the house, which she has been running as a bed and breakfast.

By her extraordinary habits, May effectively financed the final building work from beyond the grave.

After everything and against all the odds, she had won - she had moved her house across Britain and defied the developers.

(Extract from The Daily Mail April 2009)

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on

Thursday 3rd March, starting at

10.00 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss.

Please note this is the AGM which will start at 10.00 am, followed by the talk. Refreshments will be provided after the talk, just for this month.

The guest speaker will be Richard Ellis whose talk will be about:

“The Art of Theft”

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

The first talk of 2016 in January was entitled “Flower Power in the History of Art” and was given by Tanya Harrington.

Tanya is a member of Diss U3A and has a wealth of knowledge about art history. She gave our group a fascinating account of how flowers and plants have featured in the paintings and drawings of numerous artists, opening with an example from David Bomberg, whom she is currently researching for a book she is writing.

We saw works from a wide variety of artists, including Pablo Picasso, Albert Dürer, Jan Brueghel, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Paul Monet, Paul Nash, Salvador Dali, Edward Burra, Lucian Freud, Diego Rivera, O’Keeffe, David Hockney and Tracey Emin. Impossible to say which were our favourites but Tanya skilfully brought each painting to life explaining the artists’ style and the art movements they subscribed to as well as providing us with interesting biographical details.

Tanya also included examples of flower painting from the Renaissance, the Dutch school, Japanese woodblocks, Islamic manuscripts and the medieval Book of Hours.

There was definitely enough material here for several more talks so we hope to persuade Tanya to return with a follow up session. She has already expressed an interest in talking about women artists.

These images are a few examples from the artists that Tanya talked about. Some, but not all, are very well-known. How many artists do you recognise?

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on

Thursday 4th February, starting at

10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be Christine Adams who will give a talk entitled,

“Miss May Savage Moves House”

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

In December Clive Paine presented his talk on A Victorian Christmas.

Clive Paine (alias Mr Micawber) arrived at the Diss U3A monthly meeting with his wife, Christine, both sporting Victorian costume. They gave us all an entertaining and informative, illustrated talk about the history of ‘Victorian Christmas’.

The world's first commercially produced Christmas card, designed by John Callcott Horsley for Henry Cole in 1843

We were shown images of the first Christmas cards, such as those with the children in their bedroom, festooned with ‘putti’, little chubby cherubs floating above their heads, or little girls playing with their dolls and little boys wearing dresses. Christmas was highly romanticised by the Victorians with an emphasis on idyllic family life. Indeed it was Prince Albert who introduced the Christmas tree, a German tradition, and it could be seen on the front page of the Illustrated London News.

Charles Dickens wrote prolifically about Christmas, in particular ‘A Christmas Carol’, with Scrooge, who hated Christmas. Scrooge is seen witnessing the ‘Spirit of Christmas’ when the ghost of ‘Christmas Future’ visits him. Known for his meanness, Scrooge only allows Bob Cratchit to put a ‘hen’s nose of coal’ on to the fire but the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future encourage him to embrace a happier Christmas spirit. We learned about the evolution of Father Christmas; in some early pictures, ‘he’ is sometimes shown wearing a green robe, with a holly wreath on his head.

It was fascinating to hear about our own local area and how Christmas used to be celebrated in Victorian times. For instance, in 1875 a butcher’s shop in Ipswich would have been covered from eaves to pavement, in various cuts of meat, including swags of sausages hung over the door.

Christine Paine gave us some fascinating readings from journals and poems to illustrate the atmosphere of Victorian Christmas. Bakers might stay open on Christmas Day so they could cook Christmas dinner for the poorest parishioners. Charities kept busy organising visits for sick children and in the workhouse the wives of guardians would swap places with the servants on Christmas Day.

We learnt a great deal about celebration food, drink, music, games and family life. For example, after a hefty Christmas dinner many people went to the theatre (often, to have a snooze!), while others stayed at home and played games.

Clive rounded off the talk with some typical examples of Victorian jokes.

Are you ready for them?

When is man more than one man? - When he is beside himself

What four letters are used to frighten a thief? - OICU

How were Adam and Eve prevented from gambling? - A ‘pair a dice’ was taken away!

Why is it dangerous to take a nap on a train? - It runs on sleepers.

When do 2 and 2 make more than 4? - 22

Why is man like a green gooseberry? - Because a woman can make a fool of him.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 7th January, starting at 10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss. The guest speaker will be Tania Harrington who will give a talk entitled, “Flower Power in the History of Art”.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

The November talk was “Banham Zoo and Africa Alive” by Clair Ingram

Clair co-ordinates the work of volunteers at Banham Zoo and ‘Africa Alive’.

This is their statement showing how much the staff and management value the work of their many volunteers:

“Why are volunteers a great help to us?

You all know how dedicated and passionate our staff are about their work but there is a limit to what each individual can achieve in a day, which is why we chose to launch our volunteer programme. Volunteers are not a replacement for staff and we do not rely on them to maintain the high standards we provide for both our and guests. By involving volunteers however, we are simply able to do more, whether that be spend more time working on enrichment for the animals, tackling that big project, engaging with our visitors in Lemur Encounters or having that spare few minutes to talk to a guest who has a question.”

Banham Zoo and Africa Alive are run as a non profit-making charity. In Clair’s enlightening talk, U3A members learnt about the range of work carried out by the staff and volunteers. These are the people behind the welfare and the development of the zoos’ conservation projects. Staff duties include guest services, dressing up as animals, (very popular with children), educational support, bug handling, animal feeding and welfare, and outreach work. Staff also provide enrichment resources and events, such as theme weeks. Health-checks and treatments are carried out by staff, such as applying sunscreen to aardvarks, inserting micro-chips, or weighing and measuring young animals such as meerkats, tiger cubs and pygmy goats.

The volunteers give 13 000 hours of their time per year! They cover a wide range of tasks, such as assisting in the gardens, serving in the charity shop, food preparation, even cockroach handling! They are also involved in outreach projects such as working with the long-term unemployed, training them to become volunteers. This training has helped boost their self-confidence, such as talking to the public about the animals and using hand puppets to explain the habits of different animals.

If you are interested in volunteering, the information below, taken from the zoo website (www.banhamzoo.co.uk) provides some very useful information.

Current opportunities

Charity Shop (Role description)

In order to increase the number of conservation projects which we can support both in the zoo and externally we have opened our own charity shop. Volunteers with great people skills are needed to help run this exciting venture on a day to day basis.

Activities & Education (Role description)

We are looking for outgoing, creative people to assist the A&E team with their day to day work. Volunteers will have the opportunity to help the Education staff with their varied duties which include: animal husbandry, animal handling, face painting, visitor interaction, helping out during theme weeks, Discovery sessions and birthday parties. Due to the varied nature of the tasks, a flexible and adaptable attitude is essential to make this role a success.

Gardens (Role description)

We have an exciting opportunity for volunteers to help the work of our gardens department. If you are a professional, a keen amateur or just someone who likes to be outdoors you could be a great addition to the team.

Zoo Animal Management (Role description)

Volunteers will have the opportunity to assist the ZAM team with their varied duties, including the upkeep of animal enclosures and surrounding areas, preparation of animal diets as well as manning our immersive exhibits, such as our lemur walkthrough. This is a physically demanding role with volunteers having the opportunity to really get their hands dirty. Please note we have a hands-off policy for most of our animals.

Please note: • Volunteers must be at least 18 years old • Volunteering is NOT the same as a work experience placement (Work Experience) • We do not offer internships • There is no regular public transport serving Banham

We have a hands-off policy with the majority of the species at the zoo.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 3rd December, starting at 10.30 am in the United Reformed Church, Diss. The guest speaker will be Clive Paine who will give a talk entitled, “A Victorian Christmas”. The speaker and his wife will arrive in Victorian costume. Audience members are invited to dress for the occasion if they wish.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

Andy Smith presented “A Life in Music” in October - an amusing view of life with song and performance on a wide range of instruments.

Andy always brings along his car, full of instruments such as guitar, mandolin, banjo and ukulele. He sang a collection of songs, starting with birth and progressing through life. Lots of his material is self-penned, including both comedy and straight songs, but he also included a few well-known songs that have influenced his life and music.

Andy also demonstrated how a song is written and recorded, bringing along his 16-track digital studio, which is always well received at U3A talks.

Andy’s aim is to send everybody home with a smile on their face. He did not disappoint.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 5th November, starting at 10.30 am in the United Reform Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be Clair Ingram, who will give a talk entitled, “Banham Zoo and Africa Alive”

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

September’s talk was “A Striking Village” by Anne May, who began her fascinating account of the Burston School Strike with an account of the political and social circumstances that led up to one of the most extraordinary strikes in English history.

In the nineteenth century life was very harsh for agricultural labourers and their families. Poor harvests resulted in a very high price for bread. The Irish potato famine in the 1840s caused widespread poverty. In 1834, the Tolpuddle leaders were transported to Australia, having been accused of swearing an illegal oath.

Wages for farm labourers were very low. While the Rector in Burston was paid £11 a week a farm labourer received just 7 shillings. A loaf of bread cost 1s 6d! This period saw the rise of Primitive Methodism which encouraged people to think independently. At the same time labourers started to form farm workers’ unions.

Tom Higdon was the son of a farm labourer and went to London as a pupil teacher. He met Annie, who was a better qualified teacher – a pacifist, a pianist and singer. They both taught in Wood Dalling, a tiny village, supplying many resources themselves and trying to improve conditions for the children. Tom Higdon complained about the children missing school in order to go stone picking. This infuriated the governors and despite their good relationships with the parents and children, the Higdons were sacked.

They were subsequently offered Burston School, where Annie became Head Teacher. The Rector, Charles Tucker Eland, known locally as ‘the Snatcher of Land’, loved his hunting and shooting and was not impressed with the Higdons liberal views. Annie was a Christian Socialist and a pacifist and Tom was a Primitive Methodist. Before long they fell out with the Rector. Conditions in the school were quite grim. The children walked to school, but it was cold, gloomy and poorly resourced. They enjoyed the Higdons’ teaching, so naturally were shocked when their teachers were sacked on the basis of false allegations. On one occasion, Annie apparently lit a fire to dry the children’s clothes after a very wet journey to school. On another, Annie closed the school to prevent a whooping

cough outbreak from spreading and finally, Annie, known for her pacifist views and gentle nature, was unfairly accused of beating two foster children.

Anne May’s aunt, Violet Potter, was thirteen at the time. She bravely canvassed 72 children and 66 voted to go on strike to support their much loved teachers. The parents supported the children when they came out on strike and Violet’s father (grandfather of our speaker) was fined for non-attendance. Supporters in Diss paid the fines for children who had joined the strike and they were taught for a while on the village green until the village carpenter offered them accommodation in his workshop. Due to the overwhelming support of local people, £1200 was raised to build a new school, now a museum. It was opened by Violet, aged 17 “with joy and thankfulness”….. “to be forever a school of freedom.”

Tom and Annie are buried in Burston churchyard, but their memories live on. Every year there is a rally and march in Burston to commemorate the 25 year strike led by a determined group of children and their families.

Photos:

Anne May, Burston Strike School, Violet Potter Tom Higdon and children outside carpenter’s shop

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 1st October, starting at 10.30 am in the United Reform Church, Diss. The guest speaker will be Andy Smith, who will give a talk entitled “A Life in Music” – an amusing view of life with song and performance on a wide range of instruments.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

For the August talk, Frances Hart as ‘Mrs Mozart’ gave Diss U3A an enlightening talk on her marriage with the famous child prodigy, composer and musician, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1751 – 1791). This talk was in costume and with excerpts from Mozart’s repertoire, including his final, unfinished Requiem Mass.

Constanze Mozart tells us that her husband learned all his early music skills from his father Leopold, who recognized his son’s extraordinary talents and nurtured them rigorously. Some people even accused him of hothousing his son, although his input was better appreciated after his death. As young children, Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl, were taken around Europe to listen to concerts and to perform. He met Marie Antoinette and became infatuated, at an early age, dreaming of marrying her.

By the age of 16, Wolfgang had composed several operas and concertos, still leaving time to travel, listen to gossip, roll a billiard ball and entertain others with his jokes. He was also a very good linguist.

When he was 25, Wolfgang moved to Vienna. He lodged with Constanze’s family and took a fancy to her older sister, Aloysia, a soprano singer. However, when she moved away to pursue her singing career, Wolfgang and Constanze began a romance, resulting in a marriage that lasted until his untimely death. They married in 1782 when Constanze was twenty, much to the horror of Leopold. Wolfgang was not earning enough and Constanze was not the wealthy woman he had hoped his son would marry! The two young Mozarts lived beyond their means, spending money on expensive clothes, food and drink for their lavish social life. They exchanged many love letters during this marriage and had 6 children. In 1791, Wolfgang was commissioned to write a Requiem Mass. He would start at 4.00 and work frenziedly all day. Sadly he became very ill and died before it was finished. Constanze told us she believed it was food poisoning at a Masonic lunch! Others think the rival composer Salieri poisoned him.

After Mozart’s death, Constanze had no income and became destitute. Mozart had a third class funeral, for which she pawned his watch. Fortunately, one of Mozart’s pupils completed the Requiem Mass. Constanze, aged 29, set up an opera company to perform her husband’s works having received considerable financial support from admirers of Wolfgang such as Haydn. Constanze moved into a smaller flat in Vienna and arranged the publication of Mozart’s music. She remarried to a Danish diplomat who wrote a biography of Mozart and she lived until she was 80. It is a great shame that Mozart did not live long enough to enjoy more of his successes.

Portraits of Mozart and Constanze taken from Wikipedia

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on Thursday 3rd September, starting at 10.30 am in the United Reform Church, Diss.

The guest speaker will be Anne M. May (granddaughter of Ezra John Potter), who will give a talk entitled “A Striking Village” – Burston School Strike

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website: www.dissu3a.org.uk

In July, a talk on the original Mid-Suffolk Light Railway and the current MSLR Museum was given by John Stark, the Vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Station Master at the current museum.

John explained that the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, affectionately known as the ‘Middy’, was a classic case of a line built too late for the great railway age and which never paid its way. Indeed, it was effectively bankrupt before it opened and the line was never completed, the rails just petering out in the middle of a field. This gave the Middy its other nickname of “The railway to nowhere”. However it still managed to struggle on, providing a useful service to the people of the area for 50 years, finally closing in 1952.

He explained the Middy was a standard gauge railway but that it was lightly constructed, hence the light railway tag. He suggested that it should be thought of as a country lane of a railway meandering through the depths of the Suffolk countryside.

The original 1900 proposal for the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway was an ambitious one. It planned to use the 1896 Light Railway Act, to fill a railway void in the middle of Suffolk and thus address the local transport problems and lessen the impact of the agricultural depression. They planned to build two lines; one from Haughley, near Stowmarket on the GER London to Norwich main line, to Halesworth, on the GER East Suffolk Line, and a second line branching off from Kenton, near Debenham, to Westerfield on the outskirts of lpswich.

Construction of the line began in 1902 and 19 miles of line from Haughley to Laxfield were constructed together with 1½ miles from Kenton to the outskirts of Debenham. These lines opened to goods traffic in 1904. Sadly due to technical difficulties but mainly financial problems, the line to Halesworth was never completed and the spur down to Debenham was soon abandoned. Unfortunately the contractor building the line proved to be unreliable, the chairman went bankrupt, and the railway went into receivership. Despite these troubles, the railway continued to operate goods trains successfully and even opened for passenger traffic in 1908.

The line then settled down to a regular pattern of 3 trains per day each way and 1 train each way on Sunday. The trains were mixed trains, i.e. trains with wagons as well as carriages. The railway now started to provide a vital community transport service for its passengers as it meandered through the heart of Suffolk. Similarly the Middy provided an essential local transport service for all manner of goods traffic (even animals). This service was never more vital than during World War 1.

In 1924, the London and North Eastern Railway agreed to take over and run the “Middy”, but only after the settlement of its debts. The Haughley to Laxfield line, as the LNER called it, continued to operate despite gradually losing most of its passenger traffic to improved roads and buses. The railway’s busiest period was during World War 2 when RAF Mendlesham and RAF Horham needed supplying. The railway was even upgraded to branch-line standards, so larger locomotives could be used.

John drew the meeting’s attention to the fact that World War 2 offered women full- time permanent employment on the line which continued after the war. One female porter was given temporary employment for a couple of years in World War 1. He commented upon the impact that the arrival of US airforce personnel at the two airfields on the line was a massive cultural shock for both parties. He also commented on the importance of regular permanent employment on the railway during the 20’s and 30’s even if it was poorly paid. He also mentioned the railway’s enrolment of its staff in the local hospital benevolent fund.

The line eventually became part of British Railways on 1st January 1948, but after WW2 the railway carried less and less goods traffic and hardly any passenger traffic. British Railways therefore decided to close the line in July 1952.

One of the earliest pictures of a Middy train at Laxfield

A current MSLR trainwith “Wissington” pulling two Victorian carriages

Everyone might have forgotten the Middy except for Peter Paye’s book in 1986 which did show a few Middy buildings were left. So in 1990, despite the fact that almost all traces of the line had disappeared, a group of enthusiasts decided that this small country railway, once so important to the area, should not be forgotten. The ‘Middy’, a fine example of rural English history, has been resurrected as Suffolk’s only railway museum and is, ironically, probably busier now than it ever was.

Based at the old Middy station at Brockford and Wetheringsett in the heart of rural Suffolk, the MSLR Museum offers much more than just a steam train ride. The atmosphere of a quiet country light railway in the early 20th century has been painstakingly re-created using original buildings and artefacts, together with rolling stock appropriate to the period. Educational displays and a varying programme of exhibitions all help the visitor to understand the importance of the railway to this isolated area, and to appreciate a time when life took a slower pace and everything went by train.

The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway Museum is an independent organisation controlled and operated by a Company Limited by Guarantee. It is an Accredited museum, a Registered Charity and is run entirely by volunteers. In 2014 it welcomed over five thousand visitors, with steam trains running on 30 days throughout the year, the museum opening regularly between May and September. With its unique atmosphere, the museum has won numerous awards including the Heritage Railway Association 2012 Interpretation Award, and 2014 Suffolk Museum of the Year.

Additional photos

The Middy ending in a field just An afternoon train stops at Mendlesham beyond Laxfield in the late 1930’s

A short goods train passing a little grey Wissington and our Victorian carriages “Fergie” tractor in 2012 at Brockford station in 2012