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Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh photos (72 available)

Old photo of Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh maps (2 available)

Old map of Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh books (4 available)

Aldeburgh memories

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Suffolk memories

Frozen Mere

Does anyone remember the very cold November of 1969? I think it was on the 20th that I was riding my motorcycle on the frozen mere. If anyone took a photo I would love a copy.
A memory of Thorpeness contributed by Rod Fryatt

Garrett's of Leiston

Aerial photo AFA77116TR: "Leiston from the Air 1959" Is a view taken looking toward the East and clearly showing the Garrett's "Bottom Works", which formed a large part of the town centre at that time. This very old facility, part of which is now preserved as a Museum, housed some of the main manufacturing facilities for the "Richard Garrett Engineering Works". Garrett's were the towns main employers and were involved in doing work for a variety of other companies. Shaping machines for Elliot's of London, Corrugated cardboard box machinery for S&S of New York, Portable Compressors for Broomwade, Radio chassis for Pye's of Cambridge, Peat bog harvesters for Bord na Mona of Ireland, were some of the many products being engineered ...read more here
A memory of Leiston contributed by Derek Stanbridge

Samuel Wright

I am researching my husbands family tree. His great grandad was Samuel Wright who was a coal hauler in Grimsby in 1883, on looking at the census further I found he came from Sudbourne in Suffolk. Terry [my husband] had no idea that his Wright family had originated from there. Does anyone know of any of Sam Wrights family still around there or have any knowledge of the Wrights. Is Sudbourne a small place? What is it like now? We intend to visit one day. Many thanks Chris Wright
A memory of Sudbourne contributed by chris wright

The Castle

Orford, the Castle 1937

This photograph features someone sitting on a bench in the foreground of Orford Castle.  It is a strong possibility that it is my Uncle Jim (James Ellis) Smy.  This was his favourite spot and he could be found sitting there catching up with his friends.  

There are several legends attached to Orford Castle.  The most famous is that of the Merman.  Villagers allegedly caught him in fishing nets and imprisoned him in the castle.  He either wouldn't or couldn't speak and was very wild in appearance.  One night he escaped and was never seen again.

Another story is that two people had their photograph taken standing either side of the fireplace.  When the photograph was developed a ghostly ...read more here

Extracts From Aldeburgh & Suffolk books

Hadleigh, St Mary's Church 1922

St Mary’s, one of the largest in Suffolk, is not a typical Suffolk wool church, and has an elegant lead spire. Inside is the 600-year-old Angelus Bell, one of the oldest in the country, which is inscribed ‘Ave Maria Gracia Plena Dominus Tecum’. Perhaps the man who made the bell had other things on his mind when it came to putting in the inscription, as he forgot to invert the words laterally in the mould, and they appear backwards on the finished article!
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".

Ipswich, the Power Station c1955

A 20th-century means of pro- ducing power shares the banks of the Orwell with vessels which harness one of the oldest forms of power. With shallow mudflats along the banks of the tidal Orwell estuary, moored sailing boats end up on their keels twice a day.
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".

Ipswich, Tavern Street 1896

We are looking east along Tavern Street from Cornhill. On the left is the red brick and stone Lloyds Bank building, with its fretted skyline, while to the right is the neo-classical Post Office, built in 1881.
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".

Ipswich, Ancient House 1893

Wolsey fell from grace when he failed to support Henry VIII’s wish to marry Anne Boleyn, and it was never completed. The brick gateway, with its barely discernible royal cipher, is all that remains. Just a few years later, Christchurch Mansion was built on the site of the 12th century priory of the Holy Trinity. This Tudor country house is now a museum, and its adjoining art gallery houses a fine collection of paintings by Constable and Gainsborough. It is interesting to recall that this marvellous house almost became a housing estate in the late 19th century. The Cobbold brewing family bought the building and then presented it to the town, thus enabling us still to enjoy this monument to gracious living. Tavern Street contains the Great White Horse Hotel, which, despite its Georgian facade, is a timber-framed building dating back to the 16th century. Famous visitors have included Dickens (who wrote about it in ‘Pickwick Papers’), George II in 1736, Louis XVIII of France in 1807, and Lord Nelson in 1800. Opposite the hotel stands a group of buildings which appear to be Tudor, but are in fact reproductions, built in the 1930s when such imitations were in vogue. Today, despite the presence of the two major ports of Harwich and Felixstowe only ten miles away at the mouth of the Orwell, Ipswich remains an important industrial and commercial centre.
An extract from from"Ispwich Pocket Album".