Debenham
Debenham maps (2 available)
Map of Suffolk
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
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Debenham books (5 available)
- 1 photos on Debenham appear in 1 Frith books - View photos of Debenham
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Debenham and Suffolk
Debenham memories
Read and share memories of Debenham and Suffolk inspired by Frith photos
Hillman Imp outside the Red Lion
We moved to Debenham in 1964, when I was seven years old. Having come from Oxfordshire, where the houses were built of stone, I remember being amazed that many of Debenham's old houses were painted pink. 'Suffolk Pink' is the traditional colour of the limewash used on the timber-framed houses in this county. The Red Lion, the pub on the right of this photo, was one example.
The Hillman Imp parked outside the pub in this picture, belonged to my parents. They had just stopped to pop into the Post Office, which is next to the Lion. If you look very closely, you can just see the silhouettes of my brother and me, sitting in the back seat!
read more here
Contributed by John Denny
Suffolk memories
Hillman Imp outside the Red Lion
We moved to Debenham in 1964, when I was seven years old. Having come from Oxfordshire, where the houses were built of stone, I remember being amazed that many of Debenham's old houses were painted pink. 'Suffolk Pink' is the traditional colour of the limewash used on the timber-framed houses in this county. The Red Lion, the pub on the right of this photo, was one example.
The Hillman Imp parked outside the pub in this picture, belonged to my parents. They had just stopped to pop into the Post Office, which is next to the Lion. If you look very closely, you can just see the silhouettes of my brother and me, sitting in the back seat!
read more here
A memory of Debenham contributed by John Denny
Eastwick Farm
I lived on the farm[Eastwick] from 1952-1963.My father was Fred Hillen & my mother was Nancy Hawes Hillen. It was a peaceful place to live. I hope to visit my old homeplace someday. It would be nice to go back to my childhood for just one day but all I have are my memories........Lori
A memory of Braiseworth contributed by Lori Hillen-Boruff
Moat Tea Room
My parents Angela and Leslie Jecks-Wright bought the house in the picture on the right and made a successful business called the Moat Tea Room of it! Our house was at 64 Fore Street. We used to get coaches visiting the castle, and we were kept very busy when that happened. We used to let the college boys use the upstairs room as a sort of "clubhouse". A lot of GIs used to visit and eat there. I currently live in California. Whilst in a line in the bank we all started talking to each other. One man on hearing my accent told me he remembered the Tea Room and my Mother's wonderful cakes. He said to me, "If you can ...read more here
A memory of Framlingham contributed by Virginia Jecks-Wright
Extracts From Debenham & Suffolk books
Debenham, with its attractive tree-lined street, lies close to the source of the River Deben. Once it was at the heart of a great dairying region, but now all around are vast wheat fields where combine harvesters ply back and forth. Here, in the village street, with its medley of picturesque old timber-framed houses, the atmosphere is quintessentially English and timeless.
An extract from from"East Anglia".
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".
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".
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".
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".