The not so secret past of houses in Hutton Poplars
The other day I told you about the first home I purchased in the 1980s – a converted Victorian school in Wimbledon.
After I left Wimbledon, I moved to Hutton close to Shenfield in Essex. Where I became fascinated by the history of the new houses that were then being built in an area known as Hutton Poplars – in the grounds of a former Edwardian school.
For anyone visiting or passing through Hutton, this building is a familiar sight – Hutton Poplar Lodge. It looks the same today as it did when this photograph was taken one hundred years ago – shortly before the First World War.
Hutton Poplars Lodge
It is one of only three buildings that have survived from a large Edwardian industrial school founded by, among others, George Lansbury in 1906. This building was once the porters’ lodge.
During the final years of the nineteenth century, Poplar Board of Guardians decided to sell their Forest Gate training schools because of the terrible conditions. On New Year’s Day 1890, a devastating fire broke out in the Forest Gate school and 26 small boys died.
Despite this appalling fire and the generally awful conditions, the school continued in Forest Gate until the early 1900s.
Chairman of Poplar Board of Guardians, George Lansbury, a social reformer, paid a visit to rural Hutton (next to Shenfield) and liked what he saw. At Lansbury’s instigation, Hutton Industrial School (also known as Poplar Union Training School) was built in 1906 at the cost of £160,000.
Social Reformer and leader of the Labour Party – George Lansbury (1859-1940)
Originally founded as a residential school for pauper boys from Poplar, the school eventually accommodated both boys and girls based around the concept of a “cottage home”.
Fortunately, this school did not have same appalling reputation that Hackney Industry School had in nearby Brentwood. The school in Hutton was generally so well-run that the Board of Guardians had to appear before a Parliamentary Committee accused of “extravagances” in the new school!
The school closed in the 1980s and the majority of its buildings were demolished – apart from 3 buildings still present today.
Today the area is known as Hutton Poplars and contains extensive new housing.
Is your house in Hutton Poplars? If it is, did you know the story of the area?
Here’s a quiz for you. George Lansbury later became the British Labour Leader in the 1930s. He had a very very famous grandchild – an absolute legend. What’s his grandchild’s name? (No Googling!!)
New Online Course to trace the history of your home…
If you are fascinated about the history of your home, then you’ll be interested in my new online course
🏡 If Walls Could Talk… Uncover the secret history of your home🏡
Make you note in your diary… signup starts from 19 September 2019.
Course commences on Monday 30 September 2019
Keep an eye on my blog throughout rest of September for more news.
I’m also doing regular posts on my Facebook page about how to
🏡🏡 Uncover the secret history of your home🏡🏡
I hope you’ll join me and take part in this fascinating course. Learn how you can trace the history of your home.
As this is the first pilot version of my course, it’ll be offered at a very special low price that will not be repeated.
Resources for tracing the history of your home
I’ve written a short pdf listing some of the resources that you can use for researching the history of your house.
Download 25 online resources for uncovering the secret history of your home…
By giving us your details, you are agreeing to join our email list to receive emails and offers on our services. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails, or from this website. For information about our privacy practices, click here. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.
Rayleigh Road, Hutton. The boys are standing in the area which has now become a side-road – Sun Ray Avenue.
This is the first home I purchased. Back in the heady days of the low property prices of the 1980s.
All Saints Court, Wimbledon
It was a converted flat – converted from an old Victorian school built in 1896 (so the date plaque on the right entrance states).
When it was built, Wimbledon was in Surrey – the inscription over the left entrance “S.C.C.” marking that it was a school under the governance of Surrey County Council. But without the building moving an inch, it’s now in the London Borough of Merton.
I was in my very early 20s and fell in love with the flat the minute I set my eyes on it.
I knew I had to have it.
I first saw it literally as it was being converted from a school to a block of one-bedroom flats. I wish I’d had a camera back then to record the renovation’s progress!!
When I bought the flat in 1986, it cost £41,500 – then an arm and a leg. Other nearby one-bedroom flats were all between £35,000 to £38,000. The jump to £41,500 was massive. Well, it was in those days! I had to take on a massive mortgage at stupid interest rates to pay for it.
But I was obsessed with it.
I had started genealogical research when I was just 18. But until this point, I hadn’t dipped my toes into local history. However, when I saw this building, I not only fell in love with the building, but also the local history of the area.
And the idea of living in an old Victorian school.
The converted flats kept the 2 original entrances either end of the block; one for girls and the other for boys. The developers also added a new central entrance for those of us whose front-doors were in the middle. To this day, I can still recall the noise of the buzzer and door-release.
The central large-oval window in the block was the massive window on the landing leading to the front-doors of all the central flats. The small window to its right (top floor) was my bedroom. Immediately above my bedroom’s ceiling was a massive full height loft that I always intended – but never did – investigate.
To its right – and the last huge window on the right of the building – was my living room. Not a massive room – conversions were very lacking in space in the 80s!. But it had a massive 20+ foot high ceiling.
A high living-room ceiling is an obsession that I’ve always had – dating from this wonderful flat. My current living room – many miles (in more ways then one) from my first flat – is also 20+ foot high. That’s despite my home today not being a Victorian converted property, but a house purpose-built in 2000.
My living room in my flat was part of the old school’s hall. Sometimes at night, I used to lie in bed, imagining the noise of the children in their school hall. In fact, on the night of the Great Hurricane of 1987, I thought they’d all come back to pay me a visit. Until I realised that it was Mother Nature conjuring her wrath on my road – not the ghosts of small children.
I spent three very happy years there. I never did research its history as a school. I bought every single local history book that was out at the time. There were a wide range of local history books even then, and those books are today still on my overflowing bookcases. When I’m long gone, my children (all born and bred in Essex) will wonder why I have countless books on Wimbledon and Merton (unless they read this post!).
I moved out reluctantly (but happily) in September 1989 when my eldest was on her way. No room for a baby in a 2nd floor one-bedroom flat – no lift and no storage (even if there was a massive loft!).
When I lived in there in the late 80s, there was no parking restrictions. I can see from Google’s StreetView that there is now.
The fun I had parking on that road! First come, first serve to the few parking spaces back then. But in those days, it was only one car per flat – and 9 flats. With most homes today having at least two cars, it must be mayhem now…
But I moved to Essex, and the rest, as they say is history (at least, for my family). Once I was a Surrey girl, now I’m an honorary Essex girl!
My obsession with local history started in this building and I look at it with fond memories.
I regret that I didn’t take photographs as they changed the building from being Victorian school to a modern luxurious block of flats.
And I will always regret that I never did research its history when I lived there.
Since the 1980s, plenty of Victorian red-brick schools across the country have been renovated into houses and flats.
❓Do you live in a converted school? ❓
❓Or do you live (or once lived) in a home that has been converted from another use – such as a hospital, workhouse, mill or a pub?❓
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If you are fascinated about the history of your home, then you’ll be interested in my new online course
🏡 If Walls Could Talk… Uncover the secret history of your home🏡
Make you note in your diary… signup starts from 19 September 2019.
Course commences on Monday 30 September 2019
Keep an eye on my blog throughout rest of September for more news.
I’m also doing regular posts on my Facebook page about how to
🏡🏡 Uncover the secret history of your home🏡🏡
I hope you’ll join me and take part in this fascinating course. Learn how you can trace the history of your home.
As this is the first pilot version of my course, it’ll be offered at a very special low price that will not be repeated.
Resources for tracing the history of your home
I’ve written a short pdf listing some of the resources that you can use for researching the history of your house.
Download 25 online resources for uncovering the secret history of your home…
By giving us your details, you are agreeing to join our email list to receive emails and offers on our services. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails, or from this website. For information about our privacy practices, click here. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.
Have you ever wondered who once lived in your house?
Do you wonder….
👉Who built it and why?
👉What were their names?
👉Their occupations?
👉How did they live their lives?
Tracing the history of your home is a fascinating and all absorbing hobby.
But where do you start?…..
Roughly speaking, house-history research can be split into two large (massive!) themes:-
👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦 The people who lived in your house. 👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦
🏡The building itself.🏡
So there’s two broad questions to ask about your home…
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a) Who lived in your house? 👨👩👧👦👨👧👦👦👧👨👩
A variety of records can be used to discover the stories of your home’s occupants – from Census Returns and 1939 Registers, to tithe apportionment records and parish records.
A busy street scene in Edwardian Heybridge, Essex
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b) Your house 🏘️🏚️🏡
You may be able to guess a lot about the physical building. Its building material – such as brick, flint, stone, timber-framed.
However, you will want to research other information such as when, why and who built your home. The date of your house – the era/century/decade.
Finding out information about the house itself is often the more complex of the two broad themes connected with house-histories…
Sometimes records will exist about the construction of your house. But not all the time…
Certainly, for older homes, records will be far more sketchy. You’ll need to use all sorts of detective work to pin down your house’s full story!
Tracing the history of your home is a fascinating and all absorbing hobby.
But where do you start?…..
Roughly speaking, house-history research can be split into two large themes:-
The people who lived in my house.
The building itself.
So there’s two broad questions to ask about your home…
a) Who lived in your house?
Have you ever wondered who lived in your house before you?
What sort of life did they lead?
What jobs/occupations did they have?
How many children?
What was their family life?
What were their tragedies and triumphs?
Children pose for the camera in Lavenham – early 1900s
Sudbury early 1900s
A variety of records can be used to discover the stories of your home’s occupants – from Census Returns and Registers, to tithe apportionment records.
Even eBay and Facebook can be used to discover the stories of people who once lived in your home!
Georgian/Victorian Cottages built for local workers- Lavenham
Formerly workers’ cottages, now pretty homes in Lavenham
b) Your house
You may be able to guess a lot about the physical building that is your home. Its building material – such as brick, flint, stone, timber-framed.
However, you will want to research other information such as when, why and who built your home. The date of your house – the era/century/decade.
Finding out information about the house itself is often the more complex of the two broad themes connected with house-histories…
Sometimes records will exist about the construction of your house. But not all the time…
Certainly for older homes, records will be far more sketchy. You’ll need to use all sorts of detective work to pin down your house’s full story!
That’s all part of the fun!
Step-by-step, peeling back the layers…until you find the true story of the history of your house…
Timber-framed thatched cottage at Kirby Quay, Essex
Resources for tracing the history of your home
I’ve written a short pdf listing some of the resources that you can use for part b) of the conundrum of researching the history of a house – When was my house built
Download your FREE eBook 25 online resources for uncovering the secret history of your home…
By giving us your details, you are agreeing to join our email list to receive emails and offers on our services. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails, or from this website. For information about our privacy practices, click here. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.
Yesterday, my brothers and I – along with our families – went ancestor hunting in Spitalfields Market in the east end of London.
A lovely family get-together but with an ulterior motive…
To meet our Cole and Parnall ancestors.
It’s always a strange – but very familiar – place for me to visit. I used to work nearby on Bishopsgate – when I was still in the corporate world. I often visited Spitalfields market for my lunch.
But its main pull for me is that Bishopsgate is a place where 7 consecutive generations of my family have worked at one time or another since the 1830s.
From my youngest daughter – all the way back in time to my great-great-great grandfather, William Parnall. At least one member of every single generation – without a break – has worked on Bishopsgate.
Just round the corner from Bishopsgate is Brushfield Street – on the very edge of Spitalfields Market.
This is where my family’s past hurtles its way forward to meet the present.
Or rather where we can race back through time and space to meet our Cole ancestors.
All thanks to a chance discovery I made 30 years ago…. A plaque with my great-great grandfather’s name – R A Cole – sunk into an 18th century building in Spitalfields.
Robert Andrew Cole and his wife Sarah Cole. Churchwarden of Christchurch Spitalfields, and also Victorian grocers and teadealers of Spitalfields market.
Following our beloved Dad’s death 3 years ago, we three, his children, swore we’d get as many of our family as possible together. And celebrate our unity and strength – after some incredibly tough years – together by the Cole plaque.
Not all our family are here. But we still managed to get 3 generations into our photo. All descendants (or married to descendants) of Robert Andrew and Sarah Cole.
Nearly 150 years ago, in exactly the same place where we stood, our ancestors (and their surviving children) watched the unveiling of their plaque.
Yesterday the youngest descendants walked, for the first time, in the steps of their ancestors.
A spine tingling moment.
150 years after the Robert Andrew and Sarah Cole lived here, three of their great-great-great grandchildren (one also called Sarah Cole), posed with the youngest family member – a great-great-great-great grandson.
Try explaining to a 4 year old that this was where his great-great-great-great grandparents once lived and worked!…
If you want to read the whole story about our Cole ancestors and the Victorian grocer of Spitalfields Market then follow the link below – to my story I originally wrote on my blog 7 years ago.
Click the picture below – an 1860s photo of my great-great-grandfather – Robert Andrew Cole – to read more about the Cole family of Spitalfields Market.
There were lots of Victorian Cole and Parnall ghosts tapping our shoulders yesterday. I think our late Dad was watching over us too.
The 5th December, is the Eve of the Feast of St Nicholas. The 5th and 6th December are times of much celebration for the excited children (and parents!) from many countries across Europe. Saint Nicholas is due to make his arrival and give presents to the children of Europe. Parts of France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland all celebrate, in different ways, this saint – known as the protector of children.
However, in England, as a consequence of Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the English Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, it is no-longer the custom to celebrate Saint Nicholas on 6th December. But before Henry VIII’s break with Rome in the 1530s, the feast of Saint Nicholas was celebrated in many towns and villages of England as part of the Catholic festivities of Yuletide and Christmas.
The legend of Saint Nicholas
The stories and legends of St Nicholas made their way into the exquisite and breath-taking illuminated manuscripts of medieval England. One such legend is the tale of three children who had wandered away from their homes and got lost. A wicked butcher lured the children, by now cold and hungry, into his shop where he attacked and murdered them, then pickled them in a large tub. Fortunately Saint Nicholas saved them and brought them back to life – thus forever taking his place in legends as the protector of children.
Another story was that he saved sailors from drowning after their boat capsized. Thus becoming the patron of mariners.
Below is a selection of images of Saint Nicholas, the saviour of pickled children and drowning mariners.
Bishop Nicholas of Bari (or Myra)
By the 1400s, the illuminated manuscripts changed from showing the stories of the pickled children and drowned mariners. Instead, the exquisite medieval manuscripts shifted their focus to show St Nicholas in his bishopric finery.
Saint Nicholas and Boy Bishops By medieval times, the Feast of Saint Nicholas on the 6th December was a firm part of English cultural life. The feast was coupled with the medieval practice of electing young boys as bishops. A boy from the local community was elected as the parish’s (or establishment’s) ‘Bishop’ on the Feast of St Nicholas and he replaced the authority of the real Bishop until Holy Innocents day (28th December). (See my blog-post Boy Bishops & the Feast of St Nicholas for more details about this medieval custom).
In 1542, Henry VIII abolished the custom of having boys-bishops on Saint Nicholas’s feast day. It was probably around this period, with Henry VIII’s full-on attack on the Catholic cult of saints, that Saint Nicholas’s feast day itself was brought to an end.
The late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
During the reign of Elizabeth I, Christmas was still celebrated with great feasts, games, and the celebrations of the 12 Days of Christmas from 25th December until 6th January. But the celebrations were without Saint Nicholas.
Christmas itself was legally stopped during the Interregnum of the mid-seventeenth century. In 1647, Christmas was officially banned with the Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals. Deemed as a throwback to Catholic days and too full of Popery, frivolity, merry-making and gluttony, the Puritans didn’t want any part of Christmas.
However, it was during the Interregnum that we once again catch a glimpse of Saint Nicholas. Although by this time, calling him Saint Nicholas was far too much for Puritan sensibilities. Two satirical pamphlets about Christmas were published in the 1650s. And, for the first time in literature, Father Christmas (aka Old Christmas) was named as such.
‘The Vindication of Christmas’ by John Taylor,(London, 1652/3). The central figure is Old Christmas
‘The examination and tryall of Old Father Christmas At the assizes held at the town of Difference, in the county of discontent. Written according to legal proceeding’ by Josiah King, (London, 1658 – this image is from the 1686 reprint)
The 1658 woodcutting of Father Christmas clearly shows that by the mid-seventeenth century, he had already taken on the appearance that we know and love today. Who knows what colour his robe would have been if they had colour printing then! Would it be red? Or green? Or brown? Or purple…
The 1650s’ Father Christmas looks very familiar!
Fortunately for us, when the monarchy was restored in 1660, Christmas was too.
References to Old Christmas are tantalising glimpsed in a small number of plays and pamphlets throughout the eighteenth century. But it wasn’t until the Victorian era that there was resurgence of the popularity of Father Christmas.
Charles Dickens and the Ghost of Christmas Present
The Victorian revival and obsession with Father Christmas was partly due to Charles Dickens’ 1843 story A Christmas Carol. His pen-portrait of the Ghost of Christmas Present along with the accompanying illustration by John Leech showed that Father Christmas was alive and very much kicking! Dickens described Scrooges’ encounter with the Ghost thus:
“I am the Ghost of Christmas Present,” said the Spirit. “Look upon me.”
Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.
The Ghost of Christmas Present with Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (1843). Illustrated by John Leech
Early Twentieth Century Father Christmas
Dickens described the Ghost as having a green robe. We’re not quite there with our modern day Father Christmas! By the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Father Christmas had a variety of different coloured robes. This was before that well-known gigantic soft-drinks company unilaterally made him a little rotund beaming fella with red robes trimmed with white fur!…
Below are a selection of early twentieth postcards showing Saint Nicholas/Father Christmas/Santa Claus in a wide variety of robes. Notice that even when he was dressed in red, the early 20th century Father Christmas was a tall and lean chap. Not the little fat fella of today!
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a brown robe
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a browny/purple robe
Blue robed Father Christmas
There was even a white-robed Father Christmas!
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a red robe. Nearly like today’s Father Christmas – but not quite as cuddly!
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a red robe. A lot taller and thinner then today’s Father Christmas.
Father Christmas had nearly fully transformed. From being a pre-Reformation Catholic saint and the saviour of pickled children, he was now a tall angular man with a fur trimmed robe, who brought gifts and presents to good children throughout the world.
Nearly transformed… But not quite…
Modern day Father Christmas
The Father Christmas that we all know and love today is the consequence of a massive advertising campaign by that well known soft drinks company. In the 1930s, the artist Haddon Sundblom, created the very familiar image of Santa for Coca-Cola. Below is “Somebody Knew I Was Coming” and the basis for the company’s advertising material during the 1930s/1940s at Christmas.
Father Christmas from December 1940 by Haddon Sundblom
Sundblom based his Santa on the 1822 poem by Clement Clark Moore
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads
Saint Nicholas’ metamorphism into Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus) was complete! Although, strictly-speaking Santa’s red-robe wasn’t because it was Coca-Cola’s corporate colours. Or was it?
His red-robes had long been established before Sundblom’s creativity, as seen in the early twentieth century postcards. But just maybe, by using their corporate colours, Coca-Cola stopped all the other brown/blue/purple/white robed Father Christmases!
Looking at Sundblom’s image and the ones above showing the saintly bishop, it occurred to me that six hundred years after the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages, Father Christmas’ right hand is still raised in a form of benediction.
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The Essex local paper Saffron Walden Reporter have printed a review of my local history book about the town of Saffron Walden and its surrounding villages of Audley End, Littlebury, Wendens Ambo and Little & Great Chesterford, Saffron Walden and Around Through Time.
Saffron Walden Report – 24 September 2015, page 24 Click the picture to read the review
Saffron Walden Report – 24 September 2015, page 25 Click the picture to read the review
I particularly like the reporter, Abigail Weaving’s, final line about my book “In fact, as [Kate J] Cole demonstrates, a mere window frame, memorial in a churchyard or an engraving on a wall, are not signs of an inaccessible past, but of one that is very much part of Saffron Walden today.” This, to me, absolutely sums up and clarifies local history; the past is a living, breathing organic “thing” that is all around us and just waiting for new generations of townsfolk to discover their past. And, as Abigail Weaving implies, local history is not an inaccessible past, but part of our everyday present.
Pargetting of an early nineteenth-century stage coach, on the side of a house in Gold Street, Saffron Walden. History really is all around us.
Click the picture to be taken to Amazon’s page for my book.
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I am delighted to tell you that my third local history book, Saffron Walden and Around Through Time, has now been published by Amberley Books and is available in “all good bookshops”.
Click the picture to be taken to Amazon’s page for my book.
Saffron Walden is a beautiful market town in the north west corner of Essex, and a town I knew very well from my own past, when I lived for many years in the nearby town of Great Dunmow. I have shopped many a time in the splendid shops and market within the town. But, more importantly to me, I had spent many a happy hour when my third child (now a strapping pre-teen) was just weeks old as I daily pounded the streets of Saffron Walden in the attempt to get him to sleep. It was whilst walking through the grounds of Saffron Walden’s church, St Mary the Virgin, that he first looked up at me from his push chair, laughing at his own joke that he’d managed to pull off his socks and toss them over the side of his buggy. I should have been warned then that he was to become a child full of laughter and practical jokes! Saffron Walden plays as special place in my heart for those early days of exhausted motherhood to my boy. It was also during those sleep-deprived days of endless walks that I fell in love with Saffron Walden’s ancient streets and buildings.
The beginnings of my book In the late summer of 2014, I was sitting in Amberley Publishings offices in the beautiful Cotswold town of Stroud, having just delivered the manuscript for my first book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time. I was musing with one of the company’s Commissioning Editors over other books I could write for Amberley. It popped into my head that Saffron Walden would make a good book, and a town which I would personally like to research and photograph. Fortunately Amberley agreed with me, and thus was born my third local history book Saffron Walden and Around Through Time, to become part of Amberley Publishing’s phenomenally successfully Through Time local history book series. Foolishly I agreed with Amberley that I could write it at the same time as my second local history book, Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham Through Time
So there I had it. Two books to be written and delivered at the same time…
What is the “Around” of my book?
As you will see from the title of my Saffron Walden book, it is an “and Around” book, so includes other villages nearby to Saffron Walden. My brief from Amberley was to write about Saffron Walden the town, but to also include chapters on other nearby villages. They didn’t want me to wander too far from the main town, but left it totally open to me which villages I could include as my “Around” (but also dropped heavy hints that they’d like to see the Chesterfords included!). So that was my brief…Saffron Walden and Around. All to be fitted within no more and no less than 96 pages.
I would like to say that I purposely decided which villages to include. But I have to say that writing my book was very organic. It seemed to take on a life of its own and it dictated to me what villages were to be included. In the end, my “Saffron Walden and Around” comprises
Saffron Walden
Audley End
Littlebury Parish
Wendens Ambo
The Chesterfords (Little and Great)
Tales of long ago Because I use so many sources for each of my books, I write quite detailed captions to all my pages and try to tell a significant story for that street or view, or of the people who once lived in the houses and roads. So in my book on “Saffron Walden and Around”, you may read things about the town and villages which you may not have known about. For example, that Audley End (then known as Brook Walden) became infamous in 1579 as a place where the witch, Mother Staunton of Wimbish, practiced her witchcraft. That in 1601, William Newton a shepherd from Great Ambo was convicted of stealing nearly 100 sheep throughout Essex. That the infamous high wayman Dick Turpin held up the Walden and Stortford stagecoaches in Epping Forest in 1737…
There are so many stories to tell about this beautiful part of north west Essex.
Bridge Street, Saffron Walden. Near this spot, the chief constable of Saffron Walden, William Campling, was murdered in 1849.
Audley End House, with the spire of Saffron Walden’s parish church showing in the centre-left edge. In 1742, Daniel Defoe wrote that the House was in ruins and decaying.
Littlebury village. The village was on the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries stage coach routes between London and Newmarket or Norwich.
Crown House, Great Chesterford. In 1671, the diarist John Evelyn journeyed on a stage coach from London to meet King Charles II who was watching the races at Newmarket. The horses on Evelyn’s stagecoach were changed at this coaching inn.
The trials and tribulations of photographing a modern-day town In common with all books in the Through Time series, each page of my book contains:-
First World War VAD Hospital, Saffron Walden
A “then” picture. An historic photograph of a building or street dating from between the early 1900s and the 1920s, for example a vintage postcard or old photograph.
A short caption and narrative about the view, detailing the view/building and setting it in its historic context.
A “now” photograph. This had to be an (almost) exact replica of the vintage view. So I had to locate and stand in the same location as the early 20th Century photographers, and capture a replica modern-day view. This in itself caused quite a few challenges; the main one being that Edwardian photographers did not have to contend with lorries and cars hurtling through the streets, but I did! As a consequence, many of my photographs had to be shot early in the morning; more often than not, on a Sunday. But even photographing early Sunday morning didn’t stop cars taking a prominent role in some of my images. Saffron Walden’s market place and high street were particularly troublesome in getting car-less photographs. I don’t think I managed a single photograph of the market place without at least one car being ever-present. Even at 6am on Easter Sunday morning there were still cars in the area!
Ironically, my own car appears on the “now” photograph on the front cover of my book. I didn’t mean it to be in shot… It took me countless early Sunday morning trips to the top of the high street to get that famous vista of Saffron Walden. Some days, the rain was too heavy for photographs; other days there were too many cars and people for my photographs to be “good shots”; to add to my problems, the light was bad on more days then I can count. For some reason known only to my early-morning-not-totally-awake self, one time (and one time only) I parked my car right in the line of my camera’s lens. And that shot (out of countless hundreds of others) was the best view of a relatively car-less (except mine) high street….
Some of the sources I used
If you have read my blog posts about writing my other books, you will know that writing such as book is a source of great personal satisfaction and delight for me. I wrote a month or so ago on my blog a post Suffolk Voices Past: Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham Through Time detailing my life-long hobby of postcard collecting and combining that with being social historian. I also wrote about the sources that I use for each of my books, such as history books, newspaper reports, county archaeology/conservation reports, Victorian census returns, The National Archives.
British Newspaper Archive – click the picture to explore this rich online archive from the British Library
1881 Census return from Audley End’s almhouses for pauper women. This particular census return took me on my journey of discovery of Rebecca Law, a remarkable woman who lived in all the towns and villages described within my book and died aged 103 in 1916. The story of Mrs Law’s long life is told in my book.
Click the image to be taken to FindMyPast, a 3rd party online ancestry resource helping you to research your own family history.
1579 pamphlet “A detection of damnable driftes practized by three witches arraigned at Chelmifforde in Essex“. One of my favourite sources – it told the tale of the Mother Staunton of Wimbish who bewitched a baby’s cradle in Brook Walden (now Audley End)
Saffron Walden and Around Through Time I hope you enjoy reading my book. I would love to hear from you with your comments on any of my three local history books.
Market Hill in the early 1900s, Saffron Walden
Audley End Village in the early 1900s
Littlebury in the early 1900s, looking towards Queen’s Head Inn
A pretty spot in the 1920s – Wendens Ambo
The Vicarage in the 1920s, Great Chesterford
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About the author, Kate Cole
I have a Masters in local and regional history from Cambridge University, a BA in history from the Open University, and an Advanced Diploma in local history from Oxford University – all studied whilst a mature student. Amberley have commissioned me to write 5 books in their Through Time series, and a further book on the First World War. I also give talks about various aspects of East Anglian history (such as the English Reformation in Tudor Essex and the Essex Witches from the Tudor period) to local history societies and groups. I live in Maldon, Essex, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on this blog. Before starting my second career as a local historian, for over 30 years I was a business technologist and computer consultant working in the City of London.
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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe to it. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do click Like button and/or leave a comment below. I read every single comment and value the thoughts of my readers. Thank you for reading this post.
I am delighted to tell you that my second local history book, Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham Through Time, has now been published by Amberley Books and is available in “all good bookshops”.
Suffolk is an incredibly beautiful county with a very rich heritage, so I was absolutely delighted when Amberley agreed that three towns/villages within the county would make an excellent addition to their phenomenally successfully Through Time local history book series. Thus my book Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham Through Time was born. This is my second Through Time book for Amberley – my first Bishop’s Stortford Through Time was published in 2014.
In common with all books in the Through Time series, each page of my book contains:-
A “then” picture. An historic photograph of a building or street dating from between the early 1900s and the 1920s, for example a vintage postcard or old photograph.
A “now” photograph. This had to be an (almost) exact replica of the vintage view. So I had to locate and stand in the same location as the early 20th Century photographers, and capture a replica modern-day view. This in itself caused quite a few challenges; the main one being that Edwardian photographers did not have to contend with lorries and cars hurtling through the streets, but I did! As a consequence, many of my photographs had to be shot early in the morning; more often than not, on a Sunday. But even photographing early Sunday morning didn’t stop cars taking a prominent role in some of my images.
A short caption and narrative about the view, detailing the view/building and setting it in its historic context.
Writing such a book is a great delight for me, and encompasses some of my life-long hobbies; local history and postcard collecting. I have answered some questions below about my book and hope this q&a session inspires my readers to consider writing their own local history book.
Row of Tudor shops, Lavenham
Swan on the River Stour, Sudbury
Hall Street, Long Melford
What was your catalyst that inspired you to write your book? I have collected postcards ever since I was a small child – inspired by my father’s own love of collecting postcards. I suppose I was somewhat quirky as a teenager; at an age when most of my contemporaries were involved in normal teenage activities, I was haunting postcard fairs buying postcards of fluffy cats and images from children’s story books (I have a fabulous collection of Louis Wain and nursery-rhyme postcards dating from my teenage years.) But as I grew older, I became more and more interested in history and genealogy. As a consequence, as an adult, my postcard collecting tastes turned to postcards with views of the towns and villages I’d lived in. So three years ago, when I started to blog East Anglian local history on this website, it was a very natural progression to start to blog articles about my very eclectic collection of vintage postcards. I never dreamed that I could turn my childhood hobby into a book, until a Commissioning Editor from Amberley Publishing stumbled across my blog and contacted me. Amberley’s Through Time series of books was right up my street, and after a very short negotiation period, we settled on me writing several Through Time books, including my new book on Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham.
Why Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham? Well, these are three towns and villages that I know very well. Although I live in north Essex, my son goes to school in a tiny village a few miles from Lavenham. My driving route from Essex to this village regularly takes me through Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham. I had already fallen totally in love with each place and, even before Amberley had commissioned me to write my book, had spent extensive periods walking and cogitating each place’s history.
How did you decide what images to include / exclude?
Amberley have a very strict criteria that there can be no more and no less than 96 pages to each of their Through Time books. As I was covering three towns/villages, this gave me roughly 30 pages per place; plus room for the normal pages of any book (such as title and copyright pages, introduction, contents page and bibliography). These restrictions, in themselves, gave a certain amount of guidance as to what images I could and could not include. I had to be very strict with myself and with a limited number of pages per place could only include images which would add to the overall story of each town/village. I became very ruthless with my own cutting of images/pages. For example, by the time Amberley’s editors had produced their publisher’s typeset near-final draft, my book had spilled over their limit, so they cut a random page from my manuscript. I objected to the page they had cut and insisted another one was removed and their deleted page reinstated. It took me two seconds to choose what page I wanted deleting. The page the editor had cut was far too important to not be included; so another page/image just had to go. I won’t tell you what was nearly deleted and what was removed in its place! But suffice to say I am more than happy that I took the action that I did. My deleted page still remains in my “those that got away” folder on my computer; perhaps one day I’ll publish all “those that got away” on this blog!
Sudbury’s Market Place; one of my “must have” images
What resources did you consult to in order to write the details which accompanied each page?
British Newspaper Archive – click the picture to explore this rich online archive from the British Library
As a trained historian, I used many primary and secondary sources for my book. This included Victorian census returns and trade directories, reports from all Suffolk’s local newspapers along with other national newspapers. I also consulted The National Archives, Historic England’s Listed Buildings register and local authority/council’s archaeology/conservation reports. I also read many antiquarian books, journals, local historical society publications/websites, Victoria County Histories, and read transcriptions of the Domesday Book of 1086.
Census return from Long Melford. Click the image to be taken to a 3rd party online ancestry resource.
I also took to walking the streets of each town/village to look at street furniture such as plaques on houses/buildings. In particular, Lavenham is stuffed full of buildings with date plaques from the Georgian and Victorian period commemorating being built by local industrialists; Thomas Turner the woolstapler, W. W. Roper the horsehair manufacturer, Thomas Baker the miller and maltster. Each date plaque had to be investigated and researched and, if appropriate, a story written about that person and their buildings. I also talked to local people as I walked each town/village. Many people stopped me during my photographing trips, and from these nameless people I owe my gratitude for pointing me in new directions for my research.
A row of the very successful woolcomber Thomas Turner’s Victorian workmens’ cottages, Lavenham
One fascinating but underused resource I used was Suffolk County Council’s Suffolk Voices Restored. These are cds containing incredible eyewitness oral histories from men and women who grew up, lived and worked in Suffolk during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. I listened to these recordings of people (now sadly long dead) for hours and hours on end, with absolute fascination. The story of the creation of the cds comprising of Suffolk Voices Restored is remarkable in its own right (you’ll have to read my book to find out how/why they came about!). If you are interested in social history and live in Suffolk, then the majority of Suffolk County Council’s libraries will have access to these cds. Do ask the librarian for them, they are fascinating snippets of a bygone age.
I like to think that I looked through and researched every single source that I possibly could, to gain a full insight into the story of each town and village within my book.
Was there any images or stories that you simply felt that you had to include?
During the research for my book, strong stories for each town/village started to shine through, and it was these stories, along with any relevant images, that had to be included. I fell totally in love with each town/village; these are my favourite stories from each:-
Sudbury:So many stories from this beautiful, but often overshadowed market town, emerged. Simon of Sudbury, the medieval archbishop of Canterbury who was viciously murdered in London during the Peasants’ Revolt. Charles Dickens’ caricature of the Rose & Crown Inn (and, indeed the town of Sudbury) in his acclaimed Pickwick Papers. Thomas Gainsborough’s inclusion of Sudbury’s All Saints Church in, arguably, his most celebrated of paintings Mr and Mrs Andrews. (Click on the link to be taken to the National Gallery’s online image of this outstanding painting, and see if you can spot Sudbury’s church.) The list goes on for Sudbury. But above all, I was struck by the staggering beauty and serenity of the scenic water meadows of Sudbury’s Common Meadows. I was lucky enough to have researched my book during the winter months, so was able to spend a great deal of time walking through these picturesque lands, whilst frost and snow cracked under foot. I remember coming away from my photographing trips to the water meadows with freezing feet and icicles in place of my fingers, but with a very happy and full heart.
An Edwardian view of the mill stream in Sudbury’s beautiful common lands
Lavenham:Remarkably the historic medieval village of Lavenham was nearly lost to us during first quarter of the twentieth century. Many of the medieval buildings had fallen into disrepair and were near derelict by that time. Some of its most famous medieval buildings, such as the old Wool Hall (now part of the Swan Inn), De Vere House, and Schilling Grange, were in the process of being either totally demolished or taken down piece by piece, some to be sold elsewhere (possibly America). It was only the outcry by local people and societies which stopped the destruction of Lavenham’s medieval gems. The story of how the foresight of local people, along with more prominent people (such as Queen Victoria’s daughter, the Duchess of Argyll), saved Lavenham shone through my research. In particular, one local man F Lingard Ranson. Where ever I stepped, Mr Ranson had walked decades before me; both as Lavenham’s historian and its saviour. I didn’t have enough room to extol and give him the full credit he is due in my book, but I will do it here. Simply put, without F Lingard Ranson, our knowledge and understanding of Lavenham, along with the village’s very buildings, just would not exist today. Today’s Lavenham owes a huge debt of gratitude to Mr Ranson and his ilk.
The Wool Hall (on the left), Lady Street, Lavenham as it was at the turn of the 20th century. Without the personal intervention of one of Queen Victoria’s daughters, the Duchess of Argyll, this exquisite medieval building would have been lost to the nation.
Long Melford:Many modern-day tourists who flock to Long Melford are seeking antiques, shops, along with the Tudor heritage of Kentwell Hall and Melford Hall. But nestling alongside Tudor manor houses are the remains Melford’s industrial past; D. Ward’ ironworks, Chestnut Terrace built for the Victorian workers of Long Melford, and the Scutchers Arms celebrating the village’s part in making Irish Linen. But more extraordinary is the story of Long Melford’s riot of 1 December 1885, when villagers fought a violent and bloody battle with men from the neighbouring village of Glemsford. The Riot Act had to be read by a local big-wig, which still didn’t stop the riot, and it only ceased when troops from the barracks in Bury St Edmunds were brought in by train (on a rail line that no longer exists) to quell the riot. The soldiers marched into the village in square formation with fixed bayonets, and cleared out all the pubs and beer-houses in their path. You will have to read my book to learn more about this, one of the most bloody riots in Suffolk’s history, in this picturesque sleepy village.
Sir Cuthbert Quilter. This man was the reason for the riots in Long Melford in 1885
If you purchase my book Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham Through Time, I hope you enjoy reading it and this blog post gives you some understanding as to how the finished book came about.
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Newspaper article about my book
Article about my book in East Anglian Daily Times on 21 August 2015
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About the author, Kate Cole
I have a Masters in local and regional history from Cambridge University, a BA in history from the Open University, and an Advanced Diploma in local history from Oxford University – all studied whilst a mature student. Amberley have commissioned me to write 5 books in their Through Time series, and a further book on the First World War. I also give talks about various aspects of East Anglian history (such as the English Reformation in Tudor Essex and the Essex Witches from the Tudor period) to local history societies and groups. I live in Maldon, Essex, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on this blog. Before starting my second career as a local historian, for over 30 years I was a business technologist and computer consultant working in the City of London.
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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe to it. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do click Like button and/or leave a comment below. I read every single comment and value the thoughts of my readers. Thank you for reading this post.
Today is my regular writing slot on Worldwide Genealogy Blog – a global collaboration of genealogists and historians. My post on that blog today is the story of how my American great-uncle, Harry Elmo LaBreque, brought the bullet proof car of Chicago gangster and America’s “public enemy number 1”, Al Capone, to the seaside amusement park of the Kursaal, Southend in 1933.
Click on Al Capone’s car below to read the story of my great-uncle and Capone’s car.
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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below. Thank you for reading this post.
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