A new local history project has been proposed by Sudbury Ephemera Archive to investigate the role that Sudbury’s markets played in the development of the town.
The project is the brainchild of SEA’s Sue Tibbetts, who is intrigued by the variety of the market and is keen to capture people’s memories to create a permanent record.
More details are available from the article published in Suffolk County Council News on 16/10/2020.
It is just over six months since we last released an updated list of the items that we hold. We are delighted to make the latest version available from the Database of items page. There are nearly 250 more items listed in the spreadsheet than last time, thanks to the effort of our team of hard working volunteers.
If there are any items that you are interested in looking at, make a note of their Reference Numbers (as shown in the spreadsheet) and contact us for a convenient time to view, or call in on one of our two open sessions each month. Dates of these sessions are on the Home Page.
It is just over a year since we last released an updated list of the items that we hold. We are delighted to make the latest version available from the Database of items page. There are nearly 700 more items listed in the spreadsheet than last year, thanks to the effort of our team of hard working volunteers.
If there are any items that you are interested in looking at, make a note of their Reference Numbers (as shown in the spreadsheet) and contact us for a convenient time to view, or call in on one of our two open sessions each month. Dates of these sessions are on the Home Page.
It is less than a month since we last released an updated list of the items that we hold. We are delighted to make the latest version available from the Database of items page. There are nearly 30 more items listed in the spreadsheet than last time, thanks to the efforts of our team of hard working volunteers, and a new editing process which is speeding up our release process.
If there are any items that you are interested in looking at, make a note of their Reference Numbers (as shown in the spreadsheet) and contact us for a convenient time to view, or call in on one of our two open sessions each month. Dates of these sessions are on the Home Page.
The Sudbury Ephemera Archive (SEA) celebrates its sixth anniversary this year (2019). During those years, it has gone from strength to strength. Not only has the archive itself been growing, but its ‘fame’ has spread primarily through its community involvement. This ranges from talks given to local groups and organisations such as Pebmarsh Ladies’ Group, Sudbury’s Quay Theatre Local History Sundays (January), Henny Ladies’ Group (twice), Monks Eleigh Bygones Collectors’ Club, Bulmer Skylarks and St Gregory’s Fellowship and the Town Meeting March 2018.
SEA has exhibited at several open air summer events including Monks Eleigh Bygones Weekend on Sudbury Airfield, A Bit of a Do at Pebmarsh, Suffolk Day in Sudbury, Heritage Day in Sudbury (September), Sudbury Carnival (August), Remembrance Weekend (November) and the Christmas Tree Festival (December) in Sudbury. The biggest ‘outing’ was to the Suffolk Show (May) in Ipswich when SEA was invited to participate in the World War I centenary commemorations at the show. This proved to be very successful and generated a lot of interest particularly with the children’s game cat’s cradle which was hugely popular with all ages!
At several of these events SEA members have participated in costume, e.g. Red Cross nurses, widows wearing black ‘weeds’, Edwardian ladies, agricultural labourer, Land Army girl for the World War I theme at Suffolk Show. This is fun for the participants but also draws attention, creates comments and is more memorable than ‘ordinary’ clothes. It also ties in with SEA’s historical aspects.
Just for fun but also as publicity, SEA has taken part in all the recent five carnivals and has been awarded first place three times and second place once for the best ‘foot float’. See for example SEA wins first prize at Sudbury Carnival 2018.
SEA has also been working with other groups planning events such as the Silk Film group, the Silk Festival 2019 and the Museum Trust.
SEA itself has benefited from a donation of the Turner Thornton Estate Agent papers. It has taken months to sort and catalogue these but that is now complete and the papers divided into street collections and the town is zoned into areas. Papers for other areas and in Suffolk and the country have been sent to appropriate collections: Essex Record Office or local recorders or Suffolk Record Office.
Another large donation has been from the Christ Church United Reform Church when it closed in January 2018. SEA ensured that the building and its registers were photographed and other official papers have been stored in the Suffolk Record Office but kept photographs and newsletters etc. in SEA collection.
Other donations continue to arrive and SEA is grateful to the staff at the Town Hall who receive these donations on behalf of SEA.
Another function of SEA is helping members of the public who drop in with questions about Sudbury’s past. If SEA cannot answer the question then the enquirer is directed to someone or some other organisation which can.
One particularly interesting donation was a book of business records from a 19th century blacksmith in Little Waldingfield which was deposited by a member of his family. SEA was able to provide a copy for another member of that family while conserving the original.
Cataloguing sessions (three hours) take place twice a month in the Town Hall with a regular core of volunteers as well as more casual attendees. These sessions provide an opportunity for the public and potential donors to drop in and see what SEA does.
The Town Recorder’s Report provided a digital record for the Suffolk Local History Council Recorder scheme which is an overview of the year in Sudbury and filed at the Suffolk Record Office.
Members of the Sudbury Ephemera Archive won first prize in the ‘on foot’ category in this year’s Carnival procession.
The overall theme was ‘Countries of the World’ which you can see clearly reflected in the costumes.
We were delighted to have been invited to take part in the Suffolk Show 2018 when the area “Looking Back” was designated to commemorate the centenary of the end of fighting in World War 1. The remit for the stand was to display archives about Sudbury’s Home Front 100 years ago.
The stand had to include interactive projects which would inspire the younger generation to understand life at this time. So we had displays from the Belle Vue Red Cross Hospital; autograph books and photographs of the nurses. A final panel included stories of people who played a part in daily life in Sudbury in 1918.
Young people were invited to play games that children still at school and under 13 would have enjoyed, in a time when there were no computers or electricity to even support such items. The fun of playing cats cradle gradually spread like an epidemic when women all around the stand were having a go.
We had a really great weekend, meeting and talking to many people who came to see our stand. As a result of our conversation we will be researching the archives to see if we can find the actual medicine sold to a local lady and dispensed in a bottle now owned by one of the other collectors. SEA looks forward to receiving emails from some of the visitors giving details, which may help other people in their research about Sudbury. Some visitors have provided food for thought about future exciting projects.
Apart from our own pleasure of being able to speak with members of the public and show off the work we are doing, we too had the chance to look at other collectors preserving our heritage for future generations, together with the sounds and smells of the steam engines and skills of tractor drivers.
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Obviously people are becoming used to us appearing at these events and it was great to have archive material brought to the stand for the collection.
Thank you to the MEBCC for letting us attend the Monks Eleigh Bygone Collectors Club Rally.
To mark the purchase for the Town of the picture of ‘Seeing Jessie Home’ (a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber) painted by Steven Binks, the Sudbury Museum Trust opened for the morning with an expert on hand to look at any items brought in. The Mayor Jack Owen opened the proceedings with a few introductions of the many invited guests. The painting was unveiled by Steven Binks after a number of speeches, a video can be seen on You Tube of the entire event, shot by Robin Drury, also there is an East Anglian Daily Times article.
‘Goin Jessie’ was built in Wichita USA in late 1944. It was part of the USAF 486th Bombardment Group (Heavy) which was based at RAF Sudbury from March 1944 to August 1945 and was piloted by Frank Ellersick. It flew its last mission from Sudbury on 21/04/1945.