Old Wangford

Here are some pictures of the Wangford of bygone years.

We now have the largest collection of old photos of a single village
on the world wide web.
(Unless you know better)

We need a lot more, if you have any of interest PLEASE PLEASE let me know.

If you go to the contacts page I can tell you how!

Please note all pictures on this site are copyright.

This photo of Wangford is probably one of the first ever taken,
photography only started in 1820.
The picture was donated by Mrs. Copley wife of The Rev. E.M. Copley to who
it was presented by John Rous The 4th. Earl of Stradbroke.


Wangford Bridge the gateway to Wangford.
Built over the ford that gave Wangford it's name.
Turn right for London, turn around to go to Henham House.

Ford House from the River Wang.

Picture taken 14/4/1859 by A.C.Jervis supplied by Mr. Arther Aldred

The first Wangford post mill, built 1801
sited at the top of Pound Close on the old London Road.
Owned by The Earl of Stradbrooke and run by Mr.& Mrs. William Arther Aldred.
The Machinery Building on the far left is all that remains.
The house later became the police house of PC G.W. Reynolds.

 
After the sails were blown off in a storm the mill was just left to rot
until 1901 when it was dismantled.
Picture supplied by Mrs. Lesley Barber (I think her grandfather is sitting at the base of the mill.)

The Mill was about 20ft 6 inches diameter across the base and
68ft 6ins to the top of the 27ft sweeps, the bottom platform was
8ft off the ground.

Wangford Mill owned by the Earl of Stradbroke and run by the Martin family.
Pictures donated by Joan Hunting

August 7th 1928

pictures suppied by Mr. S.Woolnough

                          For a News Paper cutting of the burning of the mill Click Here

Picture donated by Mr A.Aldred

Church House now The Little Priory was this where the first Vicars lived?
Note the carrage house on the right.

We have lost our POST OFFICE after 168 years? We had a post house at The Angel Hotel before that! (There is a postcard with a twopenny blue stamp on it & a Wangford Postmark, so we had a sorting office here in 1840.) It seems now that our Post Office is even older it has come to light that there is a letter dated 1784 with a Wangford postmark, this is before Postage Stamps that makes 224 years. (There is a scan of it down by the PostOffice pictures.)  Our first Post Office was opposite the butchers until it was moved to the shop next to the bakers. Before that The Earls of Stradbroke had their Mail sent up from London by mail coach to The Angle and would send a servant into Wangford to pick it up. Only the railway stopped us from having a general  Post & sorting office, it was built but the line from Ipswich was continued on from Halesworth to Beccles and the sorting office went there. Our new General Post Office became just a shop. So 9th.June 2008 is the date Post Office History ends in Wangford.

               
                       A post card sent via. Wangford Post Office July 17th 1906
                                  Post card supplied by Diana Rozier of Stowmarket.

The 1784 Letter (this letter is about 225 years old)
Original legal filing endorsement inside reads "12 April 1784/ Richard Mainwarings letter" mesures 30 x 15mm same type as recorded in British County Postmark Catalogue as SK365 but 10 years earlier than recorded by them. (Found by David Edwards for the site.)

The Old Post Office next to the Swan Hotel High Street.
In 1884 there was another Post office in the cottage opposite Butchers Cottage
104ft. from the corner of Church Street.

Norfolk Road from Hill Road end.

The Loyal Oak run by Mr. Walker until 1929

Church Street

In the time of the Priory this was known as Reydon Road

and the Priory as Reydon Road Priory.

Rumbelows Bazzar
This picture was taken between 1880 & 1890 going by the costume & the pushchair.
Could this have been the barking donkey at the Sawyers Arms?

This mail cart peramulator was popular from about 1850 onward
note the wickerwork seat.

Same shop at the Corination of George V1 1936 

Later it became Emilys Tea Rooms  (the windows get smaller as the years go on)

Some of the first bikes in Wangford

In 1977 Fredrick Harvey ran a fish & chip shop down here
Wed. and Sat. 7pm. - 11pm.

Mr Simpsons Shop in Church Street

More on the Laundry.

THE photograph is of Church Street, Wangford. The Boot Maker's house is now a holiday cottage. My house was built just after the turn of the nineteenth century at the end of Baxter House, by the occupant William "Rouser" Baxter and his widow.
He is seen outside the front door at 21. It was originally a newsagent and tailors shop and the tenant was Mr Stimpson.
When we went past to primary school before the war, the most mischievous boys used to lift off the iron gates and lay them in the yard inside but the elderly couple living there then got fed up replacing them and left them to be covered by grass and nettles.
When the Army came to confiscate iron railing and gates as scrap metal for the war effort, they missed the gates and I was rewarded by having the only house with original ironwork.
I'm sure the gates were made by the local blacksmith and still look good today.

DOUGLAS HOWELD Church Street Wangford.

THE house is Rose Cottage, Church Street, Wangford, where I spent much of my childhood with my grandparents Mr and Mrs Lancaster.
A boot repairer worked there, but I cannot recall his name. The double doors led to a large laundry and stairs to his room.

EDNA THOMPSON  Ebnsett Road, Aldham.

This is taken from a local news paper supplied by Mr.Peter Muttit. Wangford

My father was the shoemaker whose workshop was over the archway. I dont know if a Mr. Barber owned the workshop before he did or if it refered to Maggi Barber who owned the laundry at the back of the building. 
Mr.Peter Muttit. Wangford

The Laundry Girls.

             No 6 The High Street home Harry Benstead Harness maker and his wife.
                 Later to become the police house and his workshop a bike shed.
              A Electrical & Cycle shop was then set up by Mr Fred Moss who served
              the village for many years. 

                                   Click here for more on the old Suffolk Police

                 
                                      Harry at Work.    Pictures supplied by Diana Rozier.

No1,No3 & No5 The High Street

The Wangford Carnival

( This is before No1 & No2 were made into No1,No3 & No5 High Sreet)
The porches got knocked off with the traffic up the High Street!

The oldest picture we have of the cottages with all the porches.

The Garage and all the shops on the right are in front of the Church.
The first of these was a Police Station in 1884.

A rare picture of the shop on the corner.

Fred Moss's was not the only bike shop in the High Street.

The Village Store Then, built in 1879

H.T.Poll's shop

H.T. Poll note no pavements
Thanks again to David Edwards for the last two pictures

The Methodist Chapel on Norfolk Road about where  Millfields are now.
1884-1968
The row of cottages built on the site is called Pipers Row because of the row of 3 or 4 head stones of the Piper Family that stood in front of the chapel. The Rev. Piper was the minister. 

The Grand opening of the W.I. hut on land donated by Miss Agnes Eden

Miss Agnes Eden Died November 8th. 1935

No T.V. in those days! This is the Dominoes Concert Party 1923

An outing to Dunwich

The Wangford Football Team 1946-7

Scouts and Guides 1945

The 3rd Earl and Helena Countess of Stradbroke at Henham Fete 1934

Henham Fete 1935

Henham School about 1905

Who are these young ladies in the picture and when was it taken? 

The Plough 

The Family outside what will become The Plough.
Some time between 1890 & 1920 anybody know who they are?
Picture suppled by Mr. & Mrs G. Johnson.

The Last Post.

 Sorting moved to Beccles after this.

Pictures donated by Joan Hunting

Picture donated by Mr A.Aldred

W.W. 1. The local miller is here somewhere, and he was a special constable in W.W. 2

Photo got lost.     Picture donated by Mr A.Aldred

Wangford Home Guard 1943
Back row;
Wimp Smith,Spider Woolnough,H Grant,Stanley Wright,Hub Walton,C Saunders,Dick Nelson,J Lark,
Harry Lewis,P Gissing.
Centre
P Rumberlow,A Stockdale,F Bullard,G Reynolds,H Bacon,Alex Hill,Fire Keable,W Walker,Sid Fiske.
Front
G Freezer,George Lytton,H Peck,Capt Noel,Capt Paisley,Major Coney,Sgt Major King,Bertie Walker,Rolly Keable,
L Whythe.

Left to right George (Fire) Keable;Louis Rumberlow;Athur Fisk;Sam King;Florrie King

The Sam King sold the butchers to J.F.W. Andrews who sold it to L.H.Morton in 1926.
(Fire Keable worked as a slaughter man for all three.)

Motor Car Accident of NL 160

Duck Lane Corner with Ivy House in the background about 1920

Duck Lane Now Hill Road 14-5-1966.

Church Street end of Duck Lane

Picture donated by Mr A.Aldred

Building Henham School about 1853-4.The School opened in 1854 & closed 1990.

Photo restored by David Edwards

Henham School.

Henham school had three class rooms each one had a very big fire place as there was no central heating. It had a swimming pool which was part of the Wangford river and had a shallow and deep end. A wooden dam was inserted when the swimming season came every year and at the deep end there was a diving board.The girls had a wooden hut and the boys had a tent for donning their swim suits. lt was a joint session with a class from Wrentham school whose teacher looked after both classes.
A Banner which read "This class made the best attendance last week" was awarded weekly to the class that made the best attendance and the class was rewarded by being allowed to leave fifteen minutes early on the Friday afternoon.

Up till the late 1920s or early 1930s pupils started at Henham school at the age of five and stayed there till they reached the age of fourteen which was the school leaveing age at that time.

Children who lived at Uggershal and Sotherton were transported in an open backed motor lorry with seats that were not fastened down as it belonged to the Martin brothers who owned the windmill in Wangford and used it to transport flour during school hours.

When Reydon school was built children only stayed at Henham school untill they reached the age ten and a half and then went to Reydon school. If the journey was more than two miles they were supplied with a bicycle and a cape and leggings for bad weather. I was born in Wangford in 1922 and was a pupil at both schools.

 Peter Muttitt Wangford.

The first school in Wangford was held at the Reading Room next to the Old Vicarage.

click to enlarge
When Henham school closed commemorative mugs were made,
two for every year of the schools service.

The Reading Room was to the right of the picture where the writing is.

            Idle talk can cost lives      For the sad tale of Mr. William Smith Click Here.
 
       

"Henham School Swimming Club, 5 Years Winners of the E.S.P.S Life Saving Competitions"
Postcard dated 24th. May 1907. Picture donated by David Edwards

Dick is on the diving board.

The School Field.

The Bridge.

The Swan Hotel now Swan House.
Pictures donated by David Kett.

The Sawyers Arms

Mrs Nelson second from the left with the local concert party.
1951

Ye Old Angel Hotel

The Angel Hotel was for a time was The Suffolk Poacher then reverted back to The Angel

White Lion Hotel

The Bakers next to the Post Office

Wangford Farm in 1966 it has the oldest bucket well in Wangford in use for over 300 years.

The Well Loved Rous Family

John Anthony Alexander Rous 4th. Earl of Stradbroke (1903-1983)
and his Wife Barbara. nee Grosvenor Countess of Stradbroke (1901-1977)
whom he married on 15th January, 1929, at St. Martin-in -the-Field, London.
This photograph was taken after the Coronation of
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the 2nd June 1953 in Westminster Abbey.

George Edward John Towbray Rous The 3rd Earl of Stradbroke (1862-1947)
and his wife Helena Violet Alice nee Fraser The Countess of Stradbroke
whom he married 23rd July 1898

A letter from John Edward Cornwallis Rous The 2nd. Earl of Stradbroke
To Mr. G. Girling
Frostenden
near Wangford.

Letter-Heham Oct 27 1882