The
Fressingfield Local History and Archive Group was founded in 2006
and has a strong and enthusiastic membership. The group
has monthly meetings, generally the last Tuesday of the month and
organises visits, walks and
exhibitions. Members are collecting and
archiving photographs and facts about the village and welcome
anything you may have. They would copy your pictures and
documents and return them.
Contact Pennie Walker
on 01379
588270,
penniewalker1@tiscali.co.uk
or Mary Cufley
on 01379 586238,
roger.cufley@googlemail.com
On May Bank Holiday we held a
magnificent celebration of the 500th anniversary of our guildhall,
the Fox and Goose, with 1509, Fressingfield's Tudor Story.
Click on logo for full details.
Group Meetings for 2010
| Tuesday 26 January |
7.30pm, Sancroft Hall |
Richard Gibson is coming to give us an
illustrated talk on the 100th Bomb Group and the control tower at
Thorpe Abbotts airfield in the Second World War. He has given this
talk many times, including in the USA, and is a real enthusiast, so
it should be very interesting. Do hope you can come, and tell your
friends and neighbours about it too, as all will be
welcome |
| Tuesday 23 February |
7.30pm, Sancroft Hall |
An informal meeting and coffee
evening to discuss the year ahead for the History Group, and to
report on any new photos, email contacts from people researching
their Fressingfield ancestors, and any research on our local
history |
| Tuesday 30 March |
7.30pm, Sancroft Hall |
AGM and the election of a new Chair and
Secretary |
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There are three publications of the history of Fressingfield
currently for sale:-
Looking Back at
Fressingfield which details aspects of
village life before 1750 and
from 1851 to 1951
£5.00
A Century of a Suffolk
Village covering 1750 to
1851
£4.00
Fifty Years of
Fressingfield 1952 -
2002
£5.50
Copies are available by contacting Pennie or Mary, details
above. These are subject to P & P, usually about
£2.
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Fressingfield covers
4,618 acres. It is one of Suffolk’s largest parishes - only
fifteen, out of more than five hundred, being larger. A
population peak was reached in 1851 when the census recorded
1,491: five hundred more than at present.
For centuries the prosperity or otherwise of the parish has
reflected its dependence upon agricultural policy - itself dictated
by external pressures: wars, particularly the Napoleonic, Crimean
and the two World Wars - providing impetus; whilst, typically,
depression reigned in between periods of hostility and more
definitely so from the late 1870s
until well into the
twentieth century due to the influx of cheap American
grain.
Agriculture remains dominant - but only as far as land use is
concerned. Fressingfield has an impressive number of medieval moats
- drainage, a ready supply of water and fish and even the demands
of fashion (rather than defence) provide one or more of the
reasons. Whittingham Hall also has the remains of a medieval deer
park.
The Manor of Whittingham was granted a Market in 1267. This was
transferred to the centre of the village by 1550.
More village history pages
Jubilee Corner
William
Sancroft
Mills in Fressingfield
Common Land
Roman
Road