Wangford Village Picture Tour
(page 3)

Wangford Village Picture Tour (page 3)

Hill Road was originally Duck Lane, thought to be a derivation of Dock Lane as boats were once able to reach a quayside here. A few old cottages are in this area and the row of council houses further on, in front of Hill Farm buildings, is the site of Wangford Common. This has been obliterated by the present situation. Around 1860, the name of the farm was Common Farm. Old photographs clearly show the Green.

Number 71. First on the right, and is joined to the last house and old shop in Norfolk Road. It was named Providence House when successive Methodist Ministers lived here.

Number 69, Ivy Cottage, with its quarter acre garden, was a private boarding and day school in the mid 19^th Century and subsequent occupants included the Parish Clerk, a veterinary surgeon and a school teacher.

38. The Town House is opposite and has later been called Well Cottage. The wrought iron gate on the gable end is thought to be spurious. This was originally a pair of very small cottages where retired Henham Estate employees resided rent free, thereby representing one of the Wangford Charities.

At the entrance to Church Close is a stylish old garage built by the Henham Estate and used for many years from the 1930s by Jack Brown, a taxi driver from number 40, who also kept pigs, chickens, ducks etc. and grew fruit, vegetables and flowers on the land occupied by River View, the land behind Hill Road council houses and all the Church Close land.

63 & 61 were houses for Henham Estate workers and the front porch construction has the Masonic influence, typical of the Rous family property.

59,57 & 55 form the Alms Houses. These were established in memory of one of Lord Stradbroke´s family and occupied by former estate workers. Details are on the foundation plaque. Beside these , from 53 to 39, was the field where the mill stood. A gateway and track was where the entrance to Millfields is now. The miller´s brick bungalow was beside the mill. One of the young sons of the miller at the beginning of the 20th Century, Frank Martin, was crushed when his clothing caught in the mechanism.

37 was where the footpath emerged from Norfolk Road (far right). The Henham Estate built the pair of cottages, clearly from odds and ends as the roof was half tile and half slate. The back wall was stone whilst the front was brick and the odd assortment of beams in the kitchen ceiling had been well used previously.

The occupants here had to cross other people´s back garden to reach the well, situated in the back yard of number 31. From here, every house down to number 1 Church Street had access to the allotments from the rear of their properties and most families made good use of the plots for horticulture, poultry and linen lines.

The Vicarage was opposite 37. Part of it, facing north, was extremely old and converted from farm workers' houses; the newer addition was built to face east. The lawn was constantly used for village fetes and other events. The huge cellar was filled in during more recent modernisation work.

The Vicarage Lane remains the same. Cattle were taken to the marshes - this was after passing through an access opposite which is now the front yard of number 33. At the entrance to Vicarage Lane, or Parsons Lane as it was also called, was the Reading Room. A single storey pair of rooms possibly used as the first National School by Mr Court, before Henham School was built in 1859. The National School, which was one of four day schools at the time, was established in 1844. Further down the lane was the Women´s Institute Hut, a WWI billet erected in 1921, with water, a coke stove with brick chimney, and later, electricity.

The last property on that side before reaching the Churchyard is Little Priory, with its large paddock which was once on the site of a bowling green used by British Legion members.

It was originally called Church House, but the only connection with the Church so far known is the possibility of old Priory remains in the orchard, where part of the cloisters extended to the south. The house has been occupied by the District Registrar and by the author, Janet Becker.

Back to 27, Rose Cottage, on the opposite side, where there was once a laundry in the back yard and another of those mid-air shoemaker workshops over an archway beside the house. The front porch was added very recently.

Number 25, Rose Villa, was originally a small cottage built well back from the road in 1790 and the larger front part is an addition of about 1890 which has one of the dummy windows. The iron railings are relatively new and further comment about them is made with the next house.

"Rouser" Baxter, the resident wheelwright and builder living in Rose Villa in the early 20th Century, added house 23 [right] to 21 [left]. It was a newsagent´s shop with a tailor´s business in about 1920-30 and had a tenanted flat above. It was modernised in 1959 for Douglas Howeld, who occupied it until 1990. The newly conditioned front gates are original, made by the local blacksmith to the same design as the private gate from Ford House into the churchyard.

Before WW2, mischievous passing schoolboys would lift the gates off and lay them in the front garden. The elderly occupant, Stephen Aldred, gave up re-hanging them. When the Army engineers came round in 1940 cutting off all iron railings and collecting metal for the war manufacturing industry, as happened next door at 25, the gates remained hidden under grass and nettles. One of the young culprits later enjoyed the benefit of his misdeed, replacing them with great satisfaction. Iron railings were also cut from walls at 9-11 High Street, 15 Church Street, 44 Norfolk Road and the Methodist Chapel.

21 Baxter House named after the occupant above. His workshop was at the bottom of his garden and he had a pony and trap. One occupant thought that this might have been a beer house at one time, because of evidence of barrel storage in the large cellar.

19 is a small cottage built to fill in the space between the other two. This proved to be something of a problem and its kitchen is added partly to the rear wall of the house on one side and a bedroom is over the sitting room of the house on the other side. The front window is an extra large type because the house was a sweet shop at one time.

9 is now Church Cottage. It was a very old cottage of wattle and daub construction, which had to be almost entirely dismantled, propped up and given solid walls. In living memory, it has been a wet fish shop, an antique shop, and again, a fish and chip shop. These businesses were all carried out in a small lean-to on the side.

Number 7 is another elderly dwelling and the deeds date back to George III. It has an odd location with no land at the rear, so it is the practice of successive occupants to rent the allotment adjoining the house. The access from Church Street is too narrow for normal vehicles, so a private right of way has always been enjoyed across one of the main tracks of the allotments in case of the need for an emergency approach by fire engine or ambulance.

Number 5 may have been a slaughterhouse, but was also a builder´s works before becoming a bakery with shop at the front. It was again to be a builder´s yard until recently when it was renovated and converted into two houses.

Finally, this building was built by Frederick Rumbelow, father of the grocer, Phillip, as a stationery and general store in about 1890. Another son, Louis Rumbelow, changed it to a butcher´s shop and after that it was a hairdresser´s salon for both ladies and school boys to get their pudding basin cuts in the holidays. It was briefly a restaurant before becoming a private residence. A notice board on the wall beside the front door used to advertise the coming month´s films at Southwold Cinema.

Written by local resident Douglas Howeld
Edited by Steven Smith
Published and printed originally by the Wangford Week Committee in 2004.
Copyright © May 2004
This publication may only be reproduced with the express permission of the Editor.

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