A Passage to India

The website has been quite quiet because Nick and I have been away for two weeks.

In the course of our travels we visited India, where we last stayed some years ago.  We were told by more recent visitors that many of the cities in the country, such as Delhi and Calcutta,  are much improved from the point of view of rubbish in the streets etc.  Unfortunately this progress does not seem to have been shared by the one city we visited, Chennai (formerly Madras) on the East coast.   The curse of the world, the plastic bag, was in evidence everywhere!

 The local authority is making some small effort however, particularly at temples and other similar sites.  In the interest of continuing the occasional series of posts on refuse management round the world I took the picture above of a fine granite rubbish bin at the extensive temple complex at Malibupuram, together with the exhortation to citizens below.

Apart from some very attractive but dilapidated colonial buildings Chennai did not have a great deal to recommend it. It is predictably dusty and hot, and is divided by two heavily polluted rivers.  The city boasts one of the largest air conditioned shopping malls in India, but this was a sad and soulless place on the whole.  One bright corner was a shop selling western bric a brac, staffed by a pleasant woman, pictured below, who explained that she was selling off a large collection of domestic artifacts from the colonial era that had been accumulated by her family over many years.

Memories of Little Waldingfield?

Little Waldingfield, do you have connections with the village?

At the end of January Little Waldingfield’s  History Society, which was formed last year, welcomed around 40 people to the Little Waldingfield Parish Room to launch their “All Our Stories” sponsored project - “Little Waldingfield into the Future” – generously supported by Heritage Lottery funding.

The enthusiastic audience watched a slide show and heard details of the group’s plans to research and write a book recording the history of the village from 1840 to the present day.

The idea was inspired by Harry Clive’s book “Beyond Living memory”, which was published in 1979 and recorded the history of the village from 1300 to 1840.

An exhibition of newspaper and other locally held information and photographs, presented decade by decade, prompted a lively and stimulating discussion and additionally produced a number of possible new leads for the group to follow up.

Several people expressed an interest in becoming involved with the research necessary to gather information for the book, and in participating in future training sessions the group is currently organising.

The project team is also most keen to hear from anyone who has or has had a link to the village or who knows someone (a relative, friend or work colleague) who had or may have had such a link. 

For more information please contact Di Langford on 01787 248298

A talk about Bury St Edmunds

I have received information about a talk coming up in Cockfield in March:

A talk by Martyn Taylor “A brief history of Bury St Edmunds”. 

Martyn is a well know local historian, an excellent speaker, a member of the Bury Society and a Green Badge Guide in Bury. 

The talk will take place on Friday 15th March, 7:30pm in Cockfield Village Hall. Tickets £10 which includes a glass of wine and nibbles.

Tickets from Norman Kelly, 828 904, or Howard Wright, 828 125, or Mike Swinney, 828 652 (01248 prefix for all numbers)

Life and Laughter in the 18th Century

The current exhibition at Gainsborough’s House showcases the work of the eighteenth Century caricaturist, Henry William Bunbury.  The pictures on display are mainly drawn from Gainsborough’s House’s own extensive collection of his work.

Born in Suffolk in 1750 Bunbury was one of a generation of caricaturists who laid the foundations of today’s comic strips and cartoons.  The second son of a Baronet, Bunbury was the Colonel of the Suffolk Militia. On becoming the equerry of the Duke of York in the 1780’s he found that he had time on his hand to indulge his enthusiasm for drawing.   His style is somewhat less acerbic than those of fellow satirists, Rowlandson and Gilray, and it is said that he never seriously offended the great and good of the day, many of whom were well known to him.

Nonetheless his pictures are interesting and certainly worth a trip into Sudbury.

 The exhibition Life and Laughter in the Eighteenth Century.  Henry William Bunbury 1750 – 1811

runs until 16^th March.