Your chance to buy a masterpiece!

An exciting auction of original art works is coming up in Sudbury in October, and tickets are now on sale.  The event will be held in The Assembly Room at the Town Hall on Friday 20th October at 7 p.m.

Spear-headed by Suffolk-artist Maggi Hambling and art critic Andrew Lambirth, the Auction will feature around 140 lots donated from the Estates and Studios of some of Britain’s greatest and most inspiring artists such as Michael Ayrton, Edward Bawden, Antony Gormley, Maggi Hambling, John Hoyland, David Inshaw, Allen Jones, Sarah Lucas,  Sargy Mann, John Nash and William Pye.

This is a not to be missed opportunity to obtain a unique work of art!

The Auction is just one of a number of events in coming months to support the ambitious plans at the museum.  The aim is to match the £4.7m award from the Heritage Lottery Fund in order to fund the renovation and redisplay of the historic house and the construction of a new, landmark three-storey structure with four new galleries – a showcase Gainsborough gallery, a landscape studio with panoramic views over Sudbury, a community gallery and a major exhibition gallery/performance space.

Tickets for the auction cost £25 and include wine, refreshments and a catalogue.  They are available from Gainsborough's House (01787 372958.)

Do come along and bring your art loving friends too!

Architect's impression of one of the new galleries

Revolutionary A listers visit Whitechapel.

The Brotherhood Church

In a recent edition of BBC’s Radio 4's Making History programme there was an illuminating piece about the 5^th Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Party that took place in London in 1907.   

What was by all accounts a bad tempered event was attended by a star studded cast of Russian Revolutionary luminaries, including Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Dzerzhinsky, Gorky and the exotically named Rosa Luxembourg.  The event was held in the Brotherhood Church in Southgate Road, Hackney and many of the Russian participants bedded down in a block of flats in nearby Whitechapel which still stands today.  Apparently the door through which they entered is a now fire exit adjacent to a Bangladeshi Restaurant!  It is incredible to think that this event, attended by so many leading historical figures and at which the Bolshevik/Menshevik split deepened, took place largely unremarked.  The presenter of the BBC programme, Tom Holland, expressed the opinion that it might at least be appropriate to mark the spot with some sort of plaque.  An earlier congress held ironically at what is now the headquarters of Saatchi and Saatchi in Charlotte Street has also gone un-noted.

Of course England in the 19^th and early 20^th Century was a haven for radicals and revolutionaries.  Most people know that Karl Marx lived here and spent a good deal of time in the British Library.

In the course of putting together one of the talks I am giving at Gainsborough’s House in September, I have been reacquainting myself with a  possibly less well known, but equally influential, revolutionary figure, Alexander Herzen.  Unable to return to Russia on account of his subversive activities, Herzen spent many years in London in the middle of the 19th Century setting up the Free Russian Press which printed the radical journals The Polar Star and The Bell or 'Kolokol'.  He also entertained many contemporary revolutionary leaders from Europe and beyond, including the anarchist Michael Bakunin.   For over 10 years Kolokol, an early Private Eye equivalent, was smuggled into Russia, where it was widely read.  It is said that it even reached the office of the Tsar.

One of the sites of the Russian Free Press is recorded by a Blue Plaque in Judd Street.

If you want to find out more about Herzen and other opponents of Russia autocracy from the worlds of journalism and the arts,  come along to the Art of Resistance session at Gainsborough’s House on Wednesday 4^th October…only a month or so short* of the centenary of the Russian Revolution of 2017.

  

*The October Revolution took place in early November using the new style calendar.

Suffolk Libraries, safe for another five years.

Sudbury Library

When so many libraries across the country have closed it is good to read today that Suffolk Libraries have signed a further five year management agreement with Suffolk County Council.

There are 44 libraries across the county, and not one has closed during the current period of Government cuts.  This is in stark contrast to other parts of the UK.  It is not a statutory duty for councils to run libraries and therefore they are vulnerable to closure as councils cast about for additional savings.  Future success depends on making up the shortfall by continuing to encourage volunteering and the encouragement of friends groups and other sources of local financial support.

There is an added incentive for the County Council to make sure that the libraries keep open.  A year or so ago Suffolk was identified as a council that had done particularly well in a national report that examined the future of libaries nationwide.  It would be a pity if that good reputation was damaged.

Many people have written off the library in an electonic age, but real books are actually proving very resilient against the onslaught of the kindle and other devices.  Libraries are also about a lot more than lending books.  In Sudbury the library  is much enhanced by hosting the services of the Tourist Information Centre, and it is still an important point of call for those wishing to know what is going on in the area.  A quick look at the website shows that the library organises a number of interest groups for local people of all ages,  and thus is an important point of contact and social centre too.

In addition to that Sudbury Library must be one of the most attractive libraries in the country! Formerly the Corn Exchange the building was designed by H.E. Kendall and was completed in 1841.  The poet John Betjeman was among those who fought to save the building when it was threatened with demolition.  It is now Grade 2 listed.

Walnutree Hospital, past history and future plans.

The former hospital

I hear that the new homes built on the site of the former Walnutree Hospital in Sudbury are due to be marketed from September by the developers, P.J. Livesey.  Apparently the new area will be known as 'St Gregory’s Place'.

A good deal of the structure of the old hospital has apparently been preserved int he development.  I am personally less enthralled about this than some, and agree with the comments of a local historian than perhaps demolition followed by a full archaeological excavation of what must be an important historic site might have been a more valuable procedure overall.  However, I know that people become fond of buildings regardless of their architectural merit, and that therefore mine is probably a minority view.

Co-incidentally on Saturday evening, 5^th August, at St Gregory’s Church nearby Phyllis Felton, the author of the book ‘Behind Brick Walls’  which traces the history of the site,will be ruminating on the time when the hospital was used as a workhouse.  Phyllis was a nurse at the Walnutree for 26 years, and her book traces the history of the hospital site since Anglo Saxon times.

This will be the fourth and last of an unusual series of  free events that last just an hour from 6-7pm, so you are able to go on elsewhere for the rest of the evening. During the hour there will also be music from Elizabeth Cobb (flute) Ron Spivey (French horn) and Tom Cogan (piano). You can enjoy a glass of wine or soft drink afterwards.

There are no tickets but it is a fundraiser - the organ needs £3,000 worth of treatment for starters - so Tom Cogan, St Greg's organist and director of music, is hoping that all comers will be generous with their donations.

Fear and Greed at the County Council

I am surprised and disappointed by the decision taken at the County Council last week to give double digit increases in allowances to the Leader and Cabinet Members, while holding the remuneration of backbenchers to the 1% increase currently ‘enjoyed’ by the officers of the council.

At a time when officers are being asked to take pay increases that fall well below inflation such a move seems wrong.  Apparently the higher allowances were recommended by an independent panel, which has looked at other councils and found the level of payments at Suffolk to be below average.  However, we are not talking about a marketplace here, and councillors can hardly jump ship and go elsewhere if they are dissatisfied with their lot.  Moreover, it is not as though there is a shortage of people wanting to take on the jobs of the current Cabinet.  Many very well qualified and, some might say, far more appropriate people are waiting in the wings.

I am pleased to say that at least a few Conservatives were prepared to abstain.  However I understand that this was a risky choice since it was decided that the vote should be subject to a ‘whip’.  It frankly seems unsavoury to me to force party members to vote in favour of higher  remuneration for some of their number (including those wielding the whip) when an unwhipped vote has generally been the norm in the past on crucial policy matters relating to the Fire Service, Education and Adult Care.

At the same meeting I understand that a decision was made to axe the free shuttle bus that is used by staff wishing to go into the centre of Ipswich at lunch time.  This seems another ill-considered move, particularly since the service was paid for out of car parking payments made by the staff themselves.   Fortunately Ipswich Borough Council has come to the rescue and is going to pay for the service.  Good for them.

Officers of the council work hard and have had to put up with a much increased work load in recent years as the number of people working at the council has been reduced.  Councillors need to maintain good relations with their officers and work comfortably alongside them to get policies through.  When the future looks ever more uncertain and the need for further cuts is on the cards, now is not the time to provoke justified resentment.

French group seeks roots in Suffolk

Earlier this week, Little Waldingfield History Society welcomed 35 visitors from Lyon in France, all of whom are members of their local history society.  Among their number were decendents of the Appleton family that originally came from Little Waldingfield, and lived in Holbrook Hall.   

The visit to Little Waldingfield was arranged after the group organiser, a lecturer from the University of Lyon, wrote to LWHS asking whether it would be possible to arrange a trip to ‘Appleton Manor’.  It seems that the Appleton family has at least two descendants living in France, one line being traced through an American branch of the family.

The Appleton Memorial Plaque in Little Waldingfield Church

The happy event is described in detail on the ‘French visit’ tab above.  Many thanks to Andy Sheppard for the article.

A veteran from Pearl Harbour

Some friends who came to visit us over the weekend told us an interesting story about an incident in Lavenham.

They dropped into the Airmen's Bar at the Swan Hotel for a quick drink recently and encountered an elderly gentleman from the U.S. who was a veteran of the assault on Pearl Harbour in December 1941.

The visitor was invited to add his signature to the many names of U.S. servicemen already on the walls of the bar, and he obliged as can be seen from the picture to the left.  This was snapped by our friend shortly after it was inscribed.

Apparently the guest from the U.S, was very sprightly for his age (he must have been well over 90!), and had some interesting tales to tell.

Information about the signatures at the Airmen's Bar can be found on the American Air Museum in Britain website by clicking HERE