We recently had a walk past our winter wheat which is growing very thickly, an indication that we may have put too much on. However, it will probably have to suffer some proper weather and plenty of pigeon attention during the winter so there should be plenty left for spring growth and harvest next year.

In the shed the main focus has been to make progress on the Fordson Major E27n tractor. Having got most of the engine assembled it was time to start some checking. The first job was to look for water leaks before filling the engine and gearbox with oil. With a hose which seemed to go half way round Stowmarket we started the filling process. It wasn’t long before we had the floor awash with water and the engine dripping from every joint around the radiator and cylinder-head gasket. There were some very long faces that morning with the realisation that all the gaskets we had taken as ‘old but OK’ were in fact falling to pieces. A modern radiator is a fairly lightweight affair made of aluminium and plastic but our piece of work has a cast iron frame, is made of copper, and can just about be lifted by two stout fellows with another giving instructions! So the front of the tractor had to be jacked up, the front axle removed and the whole cooling system taken off to be cleaned and new gaskets fitted. This took the team a whole day and another half day to put it all back together. After another wrestling match with the hose, the cooling system was filled and the number of leaks, thankfully, could be counted on one finger.  We are in business! The old tractor has an electric starter which had be untried, but a hook up to a battery seems to show that all is well. We all take electric starting for granted on machines these days but in 1945 it was a bit of a luxury; when the day of the big start up arrives, the starter button should surely save much cursing, swearing and cranking.

Beside the Fordson sits the Smythe seed drill. We have started taking some bits off in order that an assessment of what needs to be done may be made. An initial examination reveals plenty of rust requiring some tinwork repairs, however we expect to see it in action in the spring. At the moment the implement is set up for a crop with a large seed; probably beans or peas. This means that we must search our collection of spare parts to see if we can find or adapt a seed barrel with smaller cups suitable for sowing wheat and barley.

We have regular visitors to the museum who have spent much of their working lives operating machinery like ours. They never miss a trick if they think we’ve ‘got it all wrong! We have many most enjoyable discussions with them, learning about what they did and sharing fond memories of time past.

This article is copyright © 2012 

It’s a very special building, not just to all of us here at the Museum, but also to the people of Stowmarket, and we know that when we open the doors to this Eighteenth Century Queen Anne style house, many will be be waiting to see what has been achieved using the Heritage grant which has helped fund this ambitious project.

We’ll be revealing a nine-room exhibition centre which celebrates everything that makes East Anglia special, and all of those figures that are entwined in the rich history of this part of the country, from Robert Ransome to Lady Eve Balfour, George Ewart Evans and beyond. We’re looking at what East Anglia means to the people that live there, with powerful and meaningful displays which capture the heart within the history.

As well as the house itself, we’ve also seen the restoration of Crowe St Cottages, which housed workers from the house. The cottages will represent the lives of those that lived there, giving an physical example of social history.

We cannot wait for the grand opening next year, years of preparation and hard work are finally coming to fruition in a project which is giving a whole new lease of life to a brilliantly well deserved building. We hope that our supporters and current visitors, will join the many new visitors that are sure to visit the house, in showing your support with a visit to Abbot’s Hall in 2012. We’ll keep you informed on all the dates closer to the time.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Throughout Abbots Hall, we are investigating the ideas of home and belonging. What makes us feel at home? Can we feel at home when we are not in our houses?

This is where you come in; we want to find out just how important the garden is to our sense of home. According to the National Trust’s Space to Grow report, published earlier this year, “Over 70 per cent of the population think that spending time in gardens is important for their quality of life.”

We want to hear from you! What does your garden mean to you? How do you use your garden? Do you garden for pleasure or is it a chore? What is it that makes you proud of your bit of garden space?

We’re looking for images of all types of garden, from large ornamental gardens such as Helmingham Hall, right through to terraces and allotments. But most importantly we want pictures of you actually doing things in gardens; throwing parties, mowing the lawn, working as a gardener, having barbeques, or just relaxing on a sun lounger! These pictures will help us to understand the importance of gardens to the people of East Anglia and will form the basis for part of our Garden Room display.

If you can help, please email jed.howlett@eastanglianlife.org.uk or write to us at How Does Your Garden Grow? Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 1DL

You can also contribute images through flickr, find out more at: http://flickr.com/people/howdoesyourgardengrow

For more details Tel: 01449 612229

Website: www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

Email: enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk

This article is copyright © 2012 

‘Autumn is the time in our farming year when we get to realise whether our labours have been in vain. We harvested what seemed to be a reasonable crop albeit with rather short straw for an aged binder to cope with. However, the crop was successfully stacked on the old rick stand.

On Sunday 18^th September on a warm autumn day we pulled the Ransomes thrashing drum out of its shed, connected it up to a Burrell agricultural traction engine and after getting about 160psi of steam we were away. Getting the traction engine and drum lined up together can be one of those jobs which takes for ever. If they are not aligned quite right the belt keeps falling off, this time all went well first time. It is a lovely sound hearing the revs increase on the engine with the drum slowly coming to life and settling into a very familiar hum with the sound of the sieves ‘jiggling’ in the background. Standing on the top of the drum feeding the sheaves is like standing on the deck of a ship at sea but it doesn’t take long to get the feel of the machine and all its moving parts so that sheaves are fed at the right speed to prevent the whole thing blocking up.

We have yet to find someone who has a baler we can connect to the drum, this would enable us to leave the straw in a more manageable form for the estate staff to feed to the museum animals. So the straw was stacked loose back on the rick stand for later use.

This year we grew both wheat and some barley. The barley was cut in mid-August and we had some concerns that it was a bit too green. However the technology of our forebears, stooking and stacking on a rick stand ensured that the crop ripened in the stack and was ready for the thrashing drum.

In the end we produced nearly half a ton of wheat, much the same as last year with a few bushels of barley as a bonus. Some of the wheat and the barley will be milled at the museum for animal fodder.

A little distance away from the thrashing scene was one of the museum volunteers working away with a vintage tractor beginning to prepare the seedbed for next year’s crops. Farming is a never ending process but a fascinating endeavour in trying to put into action old farming practices using vintage machinery.

It is interesting to reflect upon how harvesting has changed. Today the harvesting of cereals would be done by one person on the combine and a couple of others driving the corn carts. For us the reaping takes two people, one on the tractor, one on the binder. Carting takes four people, one driving the tractor, two pitching one stacking. Thrashing takes five people, the engine driver, a sheaf pitcher, someone to feed the drum, a sack man and a couple of straw stackers. Our harvesting reflects the work done in the 1930s, and the numbers of people working on the land – how times change.’

Peter Gibbs – Steam Team Member

This article is copyright © 2012 

This article is copyright © 2012 

What makes you happy? Is it playing on your Wii? Spending time with your family? Playing with your friends? Or even going to school? These are some of the questions that the Museum of East Anglian Life put to Class 3 at Lavenham Primary School. The museum then asked Class 3 to think about what may have made a Victorian child happy. The children researched Victorian life, handled Victorian toys from the museum collections and visited the museum to gather more information.

The children presented their findings and were surprised to find that many of the things that they believed made Victorian children happy also made them happy!

The Museum with Lavenham Primary School will be launching the exhibition – Happy Days – created from the children’s hard work on Wednesday 28^th April 2010 at the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket. The exhibition contains objects chosen by Class 3, labels written by the children and their own poetry and art.

Jo Rooks, the Museum Learning Officer, says “This was a fantastic project to be involved with. All of the children in class 3 worked really hard and discovered lots about Victorian life. We were really surprised to discover that modern children have a lot in common with Victorian children and many of the same things that made children happy 150 years ago make them happy today!”

The exhibition will be running from the 28^th April until the 31^st October 2010.

For more details Tel: 01449 612229

Website: www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

Email: enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk

This article is copyright © 2012 

The photographs – which include animals, working machinery and scenery – were created as part of a project to record images of contemporary British Agriculture, but evolved into something more idiosyncratic. When the pictures were taken between 2005 and 2007, Kevin and Richard had no intention of showing the photographs but a conversation led them to wonder if a selection of the images, with explanatory text, could help the ARC-Addington Fund in its attempts to foster understanding between farming and urban communities.

The ARC-Addington fund was founded in 2001 as the Churches’ response to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease and is partly named after Canon Richard Addington who inspired the original Addington Fund in East Anglia.  His principles of providing financial support combined with pastoral care live on to this day.

The fund is one of the Farming Help charities and helps to maintain the economic and social foundations of the farming community.  It can help farmers in one of three main ways: the Strategic Rural Housing Scheme which provides housing for farmers who have to leave their farm and cannot find anywhere suitable to live, the Trustees’ Discretionary Fund which can provide a cash grant towards unforeseen expenditure, and finally the Trevorva Barns project in Cornwall which provides affordable housing specifically for those who work in, or are retiring from, land-based employment.

Lisa Harris, Collections Manager at the Museum says: ‘As a result of the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001 a total of £10.3 million was distributed by the ARC-Addington Fund through over 22,000 applications. This is an incredible example of what can be achieved by the generosity of the public and churches in times of crisis within our farming communities.

We hope that visitors to the exhibition will be challenged to think about where their food comes from and why farming is important in the 21^st century, as well as learning more about the work of the ARC-Addington Fund.’

The exhibition ‘Food and Farming An Urban Perspective’ can be viewed at the Museum of East Anglian Life from now until the 12^th April 2010.

This article is copyright © 2012 

After a four year build up, and a huge amount of hard work our bid for development funds has been conditionally approved. We asked for £2.6m to develop Abbots Hall, the walled garden, the stables, Crowe Street cottages, and replace the conservatory. The HLF have granted us £1.771m on the condition that we raise the balance of  £830k by February 2009. We are half way there already, however if we fail to reach our target the grant could be lost. We have therefore decided to launch the MEAL Appeal to invite donations to close the gap. Watch the Press and this website to see how you can contribute.

Read about our development project here.

This article is copyright © 2012