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- The Royal Connection
- Suffolk Eats
- Suffolk VIPs
- Richard Remembers
- Owlbut's Birdwatch
I've picked out two royal connections
in Suffolk which are loosely connected. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was the chief advisor to Henry VIII for more than 12 years. Wolsey was born in Ipswich in 1498.
Wolsey created Cardinal College at Oxford University. It is now known as Christ Church College. Wolsey's Gate, which can be found in Ipswich, was intended to be
the gate that led to a feeder college to his Oxford one that would be built in his home town. Sadly Wolsey fell out of favour with Henry when he couldn't arrange
a way out of the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the college was never built.
The reason Henry wanted to get out of his marriage to Catherine was because he wanted to marry his new lover, Anne Boleyn. A few miles south of
Ipswich, in a village called Erwarton, is St Mary's Church. It is said that, after Anne Boleyn was beheaded, her heart was brought back to the church and buried
in a casket in the church. Anne had spent time when she was young at the home of her uncle, Sir Philip Parker, who lived at Erwarton Hall. The story goes that
before they married Anne and Henry would visit her uncle.
In 1838, during renovations at the church, a heart-shaped casket was discovered. There was no inscription on the casket but there, on the church organ,
you can see a drawing, done by the famous painter Holbein, of Anne Boleyn. Whether Anne Boleyn's organ was once in the casket, no one will ever know.
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When I was very young I'm sure my mother used to feed me rusks and my memory tells me they were sometimes soaked in milk. I also think there was
something called a bickiepeg which I had when teething and I thought this was a type of rusk too. This may all be wrong and, sadly, mother is no longer
around to ask. I have only wandered off in this direction because when looking up food in Suffolk I came across Suffolk Rusks.
It would appear that they are a cross between a scone and a biscuit and are a traditional food in Suffolk. I searched around, found a recipe
and, as they seem so easy to make, I thought I'd include it here and the adventurous ones amongst you could try them. It would seem that they used to be made for
farm workers to take into the fields and have as a snack with a piece of cheese.
Apologies to any Suffolk people if my efforts are not a good example.
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Seven random people who were born in Suffolk in the last 100 years:-
Ralph Fiennes - Actor (Lord Voldermort), Cherry Seaborn - Part Time Hockey Player and Wife of Ed Sheeran, the late Benjamin Britten - Composer,
the late June Brown - Actor (Dot Cotton in EastEnders), Marcus Evans - Businessman and Owner of Ipswich Town Football Club, Leanne Mitchell - Singer
(first winner of The Voice UK), the late Sir Peter Hall - Theatre, Opera and Film Director.
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This is a bit of a weird memory and, as of now, I have no picture to support it, however, when we begin our journey in 2023,
I will try to get a photograph explaining what I saw. For now, I can just tell you how I felt.
I moved to Essex in 1972 and this allowed me to go out at weekends and sometimes travel into Suffolk. I had been brought up in suburban London and only
gone outside that area for holidays. My memory is of a time, and because the fields had been harvested and hay bales were around, I'm guessing it was in
August/September of 1972, I visted Flatford and after walking along the river bank we headed along a footpath, at the side of a field. After a mile or so, we
stopped and sat on one of the hay bales and unpacked the picnic we had brought with us.
It was then that I had this sudden moment when I realised, from where I sat, I could see no evidence of the 20th century. There were no pylons, no
telegraph poles, no roads, no sound of traffic and, at that moment, no planes flying across the sky. I am sure there are many other places in our country where
this could happen but this was my first revelation. It felt very calming and quite special. Should you find any such place, feel free to email me the pictures.
Tells you how on our contact page.
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The Hen Harrier is a bird of prey but has suffered a large decline in recent years. The problem is that the bird can feed on
other game birds, such as grouse, and even chickens. Both farmers and gamekeepers have contributed to the decrease in numbers. There are now projects underway to
try to reduce the conflict.
Male birds are a pale grey colour while females and young birds are brown in colour. All birds have yellow legs and a short, hooked, chunky beak. When
they are flying they hold their wings in a V shape. As I said they mainly eat small birds and also voles. They live in open areas in farmland, grassland and wetlands.
There are only about 600 breeding pairs. They arrive in their upland breeding areas in late March and stay till the end of August. They can mainly be found in
Northern England and those seen further south, usually during October and November, are probably visitors from Europe.
Hen Harriers are between 44 and 52 cms in length, have a large wingspan between 100 and 120 cms and weigh about 350 grams for males and 500 grams for
females.
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Two extra sections, "It Happened Here" and "Now That's Weird", will appear on 10 February 2025
