Museum of East Anglian Life

Tuesday October 19th

Today Mike and Pat asked us where we would like to go for the day knowing that we were really travelled in Suffolk. Alan suggested The Museum of East Anglian life and they were happy to take us there as it was somewhere they hadn’t been to either. It was in the village of Stowmarket. We arrived there and once inside were immediately pounced upon by a very enthusiastic staff member who welcomed us and explained about the whole set up. He then said his colleague was about to go to the far end of the estate and start the watermill and that they would take us up there in the buggy. So we climbed aboard and went to the mill. Once there he gave us the history of the building which had been moved there piece by piece as is the case of most of the buildings on the site. Unfortunately the water level at the mill was not high enough to turn to wheel. So we went and had a look at the chapel while waiting for the water to be pumped up.

The chapel looked as if it would be at home on the West Coast of the South Island of NZ. It was completely made of corrugated iron. They were kitset chapels erected by the Baptists to ensure there were places of worship in rural areas. It even had a total emersion font set into it. It was timber lined like a NZ lockwood house. After viewing the chapel the water level was still not high enough to run the mill so we walked to the middle section to view the collection of farm machinery. This was a large collection well displayed and cared for. Although the sun was trying to shine it was still very chilly so we headed for the cafe for warm soup for lunch.

After lunch we walked back to the mill only to be told that the chocks had fallen out of the mill so it wasn’t going to be able to started today. The poor girl running the mill was so embarrassed but we were quite okay about it. At 3pm we had the history tour of the estate and gardens. By now it was raining and quite cold, but the tour guide was very enthusiastic and provide us with gold umbrellas and although he has opnly been working there 2 years spoke as if he was the Lord of the Manor. He was certainly very enthusiastic about the whole project and there are grand plans for developing the house on site in the next 2 years.

In the evening Pat and Mike took us The Ship just out of Levington for a wonderful pub meal. This was a very fitting end to our stay back in Suffolk.