Brandeston, Suffolk
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Brandeston People

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Eileen Heighley-Pollard
A former resident at Brandeston Hall, The Street and The Potash​

Eileen Heighley-Pollard now lives in County Durham and made contact with the village through the email list. The article she sent me is the result of an exchange of several emails over the last couple of weeks or so.

The article outlines her association with Brandeston Hall and the Austins. From Eileen's emails, it turns out was brought up in Brandeston, living in half of the vicarage (in the days of the vicar Mr Davis) with her great grandmother, Mrs Meadows and then at The Potash. She mentioned how said she felt that that lovely old house was no longer her family home. She also mentioned that she was part of the Girling family.and that her grandparents lived at Vicarage Cottage; she thought that her great grandmother lived in 42 The Street.

Eileen is related to Mary and Hector Moore as Hector's mother and her grandmother were cousins. She well remembers a Jubilee Seat and wondered if it was still in existence. Could anyone shed some light on this? She remembers that the seat used to be the young villagers' meeting place but she was never allowed to "hang out " there. She was allowed to earn holiday spending money by picking blackcurrants at the Sterns farm but she was never allowed to go potato picking as that was just a shade too peasant-like in those days.

Eileen also remembers Ivan Leach well and said that the last time she visited Brandeston, she was taking photographs of cowslips on the roadside opposite his farm and they had quite a long chat. She thought that Eileen might remember her and that she would certainly remember her mother and her six sisters. She said that Eileen was noted for the beautiful knitting she used to do.

Could anyone who remembers Eileen or could add to this story please get in touch. 


Eileen Heighley-Pollard
An Update

From David Risk: I read this article and it certainly rang a few bells. Not knowing the age of Eileen, she is either the daughter of someone I went to Kettleburgh school with in 1943-4 or the actual person and she lived at The Potash. Depending on which one she is, she has a Great Aunt or Aunt living in Fore Street Framlingham - Thelma Durrant (formerly Girling) - the last remaining of Old Tom and Eva Girling’s five girls and Young Tom family who kept the petrol pumps at Vicarage Cottage.
 
There were Meadows , Herbert and Edith, at 16 Low Street; Ellen (Mrs Zeb) at 42 The Street and Ben (gamekeeper) at 54 The Street. In 1954, the village was amazed when Mrs Zeb reached 100 years old and received her Royal Telegram! The house Rawlinson’s End was her garden and Ben reared Pheasants in there.
 
Eileen mentions a Jubilee seat - that is the one in the village bus shelter for George V’s silver Jubilee.
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A Further Update From Eileen
Eileen doesn't remember Sue Thurlow (nee Murton) but does remember her sister Penny. Her mother used to babysit when the Murtons needed one. Some family photos are shown below together with Eileen's comments.
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Great grandfather Thomas Girling and his wife Jemima. She was Canadian and could neither read nor write but after great grandfather doied, she ran the Post Office in Kettleburgh. My grandmother used to visit her every weekend to do her paperwork. Apparently, Jemima could remember every transaction. I suppose in those days, a Post Office was just that a "Post" office.

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Great grandparents Mahala and Henry (Zebby's parents). One of my aunts told me that Mahala was a lady who married beneath herself and was cut off by her family. When my brother was researching our family tree he got back to 1500 or something on the Girling side but came to a complete block at Mahala so who knows.


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​Eva Girling (nee Meadows) and my mother Ruby.
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Great great grandparents Adam and Lucy Girling. Their gravestone is in Kettleburgh churchyard and it says "they were lovely and pleasant in life; in death they were not divided". They died within 24 hours of each other.









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Grandfather Thomas Girling. He was Sergeant Farrier in the Royal Horse Artillery.















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Brandeston Village School. My mother is on the extreme left in the second row. The teacher Miss Bradlaugh is on the right and she taught me from 1941 to 1947.

If anyone can name any of the other pupils in this photo, please let me know.

John King Cotton, Riggle Street, 1840
THE POSTMAN COMETH
​It was a lovely summer day in July 1840 at the cottage of an agricultural labourer in Riggle Street on the west side of Brandeston.  Excitement – a letter brought by the Letter Carrier – the labouring poor rarely received a letter.  Addressed to “Allen Cotton, Brandiston near Wickham, Suffolk, England”, it had travelled from Aden by ship up the Red Sea to Suez, across to Alexandria and on another ship to Falmouth, thence via London to Wickham Market for delivery to Riggle Street.  Who could be writing to Allen Cotton?
 
On the front – A Soldier’s letter, From Private John King, 6th Company, European Regiment Infantry.   Paid all the way with a manuscript “1” for a 1d and authorised by Captain Thomas Tapp, Captain in Charge.  Still a mystery – then the letter.
 
“Dear father in my next my letter to you I will let you now whether I shall come home next board or whether I stop and put my time in for they shilling a day.  I hope to god that you will be all alive when I do come home for there is nothing in this world would give so much pleasure be so good as to give my best love to Hall my brothers and sisters and to my friends
So no more from your Son John King Cotton
 
(return address) the letter as follows
 
Overland
To Private John King
6th Company 1st European Regiment
Aden Arabia
or Elsewhere”
 
Although the address on the letter does not mention Riggle Street, the 1841 census was taken a few months later.  It has good detail of the location of village residents, in this case listing “Hill Farm” (now West Hill [Farm]) separately, followed by “Riggle Street” for which there are eight households.  From this it can be extrapolated that Allen Cotton, as head of the first household listed on Riggle Street, lived in the house at the end of the road nearest to West Hill, which is now called The Lodge.  This is a Victorian structure so the house of Allen Cotton would have been a previous cottage on the same site.
 
In 1841, the census shows that Allen Cotton is aged 65 and he is an agricultural labourer.  He is living with his wife Ann aged 60, his son Samuel aged 27 and wife Emma aged 23 with their children, Charles aged 2 and William 5 months.  In addition, there is a lodger, 15 year old Henry Taylor.  Both Samuel and Henry are also agricultural labourers.
 
The location of the Cotton family can be further confirmed by the last entry for Riggle Street.  This is Samuel Gall, a farmer with family and two servants who would have been living in the more substantial dwelling on the corner of Riggle Street as it joins the main road, the west end of The Street.  That was Grove Farm (now Grove House) which rented 40 acres from the Revett family at the Hall, the land mainly between Mill Lane and Riggle Street.
 
In the 1851 census, Allen and Ann are still living in Brandeston with son Samuel and grandson William, probably in Riggle Street although that census does not record the location.  Allen and Samuel are still agricultural labourers, but that description for Allen has been struck through with the annotation “pauper”.  On the night of that census, Emma and Charles are not at home but Emma is recorded in the 1861 census with Samuel indicating that the whole of the family were together in 1851.  Even though the current generation has concerns about “retirement age”, it is plain that Allen Cotton never had that opportunity and the family struggled in the 1850s.
 
But, what about soldier John?  Having shown concern for his family in 1840, no doubt he would have been pleased and impressed by his parents longevity.  His regiment returned to Bombay later in 1841.  Maybe he had the shorter life.  If casualties from military action against the locals were not high, the mortality rate from disease in the Middle East and India was more considerable.
 
This is well evidenced from the paranoia of such disease, even from correspondence, as this letter has disinfection slits – that is razor cuts through the letter – so that it could be treated prior to entry into Britain.  Typically, treatment was fumigation with “flowers of sulphur” (known to every farmer) or immersion in vinegar.  This was done at an offshore location – in this case probably Malta which had been under British control since 1800.
 
As John is not recorded in a Brandeston census, we may never know his story.  Nor do we know why the Cotton family kept this letter for many years until it became a record of military and social history.
 
Ian Harvey, Grove Farm, Riggle Street
September 2016 

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Lady Jane Turnbull

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The Christmas Choir - November 2016

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Sue Thurlow Wins Individual Award For Services To The Community - 15 September 2016
Les Cullen's Moment of Fame - 22 June 2016

New Village People Welcome Party - 10 December 2015
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Lucy, Kevin and Florence Little
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