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An Earl’s Tower

Hedingham Castle, Essex, part I
The home of Jason and Demetra Lindsay

Fig 2: The keep lies at the centre of the vast earthworks that surround Hedingham Castle.

In the first of two Country Life articles about this great castle, John Goodall looks at the medieval development of the site and the remarkable history of the keep. Photographs by Paul Highnam.

The village of Castle Hedingham stands in the valley of the River Colne in Essex. Set slightly apart from the medieval settlement, but integrally planned with it, are the massive earthwork ramparts of the castle that give the village its name (Fig 2). This castle was owned and developed by the de Vere family, which first received the Barony of Castle Hedingham soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066.

The first documented member of the family is one Aubrey de Vere, a lawyer whose service as an administrator to Henry I won the hereditary office of Chamberlain of England (which the family enjoyed until 1703). Aubrey presumably inherited a castle at the seat of his barony, but the present earthworks
probably bear the stamp of a massive reorganisation at the hands of his heir.

Aubrey was murdered during a riot in London in 1141 and his son, also called Aubrey, entered into his estates. At the time, King Stephen and the Empress Matilda were engaged in a bitter struggle to secure support for their rival claims to the throne and they wooed supporters by grants of land and titles. As a result, the number of earldoms in England—an Anglo-Saxon title invested with enormous prestige—swelled dramatically from about seven to nearly 40.

With huge resources at their disposal, the new earls sought to assume the architectural trappings appropriate to their new-found status. Abbeys and priories were particular beneficiaries of their
largesse, but so too were castles. These were practically important in the work of staking out territory, but their architecture had a symbolic significance, too.

Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, a small group of the most important castles had acquired huge towers of stone. These ‘great towers’, which we now term keeps, were viewed as prodigious works of architecture that physically expressed dominion. Prior to the Anarchy, great towers had effectively been the preserve of the king and his favoured circle. During the Anarchy, however, the new group of earls began to build them, too. East Anglia saw a particular proliferation in these buildings, many of them copying in form or detail the principal royal keep at Norwich, built from 1095 by William Rufus.

In 1142, Aubrey was offered an earldom by Matilda. In a unique grant, he was offered the title of Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire or Dorsetshire. He chose the second, and the last of the 20 Earls of Oxford in succession from him died more than 550 years later.

There is no documentary evidence to date the tower at Castle Hedingham, but the case for associating it with his earldom is compelling. It is significant, moreover, that its architectural inspiration comes not from Norwich, but from the south-east of England, almost certainly a reflection of William’s connections with London.

Fig 1 : The impressive main entrance to the medieval keep.

The tower was laid out on a square plan with massive walls about 12ft thick and rises to a height of about 100ft, the benchmark measurement of a medieval skyscraper. It is faced with beautifully cut blocks of limestone from Barnack in Northamptonshire and, as another mark of quality and expense, incorporates richly carved architectural ornament, including chevrons or zigzags (Fig 1). Even the plinth from which
the whole structure rises is delicately moulded, an extraordinary extravagance.

There are five storeys within the tower, one more than is usual in buildings of this type. Indeed, this treatment has only one extant 12th-century parallel in England, the leviathan keep erected from 1127 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Rochester, Kent. The resultant tall and narrow proportion of both buildings sets them apart from the mainstream of great towers, most of which are broader than they are high. As originally completed, the five storeys of the building were divided internally to create three floors: a basement, a first floor and a double-height second floor. The uppermost storey enclosed a pyramidal roof countersunk within the parapets, where its drains and the scars of leadlines can still be seen. At some uncertain point in the later Middle Ages, a low-pitched lead roof was erected at the top of the building, creating an extra floor in this former roof space. The thick tower walls are laced with short passages and small chambers. These include latrines with chutes that empty into the basement, an arrangement that would have required intensive management if the whole building was not to stink. It has only one known parallel, at Rochester. The central wall rising through the tower at Hedingham Castle also divides the structure in two. It is pierced at first and second-floor level by vast arches. (Fig 3).

Fig 3: The main interior of the keep with its fireplace, internal arch and encircling gallery.

Notches cut in the upper arch show that it was at some point infilled with a timber framed wall, possibly around 1500.

Fig 6: the gallery on the third floor is accessible from a stair in one angle of the tower.

It is frustrating to have no information about how this extraordinary building was used in the 12th century. There are no kitchens or small withdrawing chambers to suggest daily domestic use. Rather, the great upper hall might plausibly have been used for ceremonial events. It is intriguing in this respect that the gallery running round the upper storey of the principal interior is entered through a door carved with decoration only on one side (Fig 6). This may imply a correct way of entering and walking round the gallery. The tower was originally entered up a timber stair fixed into the side of the building. Very soon after its completion, however, this was replaced by a staircase tower. Visible in the external masonry of this are the lines of roofs that, at different times, covered the stair (Fig 4). There is also a semi-circular scar to the left of the main door, the setting for a vault over what was presumably a chapel at the head of the stair. The stair has recently been repaired with the generous help of the Country Houses Foundation.

Fig 4: The exterior of the keep is finished in cut blocks of limestone. In the foreground are the ruins of the staircase tower to the building. The scars of its former roofs are visible, as is the semicircle of the chapel vault to the left.

Today, the tower stands in isolation, but a cluster of medieval buildings— including a hall and chapel, possibly connected by cloister walks—stood to the west of it on a slightly different alignment. Their foundations were excavated in 1868 and have been recently surveyed using modern archaeological techniques. It is very difficult to date these foundations accurately or unpick their evolution in detail.

No less complicated to understand is what happened to the castle in the 200 years or so after the completion of the great tower. The de Vere family fortunes were mixed and, during the Wars of the Roses, loyalty to the Lancastrian cause brought disaster. This was abruptly turned to advantage, however, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, where John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, commanded Henry Tudor’s vanguard. In the aftermath of the victory, the Earl enjoyed exceptional standing in the new Tudor regime and invested heavily in architecture.

 

One of numerous buildings that benefitted was Hedingham Castle, which, according to the antiquarian John Leland, he largely reconstructed before his death in 1513. The new buildings, including a second tower overlooking the village and great hall, were executed in brick and green terracotta. All that survives from them is a bridge connecting the two castle baileys. Nevertheless, a sense of the building and its wider setting with parks is provided by early surveys and drawings (Fig 5).

The castle created by the 13th Earl was visited by Elizabeth I in 1561 and her host, John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, died there the following year. His son, the courtier and poet Edward, squandered his entire patrimony before his death in 1604. According to one estimate he raised more than £40,000 from the sale of some 86,000 acres of land, 64 manors and four castles, including HedinghamCastle. A survey of 1592 describes the recent demolition of several castle buildings by his warrant.

It is possible that the buildings underwent repairs in the early 17th century, following the purchase of Hedingham Castle in 1610 by Edward’s second wife, Elizabeth Trentham, for her son, the 18th Earl of Oxford. Or following its reversion to the Trentham family in 1625, when the association of Hedingham Castle with the de Veres was finally broken after five and a half centuries.

Nevertheless, the castle played no significant role in the Civil Wars of the 1640s and a drawing of 1665 suggests that the buildings were derelict. In The History and Antiquities of Essex (1816), Philip Morant asserts that, in the following year, 1666, the buildings were deliberately ruined to prevent the castle being used for the accommodation of prisoners of war.

In 1713, the castle and its estate were sold to Sir William Ashurst, whose new house on the site we will examine in part 2. To judge from depictions of the building, by 1719—and possibly in connection with Ashurst’s work—all the medieval buildings or their remains apart from the keep had been cleared. Ashurst nevertheless repaired the keep, inserting within it new floors and a roof. he also apparently punched two openings into the basement, perhaps as garden features. His changes to the buildings are anecdotally transmitted through the writings of several generations of the Majendie family, who inherited the property by marraige in 1783.

The first of these, Lewis Majendie, commissioned a detailed survey of the building involving the antiquarian John Carter and the architect Henry Emlyn. Publlished in Vetusta Monumenta (1796) this must have been known to the architect Thomas Hopper, who created Penrhyn Castle from 1821, a spectacular Regency evocation of the Hedingham keep, replete with its plinth mouldings.

Fundamental to the 19th-century understanding of the keep was the 1592 survey of the castle and its associated documents, which were bound together in a volume held by the family (and once sensationally stolen from the Atheneum).Crucially, these mention an ‘armoury’ within the building and,as a consequence, the main chamber of the building assumed this name. The Armoury was occasionally used for entertainment, most notably for Henry VII in 1498 and for a dinner to honour Benjamin Disraeli in 1849.

It was also furnished with appropriate contents and historic furniture. This collection fell victim to a disastrous fire caused by an army stove on the roof in 1918, at a time when the keep was occupied as an observation post. In 1916, the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments had published a survey of the building.

In October 1918 the architect William Weir, a specialist in work to ancient monuments quoted the cost of repairs at £2,200. Just prior to the reinstatement of the walls and floors, COUNTRY LIFE photographed the keep as a ruined shell, later publishing the pictures.(COUNTRY LIFE, September 25, 1920.)Weir’s restoration was restrained and dignified, preserving all the original plasterwork and detailing.

Since 2013, the present owners of the castle have transformed the interiors he created into a wedding venue.Their work has ben as ingenious as it is sensitive. A new hardwood floor (made from salvaged planking from Southend pier)has been laid in the basement and the 1720s openings used to make the space wheelchair accessible. Fabrics have been hung to soften the interiors including homemade curtains basement decorated with the arms of the barons of Magna Carta.

There are also ingenious fittings that make the interiors functional, such as hinged fabric screens and basins disguised within barrels. Modern services have been run through areas of concrete laid in the 1920s restoration of the building. the Lindsays’ inventive approach has also extended to the Georgian house as we shall discover in Part 2.

For further information, visit www.hedinghamcastle.co.uk

2023 - Read about the wonderful new gallery being built in Sudbury for Gainsborough's masterpieces; follow the trail of a tireless local environmental campaigner; get ready for the second EA cultural festival, the Bures music festival and Opera at Layer Marney; discover the beautiful garden of Holm House with its wildflower meadow and lake; travel through the Colne valley along the Gainsborough line; find out where you can get local financial advice; enjoy an illustrated walk in the Stour Valley; and read our Chairman's update on proposed housing developments, solar farms, and the National Grid's Bramford to Twinstead electricity grid reinforcement project. 

2022 - Read about the wonderful new gallery being built in Sudbury for Gainsborough's masterpieces; follow the trail of a tireless local environmental campaigner; get ready for the second EA cultural festival, the Bures music festival and Opera at Layer Marney; discover the beautiful garden of Holm House with its wildflower meadow and lake; travel through the Colne valley along the Gainsborough line; find out where you can get local financial advice; enjoy an illustrated walk in the Stour Valley; and read our Chairman's update on proposed housing developments, solar farms, and the National Grid's Bramford to Twinstead electricity grid reinforcement project. 

2022 Magazine
Year: 2022
Chairman’s Letter
Year: 2022
Rebel with a cause
Year: 2022
A National Centre for Thomas Gainsborough’s Masterpieces
Year: 2022
EA Festival at Hedingham Castle
Category: Culture
Year: 2022
The Gainsborough Line
Category: Adventure. Travel, Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2022
Music, Mischief and Mayhem – Opera at Layer Marney
Year: 2022
Bures Music Festival
Year: 2022
Holm House Gardens in Suffolk
Year: 2022

2020 - Welcome to our 2020 lockdown edition - only published ONLINE. Read about the wonderful Alfred Munnings Exhibition "Behind the Lines"; find out how the beavers have been getting on at the Spains Hall Estate in Finchingfield, introduced back into Essex after an absence of 400 years; explore the link between Ferriers in Bures and the Voyage of the Mayflower, the Salem Witch trials and Wampum belts; read a fascinating interview with Carl Shillingford, talented Michelin chef and keen local forager; and enjoy a celebratory update from Ken Forrester on South African wines and his support for a wonderful local school.  

2020 Magazine
Year: 2020
Chairman’s Letter
Year: 2020
Behind the Lines: Alfred Munnings, War Artist
Category: Art, Culture
Year: 2020
The Foragers Retreat – Michelin chef in Pebmarsh.
Category: Food, Nature
Year: 2020
Dam Good Job – Beavers back in Essex after 400 years.
Category: Explore Colne Stour, Nature
Year: 2020
Ferriers – a Bures house and its connection to the Mayflower.
Category: Adventure. Travel, Architectural Interest, Culture, History
Year: 2020
Three special milestones for Ken Forrester Wines  
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2020

2019 - Read about Tudor living on a grand scale at Alston Court, how Samuel Courtauld & Co. shaped our towns and villages, hear inspiring stories of local vineyards Tuffon Hall and West Street, get an update on the Dedham Vale AONB extension, and take a tour round Polstead Mill, one of East Anglia's beautiful secret gardens. 

Chairman’s Letter
Year: 2019
Dedham Vale AONB extension
Year: 2019
The Tuffon Hall Transformation
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2019
A Hong Kong racehorse in an Essex field
Category: Nature
Year: 2019
Andy Gentle – A chainsaw love affair
Category: Business
Year: 2019
A vivid insight into Tudor living on the grand scale.
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2019
Underground Moats & Zinc Cathedrals
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2019
Secret Gardens of East Anglia – Polstead Mill
Category: Gardens
Year: 2019
Repairing the damage of a supermarket delivery van
Year: 2019
How Samuel Courtauld and Co. shaped our towns and villages
Category: Architectural Interest, Culture, History
Year: 2019
Ken Forrester
Year: 2019
CSCA Photography Competition
Year: 2019
Garden Visits
Category: Gardens
Year: 2019
Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2019

2018 - Read about Hedingham Castle, a new National Centre for Gainsborough in Sudbury, award-winning new Gins from Adnams, aspects of our Industrial Heritage, the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds, the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project, and take a look at the proposed new Constitution for CSCA.. 

Chairmans Letter April 2018
Category: Annual, News, Planning Issues
Year: 2018
History of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds
Category: Architectural Interest, Art, Culture, History
Year: 2018
Another Suffolk Success Story – Time for a G & T?
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2018
Some more aspects of our Industrial Heritage
Category: Agricultural, Brewing, distilling and wine, History
Year: 2018
An Earl’s Tower
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2018
A Castle Reborn
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2018
Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project
Category: Explore Colne Stour, Nature, Planning Issues
Year: 2018
A National Centre for Gainsborough set within the town where he was born and the landscape that inspired him
Category: Architectural Interest, Art, History
Year: 2018
Garden Visits
Category: Gardens, History
Year: 2018
Treasurer’s Report
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2018
New Constitution
Year: 2018
Editor’s Notes
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2018

2017 - Read about our local industrial heritage, Paycocke's House history, why heritage matters, the art of Alfred Munnings, a haunted house in Lamarsh, celebrating Gainsborough, the beauty of recreating Cedric Morris's Iris collection and a small wine snippet from Ken Forrester. 

Chairmans Letter April 2017
Category: Annual, News, Planning Issues
Year: 2017
Heritage Matters
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2017
Some aspects of our Industrial Heritage
Category: History
Year: 2017
Paycocke’s House: a witness to history
Category: Explore Colne Stour, History
Year: 2017
The House of his Dreams: Reimagining The Munnings Art Museum
Category: Art, Explore Colne Stour, History
Year: 2017
‘The Haunted House’ of Lamarsh – Some Early Reflections
Category: History
Year: 2017
Gainsborough’s House: Celebrating the Past and Looking to the Future
Category: Art, Explore Colne Stour, History
Year: 2017
Another, highly unusual, Suffolk Success Story
Category: Gardens, Nature
Year: 2017
Garden Visits 2017
Category: Gardens, Nature
Year: 2017
Dirty Little Secret
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2017
Website
Category: News
Year: 2017
Editor’s Notes
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2017
Treasurer’s Report
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2017

2016 - Interesting articles on medieval graffiti, farming in the Stour Valley, exploring our AONB, early settlers from the Stour Valley to America, the archaeology of a local farm, a wonderful catalogue of British birds, celebrating a Suffolk joinery business, the weather from a South African winery. 

Chairmans Letter
Category: Annual
Year: 2016
Medieval Graffiti: the hidden histories…
Category: History
Year: 2016
Stour Valley Farming
Category: Business
Year: 2016
The Godly Kingdom of the Stour Valley
Category: History
Year: 2016
Keeping It Special in the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Stour Valley Project
Category: Nature
Year: 2016
Lodge Farm, Rectory Road, Wyverstone Street, Suffolk
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2016
A Miscellany of Information about British Birds
Category: Nature
Year: 2016
Another Suffolk Success Story
Category: Business
Year: 2016
Garden Visits
Category: Gardens
Year: 2016
Harvest, Fires and Fynbos
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2016
LOOKING FORWARDS, BEFORE I GET LEFT BEHIND….
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2016
EDITOR’S NOTES
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2016
Annual General Meeting and Summer Party
Category: A.G.M.
Year: 2016
TREASURER’S REPORT
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2016

2015 - The life and times of a flint knapper. A continuation about the history of the ancient farm at Henny and a visit to the inside of Alston Court, Nayland as well as an insight into The Antiques Roadshow.  

Chairman’s Letter – February 2015
Category: Annual
Year: 2015
Caught Knapping
Category: History
Year: 2015
ALSTON COURT
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2015
ORGANIC MUTTERINGS
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2015
THE STORY OF SPARROW’S FARM, GREAT HENNY – PART 2
Category: History
Year: 2015
ON AND OFF THE ANTIQUES ROADSHOW
Category: Business
Year: 2015
UNLOCKING THE ARTIST WITHIN: FINE ART LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
Category: Art, Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2015
BADGERS – LOVE’EM, OR HATE’EM?
Category: Nature
Year: 2015
GARDEN VISITS
Category: Gardens
Year: 2015
FORRESTER VINEYARDS, SOUTH AFRICA
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2015
EDITOR’S NOTES
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2015
TREASURER’S REPORT
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2015

2014 - A hair-raising flight from UK to South Africa and an insight into the Wineries of Stellenbosch. An exceptional old mill just outside Bures and a most unusual chapel on the hill behind, as well as a time warp farm at Henny. 

Chairman’s Letter – February 2014
Category: Annual
Year: 2014
ST. STEPHEN’S CHAPEL, BURES
Category: History
Year: 2014
THE STELLENBOSCH WINE ROUTE – THE PEOPLE AND THE DOGS!
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2014
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A FLIGHT TO STELLENBOSCH AND BACK
Category: Adventure. Travel
Year: 2014
A SUFFOLK SUCCESS STORY – JIM LAWRENCE LTD
Category: Business
Year: 2014
HOLD FARM, BURES ST MARY; A RARE TUDOR WATERMILL
Category: Architectural Interest
Year: 2014
THE STORY OF SPARROW’S FARM, GREAT HENNY
Category: History
Year: 2014
YOUR COUNTRYSIDE – FIGHT FOR IT NOW! your Britain fight for it now
Category: Planning Issues
Year: 2014
TUNBRIDGEWARE
Category: History
Year: 2014
EXTENDING THE DEDHAM VALE AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY (AONB) – UPDATE
Category: News, Planning Issues
Year: 2014
GARDEN VISITS
Category: Annual, Gardens
Year: 2014
EDITOR’S NOTES
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2014
TREASURER’S REPORT
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2014

2013 - Watermills on the Stour. How Constable and Gainsborough would have seen many of the buildings in our area. Let’s protect the Stour Valley by extending the AONB from where we take over from The Dedham Vale at Wormingford towards Sudbury. 

Chairman’s Letter – February 2013
Category: Annual
Year: 2013
THE WATERMILLS OF THE RIVER STOUR
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2013
MANAGING A MASTERPIECE: THE STOUR VALLEY LANDSCAPE PARTNERSHIP
Category: Art, History
Year: 2013
EXTENDING THE DEDHAM VALE AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY (AONB)
Category: Planning Issues
Year: 2013
BUILDINGS IN THE EAST ANGLIAN LANDSCAPE – AS SEEN BY JOHN CONSTABLE
Category: Art, History
Year: 2013
THE ROUND CHURCH AT MAPLESTEAD
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2013
THE FINE WINES OF ENGLAND
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2013
PROGRESS AGAINST PYLONS: A ROUNDUP OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PYLONS SAGA
Category: Planning Issues
Year: 2013
TEA AND THE TEA CADDY A BRIEF STUDY OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF TEA AND ITS CONTAINERS
Category: History
Year: 2013
GARDEN VISITS
Category: Annual, Gardens
Year: 2013
EDITOR’S NOTES
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2013
TREASURER’S REPORT
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2013

2012 - A walk through many of the churches along the River Stour and how the Romans once lived right here in our midst, and how your pint is brewed. Also the ongoing fight to rid the Stour of the blight of Pylons. 

CHAIRMAN’S LETTER – FEBRUARY 2012
Category: Annual
Year: 2012
TREES R US – AN AMATEUR ARBORETUM
Category: Nature
Year: 2012
GLIMPSES INTO SOME STOUR VALLEY CHURCHES
Category: Explore Colne Stour, History
Year: 2012
THE ART OF BREWING
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2012
PLANNING REFORM
Category: Planning Issues
Year: 2012
‘ELF ‘N SAFETY . . . AND ALL THAT
Category: Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2012
BRINGING OUR PAST TO LIFE: GESTINGTHORPE ROMAN VILLA
Category: History
Year: 2012
MINIATURE OR APPRENTICE PIECE?
Category: History
Year: 2012
GAINSBOROUGH’S VIEW
Category: Art, Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2012
NEW STOUR VALLEY ENVIRONMENT FUND
Category: News
Year: 2012
TREASURER’S REPORT
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2012
EDITOR’S NOTES
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2012
THE COLNE STOUR COUNTRYSIDE ASSOCIATION. MINUTES OF THE 46TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT FERRIERS BARN, BURES ON THURSDAY 12TH MAY 2011
Category: A.G.M.
Year: 2012

2011 - The brewers of East Anglia. The gardens of Marks Hall as well as the paintings of Alfred Munnings on display in Sudbury. How a small church became the Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds and all you need to know about antique birdcages. 

CHAIRMAN’S LETTER – APRIL 2011
Category: Annual
Year: 2011
Pylons
Category: Planning Issues
Year: 2011
THE PAINTED CHURCH BECOMES BURY’S CATHEDRAL
Category: History
Year: 2011
MARKS HALL AND THE PHILLIPS PRICE TRUST
Category: History
Year: 2011
BREWING IN EAST ANGLIA
Category: Brewing, distilling and wine
Year: 2011
BURES MILL OVER NINE CENTURIES
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2011
LANDSCAPES BY MUNNINGS EXHIBITION AT GAINSBOROUGH’S HOUSE
Category: Art
Year: 2011
BIRD-CAGES – A FASCINATION
Category: History
Year: 2011
DAWS HALL EVENTS 2011
Category: Annual
Year: 2011
EDITOR’S NOTES
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2011
GARDEN VISITS
Category: Annual, Gardens
Year: 2011
TREASURERS REPORT
Category: Treasurer’s Report
Year: 2011
THE COLNE STOUR COUNTRYSIDE ASSOCIATION. MINUTES OF THE 45TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT FERRIERS BARN, BURES ON THURSDAY 6TH MAY 2010
Category: A.G.M.
Year: 2011
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2010
Category: A.G.M.
Year: 2011

2010 - An artist who enjoyed his port and a canoe adventure along the Stour. Sudbury’s history and Coggeshall Abbey and a fight to get rid of Pylons from the Stour Valley. 

Chairmans Letter
Category: Annual
Year: 2010
A Pint of Port to Paint a Picture
Category: Art, History
Year: 2010
A Walk Round Coggeshall Abbey
Category: Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2010
By Canoe to Cattawade
Category: Adventure. Travel, Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2010
Nocturnal Visitors
Category: Nature
Year: 2010
Sudbury New Town – c.1330
Category: History
Year: 2010
A Stay in a Nomad’s Tent
Category: Business
Year: 2010
Freeing our countryside of the blight of pylons
Category: Planning Issues
Year: 2010
Hobbies on the Stour
Category: Nature
Year: 2010
Editor’s Notes
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2010
Website
Category: News
Year: 2010
Annual General Meeting 2009
Category: Annual
Year: 2010

2009 - Norwich School art and the Maplesteads. Ancient wallpapers, and is Long Melford the epitome of a Suffolk village? and don’t throw away a rug before checking what it is. 

Chairmans Letter
Category: Annual
Year: 2009
By Hook or by Crook
Category: Art, History
Year: 2009
Unwanted Wildlife – Some Handy Hints
Category: Gardens
Year: 2009
East Ruston Old Vicarage
Category: Gardens
Year: 2009
Squash a Squirrel – Save a Tree
Category: Nature
Year: 2009
Historic Wallpapers and Cole & Son
Category: Business
Year: 2009
Long Melford – ‘Suffolk in a day’
Category: Architectural Interest, Explore Colne Stour, History
Year: 2009
Don’t throw away a fortune!
Category: Business
Year: 2009
Garden Visits. Away Days
Category: Gardens
Year: 2009
Website
Category: Annual
Year: 2009
Editors Notes
Category: Editors notes
Year: 2009
Annual General Meeting 2008
Category: Annual
Year: 2009

2008 - The bell founders of Sudbury and all about a rogue from our area, Sir John Hawkwood, and a Sudbury secret – Gainsborough’s House. 

Member’s Letter
Category: Annual
Year: 2008
Cycling in Suffolk – An Environmental Holiday
Category: Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2008
The Sudbury Bell Founders
Category: History
Year: 2008
The CSCA Website
Category: News
Year: 2008
From Sible Hedingham to Florence. The Remarkable Life of Sir John Hawkwood
Category: History
Year: 2008
‘One of Suffolk’s Best Kept Secrets’- Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury
Category: Art, Explore Colne Stour
Year: 2008
Discovering Historic Wallpaper in East Anglian Houses
Category: History
Year: 2008
The not so humble Mole (Talpa Europaea) and how to catch him
Category: Nature
Year: 2008
Annual Report 2007.
Category: Annual
Year: 2008

2007 - Why a bell had to be chipped to get into the belfry at Lamarsh. Watermills on the Colne and Dragonflies. 

Water Mills on the Upper Colne
Category: Architectural Interest, History
Year: 2007
Dragonflies on the Stour
Category: Nature
Year: 2007
Lamarsh Bell Restoration
Category: Architectural Interest
Year: 2007
The CSCA Website
Category: News
Year: 2007
What is wrong with our Horse Chestnuts?
Category: Nature
Year: 2007

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Christy Simson

CHAIRMAN

Alexander Robson

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Michael Goodbody

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