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MANAGING A MASTERPIECE: THE STOUR VALLEY LANDSCAPE PARTNERSHIP

A lighter in use on the Stour.

Many of you may have seen or heard the phrase ‘Managing a Masterpiece’ Landscape Partnership Scheme in the local, and sometimes national, media, relating to a project in the Stour Valley, but how many people actually know what is it?

Firstly, what is a ‘Landscape Partnership’? According to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s website, which will fund up to 90% of such schemes, a Landscape Partnership is: A programme that helps conserve areas of distinctive landscape by delivering conservation benefits on a landscape scale, as well as helping people learn about and access our unique countryside.

The Stour Valley Landscape Partnership, known as ‘Managing a Masterpiece’, is a partnership of the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project, local authorities, education establishments and charities that have come together to develop a series of 62 wildlife, landscape, archaeological and access projects in the Stour Valley.

Managing a Masterpiece is a £1.1m investment over 3 years into landscape projects in the Stour Valley. It is funded predominately, at around 86%, by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The remaining funds come from the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project, seven local authorities, Natural England and English Heritage. The River Stour Trust has also contributed to improve the outcome of an individual project.

The Scheme is now into its third year of delivery. The projects completed so far have ranged from those with a high profile, such as the restoration of the Stour Lighter; archaeological digs; the Dedham Vale Hopper Bus and panoramic photographs taken from the top of church towers, to projects with less public profile but still important to improve visitor and residents appreciation and understanding of the Stour Valley. These projects include courses run at the University of Essex on landscape history and the Stour Navigation, self-guided walks, leaflets from Sudbury, Bures and Marks Tey railway stations and courses run in schools concentrating on traditional skills and traditions such as building techniques and songs and dances.

With such a wide range of projects, the Scheme’s staff made up of just three individuals, two of whom work part time, have worked extremely hard and effectively to deliver the projects on time and to budget. The Heritage Lottery Fund has consistently praised the Scheme in their quarterly monitoring visits, and regional staff and board members have visited the Scheme to help promote and celebrate various elements of it.

Some of the highlights. . .
Perhaps the most high profile, challenging and to some people controversial project was the restoration of the Stour Lighter, or barge, the John Constable. The Scheme had originally proposed funding a feasibility study into the restoration of a lighter, but the Heritage Lottery Fund encouraged the board to be bolder and bid for a full restoration. Taking soundings from boat builders, marine surveyors and boat experts at the Heritage Lottery Fund and others, the board sanctioned the bid to include a project to restore a lighter. Once the grant had been awarded, the Managing a Masterpiece staff organised a competitive tendering process. Six companies expressed an interest in restoring the vessel but in the final analysis the Pioneer Sailing Trust based in Brightlingsea won the contract. The Trust has an impressive track record in boat restorations and the experience of running the apprentice scheme associated with the project, and quoted within budget. Once the contract was awarded, the vessel was moved from its location to the Pioneer Sailing Trust’s workshop in a delicate operation.

Once at the workshop, the vessel’s dimensions were recorded and the restoration began. While nearly all of the timbers in the vessel were unusable and had to be replaced, the work is still defined as a restoration as the new timbers were placed in the position of the old ones.

The John Constable prior to restoration.

The Lighter is owned by the River Stour Trust who had recovered it from the Ballingdon Cut, off the River Stour, where it had been scuttled during the Great War as a precaution against any possible use by invading forces. The vessel was taken out of the cut in around 1976 and restored by the River Stour Trust, and for a short period of time was used as an education vessel. However, the vessel was soon requiring further repair which was not affordable and the vessel was stored outside the River Stour Trust’s Visitor and Education Centre in Great Cornard.

The Lighter would have once been part of a pair, the rear barge acting as a giant rudder. The John Constable is an example of a front barge and they would have at one time travelled between Sudbury and Mistley. The Lighters would carry goods from the Stour Valley downstream and then these goods would be transferred to larger vessels to be taken to London and beyond. The goods leaving the Stour valley included bricks. It is thought that many of the bricks that built the Albert Hall and London Liverpool Street railway station came from this area. The return journey had the slightly less glamorous cargo of ‘night soil’ (a polite way of saying manure from horses working in London) that was used to fertilise the fields of the Stour Valley.

The original vessels were pulled up and downstream using horses. As there is no official tow path the horses often had to swap banks by means of climbing on the vessel and being taken across to the other side with the crew propelling the vessel with long wooden poles know as quant poles. The scene of horses being transferred from one bank to the other was depicted by the painter John Constable in his works entitled: The White Horse and The Leaping Horse. The restored vessel will be propelled by silent electronic motors and, due to the requirements of modern day safety requirements, quant poles will also be kept on the vessel as a secondary source of propulsion.

The John Constable at the Pioneer sailing Trust workshop before restoration.

One of the unusual features of the vessel was the clinker built nature of construction, meaning the restoration needed to shape and bend some large pieces of timber. The vessel has a very flat bottom which is kept attached to the sides using single pieces of timber that have an almost 90 degree bend in them. The need to source enough of these pieces at the right size and quality led to a national search, with Pioneer Sailing Trust staff travelling the length of England on the strength of promises and rumours.

Once the vessel was restored it was taken back to Cornard, via a brief stop-over in Ipswich for a press call that attracted local media, radio and television interest. It was launched back into the water and is undergoing trials before an official public launching ceremony in Spring 2013, before it earns its keep as a passenger-carrying vessel running between Sudbury and Great Henny.

The restored Stour Lighter on display in Ipswich.

The Dedham Vale Hopper bus, first started as a pilot in 2005, was revived thanks to funding from Managing a Masterpiece. Over the three years of operation the bus has transported thousands of people on a circular route starting and ending at Manningtree, but including East Bergholt, Stratford St Mary and Dedham.

 

Dedham Vale Hopper Bus.

The plan had been to move visitors around the area without them having to use their own cars. What hadn’t been anticipated to such a degree was the popularity of the service to residents. From surveys undertaken on board the bus it was found that nearly 50% of the users were local residents getting to nearby villages to meet with friends or access local shops and services. One project that has really caught local residents’ imagination was the archaeological digs. Early on in the Scheme’s lifetime was the dig at Wormingford Hill that excavated a Tudor Hunting-Lodge overlooking Smallbridge Hall. It turned out that the site also had a well and what looked like a brewery. Hundreds of volunteer man hours went into the excavation and many more local school children visited the dig. The work was recorded and a ‘coffee table’ publication of the findings is available from the Colchester Archaeological Group. The well was excavated to a depth of nearly 15 metres. Right at the bottom the volunteers found the workings of an old pump system. The pump was carved from wood and is similar in design to that of a modern day bicycle pump. A length of elm, around 2 metres long, had been hollowed out which the piston would have been driven up and down to create the vacuum required to pull the water. Also of particular interest were parts of decorated brick, wall tiles and a number of coins found on site, indicating a high status building on a much earlier site. The coins found included a silver sixpence of Elizabeth, dating from 1561 to 1566 and a ‘Coin of Cunobelin’, who ruled south eastern England from his capital of Colchester in the First century AD.

There were other equally successful digs in Clare, Nayland, Stoke by Nayland, Bures Common and Mount Bures. Each dig gave the local community a chance to learn more about the history of their village and take part in an archaeological dig under the watchful eye of experts from Access Cambridge archaeology or County Archaeological Services. The Nayland test pitting programme, where villagers were encouraged to dig a one metre square in their garden and record what they found, turned up a large amount of pottery as might be expected from this historical settlement. Finds included wares from Roman times and early medieval sand ware (dating from 1100-1400). There were also many finds of locally produced material including Hedingham ware, Thetford ware and Harlow slipware, as well as finds from wares further afield such as examples of Staffordshire Manganese ware and German Stone ware. Also found was an Elizabethan coin dating from 1567. Over 150 people from the village were involved in examining thirty-four test pits in the village, and the weekends activities culminated in a presentation from the archaeologists and an evening barbeque.

School children taking part in Wormingford dig.

Archaeological dig on Bures Common.

Another project that caught the imagination was the taking of panoramic photographs from the top of church towers. These amazing photographs have been loaded onto a ‘pod’, essentially a computer on a pedestal, which is touring the churches of the Stour Valley. Prints of the images were made available to each church but they come alive when seen electronically on the pod or online on the Managing a Masterpiece website. When viewed electronically, one can zoom in on features of interest and jump to the next viewpoint.

 

Panoramic photograph taken from the top of All Saints Church, Sudbury.

Landscape and wildlife are also important elements in Managing a Masterpiece. Over sixty riverside trees have been pollarded; many of the iconic trees between Flatford and Dedham have been pruned, ensuring these important trees live longer. Once, the trees would have been regularly pollarded for firewood or bean poles, but since markets for this type of product have been filled by cheaper suppliers, the trees have become in danger of becoming over mature and literally pulling themselves apart, as boughs become too heavy and splinter off causing deep fissures in the main trunk.

Pollarding near Flatford

Over 1.5km of hedging has been planted in the Stour Valley, restoring three lengths of hedgerow that had been removed. Along with the thousands of trees put in for the hedgerows, another sixty riverside trees have been planted alongside the Stour and its tributaries in specially constructed exclosures to prevent grazing by stock. Suitable native trees have been selected, such as willow, ash and native black poplar, Britain’s rarest timber tree. As the scheme develops in its third and final year, the emphasis has been more on celebrating the Stour Valley landscape. A series of projects are currently being organised to encourage and inspire children and disadvantaged groups to study the landscape, and to take part in photographic and art based competitions. Hundreds of high quality photographs were submitted for the competition that ran over a whole year with the three themes of heritage, farming and landscape. The judges eventually picked winning entries from the adult and under 16 age categories, with many of the winning entries being selected for a 2013 calendar. The profits were donated to the Stour Valley Environment Fund, to support environmental projects in the area.

Other arts based projects include open air lessons and school mosaic projects. 2013 will see projections onto church towers, poetry commissioned and competitions for budding poets from the local community. A lasting legacy?

Managing a Masterpiece has affected lives of many from the Stour Valley and beyond. It has directly employed three people during its lifetime and its contracts to run various elements of the scheme have supported local businesses.

When the scheme was being planned it was always an aim to have community-run events overseen by professionals. I think this has been achieved by the numbers that have been touched by Managing a Masterpiece. There are tangible achievements too: the Stour Lighter, archaeological finds, pieces of artwork, restored archaeological assets, walking and riding leaflets, new hedgerows, panoramic photographs. It is perhaps the intangible benefits we should dwell on. After two and a half years the project has had over 3,500 volunteer days on archaeological, countryside, art and learning events. Each one of those volunteers has learnt something about the Stour Valley and contributed to the shared knowledge of it. It is those people who have learnt new skills: the Stour lighter apprentice who got his first job; the wheelchair-using owner of Mount Bures Castle being carried to the top of the Motte; the hordes of schoolchildren working on archaeological digs and even rumours of a couple who met and became partners at a Managing a Masterpiece event.
To be continued. . .

Managing a Masterpiece has been such a success due to its partners delivering on time and to budget. The 10% contingency that the Heritage Lottery Fund insists being included in the initial budget has hardly been touched, and following a representation from the team, the Scheme is to be extended by a further six months. The new work is a mixture of repeats of successful projects and new ideas. They are: an archaeological excavation; archaeological fieldwalking; heritage workshop; traditions, folklore and custom course for schools; basket making course; use of the Stour Lighter as a floating classroom and the appointment of an apprentice to work on the restoration of medieval burial hatchments. We hope that you have managed to learn more about the Stour Valley from one of the Managing a Masterpiece projects. If not there is much information about the Scheme’s findings on its website at www.managingamasterpiece.org

Simon Amstutz
Simon Amstutz in AONB manager at the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project and developed the Managing a Masterpiece scheme alongside others with a professional and personal interest in the Stour Valley.

 

Construction of riverside tree guard.

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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WEBSITE EDITOR

Emma Stewart-Smith

MAGAZINE EDITOR

Christy Simson

CHAIRMAN

Alexander Robson

HON TREASURER

Michael Goodbody

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