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The Foragers Retreat – Michelin chef in Pebmarsh.

An interview with Carl Shillingford, Pebmarsh’s Michelin chef and local forager. 

These days the small picturesque village of Pebmarsh is brimming with community spirit. It has a much-loved village school, a popular community-owned pub with great food, a hairdresser, a village shop, and since 2019 a delicatessen cafe and restaurant. Foodies have been coming from miles around to The Foragers Retreat to sample dishes like Penny Bun Mushroom Gnocchi, Wild Boar with Damson Jus, Hazelnut and Medlar ice cream, Sloe Gin sorbet, and Figgy pudding served with Mulberry compote and Crab Apple Brandy sauce.  Moreover the reviews have been excellent. 

“This is a talented chef who can taste flavours in his head like an artist can visualise and a musician can hear.” (TripAdvisor)

The team behind the Foragers are Michelin-trained chef Carl Shillingford and his wife Beth. They took over the converted stables at Le Mote Farm, after running a successful pop-up restaurant serving “wild food” at the Quay Theatre, in Sudbury. They needed a bigger and more permanent home and were soon put in touch with local farmer’s son Matt Hogsburg, who was in the process of developing his farmyard and barns in Pebmarsh for more commercial and community use.

The Foragers Retreat, Pebmarsh.

Carl trained to be a chef in France. “I worked in Michelin-starred restaurants for seventeen years in Paris, having a wonderful time. Then Michel Roux Senior, who had found me a couple of jobs in Paris, persuaded me to move to Nayland as the Head Chef of his new restaurant there. One day I went for a walk round the village on my day off and found some blackberries, so I thought I’ll take them, then I found some crab apples and started picking bits and pieces and incorporating them into the menu. I’ve been foraging ever since, taking delicious raw wild ingredients and making a nice plate of food.”

“Whatever any other chefs are doing, and whether it’s fashionable or not, I haven’t got a clue – I’m in my own little bubble.”

 

Carl has been foraging in the fields, hedgerows and woods and along the deer paths of Essex and Suffolk for almost twenty years now and using his knowledge of wild ingredients he creates delicious unique dishes to his own recipes. However it is relatively recently that the practice of foraging has become a more mainstream activity; as if the English are rediscovering what was once a natural part of English life.

“The French seem to have more interest in food and ingredients generally.”

“Perhaps there is a lost culture of English cooking because of rationing”, says Carl. “We had hedgerows full of nuts, blackberries, rosehips, and we ate what we could find but then then we ripped out the hedgerows to make way for higher yield crops. Also we are very work-orientated – it’s our Protestant work ethic. We grab a sandwich for a twenty minute lunch break at our desk whereas in France and Italy especially, they really enjoy sitting down to enjoy a meal. They take the time to enjoy the food – and to enjoy each course. We’ve got a lot of good food in this country, a lot of good products. The Scottish have scallops, langoustines and salmon, and we’ve got oysters down here in Colchester. How many people in Essex have tasted those oysters or even know they are there? We’ve also got so many crayfish in our rivers especially in the South East. 

Carl Shillingford – out foraging in Essex.

In France they are so proud of their products and like to boast that their regional delicacies are the best in the world. But if you think of our lamb, our beef, our pork – it’s amazing.”

And what about our mushrooms! Although it was extremely dry in the early part of 2019, the wet conditions in September and October brought about an explosion of mushrooms throughout the country. Instagram and Twitter were alive with amazing mushroom photos – some very rare specimens, some absolutely huge ones, and some amazing colours. For knowledgeable and confident foragers it was a bountiful harvest.

“Mushrooms just won’t do as they’re told. They can sit there patiently under the ground for years, decades even, and if the conditions are suddenly right for them they go for it.”

 

 

Deceivers

Scarlet wax caps

“When we had that very wet period last year the mushrooms went crazy. I was getting accosted in the street and people were putting mushrooms through my window – asking “what’s this?” We had questions on facebook, lots of emails, lots of people running down the street towards me and people coming into the cafe with their finds. It created such a community spirit.”

“People say that they don’t like mushrooms but you might only eat between one and three different mushrooms varieties in your life. There’s very few mushrooms grown commercially which you can buy in supermarkets – shi-take, oyster, and the field mushroom – that’s about it. The chestnut, the field, the portobello and the button are all the same mushroom – they’re all field mushrooms ….just grown under different conditions.”

“People come across and eat very few mushrooms in their life and that’s out of 300 good edibles.”

Carl introduced less well-known mushroom varieties to his guests in a form that they can recognize. With the gigantic puffball he cut it into cubes, dipped it in tempura and made a sweet and sour puffball mushroom dish. “People know sweet and sour prawn balls and sweet and sour chicken so I gave them a hook they could recognize.”

Saffron Milk Caps.

At the Forager’s you will also come across mushrooms such as the Penny Bun mushroom, Saffron milk cap, and even honey fungus? “Yes – you boil it.

It’s a classic. People often eat honey fungus without knowing it. If you order an Italian antipasto dish which includes mushrooms, it’s more than likely going to be the honey fungus. The Italians call them ‘coffin nails’.”

Carl goes on to talk about honey fungus being the oldest living organism in the world. Indeed the largest known organism in the world by area is a honey fungus (Armillaria ostoyae, or dark honey fungus) that spans over 2,200 acres in Malheaur National Forest, Oregon. It is estimated to be 2,400 years old and weighs 605 tons.

Other foraged favourites include rosehips, crab apples, pignuts, hogweed and wild garlic. Of all these, rosehips are the most time-consuming as it will take at least half an hour to get a teaspoon of rosehip puree. They need poaching, de-pipping and then mashing. “However we do a lovely rosehip and reishi tea with some sage, some crabapple and some honey and it’s fantastic. The reishi mushroom is highly prized in Japan.”

Carl also loves the Hen of the Woods mushroom which when cooked smells just like chicken stock. There is also the beefsteak mushroom which can be found on mature oak trees often taking two hundred years to appear. When cut open it resembles fresh red meat with veins running through it, and also exudes a ‘blood-like’ red liquid. It can be marinated overnight in red wine and cooked like a tender loin.

Beefsteak Mushrooms

Hen of the Woods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People also bring Carl bags of unusual produce from their allotments or orchards such as medlars, beetroot, heritage tomatoes, rare apple varieties, and damsons none of which can be found in supermarkets.

Mulberries are another speciality as there are many old mulberry trees in this area, including the one growing in the garden at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury. King James wanted to wrest the monopoly of silk-making from the French by cultivating mulberries since silk worms feed on their leaves. Over four hundred years ago the King organized for ten thousand trees to be imported from all over Europe and planted in nearly every parish by the manor house or the Church. They produced delicious dark reddish black fruit that famously stains the hands of the pickers. The only trouble was that silk worms prefer the leaves of White Mulberry tree. It may be that King James was deliberately wrongly advised by the French!

Carl was thrilled to be invited to pick mulberries in the Autumn from a tree that was dated even earlier than King James – about 1450. “I can’t reveal where it is – it’s a secret – however it must be one of the oldest mulberry trees in Europe. And it was still bursting with fruit – amazing.”

“I felt I was picking history – just how many people over the centuries and how many generations must have picked from this very tree.”

Most of the meat served in The Forager’s is game – venison, duck, pheasant, partridge and wild boar. It is supplied to Carl by a friend from Ardleigh who does shoots for the local farmers and is a butcher’s son. He rifle shoots the venison, and has his own herd of wild boar. Carl gets beef, pork, and lamb from local Pebmarsh famers like Verity and Michael Sharpe or from Kerridges in Nayland.

“A really fantastic village butcher who I got to know from my time as a chef in Nayland. The guy is in is seventies and makes the best proper British banger I’ve ever tasted. It’s his grandfather’s recipe and he is the only one who knows the secret!”

When not outside foraging, Carl is busy curing, pickling, freezing and drying his ingredients. There are huge jars of dried mushrooms and pickled products staring down from the high shelves. He also makes fruit brandies and vodkas. Recently he uncorked a bottle of Sea Wormwood vodka to which he added a bit of saffron for extra flavour. Wormwood vodka was first made in the sixteenth century in Czechoslovakia by wise women known for their magical powers and witchcraft. They extracted the thujone from the wormwood to use in their various magical potions and charms. Today it is used as a digestif and even a remedy against flatulence.

Carl also has a smokehouse where he prepares cold smoked salmon and smoked cheddar and brie using cherry, oak and pine woods.

 

“The best cheeses to smoke are the young cheddars and bries as they really suck up the flavour compared to the more mature cheeses.”

Of course, like so many people throughout the world, Karl and Beth had to completely rethink their food business as soon as the lockdown was announced in March. “Although the restaurant had to shut, we knew we wanted to carry on feeding people” says Beth “so we contacted all our customers via facebook and what they really wanted was delicious ready meals to prepare at home.” Once Carl and Beth had sorted out the packaging required for a takeaway service, they were ready to go with pies, soups, stews, puddings, Sunday Roasts with all the trimmings and artisan-style pizzas on Friday nights.

“Since our customers were no longer able to travel abroad, we took them on a round the world tour with our food instead – a different country every week.

We cooked Moroccan Lamb tagines, Persian chicken, Spanish paellas, Indian and Chinese dishes, as well as French, Italian and of course British classics, such as Steak and Kidney puddings.”

Meanwhile the restaurant space has been rearranged and made into a stylish and welcoming delicatessen. It stocks a huge range of delicious ready-made dishes either frozen or ready to cook that day, as well as cakes, coffee, and handmade gifts. “We have been able to support local food businesses as we can stock their jams and jellies, cordials, biscuits, tea blends, locally brewed meads, beers and cider and wines and spirits from local vineyards such as Tuffon Hall.” 

Carl and Beth have prepared all kinds of kits for people to buy as gifts for Christmas. For example you can learn to make your own sloe gin, grow your own mushrooms, and make therapeutic Reishi tea.

They are also offering to take the faff out of Christmas dinner. “People have told us that cooking Christmas day food for a few people with all the different vegetables, stuffings, sauces, gravies, puddings and so on is too much trouble so we’ll do it for them. They just need to order a Christmas Dinner box, take it home and whilst it’s heating up, pour themselves another glass of wine!”

“We don’t know what the future holds but at least we’re still doing what we’ve always loved doing – feeding people with delicious home-made, locally sourced food.”

Foragers Opening Hours:

Thursday 10am-6.30pm, Friday 10am-late, Saturday 9am- late, Sunday 9am-4pm

The Foragers Retreat, The Courtyard, Pebmarsh, Halstead, CO9 2NU

Tel: 01787 389123

General enquiries  info@theforagersretreat.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/foragersretreat

Follow Carl https://www.instagram.com/theforagerchef/

https://www.instagram.com/theforagersretreat

Interview by Emma Stewart-Smith.

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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