The Orford Historian

The places we live are enriched by knowing something of their past. For those who love history, there’s no better place to live than beside the sea, where things wash up and human stories overlap.

A Local & Oral History in Coastal Suffolk

The Orford Historian is our updated version of the Orford & District Local History Bulletin and is an annual publication. This is free with membership to Friends of Orford Museum or £5 to non-members.

We are always pleased to hear from members of the public who have ideas or suggestions for articles or, indeed, would like to write for us. Please contact us at info@orfordmuseum.org.uk

The Orford Historian List of articles

Museum Piece by Stephen Mael
The Watch House by Howard Nash
The Train that never came by Bob Webb
Interview with Michael Cordle of Chantry Farm, Orford
A Tudor Clerical Mystery by Vic Harrup
Coralline Church by Simon Knott
Sketchbook: A Cottage on Havergate Island

Orford & District Local History Bulletins

The following bulletins, the index and the list of articles are available to order by completing our enquiry form:

You can also download the index and the list of articles.

Orford & District Local History Bulletins

Consolidated issues 1-6 and 7-10 £10.00 each
Issue 23 (special WW I issue) £7.50
Issues 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32 and 33 £5.00 each

The Orford & District Local History Bulletin List of articles

Invasion fever: a signal station at Orford Castle (part 1) by Margaret Poulter
John Green, Orford’s Arctic Hero by John Green
The Romans in Suffolk, a report on a WEA day course by Valerie Potter
Memories of Sudbourne Hall by Clement Cocker
Invasion Fever: a signal station at Orford Castle (part 2) by Margaret Poulter
Memories if Orford Castle. 3 August- 23 December 1943 by Robert Jones
Vandalism at Orford Castle, 1945 – a newspaper report
The Princess of Wales Visits Orford by Jane Allen
Butley Modern School Reunion by Paul Fincham
New light is shed on the Walls of Orford Castle by Michael Flint
Orford Museum – the story so far by Jane Allen
Some observations on Orford Castle by John Potter
Sailor, Verger and Friend – Gus Hacon (1857-1956) by Rosemary Unwin
The ‘Old Poor Law’ in Orford by Fiona Raiso
Ettie Partridge – an appreciation by Jane Allen
Chillesford Lodge: a nineteenth-century model farm by Edward Martin
Meet my ancestors – and others! by John Anderson
Orford Museum: recent acquisitions by Margaret Poulte
Captain’s Wood, Sudbourne by Vic Harrup
More memories of Sudbourne Hall by Phyllis Holton
The search for the Hospital of St Leonard by Jane Allen

Danger – River Ore! by John Anderson
The town centre properties of John Stile, son of Joan Richman of Gedgrave by Margaret Cronin
The Buckle family of Orford at a time of religious change by Vic Harrup
Some Orford characters by Doreen Longhurst
More Orford characters by John Anderson
Oyez! Oyez! Sam Smy, town crier by John Anderson
Recollections of Mrs H Smy of Orford by Jane Allen
The making of a gentleman: Richard Chaplin of Sudbourne by Vic Harrup
The Broom: rabbits and the loss of a sailors’ path by John Anderson
Lost opportunity or lucky escape: two Orford port schemes of 1813 and 1836 (part 1) by Margaret Poulter
A Land Girl at Garden House, Sudbourne Hall by Valerie Murrell
Castle House, Orford by Richard Roberts
The Orford Electric Light and Power Company Ltd by John Anderson
Elizabethan flood defences on Orford Ness by Valerie Fenwick
Polo at Chillesford by George Gardiner and John Anderson
Lost opportunity or lucky escape: two Orford port schemes of 1813 and 1836 (part 2) by Margaret Poulter

Teenage years in war-time Orford by Charlie Underwood
The evacuation of Sudbourne and Iken by Frank Waddell
Feathered combatants and other war-time memories by Doreen Longhurst
If the invader comes: a message from the Parish Invasion Committee
A village goes to war by John Anderson
Recording Britain: artists around the Battle Area by Jane Allen
A year to remember by Brian Crowder
The Orford air raid by Charlie Underwood and a newspaper report
Castle cuisine by Richard Roberts
What went on in the Battle Area? by Jane Allen
The Italian job by John Anderson
Three tales of the Bailey bridge by Charlie Underwood, Doreen Longhurst and John Anderson
Halt, who goes there? by Jane Allen
Celebration! by Jane Allen

Iken Pottery and the Chambers family by Gillian Bryant
Another Orford Wallace connection by Jane Allen
George Culham ‘the noted smuggler’ by Vic Harrup
Victory in 1945 by Jane Allen

The Atlantic Wall in Sudbourne by Brian Boulton
Journey to the edge in 1787 by Vic Harrup with a botanical note by Julian Potter
Growing up in Orford in the 40s and 50s by Sally Eke
Orford Museum: recent acquisitions by Margaret Poulter

The battle of Newmouth and the lost Viking history of Sudbourne by Sam Newton
A vanished Tudor house at Butley by Valerie Fenwick
Sir Michael Stanhope’s manor house: the new stables by Vic Harrup
Sir Michael Stanhope’s manor house: an Italian masterpiece in the servants’ hall by Jane Allen

The clergyman and the convict: the Revd Richard Cobbold’s History of Margaret Catchpole by Sally Harris

The Sudbourne hatchments by Jane Allen
The Suffolk Devereux: hopes dashed and lives cut short by Vic Harrup
The lost Hereford hatchments by Amanda Bettinson

Shops and businesses in Orford: introduction and map
A tour of Orford and its businesses in the 1930s by CharlieUnderwood
‘Elliotts’ 1920-1983: a family business in Pump Street by Lindsay Carrier
Orford’s shops after World War II by Sally Eke
Homage to an Orford historian: R A Roberts 1851-1943 by Richard Roberts

A plot of land in Orford by Valerie Potter
Medieval fraternities in the Peninsula by Vic Harrup
In the spacious days at Orford by R A Roberts

The Orford Ness story updated by Paddy Heazell
Emmeline Anna Rope – an obituary by Margaret Poulter
Medieval and later coins from near Orford Castle, Suffolk by Richard Kelleher

A lost hamlet near Butley Priory and its thimbles by Valerie Fenwick
Memories of the floods of 1953 by John Anderson
When the floods came to Quay Street by Gwennie Marjoram
The will of Alice Bache, 1531, and a house called ‘Maltsters’ by Vic Harrup
An evacuee in Iken by Josephine Seath and Nicholas Turner

Benjamin Britten and St Bartholomew’s Church by Jane Allen
The Pead family of Orford by Linda Tuffield and Jane Allen
Might it have been Iken Festival? By Nicholas Turner and Jane Allen
Orford Museum: recent accessions by Jennifer Hall and Maggi Livingstone

The mysterious mill and some Domesday anomalies resolved by Valerie Fenwick
Stock breeding on the Sudbourne Estate by Jane Allen
Diary of a trip to Australia and back by William Whayman

World War I in the Orford area – setting the scene by Jane Allen
Defending Suffolk’s shores: the 6^th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment
By Colin Chamberlain
The village schools during the war by Maggi Livingstone
The Orfordness airfield and the Royal Flying Corps by David Goldin
In defence of the realm: the first Battle of Britain by Jennifer Hall
Captain William Walden Hammond, pioneer aerial photographer by Vicky Gunnell
Strangers on and off the Island by Jane Allen
Naval Service in ‘The Great War’ by Richard Roberts
The Sudbourne and Orford Red Cross Detachment by Maggi Livingstone
Civilian life in a military stronghold by Jane Allen

A childhood at Smoky House, Sudbourne by Phyllis Ellis
Piety and property in pre-reformation widow’s wills by Vic Harrup

The Orfordness Lighthouse: A Guiding Light by Jennifer Hall
Alde and Ore River Pilots in the Trinity House Archives by Mike Bradshaw
The River Pilots of Orford Haven by Sarah Margittai
Coastal Erosion at Orfordness Lighthouse by Stuart Bacon
Appendix: A brief history and description of Orfordness Lighthouse

John Green (1797 – 1892) – Orford’s Arctic Hero and Coaster Skipper by Brian Seward
Dr. Flint and Dr. Barron – the High House Doctors by Sally Harris (nee Flint) and Michael Flint
Lilian Lindsay (1871 – 1960): Britain’s first woman dentist by Richard Quarrell
Dr. Montague Rendall – A Pilgrim Finds Rest by Vic Harrup
A Glimpse of Farming on the Butley Estate by Valerie Fenwick
‘A generous and loving despot’: Margery Spring-Rice at Iken Hall by Lucy Pollard

Suffolk Smacks and U Boats: “a tough old game” by Richard Roberts
On the Front Line of Conservation by Martin Fletcher
The Decline and Death of a Parliamentary Borough by Mike Bradshaw
Recollections of a Visiting School Boy by Les Peters (ed. by Vic Harrup)
For Train read Zoo by John Crowley
Butley Parish Council- Buggin’s Turn by Vic Harrup

Highway Robbery – Clay, Butter and Bang – A Tragic Tale by Vic Harrup
Mapping Domesday by Valerie Fenwick
The Use of Boyton ‘white earth’ to produce Dutch Delft in the 17^th Century
by Kate van Lookeren Campagne
Bede, Botolph, and Changing Beliefs: The early church on the East Anglian Coast
By Richard Hoggett
The Brightlingsea Raids on the Orford Oyster Fishery by Mike Bradshaw
Medieval Floor Tiles from Butley Priory by Jennifer Hall
A Bryozoan Rock-Bed Walk: Orford by Bob Markham

The Making of a Borough: Orford and its Charter of 1579 by Margaret Poulter
Turmoil in a Tudor Town: Orford and its Charter of 1579 by Vic Harrup
Perambulations with Norden by Vic Harrup
Restoring Orford’s Stocks by Jen Hall
An Orford Family and an Orford House by Valerie Potter
Fast Cars, Fast Planes and Deep Water by Stuart Bacon
Alan Geoffrey Calver by Jennifer Hall

Orford Goes to War, Through the Eyes of a Schoolboy by John Anderson
The Wooing of Annie Sheringham by Theresa Curtis
Before the Victorians Got to Work by Vic Harrup
Eliza Crisp, Enterprising Wife, Mother and Business Woman by Doreen Bartlett
Aids to Running an Estate in the 16^th Century by Valerie Fenwick
Notes & Queries by 0vic Harrup and Margaret Poulter

In Memoriam: as selection of the biographies of the men of Orford who fell in WWI.
These were first exhibited in Orford Museum’s WWI exhibition in 2014: compiled by
Brian Boulton.
The Coastguard Cottages, Quay Street, Orford by Mike and Polly Sharkey
On the Butley Tiles by Kim Crowder
The Coroner’s Inquests by Vic Harrup
Oral History by Vic Harrup
Lost at Sea by Vic Harrup

In Memoriam: six more of the biographies of the men from each of the surrounding parishes who fell in WWI. These were first exhibited in Orford Museum’s WWI exhibition in 2014: compiled by Brian Boulton.
The Woodwoses of Suffolk by Matt Salusbury
A Portrait of the Artist: J.M.W Turner in Orford by Dr. Richard Hoggett
Boats on Beeches by Kim Crowder
The Orford Craft Shop 1973 to 2016 by Stuart Bacon
A Story Prompted by a Teaspoon by Vic Harrup

Epitaph for a Guiding Light by Jeannette Pearce MBE
The History of Creek Cottage, Orford by Jane Allen
History Hidden in Burnt House Field, Butley by Valerie Fenwick
Some Other Butley Tiles by Kim Crowder
Incarnations of Butley Abbey Refectory: Boats in the Barn by Valerie Fenwick
Bronze Age Boatbuilding in Suffolk by Valerie Fenwick
Continuing the Story of Cowton House, Sudbourne by Simon Barrow
The Syred Family of Orford by Vic Harrup
Roy Collins: an obituary by Valerie Fenwick