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Pearman family of Glemsford Butcher Family You are here: Home: People & Memories: Families: Pearmans By Jean Curtis Having always believed that my family on both sides of my Tree came from London, when I finally took up the challenge of finding out about them, it came as a great surprise to find that my maternal grandfather’s family (the Tindley family) originated from Sudbury, and my maternal grandmother’s family (the Butcher family) from Glemsford! The common thread running through both families is the Weaving and Silk industries, with grandfather and grandmother meeting in Sudbury and then moving to London, where my mother was born. Great great grandfather was Samuel, who ran a grocer’s shop, the address shown as White Ash. There is also a Samuel Butcher who is shown as a pork butcher and grocer in Egremont Road, although I cannot prove it is the same Samuel however. Alfred Butcher was my great grandfather: he was a silk weaver and he married a Rebecca Debenham. After his death in 1877, Rebecca married a Joseph Welham. My grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Butcher, was born in 1873, on the 1881 census living at Woodfield Alley. Her siblings were Albert, Alice, Ellen and Alfred. Are there any descendants of these Butchers still living in Glemsford who might remember the family? If so, I would love to hear from you. Notes We have started a little bit of research for this lady, but if anyone feel they can shed some light please send an email to Jean . Some of you may remember ‘Woodfield Alley’ from an earlier newsletter, it was a passageway that ran between ‘Patches’ and ‘Ash House’, Tye Green, and changed names three times over the 1871, 81 census returns and again in the 20th Century. Egremont ‘Road’ I suspect should be ‘Street’ but what about ‘White Ash’? Send email

Old photographs and postcards of Glemsford, Suffolk. Old Postcards You are here: Home : Glemsford Village : Old Postcards The Station The Old Post Office The Church of St Mary Bells Lane Duffs Hill The Silk Mill Hunts Hill Bridge nr, Cranmore Scotchford Bridge The Station The Station We start this page with a picture of Glemsford station. Today, the actual station is still extant, much modified. One of the large concrete level crossing posts still exists, and various other buildings as well. This view is now obscured by trees. The station closed in March 1967. Old Post Office The Old Post Office Robert Steed was contacted for permission to use this photo. This is what he replied: "My great great grandfather, Leonard Bradnam, and his son, George William Bradnam, ran the Post Office there for many years. I still have the bureau they are said to have used there". Church of St Mary The Church of St Mary This view of the Church of St Mary the Virgin contrasts well with the modern view on the right.The water in the foreground is quite clearly, an old "waver", or pond, that used to be outside Park Farm - for the use, no doubt of horses which had struggled up from the valley. It no longer exists. Bells Lane Bells Lane This view is of Bells Lane, taken from the corner of Park Lane, very close to the church. All the buildings seen in the picture still exist. The building on the left was owned by Mr Cook of Melford Riot fame. The background has changed a great deal, although the Horsehair factory buildings still exist. Duffs Hill Duffs Hill This tinted view of the village from Duffs Hill and Crown Field is fascinating. The Crown pub is to the left of centre, middle distance. Straight ahead from the camera is now the small collection of houses known as Spring Meadow. On the left, out of picture, is still Duffs Hill Farm, while the cottages on the left are at the end of Chequers Lane. Silk Mill Silk Mill A wonderful view of Glemsford Silk Mill, with the huge pond apparent. Silk weaving has happened in Glemsford since the 1820s. Hunts Hill Hunts Hill Hunts Hill has changed a lot, but much is recognisable. The Draper's shop on the right is now an estate agent. The building on the left is now the Briars Nursing Home. Just beyond it is the site of the Social Club. More of this site is described in A Walk Through Glemsford. Bridge nr Cranmore Bridge nr. Cranmore This bridge is on the outskirts of the village, near Cranmore Green, where there was a mill wheel. It would be quite difficult to reproduce this scene today. Scotchford Bridge Scotchford Bridge An additional picture has come to light, of Scotchford Bridge, where Glemsford gives way to Stansted. Quite who the gentleman on the bike is, we don't know. (Many thanks to Patrick Hemphill for providing this picture.) Scotchford Bridge Fred Hartley 's father lived and worked in Glemsford before and after World War 1, his father and grandfather before him. It is interesting to note which views of the village the publishers chose to include in this familiar style of format. The Church and the Schools are, perhaps obvious. The bottom left is looking up Egremont Street towards the "Cock" and the "Angel". The bottom right is looking down Egremont Street, past Flax Lane, to the "Angel". And this bridge forms the centrepiece. Is it the old Scotchford Bridge, or near the mill by the station?

Explore information about Glemsford's buildings and streets, it's past shops, schools, the train station and the local pubs and industry. Buildings and Streets You are here: Home : Buildings and Streets Shops Schools Station Streets Church and Chapels Industry Pubs Houses Facilities

A connection to windsor castle Windsor Castle Connection You are here: Home : People & Memories: Windsor Castle Connection The following brief reference appears in the printed Calendar of Patent Rolls:"1352: May 9th: John de Glemesford & two others are appointed to select from Berkshire, Bucks., and Wiltshire, carpenters and sawyers to work on Windsor Castle". If any are "rebellious", they have power to arrest them and put them in gaol. The "History of the Kings' Works" is a 7 volume work giving details of all work carried out on royal castles over many centuries. Work from 1350 was mainly on St George's Chapel and its surrounds. Work on the stalls was carried out, the roof was completed and a pew made for the queen. Lodgings for 25 clergy were constructed to the south of the chapel and at right-angles thereto, beginning in 1352, and being contracted to 3 carpenters, John de Glemysford, Simon Hurle and John Dunstaple, at a total cost of £107 6s 8d. These houses were plastered in 1354, so appear to have neared completion by then. Another interesting point to come to light was that there had been a former royal residence about 5 miles south of the present castle, built in 1244 when the park was created - this being the nucleus of the present Great Park. A survey of 1329 lists the many defects in the building, and between 1394 and 1396 a total of £1 164 was spent on repairs. A new drawbridge was constructed by one Robert de Glemsford, carpenter. Was he a relation, or descendant, of John one wonders? Another employee was John Goldyng, a master carpenter. He was employed from 1426 to his death in 1451. The accounts of the Clerk of the Works from 1351 to 1356 have been transcribed in full in Hope's "Architectural History of Windsor Castle" and if and when I obtain this, perhaps I will be able to give more details of the work carried out by our men of Glemsford. Do these houses still exist? A visit to Windsor would obviously be profitable! More about John de Glemsford's work at Windsor Castle by Eileen Lynch The alterations to the Chapel of St Edward and St George commenced in 1350 and the accounts of Richard Rothley, surveyor of the King's Works, are translated from entries on the Pipe Rolls in the Public Record Office. From these we learn that John Dunstaple, Simon Hurle, John Glemesford and 10 others were employed there "both on the works of the stalls of the chapel and the repair of "del trasour" (probably the tracery, as a footnote adds that this was the drawing office of the master mason) there for the same time, to each of them 6d a day, namely for six days £1.19. 0. (3/- each). "The chapel was being altered to accommodate the Knights of the Garter and the foundation of the College of Canons and Vicars. The wood for this work - and no doubt for most of the alterations and buildings - was felled in Windsor Park. Whitsun appears to have been a general holiday and the accounts state that after Whitsun in 1352, wood was begun to be felled for building the Canons' chambers, and £40 was due to "John Glemsford, Hurley and Dunstaple in part payment of £107. 6s. 8d. for the carpentry of the Canons' chambers made at taskwork" (under contract). The full sum was paid in 1353 "for the carpentry of twenty-three chambers of the King's timber, for the canons of the College of the King's Chapel of Windsor at taskwork in accordance with an agreement made with them by the Ven. father Dom William of Edington, the King's Treasurer". The materials bought for the building work are listed in detail - nails, estrich boards for the roof (boards from Norway or the Baltic, probably pine or spruce), tiles, laths, solder etc.. Later in 1353 the building was obviously nearing completion, as plaster of Paris was bought for chimneys and walls; indeed the accounts for 1353-4 refer to the buildings being plastered and the roofs leaded. The Pipe Roll for the following year shows accounts for work in the High Tower, involving (inter alia) John Glemsford who received 3/6d. a week. The accounts for 1362 detail the sums spent on building the Spicery and the Inner Gate-houses, and rebuilding the Royal Lodging. "To John Gleymesford in part payment of £40 for constructing a certain house called "le pasterye" ...£30" (This was one of the Queen's apartments). John was paid another £40 the following year in "discharge of his task". He was then employed in constructing two chambers on the south side of the castle, and was paid £11. 13s. 4d. towards his "task" of £100 and a further £88. 6s. 8d. on completing his contract. He was afterwards paid 36s. 8d. for making four "spere"* for "divers rooms there" including the tower called "La Rose", and in 1367 for making the "carpentry work in the aforesaid Gerard's Tower". Eleven years later, he constructed the gate between the "Blacktour and Gerard's tour for 53s. 4d. This is the last reference to John de Glemsford. Hope adds a note that "this gate was the principal entrance into the upper ward from the Great Park. The crooks (hinges or hangings) for these great doors still remain" (early this century). There has been a great deal of alteration and restoration since that time; but it is obvious that John was a first class carpenter who carried out much of the work done between 1350 and 1378, when a major part of the restoration and building of the Canons' lodgings was carried out. Do any of his stalls remain - or any of these houses - or the towers? And did John himself come from Glemsford, or was it one of his ancestors? There was a later Robert de Glemsford who could have been his son, also a carpenter at Windsor, and the fact that a John Goldyng, carpenter, was employed there from 1426 until his death in 1451 would seem to confirm the Glemsford origins. If only their wills survive! I haven't given up hope of finding yet more information on them to complete the picture. The plans of the castle were fascinating, but confusing rather than helpful, and my curiosity will not be satisfied until I have visited Windsor to see for myself whether any of John's work remains. I am sure the stalls in St George's Chapel must be the 14th Century ones, and when I do visit, I will gaze with admiration on the carving, and be proud that I, too, albeit some 600 years later, come from Glemsford. ©Eileen Lynch 1994 *Since writing the above, I have found that a spere truss is a carved wooden arch with enormous pillars - usually whole tree trunks - for supporting a screen. I have in fact seen such a spere arch recently in Rufford Old Hall, Lancs., the Great Hall of which dates from the 15th and 16th centuries. E.L.

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Brown family of Glemsford The Brown Family You are here: Home : People & Memories: Families: The Brown Family The Brown family of Glemsford were numerous. There were 152 of them in the village in 1901.The branch we are concerned with grew from the marriage (in 1873) of George Brown and Susannah Smith. Below you will find some detailed research into the Family. Thomas Brown Memories of his father, schooldays and thoughts of war. Thomas Brown's Memories 1993 History of the Browns Detailed research into the Brown family of Glemsford. A detailed history of the Browns Letters of Friendship Detailed letters between Martha Brown and Emma Savage during the 1880s. Browns/Savages letters 1880s

Glemsford Local History Society is dedicated to the study and distribution of the details of Glemsford's past. Preserving Glemsford's past for future generations Glemsford Local History Society Glemsford is a village in the county of Suffolk in England. It sits on a small hill above the River Stour and the River Glem, from which it takes its name. Glemsford is an ancient village, dating back to Domesday, and before. Although it may have acquired its nickname only last century, it is possible to trace the history of the village across many more centuries through the huge variety of buildings and fieldnames. Find out more Latest Publication This latest publication by the Glemsford Local History Society is a longoverdue reprint of a book, the text of which was dictated to a schoolboy, Perry Baxter, of what was then Clare Middle School as part of a history project in December 1978. He is a grandson of Ted Hartley, whose memoriesthese are. The resulting tape was then transcribed by his father Terry, Ted’s son-in-law and subsequently published. We are delighted to have since been able to digitize the text and photos belonging to the Hartley family in order to produce this edition. The book is available at our monthly meetings and from Glemsford Library, Hunts Hill Stores and Willow Tree Farm Shop. However, if you live some distance away you can still purchase the book by contacting us. Events Find out more - Current and Previous John Miners Horsehair Tales September 11th 2025 Annual General Meeting Members' Talks October 9th 2025 Kate Jewell O'Donoghue 'By The Moonlight I Must Go To My Bed.' Schools and Education in Medieval Suffolk November 13th 2025 Christmas Social . December 11th 2025 Adrian Tindall 'The Monastery Alone A City.' 1000 years of the Abbey of St Edmunds January 8th 2026 Andrew Mowbray Virtually Colchester February 12th 2026 Julie Whittle A Bulmer Family during World War II March 12th 2026 Pip Wright A Picture History of Margaret Catchpole April 16th 2026 NB Third Thursday Mark Bailey The Impact of Global Climate change on the East Anglian Coast 1100 to 1600 May 14th 2026 A Summer Outing To Be Arranged About Us Find out more Glemsford Local History Society has been active for many years now, and is dedicated to the study and distribution of the details of Glemsford's past. We aim to encourage the better understanding of the past and present through lectures, activities, visits and research. Meetings Find out more The Society meet on the second Thursday of the month in Glemsford Primary Academy Hall at 7.30pm. We have a wide range of speakers, visits to places of local interest and other events to celebrate our life in ‘Glorious Glemsford’. Membership costs just £12 per annum. Visitors £3.00 per time. The People of Glemsford Find out more about the families of Glemsford throughout the centuries from personal accounts to sourced information. Find out more Tracing your family tree? We are not a family history society and do not hold census or similar records. Our secretary will always try to answer general questions about the village, based upon her own personal knowledge and not on formal research. If unable to answer a query herself, she will pass it on to someone in the village, whom she thinks might be able to help. This of course may take some time. You may find the information you require at the Suffolk Record Office . They also run a website for archives found here at Suffolk Archives . There is also a Suffolk Family History website which may be able to help with your enquiries. If you have information on particular people or properties in Glemsford, which you would be willing to have added to the website we would of course be delighted to receive it. Display Cabinet from the Arnold & Gould horsehair factory Link to horsehair factory video on the industry page

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A list of streets of Glemsford, with photographs and details supplied where possible. Streets Heritage Room Pictures You are here: Home : Buildings and Streets: Streets Below is a list of streets of Glemsford, with photographs and details supplied where possible. Egremont Street "My grandmother Hartley lived in one of these cottages. She was widowed at the age of 42 with three young children to support. She earned her living as a silk weaver. She had a silk loom in the large room downstairs at the back and was presumably an out-worker of one of the factories. She had retired by the time I first visited Glemsford so to my regret I never saw the loom." by Fred Hartley A newspaper article , transcribed from the "South West Suffolk Echo", published in Haverhill puts an informed guess at a fire being between 1894 and 1896. More info regarding the family involved is in the People section. Egremont Street Bells Lane Bells Lane This view is of Bells Lane, taken from the corner of Park Lane, very close to the church . All the buildings seen in the picture still exist. The building on the left was owned by Mr Cook of Melford Riot fame. The background has changed a great deal, although the Horsehair factory buildings still exist. Hunts Hill Hunts Hill has changed a lot, but much is recognisable. The Draper's shop on the right is now an estate agent. The building on the left is now the Briars Nursing Home. Just beyond it is the site of the Social Club. More of this site is described in A Walk Through Glemsford.

History of industry in Glemsford Industry You are here: Home : Buildings and Streets : Industry The history of industry in Glemsford is varied. Below you will find the information we have gathered so far. E.W Downs The Flax Industry The Old Wheelwrights Horsehair Factory Matmaking The Silk Mill E.W Downs The place of an engineering company in village history E.W. Downs Ltd, today best known for its products in the area of potato harvesting and grading, the company has been active in Glemsford (just off Fair Green) for over 150 years. The company can be traced back to the work of a blacksmith, using his ingenuity and skill to repair and modify various items crucial to the work of local farmers. Typical of that sort of work, Mr Downs was called upon to carry out other tasks too; several church towers around Suffolk contain bells hung by Mr Downs. Glemsford's own church (of St Mary the Virgin) had its own bells completely re-hung in 1863. Other examples are to be found in Long Melford and Chevington. From the 1840s, the original Edward Walter Downs turned his hand to manufacturing new pieces of agricultural machinery. Suffolk, however, was never a county solely dependent on agriculture, being, as it was, one of the leading cloth manufacturing areas in th e country from the middle ages onwards. Villages like Lavenham and Kersey are world-famous, but Glemsford too had its wealthy clothier community as is witnessed by the number of prosperous hall houses in the village. However, as the Industrial Revolution took hold, and the focus of the cloth industry shifted to the developing towns and cities of Lancashire and Yorkshire, so the traditional weaving centres of East Anglia declined in importance. One of the effects in a village like Glemsford was the concomitant development of the mat-making and silk industries, providing a form of employment for the people of the village, often within their own homes. The mat-making industry used coconut fibre as its raw material, and Downs found new work in the manufacture and repair of the various machines used in the process. (Evidence of the importance of mat-making to the village is further demonstrated by the fact that the original "seal" for the village school, opened in 1874, was a combination of a matloom and a palm tree, and, of course, Richard Deeks famous account of the Long Melford riot of 1885 is called "The Matmaker and the Magistrate".). By referring to company documents and illustrations, Mr Rodger-Brown highlighted this early change in Downs' fortunes. At one time, there were 9 separate mat-making operations in the village. Samuel Downs (son of the original E. W. Downs) developed the work of the company, often demonstrating his skills by creating bespoke pieces of equipment to suit individual customers particular needs. Foreign competition hit the company badly, particularly as native producers of coconut fibre began to get involved in the manufacturing side of the industry. At the end of the Great War, Downs had reached a low ebb, which is when the business was acquired by Mr Rodger-Brown's father. The revised business maintained its interest in the matting industry - in fact, expanding into carding and shearing machines, as well as producing "plantation" machinery such as were needed to remove fibre from husks. A further connection with the past was maintained with the employment of W. H. Playle, a cousin of Samuel Downs, as senior foreman. Upon the death of Mr Rodger-Brown, senior, in 1955, the company was kept going by his wife - Donald's mother - with the help of just 4 employees. The company then began a gradual transition back towards its agricultural origins. In 1967, it produced its first piece of farm machinery since 1860 - a powered hopper for stock feeding, designed by Donald himself, and in 1968, Downs produced the first piece of potato machinery, a line for which the company is now so well known. Despite ups and downs in the agricultural market, and the fortunes of the company, the story continues to develop. Downs now employs 45 people on its site in the heart of the village. Annual sales now exceed £3 million. It has been rewarded with gold and silver medals from the Royal Agricultural Society of England; purchasers have included the former Soviet Union and the present Czech Republic - in fact 40% of its sales are for export. Its products have ranged from the relatively humble potato harvester to giant elevators for grain storage and a "banana tractor", designed to run on an aerial cableway. Most recently, the story has turned full circle, because Downs were again commissioned to re-hang the bells in Glemsford's own church tower. Glemsford Local History Society is most grateful to Mr Rodger-Brown for his contribution to the activity of the Society. It proves just how much the activity of historians is the activity of the present. It also shows quite forcefully the extent to which Glemsford is still a living village. e w downs flax Flax Industry This photo, of the workforce there in the 1950s, gives an indication of just how important British Flax was as an employer in the area. We know quite a lot about the Horsehair, Coconut Fibre and Silk industries in the village but Val Ost's work refers to the old Flax Factory on Lower Road, where the Avent works is now. Together, the photos suggest some sort of continuity of an industry which has left a mark on the village. The traditional view has been that the production of Flax, and Linen, was an irregular occupation, growing in importance in wartime, when extra linen was needed for sheeting, bandages and such-like. Certainly, we know that there was an influx of Land Girls during the Second World War, to work in the Flax Industry. This older photograph on the right, shows employees at another Flax Factory in the village - The Croft, off FLAX Lane. wheelwrights The Old Wheelwrights The old wheelwright's shop on Tye Green, for long the home of the Hartley family. Horsehair factory Horsehair Factory Peter Dickinson's memories of the horsehair factory in Glemsford. The Horsehair Factory by Peter Dickinson A recently discovered video of the horsehair factory. Matmaking Matmaking In 1980, Richard Deeks published The Matmaker and the Magistrate . In many ways, the book broke entirely new ground in the history of Glemsford. It is, specifically, a study of the 1885 Riot, but has broader importance. Before its publication, little had been done to investigate the history of the village in any detail, with the exception of the Reverend Glass' s broad-sweep Ice Age to Now study, A Short History of Glemsford , published in 1962. After The Matmaker and the Magistrate , many, including Richard himself, began to look in something approaching academic detail at this great village, and it is no exaggeration to attribute to Richard the foundation of Glemsford Local History Society and, in turn, this web site. In his opening chapter, Richard talked about the background to the various textile industries - particularly horsehair and coconut fibre - that existed in Suffolk in general, and Glemsford in particular. Matmaking by Richard Deeks The Silk Mill The Silk Mill A wonderful view of Glemsford Silk Mill, with the huge pond apparent. Silk weaving has happened in Glemsford since the 1820s. Back to top

Public Houses in Glemsford and their history Pubs You are here: Home : Buildings and Streets: Pubs This house in Egremont Street is an excellent example of a "Yeoman's House", it was built about the year 1420. It was restored earlier this century and has a wealth of old woodwork. It has an original window of the type made before glass was used which is complete with slots and shutters. For many years it was the Greyhound Inn and the old brew house at the rear still has an old wooden mechanism for the control of ventilation during the brewing process. It lost its licence in 1907 and a fine story is told of the final night at the Greyhound. Apparently a coffin complete had been obtained, and after closing time a procession carried it, and presumably the spirit of the old Inn, to the churchyard. The quantity of free beer consumed on this occasion is still the subject of comment in the village. The Black Lion, opposite the School. The Crown Inn: one of several fine hostelries in the village, it was closed in 2009 by a brewery company, but re-opened by enterprising new owners in 2011.

The history of noteworthy houses in Glemsford Houses You are here: Home : Buildings and Streets : Houses Glemsford has a rich history and with it some very interesting houses. Monks Hall Monks Hall The unmissable beauty of Monks Hall. The Old Rectory The fine early nineteenth century house, formerly the rectory, now Coldhams, a private house. Cobwebs Chequers Chequers Chequers: a 17th Century hall house; one of several in Glemsford. Formerly the old post office but now a family home by the name of Cobwebs. Back to top