Guided Tour of Long Melford.

There was eighteen of us gathered at the ‘Bull’ Long Melford in the early evening of Thursday May 21st. All day the sun had been shining, now black clouds gathered and the rain came down in buckets.

We stood in the lee of the trees and the old Inn for shelter, some of us had macs’ and umbrellas’ but the clouds, almost as quick as they had arrived, lifted and our guide the eminent historian Barry Wall could start the tour.

He began by giving us a brief history of the ‘Bull’ itself, a building that goes back to the 15th century, but in Georgian times, as was the fashion, had a Georgian facade, this was so until the early 1960’s when Trust House Forte the then, sadly missed, owners took down the facade and restored the original features you see today, they also, very skilfully built an extension from the right-hand of the main door, encompassing the grand dining room, it needs a close inspection to realise this.

Barry explained the reason he loved Long Melford was because it had altered so much less than many other villages in the area such as Lavenham which, although very pretty and attractive, has not the integrity of Melford. Too many people over the years have imposed the, current at the time, values on so many of the old buildings in Suffolk so it’s rare to get a true picture, but Melford is better than most.

He told us to always look at the upper stories of a building, sometimes you see it with new eyes.

He told us about the two great houses of the area, Melford Hall and Kentwell Hall and about the Kings and Queens who’d graced the area when they turned up with a full retinue of servants and retainers like today’s 'celebs' who have teams of bodyguards, he explained that on this walk he wouldn’t take us to any of these places as Hall street itself would take at least two hours and we poor old codgers, game as we are, might not have enough puff.

Up the street we walked and Barry pointed out various gems like the house that a man wanted to maintain but couldn’t get the right bricks so he turned all the bricks round so they looked new...what a task!

And the working mans club where they had last read the ‘riot’ act in Britain. Strikers had marched from Glemsford and smashed lots of the buildings for the right to vote, the law was eventually altered so they got what they wanted.

The gem of the evening was ‘Cutlers’ Chapel, which is on the farm owned by the Cutlers and Mr & Mrs Cutler very kindly allowed us entrance to see. Some of the wood carvings in the chapel are among the finest in the world. One of our party, John Deeks commented how, as a lad,he’d worked on the farm during the war and said he had to milk a Guernsey cow for the family’s special supply of milk. He also told Mr Cutler how he remembered him being a pilot in the war and the gentleman told us how he’d flown home for a spot of leave and as he was piloting his aircraft to a nearby landing field he’d been amazed to see a Squadron of American bombers flying towards him. He had been training abroad so had no idea they’d been stationed in the vicinity.

We made our way back to the ‘Bull’ on the other side of the road this time. We had started at 6pm and got to the Bull at 8.15. Most of us went into the old Inn to have a beer and rest our feet, Barry had a pint with us and told us a few entertaining stories which wound the evening down nicely.

One very sad note David Espiner who’d been mainly responsible for organising the walk and was so looking forward to it was unable to come as he was in hospital and has since died. A lovely man who will be very missed at Upbeat.