Moulton Suffolk
Moulton Village Website
Moulton Village History
A History of Moulton
Moulton nestles in the folds of the West Suffolk hills, so which ever way you leave the village (and keen runners and cyclists will testify to this) it is up hill! Those hills surrounding and protecting the village are Warren Hill, Folly Hill, Primrose Hill and Plantation (Bonfire) Hill.
There was a lot more woodland in past days, many elms were lost in the 1970’s and some hedgerows have been removed. The village is itself 100ft above sea level. Records show, and judging from the low death rate and the age of its more mature residents, that Moulton is a very healthy place to live!
The heart of the village is considered to be French Hall Meadow and it is suggested that if you look carefully you can see the humps and bumps the signify habitation of ‘the old village’.
Records show that the old village suffered devastation during the ‘Black Death’ of AD 1348 and that the surviving inhabitants would not return to the centre but instead began to build their homes around it!
The river flows northwards from Dalham to Kennett and then beyond to join the Lark river near Mildenhall. Since damaging floods in 1968 Anglian Water has taken charge of the river and clears it twice a year. Before this the river used to run dry in summer and autumn and flood in winter and spring.
At one end of the village standing in an elevated position is the Church of Saint Peter. It is said that there has been a church on this site since Norman times and parts of the original structure can still be seen. Further along the river you can find the Pack Horse Bridge which was built about 1446 and formed part of the trade route from Bury St Edmunds to Cambridge.
In an old edition of the Suffolk Chronicle Mercury it is stated that ‘a writer of a century ago observed that ‘Moulton contains nothing remarkable’. An earlier chronicle stated that Moulton ‘Hath not in it any personage of great account’. Another visitor to the village in 1828 commented ‘Nothing can be more wretched than the whole appearance of this village’.
Clearly times have changed – according to local estate agents Moulton is now described as one of the most desirable villages to live. The local residents have always known that and are proud of it.
Jill Goodwin
The Old Village Hall
With village excitement mounting as the opening of the New Village Hall is only a few weeks away the archive records reveal the history of the first village hall.
It all started just after the first world war when Sir Ernest Cassel gave the village a piece of land for ‘recreational purposes’ plus £250 for the purchase of an ex-army hut for use as a village hall. The hut was erected in what was then the recreational field and for many years after the hut was called ‘Meadow Hut’.
In 1949 the Moulton Scouts group and Moulton W I were formed but both needed somewhere to meet - the village hall appeared to be the ideal place. Unfortunately the hut had a leaking roof, broken windows and no water or electricity. The Parish Council, which was responsible for the hut, agreed that the organisations could use the hut for meetings and that the Council would pay L125 for repairs including the installation of electricity and water. However the £125 was to be a loan repayable at the rate of £25 per year and a peppercorn rent of one shilling was to be paid. Also a Management Committee had to be formed with responsibility for running the hall.
At this time the Parish Council were trustees of both the existing hall and a fund for a new hall - £1000 was bequeathed to the village by Mr Dudley Joel of Moulton Paddocks just after the Second World War and along with other donations the trust held £1400.
By the end of 1949 the hut was in good order and on the 6th January 1950 Dr Hood, the rector, officially handed the hut over to the management committee.
The hut became an immediate success fully utilised by the community and made an annual profit which enabled the management committee to repay the Parish Council loan.
However soon the village needs had outgrown the ‘hut’ and so in January 1952 mention was made of a possible ‘new’ village hall being built!
After many meetings and much planning the committee applied to the Ministry of Education for a grant and was allocated £855. Together with the money held in trust by the Parish Council the sum of £2575 was raised for the new build. It was decided that if some of the digging of foundations, bricklaying etc were undertaken by local people the money was sufficient to build a new hall. Work commenced in 1954 and on September 6th 1955 the new village hall was opened by the Hon Mrs Aitkin. The treasurer reported that there was an over spend on the new build of L160 - after some discussion it was decided to have an envelope appeal which raised £78 13s 9d!
In May 1958 an annex was added to the hall so that the local doctor, who had been holding a weekly surgery in a rented room in Mr Scrivener’s bungalow on Chippenham Road, had a proper consultation room and a waiting room. The first surgery in the village hall was held on 1st July 1958 and continued until quite recently.
And so history repeats itself and the village once again has a ‘new’ village hall – but I do not think the over spend can be remedied by an envelope appeal this time!!!!!
Jill Goodwin
Hugh Clark 1918– 2010
Moulton Village recently lost a very dear friend when Hugh Clark of French Hall Farm sadly passed away in February 2010.
Hugh was born on in 1918 in Hunstanton, Norfolk; however he spent his childhood in Wiltshire where his father worked as a poultry farm manager. He left home at 16 and for the first two years worked as a farm pupil near Chepstow race course. He then worked at several different farms to gain experience.
During the war Hugh was appointed assistant manager of a 500 acre farm in Horningsea near Cambridge. The job description offered Hugh the opportunity to take over the farm but the 75 year old owner died suddenly and the farm was left to the owner’s son.
While at the Horningsea farm Hugh met and fell in love with a farmer’s daughter, Mary, who was in the land army. They became engaged in September 1945 and married in July 1946 when Hugh was working as a farm manager in the Cotswolds.
Mary and Hugh were anxious to start a family and get a farm of their own back in the East Anglia region. After a year managing an estate in Cambridgeshire they found a farm of their own - Shingles Farm, in Brampton, Suffolk. They spent the next nine years farming with a flock of sheep, a dairy herd and some poultry but the land was very wet and eventually they decided to look for another location.
In 1957 Hugh, Mary and their 3 daughters Judith, Ann and baby Jennifer moved into French Hall Farm, Moulton with its 235 acres and six cottages.
The family bought with them a flock of sheep, a herd of cows and quite a lot of poultry but over the years they were forced to make a choice between cows, poultry or sheep - the sheep won! Eventually the farm production was based on sugar beet, spring barley and sheep.
Hugh and Mary specialized in a breed of sheep called Southdowns. In 1956 they started showing the sheep at County shows and at the Royal Agricultural show. In 1958 the Moulton flock won a Class A award and continued to win that award on another 22 occasions.
In 1998 Mary and Hugh retired from farming and sold the majority of their sheep, retaining only a handful to graze French Hall meadow and the village churchyard. By this time Hugh and Mary’s daughter Jennifer and her husband Philip had bought the farm and taken over all the day to day responsibilities.
Throughout their busy lives in Moulton both Hugh and Mary found time to be involved in village life – they both cared passionately about the community. Hugh was on the parish council for 35 years – 14 years as chairman. He was chairman of the school board of governors for 27 years and was church warden and treasurer for over 30 years. He was also chairman of the organising committee of the summer fete and flower show for many years. Mary was twice president of the Women’s Institute and also president of the Brookside over-60’s club and took part in many other aspects of village life.
It is as a family man, a successful farmer and caring member of the community that the village fondly remember Hugh - he will be greatly missed.
Jill Goodwin
70th Anniversary of the Declaration of War with Germany
The country is at present in the throes of commemorating the 70th anniversary of the declaration of War with Germany. Dame Vera Lynn is in the charts with ‘her album “We’ll Meet Again” and a new war time series about the Land Army is to be screened on TV.
Many of the Moulton residents will have their own memories of the war and a number of their personal stories have been recorded and are held in the Newsletter archives. Others of us have grown up with stories from our parents about their wartime experiences either fighting or being inventive with rations. For the younger generation the only knowledge about World War 2 will be found in school history books.
A Few Facts from the Archives
- Forty-eight Moulton villagers went to war; unfortunately seven did not return.
- The village had its own Home Guard, land army, fire station and several families provided accommodation for Italian and German prisoners of war who were billeted in Moulton and worked on local farms. A number of families also provided a home for evacuees from major towns and cities.
- At the beginning of the war, a small platoon of soldiers was billeted on Primrose Hill – their task was to man and maintain a searchlight on the crown of the hill. A mobile beacon was also installed nearby which was used to guide our bombers home, after raids, to their bases in Newmarket, Snailwell and Lakenheath. A shelter had to be built for the personnel manning the beacon as it came under attack from enemy planes on a least one occasion.
- Several bombs fell in or around the village including the Primrose Hill site and a Blenheim bomber with a crew of three crashed in Moulton Paddocks with no survivors.
- The village acquired a fire engine at the start of the war which was housed in a newly built prefabricated building beside the Chippenham Road and was manned part time by local recruits – the section leader being the landlord of the village Kings Head pub.
- The Home Guard was made up of a band of 20 local men under the overall command of a regular soldier, Captain Harker. Parades were held every Sunday morning in Moulton Hall Paddock. Their arms at the beginning of the war were a few shotguns with a handful of cartridges and uniforms were in very short supply. Their assignments included guarding various parts of the village at night and acting as lookouts for enemy landings on surrounding hills.
School in Moulton Back to school/Back in time
This week has seen the end of the school summer vacation and local children returning to Moulton School for the beginning of another educational year. Therefore I thought it an appropraite time to check the archives of the Moulton Newsletter for information relating to the history of the Moulton School.
We start as far back as 1818 where an account can be found of there being a one day school and a Sunday School for 20 local pupils although where the schooling took place is unclear.
Moving on to 1833 the day school was held twice a week with 51pupils attending and two schools on Sunday reporting 65 children in attendance. In 1849 the First Church School (and adjoining School House) was built in Brookside on land owned by the Church,and generously given by the Rector – Reverend Edmund Mortlock - who also paid for the erection of the building and its fixtures and fittings. The Duke of Rutland gave his consent for there to be a school in Moulton and gave L100 towards the building and paid L5 per year for the salary of the School mistress/master and other expenses. The Rev Mortlock managed the school although later a school committee assisted in the running of the school.
At the opening in 1849 there were places for 116 children and the teachers were Thomas and Elizabeth Guise. In 1877 more land was released by the Church to extend the building to provide a new classroom that complied with the Education Act of 1879 and then extended again in 1879 to allow for a playground and a garden for the school house. Whilst the school could now offer education for 100 children there were rarely more than 60 in attendance at any one time. A bell erected in a tower between the classrooms rang to signal the beginning of the school day until 1930 when it had to be removed because it was unsafe.
During the following years school toilets and later an air raid shelter were erected in the playground but the main building remained unchanged until its closure in 1960. In 1958/59 a new school building was erected on the site in School Lane and this school continues to prosper and fulfil the Educational requirements of the village children today.
Moulton
MOULTON, a parish in the hundred of Risbridge, county Suffolk, 4 miles N.E. of Newmarket, its post town, and 2 S. of the Kennet station on the Cambridge and Bury branch of the Great Eastern railway. The village, which is of small extent, is situated on the river Lark, and is chiefly agricultural. The soil is sandy, and the subsoil gravel with chalk. An Enclosure Act was passed in 1839. The rectorial tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £587.
The church
The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is a stone structure, with a lofty tower containing five bells. The parochial charities produce about £111 per annum, chiefly the produce of the poor's land. There is a free school for both sexes, erected in 1849 at the expense of the rector, by whom it is entirely supported. Moulton Paddocks is the principal residence.
Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales entry
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Moulton like this:
"MOULTON, a village and a parish in the district of Newmarket and county of Suffolk. The village stands on the river Lark, near Icknield-street, 11 mile NE of the boundary with Cambridge, 2 S by W of Kennet r. station, and 31 E by N of Newmarket; was once a market-town; and has a post office under Newmarket. The parish comprises 3,134 acres. Real property, £3,653. Pop., 518. Houses, 99. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to the Duke of Rutland. The living is a rectory and a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £700.* Patron, Christ's College, Cambridge. The church is later English; was restored in 1851, at a cost of more than £2,000; and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and lofty tower. There are an Independent chapel, a parochial school, and charities £111."
From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003
PAST TIMES grateful thanks to John Gunson
