Site of electricity works
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Pre
1900 | Please click here if you want to look back to 1899 and earlier in our local history of St Edmundsbury. | | 1900 | In 1900, Suffolk was still a deeply rural county. Most people lived in the 500 villages and towns of under 5000 people. Haverhill, like Thetford, had around 4,000 people. Only 5 towns exceeded 5000. Rural life was in decline as foreign food imports undermined agricultural prices and thus wages. |
At Bury the locals were proud to say that the streets and public buildings would soon be lit by electricity as the works, which belonged to the corporation, were completed in 1900. They were located on the Playfields, off Prospect Row.
The Railway Mission was built in Bury at Fornham Road, just past the railway bridge. In Haverhill, the Recreation Ground was opened, a gift from W. B. Gurteen.
Thurlow Champness' shop received the large decorative clock which still hangs over the shop in Abbeygate Street in Bury today.
Some things did change, however. Hengrave Hall had passed out of the old aristocratic Gage family and into the hands of a rich ironmaster. In 1900 Sir John Wood converted the church on the estate from Catholic to Protestant worship. He also restored the greatly decayed house, and built a new annexe. Although some older features of the Tudor building were lost, without his work it may well have decayed away completely.
The First Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was in England when the South Africa War broke out in October 1899, and was mobilised and sent to the Cape. Their first battle was to assault Red Hill near Colesburg in January 1900 with heavy losses. The Boers gave the area the name of Suffolk Hill in recognition of their courage. Back in Bury, January saw a rush to raise a Volunteer Company to go to the Cape. Thirty men from the 2nd Volunteer Battalion joined others from East Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Cambridge University to train at Bury. They left for South Africa on February 11th. At 5.30 am, in a blinding snowstorm, they were cheered off at Bury train station by hundreds of local people. On May 12th they joined the 1st Battalion The Suffolk Regiment, at the Vet River.
Meanwhile on 23rd March, the 2nd Volunteer Company left Bury for Capetown, where they arrived on April 14th. They joined the Suffolk Regiment at Middleburg. | | 1901 | Queen Victoria died in January, the last monarch of the House of Hanover. The new king, Edward VII, was a Saxe-Coburg.
In February the electric street lighting in Bury had its ceremonial switching on. There was at first only eight lighting columns. The census for 1901 tells us that Bury had a population of 16,255 at this time. Clare was 1,582, Haverhill was 4,862 and Sudbury was 7,109. Stanton was 778, Ixworth was 856, and Horringer 525. Lavenham had 2,018 and Long Melford had 3,080 people.
On May 3rd in the evening, the 1st Volunteer company returned home from the Boer War to a heroes welcome. Two officers and 98 men marched from the train station to Angel Hill, accompanied by large crowds, for a welcome home by the Mayor. They then returned to barracks and were demobbed the next day.
The 2nd Volunteer Company arrived back to another warm welcome in early June.
The story of St Edmund continued to intrigue people, and some relics were taken from St Sernin in Toulouse, to Arundel, as it was said that they were the remains of St Edmund. It was intended to lay these relics in the Westminster Cathedral, which was in the final stages of construction. However, respected men such as M R James, Dr Charles Bigg and Sir Ernest Clarke, all refuted the idea that these could be the bones of St Edmund. Cardinal Vaughan at Westminster accepted these assertions and the bones were never removed from Arundel.
The Icklingham Papers were published in 1901 by Henry Prigg's daughter, Mrs Beatrice Andrews, who had accompanied him on some of his antiquarian excursions. The book was introduced by Vincent Redstone, and contained copies of manorial documents and wills from the village, together with an account of the archaeological investigations of some of the antiquities of Icklingham. Prigg showed that a Roman villa and cemetery had existed on the site and he also excavated the tumuli and found pottery kilns at nearby West Stow Heath. Prigg had worked at the National Provincial Bank in Bury, until he retired four years before his death in 1892. He lived at Babwell Friary, and having died in his early 50's he did not have time to put his work in order for publication, but his daughter decided the work needed to be properly published.
Henry Prigg's daughter, Beatrice, was married to Charles Andrews, a partner in the ironmongers Andrews and Plumptons of Bury. She was also the mother of Sybil Andrews who would later become an internationally known artist. Many of the antiquities unearthed by Prigg over a lifetime of excavation were exhibited at first in the Athenaeum, and then were to form the core of the Moyses Hall Museum collection when it was set up in 1899. The fifth child of Beatrice and Charles Andrews was called Henry (1904-1961), and he would become Curator of Moyses Hall Museum himself in 1933. | | 1902 | The Education Act of 1902 gave County Councils the status of local education authorities, greatly expanding their powers and their expenditure. Within a few years it was normal for half a county's budget to be devoted to education.
In 1902, the West Suffolk County School was opened in Northgate Street in Bury. A large red brick house had been purchased for the purpose, and altered and improved. At this time it was for girls and boys, with separate playgrounds. Under the same Act, the 12 elementary schools in Bury became governed by the Borough Education Committee.
In the Autumn excavations were started on the ruins of the abbey of St Edmund. Dr M R James had discovered a 15th century register from the abbey in the public library of the French town of Douai. It listed the burial places of 18 of the abbots, and this gave rise to the dig. On New Year's Day, 1903, the five stone coffins were found, described by an excited Horace Barker as "the great discovery". Horace Barker could write in 1912 that, "It will be within the memory of most inhabitants of Bury that in 1902-3 all that is left of the Chapter-house was exposed, and the skeletons of five Abbots, including the great Abbot Sampson (1182-1211), each in its own stone coffin, were discovered. Many pieces of carved, coloured and gilded stone with fragments of marble tiles and glass are preserved in Moyses Hall Museum".
King Edward VII was not crowned until August 1902.
From 1902, the Feoffment Trust had to sell off much of its property, starting with the outlying farms.
H Rider Haggard published his book "Rural England", giving an account of much local agriculture. At Culford Estates he found that about half the total area was set aside for shooting, or about 5,000 acres. Labourers were paid 12 to 14 shillings a week and cottages were let at 1s/1d a week. Southdowns and Suffolk sheep were the most profitable agriculture possible on the sandy soils. Both these and the Jersey cows were prizewinners. The estate also had a forestry enterprise.
The West Suffolk Hospital received a new operating theatre and other improvements out of a bequest of £7,600. By now the hospital had four wards and room for 84 in-patients.
For the men of the Suffolk Regiment, the ending of the three years of the Boer war led to the Battle honour of "South Africa 1899 - 1902". The South African War, as it was known at the time, would be commemorated by the fine monument erected in 1904, on the Cornhill. There were to be 194 names of the fallen, representing the whole of Suffolk, east and west.
| | 1903 | The Martyrs' Memorial was unveiled in the Churchyard at Bury, to commemorate the 17 Protestant Martyrs who died in the town under the rule of Queen Mary, 1555 to 1558. It was erected by public subscription.
In Churchgate Street fire destroyed Hervey's the Grocers. It was replaced by a three storey mock Tudor building, which Marlow's would occupy in 1925. |
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Unveiling the Soldiers Memorial
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| 1904 | The Boer War monument was erected on the Cornhill and unveiled on November 11th by General Lord Methuen. At the time, it was referred to as the Soldier's Memorial. This was a great military occasion, and the Suffolk Regiment fired three volleys. The Volunteers, the Loyal Suffolk Hussars, and the Grammar School Cadet Corps "kept the Square" with the Suffolks, and the rest of Cornhill was packed with local people. This event followed the opening of two Regimental Memorial Homes in April opposite the barracks in Out Risbygate.
The following month King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited Bury. They stayed at Culford Hall for five days in December, visiting the great local families and shooting over their estates. Bury was visited on their last day, Saturday 17th, and they received an official address outside the Abbey Gate. From here they took the train back to London.
The West Suffolk County Council purchased the Shire Hall from the Guildhall Feoffees. The Assizes were held here three time every two years. There were two courts, the Crown Court and the Nisi Prius Court. It would soon become called the Old Shirehall, as work began on a new premises in 1906.
In 1904 and 1905 the West Stow sewage works underwent extensive additional works.
At the Congregational Church in Whiting Street a memorial was unveiled to Elias Thacker and John Copping, who were hanged in 1583 for their religious beliefs, "for disseminating the principles of independency".
In 1904 a new 1:2500 scale base map was published for Bury. By the time of the 1904 OS map, there was an avenue shown across Shirehouse Heath labelled Northgate Avenue, and the road we now call by that name was labelled Norfolk Road. Similarly Avenue Approach was shown as extending across to the Klondyke, in front of Northgate Farm.
| | 1905 | The Education Authority arranged for the Feoffment's Commercial School to be closed, and its premises were amalgamated with the adjacent Poor Boys School. | | 1906 | In Bury, there was a big celebration on April 6th, to mark the 300th anniversary of the town's charter and a special medal was struck.
In the General Election of 1906, the Conservative Captain Frederick Hervey of Ickworth Lodge was returned for Bury St Edmunds as expected. However the result was unusually close for Bury. He got 1,481 votes, and his Liberal opponent, Mr B Yates, got 1,047 votes. By modern standards, this is a low number of votes, but only men could vote. Nationally there was a Liberal landslide.
In 1906 the Labour party was formed in Britain, to represent the working man. But there was by now a movement to extend the vote to women as well.
During the laying of the concrete pavement in Fornham Road, one of the two slanting buttresses of St Saviour's Hospital was destroyed. Nearby are the Mermaid's Pits, described in 1907 as having springs of clear water. In Northgate Avenue the East Anglian School was given a completely new wing.
Work began on alterations and additions to the Shirehall in Bury.
The Theatre in Westgate Street was re-opened following extensive renovations. It was described as handsome and luxurious and the wooden forms were replaced by crimson plush covered chairs "in line with modern requirements".
It was recorded that the engineering works of Robert Boby in St Andrews Street was employing 300 men at this time.
The distinctive Virginia Creeper on the front of the Angel Hotel is said to date from a planting in 1906. | | 1907 | For two years, Archdeacon Hodges, the Vicar of St James's, had been planning a great pageant to celebrate the historical past of Bury St Edmunds. An American called Louis Napoleon Parker was hired to be the Master of the Pageant, a job he had experience of elsewhere in the country already. The aim was to explore seven historical incidents from Roman times down to the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1578. Thus in July 1907 the town held its Grand Pageant of St Edmund to commemorate the historical past of Bury St Edmunds. It was performed in the Abbey Gardens, and involved two thousand local people as actors, organisers, costume makers or stage hands. St Edmund was played by Dr Stork, and in a family like the Andrews of Andrews and Plumptons, the whole household were involved, including all the servants, and even 9 year old Sybil took part.
By now Rose Mead was well established as the best artist in Bury, having exhibited several times at the Royal Academy. As the whole town was involved in the Pageant it was no surprise that Rose became the Chief Costume Designer. The Suffolk Regiment provided the band, and a covered grandstand held 4,000 paying customers. There were six 3 hour performances. A set of twelve watercolours were especially painted by Rose Mead for sale as postcards, and a commemorative medal was produced for sale in silver or gold.
A film was made of the 1907 pageant and it was first shown in the Lecture Hall at the Athenaeum. The cinema was now coming to Bury.
During 1907 it became necessary to hold a bye election. The new Conservative candidate was W E Guinness, of the brewing family. As the Liberal government had refused to make any concessions to the Women's Suffrage Movement, the Suffragettes retaliated by opposing all Liberal candidates en bloc. Thus did Sylvia Pankhurst come to Bury to support Guinness, although she herself professed to support the Labour Party. The Conservative majority was doubled, and Guinness got his seat.
In November 1907, F G Pawsey and Company, Limited, of 25 and 26 Hatter Street, Bury St Edmund's, printed and published their large book entitled "West Suffolk Illustrated". It consisted of a text entry for every town and village in West Suffolk, together with at least one photograph of each place. Many of these photos were also used for postcards of the area. It was compiled by Horace Barker, the curator of Moyses Hall Museum, and its emphasis was on the history of the place, rather than its present condition. Barker reported in this book that the Pageant proved a tremendous success, both artistically and financially. After payment of all expenses a profit of about £1,000 remained.
Another result of this local pride was a movement to have commemorative plaques put on buildings associated with famous people. These included Daniel Defoe, said to have retired to Bury in 1704, Sir Thomas Hanmer, Sir G Pretyman Tomline, (Bishop of Winchester), Thomas Clarkson, and Charles Blomfield. |
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Barker also reported in this book that the streets and public buildings of Bury were now lighted by electricity from the council's own electricity works. However, he wrote that the the depression in agriculture had impaired the town's former prosperity. But it still had considerable corn and cattle markets. There were several large maltings, including Gough's, Girardot's, and Boby's as well as Greene King's own for its brewery. The St Andrews Ironworks turned out numbers of well-known machines, including Robert Boby's haymakers and his patent self-cleaning corn screening and dressing machines. Another Iron Foundry was located in Risbygate Street. The Bury Free Press newspaper appeared every Friday, as it still does today. The Bury and Norwich Post was every Tuesday, but changed to Friday's later in the year. The County School in Northgate Street received an extension, and the New Shire Hall was completed. The Shire Hall was built in an Edwardian classical style designed by A A Hunt of Bury. Sybil Andrews recalled in her later years that at this time Looms Lane was narrow, with high walls on either side. On market days it was not unusual to meet a herd of cows being driven from market along Looms Lane, leaving pedestrians little room to avoid them.
Henshalls, the ironmongers, took over Jaggard's shop on the Cornhill, and were well known until closure in 1959. | | 1908 | Prime Minister Asquith introduced the Old Age Pension.
In 1908 the Territorial Force was formed under Lord Haldane's Territorial scheme. It was the forerunner of today's Territorial Army. It was set up on County lines and the 4th Battalion The Suffolk Regiment (T.F.) was established in East Suffolk at Ipswich and 5th Battalion The Suffolk Regiment (T.F.) in West Suffolk at Bury. The 5th Battalion was formed from the old 2nd Volunteer Battalion of local men. These Battalions were part of the Norfolk and Suffolk Infantry Brigade, itself part of the East Anglian Division.
Bury's Town Hall, today called the Market Cross once again, was gutted by fire. It was soon rebuilt.
The Guildhall Feoffment Trust built College Square as Almshouses for rent to elderly people.
Mr Charters of Horringer Manor volunteered to provide the balconies at the Hospital which gave it its distinctive look for many years.
A portrait of Archdeacon Hodges, one of the prime movers of the 1907 pageant, was commissioned from Rose Mead, and for some years it hung in pride of place at Angel Corner. In 2002 it was moved into the Council Chamber at the Borough Offices, but today the artist is better known than the sitter. It was life size and the frame is ten feet tall, and was her most ambitious picture to date.
Marie Louise de la Ramée died. She was better known as Ouida, the romantic novelist, and was born in 1839 in Union Terrace, Hospital Road. Although Bury born she had little affection for the town, but was a great dog lover. After her death in 1908 readers of the Daily Mirror subscribed for a memorial drinking fountain which was installed in Out Westgate, at the foot of Vinery Road.
The Manor House in Honey Hill was bought by Walter Guinness, the 1st Baron Moyne. He owned the house until 1933, and was later to be murdered in Cairo in 1944, where he was a British Government representative. | | 1909 | At Bury, the Eastgate Street Station was closed down. It had only ever served passengers for Sudbury and Long Melford since its opening in 1865, and its closure was a cost saving measure. Passengers for this line now used the Northgate Station instead. | | 1910 | George V came to the throne. He was a Saxe-Coburg at this time, but in 1917 the family name would be changed to Windsor.
The £1,000 net proceeds from the 1907 pageant was used to build a Sanitorium, established in January 1910.
Boot's Cash Chemists and Perfumers came to Bury with a mock Tudor building on the Cornhill of a type they built all over the country. However, Boots always tried to give each one a local flavour. Its statues included St Edmund, for obvious reasons, King Edward I, for his parliaments here, Edward VI, for his Grammar School, King Canute, for founding the abbey, and Agricola, for crushing Boudicca. Today, Boots have moved a few doors away and the premises are occupied by W H Smith's.
Roller Skating began in the Corn Exchange, a use which continued for half a century. On other days it was also used for flower shows, dinners and other large scale public gatherings. | | 1911 | George V's coronation took place in June. To mark the occasion the Cemetery Road in Bury was renamed Kings Road.
Also to commemorate the coronation a subscription was started to provide a public park for the town and surrounds. The best way to do this was to acquire the rights to free access to the Abbey Gardens. They hoped to raise £650 to buy out the current tenant and compensate him for the loss of income from admission charges. This took until 1912.
By now, Bury had three small cinemas, two of which seem to have been in St Johns Street. They were the Rink Picture Palace and the Gem Electric Theatre. The Empire Picture Palace opened in 1911 in the Market Thoroughfare. Travel and news films were mixed with live variety acts.
In 1910, a group of Suffolk pig farmers set up a co-operative to process their own pigs for bacon and pork. By 1911 they had built a factory at Elmswell, known as the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Bacon Factory Ltd, to handle about 230 pigs a week. Today the Elmswell Bacon Factory is a large modern plant, and all the original buildings are gone. | | 1912 | In 1912 the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council took out a lease of the Abbey Gardens from the fourth Marquis of Bristol for £90 a year. At the time they were usually called the Abbey Grounds. The money to buy out the previous tenant was raised by public subscription to end the practice of charging for admission. The public now had free access to the grounds, a privilege which continues today. There was a grand opening by Lady Evelyn Guiness on December 28th. Whatever the official name, a visit by local people was usually called "going to the Park". The council did not own the freehold until 1953.
Number 9 Angel Hill burnt down, and there is still a gap in the house line even today, next to Angel Corner. | | 1913 | For some years there had been a demand to have a Diocese for Suffolk. East Suffolk was in the Norwich Diocese, while West Suffolk was part of the Diocese of Ely. In 1913, an Act of Parliament created the New Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The first Bishop, Dr H B Hodgson, was enthroned in March 1914, but lived in Ipswich. The church of St James in Bury was designated to be the cathedral church of the Diocese. This reflected the ancient division of Suffolk into east and west, but also the fact that considerable work would be needed to bring what was a parish church up to the standards needed for a Diocesan Headquarters. Firstly the church itself needed extending, and not until 1970 would any substantial new works be completed. In the absence of the Bishop, the cathedral was run by a resident Provost, who lived in the provost's house, which was the old Clopton's Asylum in the churchyard. It had already been the St James's Vicarage since 1897. |
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Great Barton Hall in 1905
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| 1914 | In January came news of a great midnight blaze at Great Barton Hall, the home of Sir Henry Bunbury. The hall was totally destroyed, along with all its contents. The Bunbury's owned practically all the property in and around Great Barton, it being the centre of a great estate, with rows of uniform estate cottages and houses of a better standard than in an open village off an estate.
Municipal telephone companies were nationalised as part of the Post Office. Only the system at Hull was exempted from this arrangement.
By now, the Theatre Royal was called the Royal Coliseum, and had become a variety hall.
In 1914 the Feoffment Trust built Long Row in Northgate Street to let to the elderly.
Little local shops had been joined by national chains in many towns by 1914. Bury had Liptons and Stead and Simpsons by 1896, to be joined by Boots, Maypole, Home and Colonial and International Stores by the outbreak of war.
The Midland Bank opened in premises at the top of Abbeygate Street in Bury.
Two suffragettes were imprisoned at the Bury Assizes charged with burning down the Bath Hotel in Felixstowe.
Britain entered the First World War on 4th August 1914, and the regulars and territorials were mobilised.
Within days the 5th Battalion, (TF) were stationed at Felixstowe at its war station, before moving to Colchester.
The regulars in the Suffolk's Second Battalion were in Ireland at the time, and were immediately sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. The conveyance of the British Expeditionary Force across the Channel without loss was a great technical achievement.
The 2nd battalion of the Suffolk Regiment consisted of 1000 men (including 26 officers and a medical officer). They had arrived at Le Havre on 17th August, and they were sent straight into the Battle of Mons.
The 7th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was raised at Bury St Edmunds on August 20, 1914 from volunteers. At the outbreak of the war the British army was only made up of 700,000 men. It was therefore clear that new recruits were needed. On August 8th Lord Kitchener asked for 100,000 more men. Across Britain two million men volunteered to fight in the war. They formed Service Battalions.
Meanwhile as the 2nd battalion marched northwards into Belgium the BEF were greeted enthusiastically by the local population who offered them cigarettes, eggs, food, fruit and other gifts. The BEF (of which the 2nd battalion were a part) reached the Mons-Conde canal, which runs through the northern outskirts of the Belgian town of Mons, on August 22nd. On 23rd August C and D companies of the Suffolk's 2nd battalion were ordered up to the canal to reinforce the 1st East Surrey Regiment. The Germans attacked at 8.30 am and the Suffolks soon came under heavy artillery fire. Cpl. G.M. Page, Pte. W. Flack and Pte. S.G. Goddard (all of C company) were killed, the first members of the Suffolk Regiment to die in the war. The Germans were advancing rapidly and by mid afternoon the 2nd battalion, along with the rest of the BEF were forced to retreat from Mons. The casualties of the BEF numbered approximately 1,600.
Following its defeat at Mons the BEF retreated south, chased by the German army. Just after dawn on the 26th August the Germans caught up with the 2nd Corps of the British army at Le Cateau. The 2nd Corps of the British army had been on the move for 3 days, marching 40 miles in very hot weather, along roads, thick with refugees. General Dorien knew that a battle needed to be fought to hold up the German advance. The 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, as part of the 14th Brigade, were ordered to stay and fight the German army, whilst the majority of the 2nd Army Corps continued its retreat south. They had no time to dig trenches. During the battle the Germans controlled the high ground and there was little cover for the British soldiers. General Smith-Dorrien later wrote "Some one, certainly not I, ordered that on no account were the Suffolk's to retire. Such an order was enough for the Suffolk's. For nine hours they fought with desperate losses, their C.O., Lieut-Colonel Brett, being killed comparatively early in the day; but no thought of retirement entered their heads. ..... It is becoming more and more appreciated by the world, as facts become known and history of the war is studied, that it was the blow to the Germans delivered on the field of Le Cateau which upset their advance on Paris. The Suffolk's were one of the units which made that blow possible. I thank them, and the whole nation should be grateful to them.
....... It is not easy in a few words to express the depth of gratitude I feel to this gallant regiment for their noble self-sacrifice on that occasion."
Total British casualties during the battle are estimated at 8,000. Casualties for the 2nd battalion totalled over 700. When they arrived at Pontoise on the 28th August the battalion numbered just 229 men.
They fought in all the major battles in France for the rest of the war, and the two battalions were soon increased to 27.
The 9th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was raised from volunteers from all over Suffolk in September, 1914.
Heavy casualties at the start of the war had exhausted the supply of regular troops. The territorials were soon asked to volunteer for overseas service, which was a grave shock as they had already left their jobs on a few minutes notice.
About 72% of the Suffolk Territorials agreed to go overseas. One of these battalions was the 4th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. They arrived in France in November, 1914. In December they joined the Jullundur Brigade of the Lahore Division, Indian Army Corps and took part in the defence of Givenchy.
Before the end of 1914, 23 battalions of the country's territorial infantry were in France.
France was not the only theatre of war, however, as another body of amateur soldiers would discover. This was the 5th Battalion who became divided into the 1/5th Suffolks, who would serve overseas, and the 2/5th Suffolks who would remain on duty in the UK.
Civilians were not immune to the needs of war. Young women like Sybil Andrews might be called upon to help. She went off to London to train as a welder, and was sent to Coventry to weld aeroplane parts. Later she would be moved to Bristol to weld the very first all metal planes for the Bristol Welding Company. | | 1915 | In France, conditions during the first winter of the war were awful. Both the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Suffolk Regiment spent much of their time in Flanders, defending the Ypres salient. Trenches were feet deep in water, and bombardments and attacks were frequent. Mud was everywhere, and Trench Foot become a familiar condition. The 1st battalion took 300 casualties in two weeks in February when ordered to take some forward positions. The 2nd battalion, holding their lines lost casualties to constant sniper and rifle grenade actions. In times of war many factories had to convert to munitions production. The agricultural engineers, Robert Boby of St Andrews Street, were sub - contracted to Vickers for this purpose. Often it was kept secret what the parts they made would be used for. After the war the link to Vickers would continue.
In 1914, Germany had ten Zeppelin Air ships, but the army recognised its military potential and bagan a building programme. The first significant raid on England was in January 19th, 1915, when the Thames and Humber estuaries were attacked. This led on January 25th to the "Order as to lights in the County of Suffolk", in which public lighting was to be reduced to the minimum consistent with safety, and powerful external lights had to be kept extinguished.
Neuve Chappelle was the first major offensive of the British army during the war, from March 10th to 13th. On the first day of the battle British and Indian troops were able to capture the village of Neuve Chapelle. On 12th March the 4th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was at the head of an attack on Bois du Biez. They advanced through a heavy German artillery barrage. Severe fighting lasted until well into the afternoon. 217 men of the 4th Battalion were killed in the battle of Neuve Chapelle. However, it was the first time that British troops had driven the Germans from well established positions on a large scale. The following were awarded the D.C.M. for gallantry in the field at Neuve Chapelle: Sgts. W. Pettitt and A.E. Pendle; L/Sgt. W. Smith; Pte. P.E. Stones.
In April the Germans launched their second major offensive in Flanders. At about 5 p.m. on the 22nd April the Germans attacked the north-eastern edge of the Ypres salient. For the first time in the war they used gas as a weapon against the British troops. Allied casualties numbered 65,000. German casualties are estimated at 35,000. |
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On the night of April 29th / 30th, 1915 a Zeppelin airship appeared over Bury on a bright moonlit night and dropped about 40 incendiary bombs and 4 of explosives. The LZ 38 was brand new and was 536 feet long, with a crew of 22. It had four engines and could carry two tons of bombs at a top speed of 60 mph. That night it had bombed Great Yarmouth, moved south to Ipswich, dropping only a few incendiaries there, and then followed the A45 to Bury. There was a full moon and the airship swung north of the town to attack Moreton Hall by about half past midnight. Flying over the Northgate Station, a bomb blew up a tree in Northgate Avenue near the East Anglian School. Whitmore's timber yard was hit, as was Aetna Road. In the town centre, the electric street lights were on, despite the Lighting Order, and house lights also came on as people woke up to see what all the noise was. Several incendiaries were dropped, one hitting number 8 Angel Hill. In the Buttermarket, Day's shop was set ablaze as were the adjacent shops, numbers 30 to 33. Four buildings were damaged between the Suffolk Hotel and the Half Moon public house. A gap remained in the building line until after the second world war. The attack moved to St Andrews Street, and Kings Road was hit. One bomb just missed the hospital, but more damage was done in St Andrews Street as the Boby Engineering works was attacked. Westley village was bombed at the end of the 20 minute attack. There were no deaths except for a dog and some hens. As the raider returned to Germany, the village of Woolpit was bombed, leaving a 50 foot diameter crater at the Woolpit Warren.
The Bury Free Press ran a series of anti German articles, with veiled references to a supposedly pro German local innkeeper. The Griffin was attacked by locally billetted Royal Engineers on 15th May, following these articles. On 17th May, the West Suffolk County Council dismissed its Weights and Measures Inspector because his parents were German. This sort of thing was happening nationwide. Brahams scrap merchants had to take out advertisements to proclaim that they had "not the slightest taint of German blood in them".
Following basic training the volunteers of the 7th battalion left for France in May, 1915.
In France, at Ypres, on May 6 the Germans pushed the allies off Hill 60, with a devastating gas attack. They were now ready to launch a fresh attack with the aim of capturing Ypres itself. The full force of the German attack was concentrated on the British line between Bellewaerde Ridge and Frezenberg Ridge. This is where the 1st Suffolk's were positioned. The battalion had gone into the trenches on 17th April and remained there ever since. The Second Battle of Ypres had begun on the day they were due to relieved.
The 1st Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was virtually wiped out at The Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. The casualties on May 8th were over 400. Of the whole battalion only 30 men returned from the battle for Frezenberg Ridge.
The 11th battalion of the Suffolk regiment was mainly made up of volunteers from Cambridgeshire. On May 19th, 1915 the 11th battalion were sent to the Yorkshire moors for training.
On 9th May, a new draft of soldiers arrived at Poperinghe from Felixstowe. They were met by just 27 survivors from the trenches. On 24th May the 84th Brigade (of which the 1st Battalion was part) were ordered to recover some trenches that had been lost during a German attack. The battalion, now less than 400 strong moved towards Ypres in readiness for an attack on Ballewaarde farm. Bellewaarde Farm was to be taken at all costs. By the end of the battle of Ballewaarde the 1st battalion had been reduced to just 184 men. In six weeks the 1st Battalion had suffered over 1000 casualties.
After the battle of Bellewarde the 2nd Battalion of Suffolks were occupied digging trenches in the Ypres Salient, including the famous Oxford Street.
The 4th Battalion took part in the battle of St. Julien, and suffered 50 casualties.
The 12th battalion was originally formed as a bantam battalion (consisting of men between 5 foot and 5 foot 2 inches). Enlistment began on 21 June, 1915 after the war office decided to drop the minimum height of men who were allowed to join the army to 5 foot (previously it had been 5 foot, 2 inches). Recruits came from Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. One of the main problems during training was that many of the bantams were under the regulation age and parents kept reclaiming them. 133 youths were eventually discharged from the battalion.
The 8th battalion, all of whom were volunteers, landed in France on July 25th, 1915 and were moved to the Albert sector.
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On July 30th the 1/5th Suffolks took the Aquitania from Liverpool to Lemnos. On August 10th they were ferried to Suvla Bay in Gallipoli to join the Anzacs to help fight the Turkish Army. By August 15th they had advanced with other territorial units of the 54th Division some 1,500 yards under heavy fire. Inside 72 hours, 11 officers and 178 other ranks of the 1/5th were killed or wounded. On into September, conditions were extreme in heat and privation as well as under constant fire. In September the Suffolks were defending Hill 60, a fine observation post, which had been hard won by Australians, New Zealanders and the 5th Connaught Rangers. The allies had lost 1,000 men but the Turks had lost 5,000. Hill 60 was littered with the dead. The Turkish trenches were often only 30 yards away, and parapets were in many places made of no more than dead bodies. Although the men were frequently moved to other trenches, the stench continued for months.
By mid November freezing conditions replaced the blazing heat, while everyday was action, taking, losing and re-taking lines on Hill 60. Finally, after four months of the worst conditions imaginable, the batallion were pulled out of the fighting on December 7th. They had lost 782 men and 36 officers.By December 17th they were in Egypt, at Sidi Bishr.
The 9th battalion left for France on August 30, 1915. On September 22 they reached Ham-en-Artois. They then moved on to Bethune. By the time they arrived, on the morning of September 25, the battalion had marched for four nights in succession, covering a distance of 70 miles. The night marches, frequently in rain, had left the men exhausted.
Despite this the battalion moved off to the front line at noon. At 8 p.m. the advance began. The 9th Suffolk's battalion were in the front line of the attack launched by the 24th Division. During the attack the battalion suffered 135 casualties.
One of the casualties was Sergeant A.F. Saunders, the first member of the Suffolk regiment to win a Victoria Cross in the war. Despite being seriously wounded in the thigh he took charge of two machine guns and with a few other men supported four charges of another battalion. When they were forced back Sergeant Saunders stuck to one of his guns and did his best to cover their retreat. Sergeant Saunders had only recently arrived at the front. Just 25 days after arriving in France the 9th battalion had been sent into battle.
The 7th battalion arrived at Loos on the last day of September, taking over trenches on the edge of the Chalk Pit which had been captured in the main attack. They soon came under a heavy artillery bombardment which buried many members of the battalion. Their medical officer, Captain Hackett, came over the open ground to help at the Chalk Pit and was later awarded the Military Cross.
From 25th September to 4th November, the British attack at Loos was part of a two pronged allied offensive meant to deal a big knock out blow to the German army. At 2 a.m. on October 3rd the 1st battalion took part in a night attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt.
On the afternoon of the 13th October the 7th battalion attacked two trenches held by the Germans known as the Hairpin. They met heavy opposition and suffered many casualties, one of whom was the poet Charles Sorley.
Between the 8th and the 21st October the 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment lived in Maple copse, companies paying nightly visits to Sanctuary Wood and filling in trenches in No Man's Land.
In November the 4th Suffolk Territorials, from East Suffolk, left for France. | | 1916 | Throughout 1916, the 1/5th Suffolks, who were a Territorial Force, were stationed in Egypt, defending various posts such as the Sphinx and suez Canal from possible Turkish attack.
In January, 1916 the 11th battalion Suffolk Regiment, all of them volunteers, was sent to France.
In France, in the lines at Ypres, at about 2 a.m. on the 22nd of January, 1916, the Germans exploded a mine under the trenches held by the 2nd Batallion of the Suffolks in front of the Bluff, close to the Ypres-Comines Canal. The charge in the mine is estimated to have been between six and seven tons of gunpowder, which formed a crater measuring roughly sixty by forty yards, and forty feet in depth. Nearly a hundred men were killed, buried alive or injured by the explosion.
On the 3rd February, the village of Loos and the trenches occupied by the 4th battalion, Suffolk Regiment, were subjected to an intense bombardment , shells coming over at the rate of between forty and fifty a minute for no less than seven hours. This was the worst day's shelling the Battalion ever experienced.
Air power returned to Bury when a Zeppelin appeared overhead on Friday 31st March, and bombed the Buttermarket. Seven naval airships and three army airships raided various targets in eastern England that night. This raid was more serious than the year before. The munitions factory at Stowmarket was attacked, as was Sudbury. At Bury, the street lights were turned off this time, but the bombing run began from the station towards the town. This time seven people were killed and several premises destroyed. These deaths were in Raingate Street and Springfield Road, and there was a great deal of destruction, but accounts now published were deliberately vague as to locations. Mill Road and Chalk Road houses were hit, possibly in an attempt to attack the old barracks in Kings Road, or the engineering works of Robert Boby. St Mary's Vicarage and Prussia Lane were bombed. Eastgate Street station was hit.
Zeppelins roamed freely around over East Anglia for several more nights after the 31st March, and official records say that 28 people were killed and 44 injured over this period. Zeppelin navigation was not very good and we now know from German records that it was often the case that they attacked quite different towns to where they thought they were. Airships made 20 attacks in 1915, and 23 in 1916, but only 7 in 1917 and 4 in 1918. |
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On June 4th, 1916 the 12th battalion left for France.
In June, 1916 the 8th battalion were once again in the Somme region of France, part of the strengthening and support necessary before a counter attack could happen.
In Suffolk June 1916 saw the first battle trials of the new secret weapon, the tank. A mock battle was staged at Elveden. A secret extension to the railway line was built from the Bury to Thetford line at Culford Lodge. The new line was used to deliver the tanks to the testing area.
Not until July was the British Army in France thought strong enough, with a fully equipped and trained force, to press home the war. But on 1st July they went into the Battle of the Somme, which would last until November. At 7.30, am on a hot, sunny morning 60,000 British troops, laden down with 66 pounds of equipment, left their trenches and advanced in a straight line towards the German trenches. Despite a week long barrage, the German defences were still intact. British troops were cut down in their thousands by German machine gunners. As the day went on another 40,000 soldiers were sent into the battle. By the end of the first day the British army had suffered 60,000 casualties (a third of whom had been killed). This was the worst day of casualties suffered by any army during the war and the bloodiest day in the history of the British army.
On July 1st the 11th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment took part in the first day of the Battle of the Somme. They were all volunteers from Cambridgeshire. The 11th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment belonged to the 34th Division, whose position in the front of the attack on July 1st was opposite the village of La Boiselle. The 11th Battalion's casualties (691) were the largest of any single battalion in the division.
The attack on La Boiselle was part of the battle of Albert. During this battle the 11th battalion was virtually wiped out. One of the casualties was Oliver Hopkin, whose letters home contain vivid descriptions of the first day of the battle. On the 11th July what was left of the 11th battalion took part in the battle of Pozieres, losing 100 men in a single night's fighting.
On July 3rd the 7th battalion took part in the frontal attack on Ovillers. At the third line of resistance, after very severe fighting, the attack was brought to a standstill, the battalion losing heavily. All the company commanders were killed. The casualties amounted to 470 of all ranks.
On July 15th the 4th battalion were sent to support the Middlesex regiment in an attack on Switch trench. They suffered over 200 casualties. On the 20th they supported the 19th Brigade in an attack on High Wood, once again they met heavy opposition and casualties were high. On August 16th the 4th battalion were once again involved in an attack in the High Wood area when they advanced on Wood Lane Trench. In this attack their casualties were 196.
At midnight on July 18th - 19th the 53rd Brigade was unexpectedly launched, at very short notice and without reconnaissance, in counter-attack designed with the object of clearing the village of Longueval and Delville Wood. The Brigade included the 8th Suffolk volunteer battalion. Although this counter-attack was unsuccessful, the line in the village was advanced about three hundred yards. The casualties in the battalion were considerable, amounting to 8 officers and 230 other ranks.
The second battalion moved up into the line south-west of Trones Wood. On August 16 orders were received to carry out an attack in cooperation with the French. After 3 days, the battalion reassembled at Talus Bois and marched back to Happy Valley having sustained 281 casualties.
The 9th battalion moved to the south-eastern edge of Ginchy on September 11th. On September 13th the battalion took part in an attack by the 6th Division on the Quadrilateral. Captain Ensor with his orderly went out twice and tried to bring in a wounded Liutenant Macdonald, but after carrying him for about two hundred yards the orderly was shot dead. Captain Ensor, however, had succeeded in getting Lieut. Macdonald within the zone of his own stretcher-bearers, who brought him in. Lieut MacDonald eventually recovered, though in hospital for five and a half years.
On September 15th the offensive was resumed. The 9th battalion suffered over 200 casualties. Among the wounded was Captain Ensor. Captain Ensor's wounds proving severe, this heroic officer was eventually invalided out of the army. In the spring of 1917 he was awarded the M.C.
The 8th battalion of volunteers took over - on September 24th - a portion of the line just south of Thiepval. This attack, now fixed for September 26th, had been very carefully rehearsed by the whole battalion over specially prepared trenches. The 8th Battalion were therefore in the forefront of the battle. As soon as the barrage started the whole battalion moved forward. Within six minutes Joseph trench, together with a large number of prisoners, had been captured, and after another similar period the first objective had been carried. Well within an hour the leading companies, following the barrage closely, had captured the second objective, where they were halted until the assault of the final objective began. It was not until half-past two that all the objectives had been gained. In these operations they captured some trench mortars, machine-guns, and automatic rifles; their casualties amounted to over two hundred.
On October 11th the 7th battalion, received orders to take part in an attack on Bayonet trench and Luisenhof farm, which had been fixed for the 12th. The battalion sustained over five hundred casualties. Of the fourteen officers who went over the top on that occasion all became casualties.
on the 12th November, the 2nd Battalion was in the trenches at Serre sector for an attack. The whole trench area was waterlogged and in such a deplorable state that the battalion, abandoning the communication trenches entirely, moved into its assembly positions across the open.
At 5 a.m. on November 13th the first wave floundered forward into No Man's Land - in reality, a sea of mud in which movement was barely possible. In spite of the atrocious weather conditions prevailing, portions of the leading Suffolk companies actually reached the German second line. But all was in vain, and the battalion remained there for the rest of the day. Their casualties numbered 272.
The battle of Serre, as it was called in the battalion, or that of the Ancre, to give it its official title, was the last of the Somme battles of 1916.
The Battle of the Somme had lasted for six months. During this time British casualties reached over 400,000. The maximum advance of the British army was 6 ½ miles. The Somme was the first major battle fought by Kitchener's army of volunteers.
Christmas 1916 was the coldest in living memory on the western front. The French wanted a one-million man attack and Lloyd George agreed to place British forces under French control.
In Yarmouth the corporation refused to employ conscientious objectors on the construction of sea defences. | | 1917 | In February the Germans announced unrestricted submarine warfare on merchant shipping. In Haverhill the gas failed and the town was in darkness for several days.
The 1/5 Suffolks (TF) continued training in Egypt. On 3rd March, they saw tanks for the first time. There had been rumours for weeks of this new machine, but some had now arrived in Alexandria. The 54th Division, of which the 1/5 Suffolks were part were moved to take the ridge called Sheik Abbas to support an attack on Turkish held Palestine, at Gaza. They came under fire on March 26th, but after two days they were pulled back.
In March the government completed its take over of the coal mines. The taking over of badly cultivated farms was reported to the West Suffolk War Agricultural Committee. The committee also launched a crusade against rabbits, sparrows and rats etc.. Some 2,360 acres of Brandon Hall Estate were sold off.
In France the Battles of Arras took place during early April, followed by late April and early May, 1917. On Easter Sunday 1917, the Chaplain of the 2nd Battalion Suffolks celebrated Communion in the Chalk Caves at Arras. The next day the battalion was involved in a successful attack on a German stronghold called the Harp.
On April 9th the 11th battalion played a leading role in the first battle of the Scarpe. At 5.30 a.m. the battalion (now 600 strong) advanced to attack the German system of trenches.They managed to achieve their objectives but a cost of 150 casualties.
On the 10th April the 7th battalion took part in a successful attack during the first battle of the Scarpe. On 28th April the battalion took part in the battle of Arleux (an attack delivered on an eight mile front by British and Canadian troops). All the officers, except the Colonel, were killed or wounded. What was left of the 7th battalion was organised into two weak companies and went into reserve until mid-May.
On April 11th, at very short notice and without preparation, the 2nd battalion was ordered to take part in an attack on the village of Guemappe. Casualties amounted to 124. Thus the battalion's undisputed success in the opening phase of the first battle on April 9th was followed two days later by a complete failure.
Zero hour on April 23rd was fixed for 4.45 a.m., the British troops attacking on a front of about nine miles. The 4th Battalion Suffolks with two companies in the front line and two in support, was to attack southwards down its trenches as far as the edge of the Sensee valley. Ground was won, but by 3pm the enemy were back at the barricades of the morning. Their casualties in the struggle for Guemappe on April 23rd amounted to 315.
On April 28th the 11th battalion took part in the 101st Brigade's attack on the chemical works north of Roeux, which formed part of the battle of Arleux. During this battle the 11th battalion suffered 300 casualties.
On June 12th the 2nd battalion took over trenches near Monchy-le-Preux, moving the following night into their assembly positions for an attack on Infantry Hill. On June 14th the attack was launched. Within ten minutes Hook trench had been captured, and an hour later the remainder of the trench system on the hill fell into British hands. The casualties in the battalion between June 13th and 18th amounted to 250.
In April the United States declared war on Germany. In Bury war shrines were dedicated in the cathedral. On Good Friday there was a gas explosion in a house at Broad Street in Haverhill.
The British and the Canadians attacked Vimy Ridge in April and the Canadians took the ridge. The French were less fortunate and lost 90,000 men in one day at the Chemin des Dames. Their morale devastated, many French soldiers preferred mutiny to continuing with further attacks.
In Egypt, a second attack on Sheik Abbas was launched on April 16th, including the 1/5th Suffolks, the 1/5th Norfolks and the 1/4th Norfolks. The ridge was taken after two days, and they remained here until June.
Petain now took over the French army to rebuild confidence on 28th April. At Ypres General Haig was looking for a further attack on Messines and Passchendael Ridges where the Germans were overlooking and shelling them. They dug long tunnels up to 9 km under the German lines at Messines, with silent digging techniques. These tunnels had been dug since 1915. On 7th June 1917 massive mines were exploded and resulting deep lakes still exist today at Messines. Some 25,000 Germans died and the attack succeeded.
Back in Bury in May, the Mayor read out a royal proclamation that everybody should save stocks of food by eating a quarter less bread every week. There were regular cases of farmers or shopkeepers fined for selling produce at above the nationally set prices.
In June a war shrine was set up near the gates of the Bury Cemetery.
At the end of June, the 1/5th Suffolks moved to Samson's Ridge overlooking Gaza, and General Allenby took over command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.
Between July 31st and November 10th the British launched a series of attacks known as the Third Battle of Ypres, or more simply Passchendaele. Passchendael Ridge was not attacked until July and on 31st the infantry attacked. Late in the day a torrential storm turned the battlefield into a sea of mud. It rained for four days and nights and heavy shelling produced a wasteland.
During these dark days in France, many people began to believe that Germany would win the war. There was an upsurge of anti-German feeling at home. People with foreign sounding names were victimised, and businesses attacked. In this climate of hate, the name of the royal house was changed from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor by royal proclamation on 17th July.
In August the first American soldiers led by General Pershing marched through London en route to the Front.
In August the 11th Battalion of the Suffolks had taken part in a successful attack on Malakhoff farm and the trench system in front of Hargicourt. It was in this action that Cpl. Day won the V.C.
On 20th September a further allied attack took place along the Ypres - Menin Road.
On September 23rd the 4th battalion moved up to Bellegoed farm, in readiness for the battle of Polygon Wood. On the 26th the 4th battalion were involved in a British counter-attack which aimed to recapture the trench system lost on the 25th. They advanced at 5.25 a.m., eventually managing to re-capture the lost trenches but at a cost of 265 casualties.
In Bury in September, a fete was held in the Abbey Gardens to raise money for the Suffolk Prisoners of War Fund, and £640 was raised.
In October, two German Prisoners of War, who had escaped from Kedington Camp, were recaptured in Norfolk. An Order was issued allowing one pound of potatoes to be added to every seven pounds of flour to allow more bread to be produced. By October the battle still continued at Ypres and 200,000 casualties resulted. Haig believed in a long war of attrition and insisted on continued deadly attacks.
After being sent to Flanders in early October, the 11th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was transferred the 5th Army and were based around Proven.
At midnight on October 11th - 12th the 8th Suffolk battalion began moving up towards Rose trench, situated near Poelcappelle on the Langemarck side. This was in preparation for the first battle of Passchendaele. The valleys of the streams were altogether impassable and further operations were abandoned. The battalion sustained 232 casualties. Sargeant Berry of the Rifle Brigade reported the following;
" We heard screaming coming from another crater a bit away. I went over to investigate with a couple of the lads. It was a big hole and there was a fellow of the 8th Suffolk's in it up to his shoulders. So I said 'Get your rifles, one man in the middle to stretch them out, make a chain and let him get hold of it.' But it was no use. It was too far to stretch, we couldn't get any force on it, and more wee pulled and the far more he struggled the further he seemed to go down He went down gradually. He kept begging us to shoot him. But we couldn't shoot him. Who could shoot him? We stayed with him, watching him go down in the mud. And he died. He wasn't the only one. There must have been thousands up there who died in the mud."
The Canadians finally took Passchendael after 99 days and with the gain of only 5 miles progress over 250,000 lives were lost on all sides. On 17th October it was announced that Corporal S J Day, of the Suffolk Regiment, was awarded a Victoria Cross for valour.
On 25th October the 2nd battalion went into the line and started to prepare for the battle of Polygon Wood. During the battle for Zonnebeke the 2nd battalion suffered 258 casualties.
On 20th November British forces launched a surprise attack on German positions around Cambrai, using almost 400 tanks. This was the first mass use of tanks in history. Hitherto only small numbers had been deployed in any one battle. By the time the battle ended the British army had suffered 40,000 casualties.
By nine o'clock in the morning of November 20th the 9th Battalion of the Suffolks had seized its objective, capturing the village of Marcoing, 150 prisoners and 3 machine guns. During the advance the battalion suffered 70 casualties.
On November 19th the 7th battalion arrived at Peiziere and moved into their assembly positions for the Cambrai offensive next day. The 7th battalion suffered 232 casualties. However, 28 of the men from the battalion who had been captured during the German attack managed to escape and rejoined the battalion on December 3rd. A roll call on the same day showed the strength of the battalion to be just 250.
The Suffolk Regiment's 7th Battalion was almost completely wiped out at Cambrai.
On 17th November the 4th battalion moved to Abraham heights, near Passchendaele. The following day they went into Passchendaele itself sustaining a number of casualties. The battalion remained in the Passchendaele area until December.
By the time that the British finally seized control of Passchendaele ridge in November their casualties had risen to over 300,000 and there was no chance of a major breakthrough. |
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In Egypt, or more accurately, Palestine, the 1/5th Suffolks joined the attack on El Arish Redoubt on November 2nd. After a few days the Redoubt was taken and the third battle of Gaza was fought and won by the 11th November. The 54th Territorial Brigade now pressed on north, towards Jaffa. There were several encounters with the retreating Turkish army. Jerusalem fell on December 9th. By Christmas Day the rain had produced so much mud, that conditions were miserable.
The Corn Production Act guaranteed minimum prices and wages to encourage more home grown food during the war. A new Rationing Scheme was introduced in England on 12th November to encourage the utmost economy in using food by all classes and all persons.
During August 1917 the Guildhall Feoffment Trust had to sell the Angel Hotel in Bury to raise money. It made £3,100, not a great sum for the property involved. The property had been given to the Feoffees by William Tassell in 1557, to support their charitable and corporate duties. | | 1918 | The 8th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment in France learnt that it was to be disbanded on January 28th. On February 7th three drafts of over 600 men left to join the 2nd, 4th and 7th battalions.
The 9th battalion was also disbanded at the end of January. On February 5th drafts of men from the battalion were transferred to the 11th and 12th battalions.
In the new year the 1/5th Suffolks were in Wilhelmina, a German religious colony in Palestine. The wet weather at least gave them some time to rest. This area was now the front line in Palestine and skirmishes continued over it. In April the Batallion was taken under the command of Major Campbell. During the retreat from Mons with the Suffolk Regiment, he had been captured at Le Cateau, been a prisoner in Germany for 3 years, and then escaped to return to the war.
In the spring of 1918 the Germans launched an offensive that they hoped would win the war. One million German soldiers attacked along a 50 mile front. By the end of the offensive the Germans had penetrated 40 miles into allied lines but they had been fought to a standstill. In trying to repel the German offensive the British suffered over 200,000 casualties.
A notable action came in France on 28th March 1918 at Wancourt (1st Battle of Arras 1918) during the great March offensive by the Germans. The German offensive began on March 21st and the 2nd battalion suffered from heavy bombardment. On the 23rd they were ordered to withdraw to the front line of the reserve system, to the north-west of Wancourt village. On March 27th the 2nd battalion moved into front line trenches overlooking Wancourt. These trenches were no more than three feet deep. At 4 a.m. on March 28th the German bombardment opened on these trenches. By eleven o'clock a German breakthrough on the right had been halted within a hundred yards of the battalion H.Q. The two front companies of the 2nd battalion of the Suffolk Regiment were outflanked and fighting desperately, under Captain W Simpson of Bury and Captain L Baker from Lavenham. They fought on without the covering fire that would have been provided by the machine guns at battalion H.Q, as these guns had been wiped out. The Times newspaper reported:
'There is a story, such as painters ought to make immortal and historians to celebrate, of how certain Suffolks, cut off and surrounded, fought back to back on the Wancourt-Tilloy road.'
Eventually they were forced to surrender. In a single days fighting the battalion's casualties totalled over 400.
The 11th battalion were part of the 34th division and were positioned in the Sensee valley. On March 21st at 5 a.m. they came under heavy German bombardment and the battalion was badly gassed. By the end of the battles of the Lys the 11th battalion had sustained almost 500 casualties.
The 12th battalion were part of the 121st Brigade and were positioned between St Leger and the Mory-Ecoust road. By the end of the battle of Baupaume the battalion had suffered 367 casualties. Every officer, with the exception of Major Lloyd and the doctor had been killed, wounded or was missing.
The 7th battalion sustained 256 casualties from 26th to 28th March. The battalion had consisted largely of drafts recently arrived, most of the officers being themselves new arrivals who had had no opportunity of getting to know their men.
The 15th battalion had been fighting on the eastern front. On April 3rd the 15th battalion learnt that it was to leave Palestine for France. On May 7th they arrived at Marseilles. They were then sent to Noyelles for training. The battalion eventually went into the line in front of St. Venant, near the river Lys.
On April 9th and 10th the 12th battalion were involved in the defence of Fleurbaix. In under a week they had sustained 423 casualties. At the start of May the 12th battalion was reduced to a training cadre and in June they left for England
At the beginning of May, whilst at Acheux, the 7th battalion received orders to amalgamate with the 1st Cambridgeshire regiment. Between May 11th and May 17th the battalion did its last tour of duty in the trenches.
The 12th battalion had landed in England on June 17th. On the 19th 700 new drafts arrived. By July 5th the battalion was back in France and joining the 43rd brigade (14th Division).
After the German spring offensive ground to a halt the allies launched a major counter-offensive on 18th July, 1918, that would eventually force the Germans back to their own border with France and end the war.
On August 23 the 2nd battalion were invoved in an attack on Gomiecourt. German trenches were captured, along with 500 prisoners. The 2nd battalion sustained 188 casualties.
The battalion moved on the night of the 29th - 30th into assembly positions for the attack on At dawn on August 30 the 2nd battalion attacked the villages of Ecoust St. Mein and Noreuil. The village of Ecoust was taken easily, but the battalion, unable to maintain itself in its advanced position, was compelled at the end of about six hours to fall back on the line of the Ecoust trench. The casualties, amounted to over 200. In this action C.S.M. J H Jones, M.M., and Pte. H. H. Roberts held on to their ground for five hours after the battalion had withdrawn.
During August the 11th battalion advanced as part of the 183rd brigade (61st division). They had to move forward cautiously as the Germans had laid mines and traps everywhere. The battalion were also caught in heavy barrages of gas shells and machine gun fire. By the end of August the battalion had sustained 334 casualties.
At the end of August the15th battalion, who had come to France in May from Palestine, were moved to Maricourt, in the Somme region of France. From September 5th to the 7th the battalion took part in an attack on the Templeux-la-Fosse and Gurlu wood system of trenches, sustaining around 100 casualties.
Early in September the 12th battalion set off for the Ypres salient.
On September 2nd at 10 a.m., one company of the 2nd battalion, under Captain W.J. Nagle, M.C were ordered to advance and 'clear up' Vraucourt switch and Macaulay avenue. They sustained 9 casualties but captured over a mile of trench, 400 prisoners and many machine guns.
On September 27th the 2nd battalion attacked the village of Flesquieres. They quickly seized the village, capturing a large number of prisoners and machine guns but sustained 150 casualties. On the morning of the 30th the battalion were involved in an attack on Rumilly. It was not until the evening that the village was captured, by this time the battalion had suffered 180 casualties. A further 135 casualties were sustained early in October, during an attack on Seranvillers.
On the 28th September,British troops attacked, without a preliminary bombardment, on a front of 5 miles south of the Ypres-Zonnebeke road. The 12th battalion attacked with two companies in front and two companies in support. A company attacked from the front, with B company wheeling round and circling it from the left. The Bluff was defended by many machine guns and trench mortars and the battalion suffered 122 casualties. However, the battalion was able to capture the Bluff, along with 200 German prisoners, one 77mm. gun, two 6-inch trench mortars and 13 machine guns.
In Palestine, September 19th saw a general attack on Turkish lines. The objective for the Suffolks was Observation Hill, which they took "like hares", so great was the speed and dash of their attack. In the next month 75,000 prisoners were taken. The 1/5th Suffolks were in Haifa by 27th September, and en route for Beirut the news came of the Armistice with Turkey on October 30th. On November 28th the Battalion sailed for Cairo.
Early in October the 4th battalion were moved to Cite St.Pierre.
Early in October the 15th battalion took over a sector of the front line around Neuve Chapelle. On October 16th they moved up to the Lille canal where they met heavy opposition and the battalion was forced to withdraw. British troops eventually captured Lille on October 18. On November 9 the battalion entered Tournai, it was here on the 11th that they heard news of the armistice.
In October the 11th Battalion were involved in the battle of the Selle, asustaining 274 casualties. On October 27th the 11th Battalion were ordered to advance and ascertain the enemy's strength on the river Rhonelle, and if possible to force a passage and form a bridge-head. In this operation Cpl. S F Staden, M.M., in the face of close-range fire, led his platoon to the river - which he himself crossed carrying a Lewis gun - in a vain but heroic attempt to rush an emplacement. When the enemy had been driven back the grave of this corporal was discovered marked with a cross (with his identity disc fastened thereto) on which was inscribed in German the epitaph, "To a very brave Englishman".
At 5.20 a.m. on October 23rd the 2nd battalion reached the outskirts of Romeries and managed to capture a German battery. There casualties were 114. On November 10th the battalion marched to La Longueville, a town they had last seen in August, 1914. The next day they heard news of the armistice.
After over 4 years of terrible bloodshed, fighting finally ended on the Western front at 11.a.m. on the November 11th. In total, 23 new Battalions of the Suffolk Regiment were raised during the Great War and two VC's were awarded. Sergeant Saunders of the 9th Battalion received his VC for action at Loos in September 1915 and Corporal Day of the 11th near Peronne in 1917.
In 1918 the Guildhall Feoffment Trust sold most of its remaining properties in Bury. No Mans Meadow failed to meet its reserve price and is still owned by the Trust in 2000.
The Capital and Counties Bank in Bury became a branch of Lloyd's Bank, and remains so today. The building still stands on the Butter Market, where it was built in 1795 to 1797 as Spink and Carss Bank. From 1829 to 1899 it had been Oakes and Bevan's Bank, before becoming Capital and Countiesin 1899. The bank sign still has Bevan's Beehive mark and Oakes's Oak tree.
At the end of the war, Sybil Andrews returned to Bury, having been away on vital war work for the duration. By now she was taking a correspondence course in art and was determined to pursue this at nights, after teaching during the day. She would meet another art enthusiast, Cyril Power, who had set up an architectural practice at 4 Crown Street, following his return from war in the Royal Flying Corps. Power was to encourage and guide Sybil in her drawing of street scenes.
Women also got some rewards for their war work, when women over 30 were given the vote. The vote was also given to men over 21, who had lived at the same address for six months. In the 1918 elections, W E Guinness was unopposed, so there was no chance to see any local impact of these changes.
| | 1919 | In January and February some of the 1/5th Suffolks returned home from Egypt, but rioting in Cairo slowed up the demobilisation. Not until May did they all get away.
On July 19th 1919 Bury held its celebrations of the peace, and next day the great Peace Procession was held in central London. Bury was presented with a captured German Kiffir Tank, to reward the town's contribution to the war effort. It stood by the Abbey Ruins, until 1939, when it was scrapped for the new war effort.
The cadre and colours of the 1/5th Battalion did not return to Bury until November, to be welcomed by the Mayor on the Cornhill.
The Local Government Board was dissolved because of poor administration and its functions transferred to the new Ministry of Health.
In Bury, their first Council Houses were completed by Bury Borough Council at Grove Park
Rose Mead's mother died at the age of 92. Rose Mead had started an international art career until being called home to Bury to nurse her mother in 1897. By now herself 52, Rose Mead had lost her ambition for national exhibitions, and would remain a well known and respected local figure, but little known on the wider scene. However, many local artists were grateful to her for help and encouragement in their early years, including Sybil Andrews. She remained a prolific painter of portraits, as well as a wide range of other subjects, right up to her death in 1946. She was producing excellent work in her Crown Street studio throughout the 1920's and 30's.
In about 1919 Sybil Andrews set up her first studio in a second storey room in Crescent House, overlooking the Angel Hill. She would have been about 21 years old. Her mentor Cyril Power had a studio in the same building.
The Forestry Commission was set up. The purpose was to produce timber for a nation almost entirely dependent on imports.
The Brewers, Greene King of Bury, bought up the Haverhill Brewery of Mr. Christmas. | | 1920 | In February the 1/5th Battalion of Territorials held a Reunion Dinner in the Corn Exchange in Bury, with 800 all ranks from across Suffolk in attendance.
On March 15th, the Suffolk Regimental Cenotaph was dedicated inside St Mary's Church in Bury. It was erected by subscriptions from all units of the Regiment.
Major Lake, who ran the Greene King Brewery, bought the Theatre in Westgate Street, in an attemp to revive its fortunes. Within 5 years the rival attractions of the Central Cinema in Hatter Street and the Playhouse in Buttermarket had sealed its fate as a theatre. It would become a barrel store for the brewery until the 1960's. |
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| 1921 | The 1917 Corn Production Act was repealed and agriculture again fell into depression as corn prices plummeted.
The War Memorial was erected on the Angel Hill in Bury. It was in the form of a Celtic Cross and was unveiled by General Lord Horn, and dedicated by the Bishop in October in a ceremony attended by several thousand people.
The first ever Labour Councillor was elected at Bury, when Councillor Tom Porter was elected. He was a railway worker and became an Alderman in 1936. In all he would serve 30 years on the council.
Hardwick Hall and estate had been in the Cullum family since 1656. Thomas Gery Cullum, the 8th and last baronet died in 1855, and the family wills required the Hall to pass to male relatives only. The last baronet had a daughter who had a grandson called George who would be the final holder of the estate. George was unmarried and had no close male relatives. Thus, when as the last squire of Hardwick, Mr George Gery Milner-Gibson Cullum, died in 1921, he had no heir who could inherit the estate under the terms of the family trust. Hardwick Hall was therefore demolished. The family collection of books and art-objects and paintings was bequeathed to the town of Bury. It was to become housed at the School of Art in the Traverse, in two years time, following probate. The cleared site of the great Hall, with its overgrown gardens, became the public open space now called Hardwick Heath.
Bury's Open Air Swimming Pool was built off Prospect Row, and behind Kings Road. It would continue in use until 1975, and included slipper baths, so that members of the public could also get a hot bath and the use of soap and towel for a small fee. The pool closed in Winter, but hot baths were still available on Saturdays and Sundays.
Haverhill's first ten council houses were built in Wratting Road by the Haverhill Urban District Council.
In December 1921, the 5th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment Territorials was disembodied. War trophies were handed to the 4th Battalion, and the colours were laid up in St Mary's Church in Bury. After 62 years of service the new scheme for Territorial Forces had disbanded them. The colours joined those of the 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th, and 1st Garrison Battalions. |
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| Also in December 1921 Sybil Andrews held her first public exhibition of watercolours and pastels, together with Cyril Power. Their work was reviewed in the Bury Post as of the "modern school of painting", and "revolutionary and difficult for the lay mind to appreciate." Nevertheless, the critic went on to praise their approach, but it shows that Sybil Andrews was thought radically different at the time from an established traditional stylist like Rose Mead. | | 1922 | In 1922, Sybil Andrews moved to Woolpit, and there experienced the lives of agricultural workers which would be remebered in her later work, long after leaving Suffolk. She enrolled in Heatherley's School of Fine Art in London, and soon moved to near Russell Square. In London she learnt about woodblock printing, and her aim became to eliminate all unnecessary detail from her work. She would live and work in London until the war, occasionally returning to Bury to visit relatives.
Because land values in the Breckland had sunk very low after the First World War, the forestry commission was able to buy up large estates very cheaply. The planting of the Thetford Forest was begun, and would be largely complete by 1939. Four large labour camps would be set up in the Breckland through the Depression to take unemployed men largely from North East England. In the process one of the most distinctive landscapes in England was destroyed, bought up for a few shillings an acre.
The Grammar School at Bury became a Direct Grant School.
The Great Eastern Railway Company became part of the London and North Eastern Railway, the LNER. | | 1923 | The Guildhall Feoffment Trust sold off Perry's Barn Farm.
The first petrol pumps came to Bury when they were installed on the pavement at Burrell's garage in Mustow Street.
George Gery Milner Cullum of Hardwick House, had died in 1921 and left many of his collections to the town of Bury. His books and some of his paintings were housed in the old School of Art building. It was called the Cullum Reference Library, and would serve as a town library until Local Government reorganisation in 1974. Control then passed to Suffolk County Council, who moved it out in 1983.
Brewing ceased in Haverhill late in 1923 when Greene King shut down their Haverhill operations. A sharp recession had led to a fall in sales and the needs of Haverhill could be met by lorry from Bury. Some of the workforce moved to the Westgate Street premises of Greene King in Bury St Edmunds, travelling up to 40 miles a day. |
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| 1924 | The Bury Sugar Beet factory was built by a Hungarian company with Government subsidy and the support of local farmers. By 1925 some 5,000 acres were cropped in the area, for processing at Bury. Sugar was a vital preservative, and it was thought strategically important to provide home grown supplies.
The Central Cinema opened in Hatter Street in Bury
The Bury 18 hole golf course was opened for play in October 1924.
In St Andrews Street, Bury, the family house called St Andrews Castle, was turned into a Convent School by the Sisters of St Louis.
Haverhill South railway station in Colne Valley Road was closed to passengers following the LNER take over. However, the goods service remained until 1961. | | 1925 | The site of the Half Moon pub in the Butter Market at Bury had been a bombsite since 1915, and was used to provide the Playhouse Cinema and Theatre. It opened in 1925 with seats for 700 people.
With three cinemas attracting all the audiences, the Theatre Royal in Bury closed its doors.
Marlow's Timber Merchants took over large three storey mock Tudor premises in Churchgate Street where they traded until 1975.
The Suffolk Aero-Club was formed. | | 1926 | The UK experienced a General Strike from May 3rd in support of a miners strike against cuts in their pay. In Bury the Post Office cut down to one delivery a day. The railway stopped running. The Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies met in the Guildhall. A large orderly meeting was organised by striking railwaymen on 11th May on the Cornhill. However, on May 12th the General Strike was called off, leaving the miners to fight on alone.
There was a new OS map produced on the very detailed 1:2500 scale. By this time the roads called Norfolk Road, Northgate Avenue, and Avenue Approach were completely aligned with today's layout, having passed through a long phase of uncertain developments. Northgate Avenue had been called Norfolk Road for at least the final quarter of the 19th century. |
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In Bury, Mustow Street was widened and a row of old houses was demolished in the process. This gave room for two way traffic, as well as a pavement along the Abbey wall.
The Empire Cinema burnt down, but by now the Playhouse Cinema had opened in the Buttermarket, and the Central had opened in Hatter Street. | | 1927 | The First Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment returned to England in 1927 where it marched throughout Suffolk on a recruiting campaign. Parades were held in Ipswich, Stowmarket, Bury and Sudbury. |
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Councillor Mrs Eva Pauline Greene was elected to be the first woman Mayor of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds. She had been an elected Councillor since 1921.
Council housing was not a very large enterprise before this date. The Haverhill UDC owned just 10 properties, built in Wratting Road, but new housing was now planned.
Bury had built some at Grove Park, but in 1927, started work on the Perry Barn Estate. The Priors Inn was built in 1933, and the area became called the Priors Estate.
The old engineering firm of Robert Boby, established in the St Andrews Street works in 1856, was taken over by Vickers in 1927. | | 1929 | The General Election of 1929 was the first election in which all men and all women over the age of 21 could vote on an equal footing. In Bury for the first time a Labour candidate was fielded, but W E Guinness retained his seat for the Conservative Party. The Liberal came second and the Labour candidate got only 8% of the votes cast. Nationally, however, the Labour Party defeated the Conservative Party in the General Election, and Winston Churchill lost his job as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This was the year of the Wall Street Crash, which took place on October 24th 1929. Stock markets would continue to fall until 1932.
The Local Government Act of 1929 finally abolished the poor law unions. The workhouses and poor relief duties were handed to the County Councils. The Thingoe Union Workhouse in Hospital Road became called the Public Assistance Institution. County Councils were also made responsible for all roads in rural areas. County Councils expanded in response to this and their budgets grew in proportion. District Council boundaries were also to be reviewed.
A momentous change came to Bury cinema when The Playhouse converted to talking pictures. Because the old silent movies were still popular, with their musical accompaniments, the Central carried on as it was for another year. Then, it too converted to sound.
By 1929 Woolworths had opened their bazaar on the Cornhill. They replaced the shop of Charles Best, the drapers.
On the Angel Hill in Bury, a large private house in Queen Anne style was destroyed by fire in September. This site would later hold the Borough Offices.
The Lark navigation had by now become disused. |
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| 1930 | Ipswich Airfield opened.
On 1st April the Guildhall Feoffment Schools were finally taken over by the local education authority.
Bury Borough Council opened a public library for the town, apparently using books hired from the County library. It was located in the Old School of Art building in the Traverse. It joined the Cullum Bequest of books which had been there since 1921. | | 1931 | Since 1879 there had been a prolonged agricultural depression with only a few good years from 1914 to 1921, caused by the demands of war and recovery. Not only that, but the Wall Street Crash had brought a world wide recession in its wake. Germany was particularly badly hit, with dramatic rates of inflation and unemployment. Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party gained support as society crumbled. In Ocyober, a Conservative dominated national government was elected, led by Ramsay MacDonald.
Most rural parishes lost 30% to 40% of their inhabitants over this period in Suffolk. Suffolk's total population rose by 8 1/2 % to 402,000 from 1900 to 1939 but this masked the rural decline, and the increase in the towns. The resort and port of Felixstowe grew from 2,700 to 12,000 from 1901 to 1931. Lowestoft grew 40% to 42,000 and Ipswich grew 30% to 87,500.
Land values and land rents fell under the impact of cheaper foreign food imports. Only new ideas like growing sugar beet, or fruit and roses at Wickhambrook, or Lucerne at Elveden or pigs and poultry stopped the farming industry from a total collapse.
In May, the Borough of Bury St Edmunds opened its Free Library in the Athenaeum. | | 1932 | The Bury and Norwich Post newspaper was absorbed into the Bury Free Press in January.
In August, the Boy's Guildhall Feoffment School re-opened following alterations by the local council under its new arrangements.
The Telephone Exchange was built in Bury, in Whiting Street, and opened in September.
Marks and Spencers arrived when they opened their first bazaar on the Buttermarket in Bury. Later the building would be enlarged sideways and upwards several times.
From 1929 to 1932 the Wall Street Stock Market lost 89% of its value, and the whole world was now in depression.
| | 1933 | In January, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in Germany. In October Germany withdrew from the League of Nations, and demanded equality with those nations not subject to the Treaty of Versailles.
In November, Greene King opened the Priors Inn on the Perry Barn Estate in Bury, as it was called then, to serve the expanding housing in this area. The use of the name Priors derived from Priors Lane which had since monastic times linked the town to the Prior's Farm at roughly this spot.
At the Athenaeum the old subscription lending library was sold off. The building and its facilities were ageing and income from users was falling. |
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Michaelmas by Sybil Andrews
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Henry Andrews was appointed curator of Moyses Hall Museum, a post he would hold until 1939. Henry was the youngest brother of Sybil Andrews, by now an artist specialising in lino cut and block printing in London. Sybil would visit him in Bury, and occasionally sketch in and around the museum. She retained a deep interest in the history and life of Bury, having started work on her great Banner of St Edmund in 1930. It would become a masterpiece of embroidery, but was not completed until 1975.
Mrs Eva Wollaston Greene had been the first woman to serve as a councillor on the borough and in 1927 was its first woman mayor, although her name is recorded as Eva Paulina Greene in official style. She was mayor again in 1931. Her husband John Greene had been a founder member of the Greene and Greene firm of solicitors in the town, and had been a keen collector of prints of the borough. He had died in 1925. In 1933 Mrs Greene presented the Greene collection of mainly |
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