MUSEUM OF EAST ANGLIAN LIFE

The Museum of East Anglian Life is situated right in the heart of Stowmarket on a 70-acre site. The museum has a range of historic building including a watermill and blacksmiths forge, which have been dismantled from their original sites and reconstructed at the museum.

Abbot's Hall barn is one of the few building that are original to the site having once formed part of the original Abbot's Hall estate.

This mid 18th century Blacksmith's forge is from the village of Grundisburgh near Woodbridge and was re-erected at the museum in 1972.

Inside the Smithy with all the tools and equipment needed to do the many different tasks the blacksmith would have been called upon to do from shoeing horses to making ploughshares and all manor of equipment for farmers.

Two old horse drawn farm carts, one of which is newly painted.

Other carts and old farming equipment near the Smithy.

The museum also has a variety of livestock ranging from the famous Suffolk Punch heavy horses to these Goats and chickens.

Alton Watermill originally stood on the site of what is now a reservoir near Ipswich and one condition of the planning permission for the reservior was that the mill and mill house were to be moved to the museum. The mill can usually be seen working at certain times but at the moment it is undergoing repairs.

When the watermill was moved to the site the millpond had to be dug in order to supply water to the mill.

Also moved at the same time as the mill and mill house was the Cart lodge which is where the miller would have kept his carts.

This chapel from Great Moulton in Norfolk was originally built in 1890 and was moved to the museum exactly 100 years later in 1990. It is believed to have been supplied by the Norwich firm of Boulton and Paul at a cost of £105 18s 0d including delivery to the nearest railway station. The chapel was given to the museum after the people of Great Moulton had raised enough money to build a new modern chapel.

This 19th century windpump once stood near the village of Eastbridge in Suffolk until it collapsed in the winter of 1977. The wreckage was salvaged by members the Suffolk Mills Group and given to the museum for re-erection.