THE ALTERNATIVE OLYMPICS, HALESWORTH STYLE
THE EARLIEST VIEW OF HALESWORTH
Community News June 2012
THE ALTERNATIVE OLYMPICS, HALESWORTH STYLE
As the Olympic countdown gathers speed, so things are hotting up at the Halesworth and District Museum in preparation for the community exhibition Sporting Halesworth. Over the last few months local groups, clubs and individuals have been co-operating in putting together an intriguing display of photographs, trophies and memorabilia to record the story of how Halesworth has kicked and jumped and run and batted its way through recent centuries. There will be some surprises – and a few good laughs (Halesworth has long shown itself to be good at enjoying itself).
The veil is drawn for the moment over the section called ‘Halesworth’s Sporting Heroes’, but it contains some surprises. We can perhaps lift the corner and reveal one strong contender. Anyone who walked sixty miles in twelve hours, as James Lockwood did two hundred years ago, earning himself the title of the Halesworth Pedestrian, surely deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.
The exhibition will open in the Gallery of Halesworth Library just as the Olympics START at the end of July and will remain open until the end of August.
Meanwhile, while you are still celebrating the Jubilee, spare an hour and come and see how previous generations of Halesworthians have done it in style. Visit the Halesworth and District Museum and take a look at our 2012 exhibition, ‘Halesworth’s Royal Celebrations: 200 Years of Coronations and Jubilees’, open Tuesday to Saturdays until the end of September, free of charge.
THE EARLIEST VIEW OF HALESWORTH
The earliest picture of Halesworth ever discovered has been found while researchers were at work on a new book to be launched in Halesworth later this month.
The picture, of Halesworth windmill, which stood between the present School Lane and Wissett Road, was drawn by a local draper in about 1590, and shows the mill standing on a traditional wooden crosstree structure. The miller can be clearly seen in the window.
The picture is part of a fascinating volume of texts and images by Thomas Fella, which he called his Booke of Divers Devices and Sorts of Pictures. It has been stored in a Washington library for the last eighty years and has now been reproduced complete by Dr John Blatchly of the Suffolk Records Society and Martin Sanford of the Suffolk Biological Records Centre, who explain in their book how Fella found images and texts in the books he had read and had translated them into his own fascinating view of the world around him in Suffolk.
The illustrated talk, which has been supported by the Halesworth and District Museum, will be at 7.30 on Tuesday 26 June at The Cut, admission £3. The book will be available for sale after that date at the Halesworth Bookshop.