Hasketon and this little corner of Suffolk has a surprizingly interesting history once you do a little digging, and for several years both Heidi and myself have been collecting stories and historical accounts about the village. Hasketon rarely makes the national news of course, though it did recently with the discovery – 70 years late – of Private Harry Cole’s letter from Dunkirk in May 1941. But the village has been put on display at various times in the past, mainly in association with agricultural events. Horse breeder Frederick Barlow ran a nationally fameous stud from his house at the Shrubbery during the late 19th century, and sheep breeder Joseph Smith at Thorpe Hall was also having considerable success with his flocks.
But mainly Hasketon and its residents quietly got on with living what for most was a hard agricultural based life. However, for the social historian it this very fact that makes it fascinating. The history of the ‘little people’ is often far more colourful and interesting that the stories of the Kings and Queens we had to study at school.
The links in the lists below will take you to a range of historical accounts and stories that all involve Hasketon. They are taken from a range of sources, including of extracts from old newspapers, various historical documents in the Suffolk Archives, census information and military records.
Very often the newspaper extracts stand up well on their own, and in that case I’ve left them pretty much as they are with just a few words of explaination or a little background. In other cases I’ve grouped multiple stories together around a central theme.
A full list of the sources are detailed further down the page.
| Wartime | |
|---|---|
| The First World War | Hasketon and its people during the First World War including lists of every body we can find who served, casualties, the Hasketon War Memorial, short biographies and other articles. |
| The Second World War | Information on the village casualties during WW2. |
| General Articles | |
|---|---|
| Accidents | Major and minor disasters over the years. |
| The Cottager’s Family | Being a single mum in the late 18th century. |
| The Hasketon Boundary | A wonderful account of beating the parish bounds in 1888, and probably the earliest photograph of Hasketon. |
| A Farm Walk at Thistleton Hall | A visit to the farm and horse stud at Thistleton Hall in 1901. |
| Crimes and Misdemeanors | Various crimes committed in Hasketon and its environs. |
| National Hunt Racing | The story of National Hunt racing in Hasketon 1889 to 1907. |
| The Princess and the Major | A true story fron 1914 involving death threats, a British RM Officer and foreign Royalty. |
| The Turks Head | Hasketon own pub – a short history. |
| The 1863 Well Tragedy | A harrowing story of two men burried alive in a well. |
| Jubilee Celebrations | A big Jubilee party in Hasketon, and also a tragic fire in Newmarket. |
| The Victory Hall | The village hall and its origins as a Great War YMCA hut. |
| Akenfield Harvest Ale | Did they really drink all that? |
| Why there’s no footpath along Blacksmiths Road. | We all find ourselves walking along it sometimes. This document from 1801 provides a possible reason why there’s no footpath. |
| Rev. Simpkin loses the plot | A school treat for all except one little boy. |
| Rev. Maude’s sermon | A visit to a Hasketon Church service in 1859. |
| Party like it’s 1892 | One of my favourite newspaper extracts. Colonel Haines throws a New Years Eve fancy dress party at Hasketon Manor. |
| The Hunt | The Hamilton Harriers meet at Home Farm in 1895. |
| Shorter articles, previously published in the Parish News | |
|---|---|
| Bad Words | Mr. Walter Hunter sues his neighbours over their language |
| Volunteer attack on Hasketon | Saturday night soldiers in action in 1900. |
| Suffolk Roads | They used to be worse than they are now. |
| The ‘single use’ turnip | Bio-degradable food packaging in the early 19th Century |
| Bell ringers 1870 | |
| The Menagerie at Woodbridge | The circus comes to town |
| Pension day | The first one! |
Sources
Lots of different resources have been used for these pages. The most significant ones are:
- Old documents about Hasketon in the Suffolk Archives in Ipswich. It also holds microfilm images of local papers such as the Woodbridge Reporter and East Anglian Daily Times, and local records such as the Woodbridge Rural District Council minute books.
- These days there is an enormous amount of information available via the internet. Both Ancestry and Findmypast contain items such as census records going back to 1841, military records, birth/deaths/marriage registers, shipping passenger lists etc.
- The British Newspaper Archive is a fantastic resource for newspapers going back to about 1700. There are accounts of all sorts of events that were of importance at the time, though one has to be a little bit careful with information since journalistic accuracy was no more accurate in the past than it is today.
- The National Library of Scotland is great for historic maps. Not only are there loads of them from all ages and areas of the UK, you can also overlay them with ariel photographs.
- Talking to people!
The Sheeprug Pages. 