This morning, Kate and Dean visited residents at Britten Court, where they shared the children’s souvenir plates. The plates were decorated with images and text taken from their visit to the Suffolk Archives, and the residents were thrilled to hear about basking sharks, recipes for pickled herring – and a picture of a well-known Southwold […]
Halesworth and District Museum
Cross-writing and Valentia Boxes
In January 1830, Mary and William Lincolne wrote to their son, also called William, who was apprenticed at the time in Witham. The letter is a fine example of ‘cross-writing’, in which the parents wrote at different angles on the page. This was common practice, as it saved paper, which was very expensive. The letter […]
The Beech House garden party for Special Delivery
The weather was perfect, the setting was ideal – and the cupcakes and fresh fruit were delicious. Yesterday, the Special Delivery group of children from the Edgar Sewter Primary school visited residents at Beech House in Halesworth for a ‘joyful’, ‘exciting’ and ‘informative’ garden party. They took with them pictures of favourite objects they’d found […]
Fantastic afternoon at Halesworth and District Museum
A huge thank you to everyone at the Museum for making the Special Delivery visit such a delight; the children loved it and I’m still buzzing at discovering that the name of a particular king translates as ‘good with chariots’. More images to follow later, but for now here are just a few photos of […]
Goose feathers and green ink
Having studied the beautiful handwriting in the Lincolne letters, it was time for the children to find out what it might be like to write in pen and ink. Using a selection of goose, duck and pheasant feathers, Caitlin showed the group how to sharpen the end of the feather into a nib and then […]
What a beautiful bunch …
The children sent messages, written on handmade flowers, to the residents at Beech House, and just look how they responded … the flowers are beautiful, and everyone looks like they had a lot of fun making them.
Flowers can say so much
The children have been studying a letter from Mary Lincolne, written when she was 13 years old and away at boarding school in Beccles. Unaccustomed to the beautiful copperplate writing, the children found it difficult to read – so they used a variety of magnifying glasses to hunt out words that looked familiar. As they […]
News from Beech House
We’ve just collected the cards from Beech House, and this is what the residents had to say: – We had such a lovely afternoon, we lost track of time, so we did this [activity] as a group. We all get so excited when we see the [Archive] Box arrive and can’t wait to see what […]
Getting to know you
Oh, the excitement of opening the envelope. Inside, there were more envelopes and inside those were the individually wrapped and labelled ‘I am from …’ poems, written by residents at Beech House. There was also that all important Invitation, which is to take tea with the residents in the garden at Beech House. Needless to […]
An Important Invitation
Last week, the children at Edgar Sewter sent little letters in huge envelopes to the residents at Beech House – and just look at what the adults sent back; this is, indeed, a very Special Delivery. The residents clearly enjoyed themselves creating and recording their ‘I am from …’ poems and making the envelope; apparently, […]