He described taking the Stowupland Road out of Stowmarket ‘we come to a signpost where the Back Road leads to the Back Lane and Gipping, and the Front Road points to Stowupland and Mendlesham. We turn right (bearing in mind the B1113 does not exist, and the lane he is using runs alongside today’s allotments – a track that leads nowhere) but would have been a T-junction straight on to Thorney Green Road  (Back Road) and taking a  right turn to get to the Front Road, passing Mill Lane on the right (presumably this we now know as Mill Street – there was no road where the A1120 today is on the right) but following the road round to the left.

‘apart from the commons, the whole area is farmland, belonging to the farmers who lived on their land’(before the 1930s many of the farmers here were tenant farmers but they did live on their land).

‘Along the front road comes the Chapel on the left (the front extension has not yet been built), and a bit further on the Boys’ Brigade Hut, built during the war years as a ‘temporary’ wooden structure for army use. It had withstood a great deal of rough usage from both owners (the boys brigade had moved it from Creeting but it no longer stands),

‘Then on our way we come to Abbotts Farm’ (Crown Farmhouse) and the Crown Inn with a good forecourt and a few cottages adjoining’.

On the right we pass the cemetery, and on the left an unpretentious village hall, then another group of cottages (Belvedere and Wren Cottage) and the Post Office’

The Post office ‘was not an imposing building’ being one room of a cottage, selling newspapers and stationery. Later it developed all the facilities of a P.P. and later still it became the telephone and telegraph centre. The P.O was set well back from the road; on the way to it we passed a small shoemaker’s shop, and adjoining it a large open shed called a “travis”; this harked back to the time when that set of buildings was used by a blacksmith, and horses to be shed used to wait in the travis. The forge was at that time on the site of the shoemaker’s shop. I suppose that was called progress. Now Mr Reeves was both shoemaker and postman. He did his rounds on a heavy bicycle with large square carrier baskets beck and front for letters and parcels. He worked through two deliveries a day, so he was a busy man.

Next came the church (Church Of England of course) standing back in an avenue of yew trees, with the disused graveyards all around it, and its copper steeple, now weathered to green, pointing heavenwards, on a square tower with its one bell. .(Uploaded on Holy Trinity page)

His journey continued through ‘a kissing gate leading to an avenue of lime trees, leading to a footbridge and a meadow behind the church and the school. Then we pass the wide gate opening onto the school yard playground, and the elementary school standing well back, with the headmaster’s house adjoining. We are now in Church Walk which takes us up a rise to the hamlet where our family lived. Our family home had as its postal address No1 Church Walk, but it has changed now to No.3 Church Road, to co-ordinate with modern building and traffic developments.

“Separated by a wide strip of garden, including Uncle Happy’s fowl yard, the next block of three cottages stood at right angles to the road. A path ran from the road along one side of the block and gave access to the three houses. These were probably older than the other blocks, being built in oak timbering with plaster between the studs. They were two-storied dwellings, with a steeply pitched thatched roof, topped by rather stumpy chimneys and chimney pots. This meant they had only one flue, and consequently just one fireplace in each house.”

Moving along up the footpath by the road, we find a stone wall, running right along the three large garden plots and the next block of three houses, up to a wide carriageway leading to the back of the next two blocks, and continuing up beside the carriageway. That block was the most imposing of all our four blocks, probably because it was the last to be built. It was taller than all the rest, made of red brick and tile roof, with full height on both floors. These houses had sash windows, so the glass panes were larger than those with casement windows. The road sloped gently upwards, so I suppose these houses were at the highest point of the Uplands of stow, apart from the Hall, which stood on a slightly higher rise.

Moving on to the last block, we find the wall continued, down the side of the wide cartway, and along the public footpath till we come to a pond, which collected water from two ditches and stood stagnant until the cottagers used it up to water the gardens in dry seasons. This block of six dwellings was set further back than the three and was covered by a long thatched roof with one brick chimney for each house, and had weatherboard sides preserved with brown creosote. The windows were casement style, with small leaded panes, giving the cottages a quaint look. They were called the “Barn Cottages” and it was easy to see why. The building was originally a very large barn which had been adapted to make six cottages. The builders had squeezed in an upper storey for bedrooms, all of which had sloping ceilings, making it difficult for adults to stand upright near the windows. Certainly ‘quaint’ would have better described the barn Cottages then ‘comfortable’