Iron or Parish Room
Not much is known about the Parish Rooms or, it is more often referred to, The Iron Room that stood in the grounds of Stowupland’s first parsonage or vicarage. This extract from a map of the early 1880s shows a rectangular building adjacent to the road which is believed to be the building.
The building was used for many village functions before it was demolished in 1985 when the vicarage was sold off and the new Church Hall adjacent to Holy Trinity Church was built. Detailed below are just a few of the gatherins that were held there.
In the 1930s we have a press report that ‘children of Holy Trinity Sunday School spent a very jolly time at the Iron Room on the occasion of their annual winter treat.’ Games were organised by the Rev Chapman’s wife and the children were given gifts of apples, oranges and sweets.
From 1931. Why the social evening was billed as an American Tea is not known, but the Farthing fund was started as a way for parishioners to raise funds for improvements to Holy Trinity Church. {Suffolk Chronicle: Published Friday, 11 December 1931}
The Bury Free Press carried a report of the Ruby Wedding celebration of Edgar and Lily Moore in an edition dated Friday, 17 June 1977. The report says the surprise party was held in a shed in the grounds of Stowupland vicarage, this was amended in a later edition to read the vicarage hall, so presumably the Iron Room.
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In the 1980s the vicarage together with the former church room was sold off.
