Our Public Spaces
The image shows our Congregational Chapel as it appeared on a 1930 post card.
It was originally built in the early 19th century. So it is probably the earliest public building where local people met that still stands in the present day Stowupland. Prior to its construction presumably large public meetings took place in the open air on the village Green.
Spaces for Learning
Our Schools: click here to see some images of our schools
This photo shows a school class in the early 1900’s showing Margaret Catchpole and her Head master Mr Bramhall
- Read about our Sunday Schools
- Find out about the history of Freeman Community School from when our Primary School was built in 1865, its teachers, staff and some activities the school was involved in.
- Stowupland High School.
- Learning can also take place away from school.
Churches and Chapels
- Non-conformity
- Congregational chapel (URC)
- – see also The Boys Brigade, The Christian Endeavour Society and Sunday Schools
- Holy Trinity Church, and its vicarage
- St Peter’s and St Mary’s Church in Stowmarket
- Learn more about Stowupland’s Clergy, and other churchmen and women
- A selection of prayers and addresses from times past.
Remembering those who are no longer with us:
- how Stowupland’s lives were affected by Conflict
- details of Stowupland War Memorials
- our Cemeteries
- Accidental deaths and deaths by misadventure (and suicide)
Our Green is at the heart of our village. The parish council works hard to balance protecting the pristine views across the Green with permitting its use by the villagers for recreation.
Charities; read more…
Support for the poor seems to have crossed parish boundaries making it difficult to detail specific Stowupland charities. Money might be donated to a parish to provide specific aid but other times rents from designated properties would be used to provide assistance for ‘poor people’
Village Activities
See below for Stowupland Flower Show and Fete or click on Village Activities images
The Clubs and meetings
- O60’s club
- The WI in Stowupland, after 80 years is no more.
- Boys and Girls Brigade
- Guides and Brownies now disbanded
- The Men’s Club, not to be confused with The Men’s Shed
- Stowupland Amateur Players
- Stowupland Village Horticultural Soc.
- Stowupland Youth Club -1960’s
- Good Neighbour Scheme
- Village parties and celebrations
Village sports and Pub teams.
- cricket
- cycle speedway
- bowls(indoor and outdoor)
- football
- Playpark
- table tennis
- tennis
- quoits (see also The Retreat)
- skate boarding, etc.
- karate club
According to a local resident (JC) leisure activities ‘ expanded in the 1930s, with whist drives, tennis, football on the green, table tennis’…by the 1990s ‘the variety of activities had widened, with more types of sports available -bowls, indoor bowls, cricket, youth and adult football, B.B, Guides and Brownies and the Over 60s’
Public Meeting Halls
(see images)
- Village Hall, its history
- BB Hut
- Holy Trinity Church Hall
- URC Chapel Hall
- Iron Room, Parish Rooms (see The Vicarage)
Community activities
Village Fetes, festivals and fund raising, see also:-
- Stowupland Fete and Flower Show (see images), from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century held at Stowupland Hall then from the mid 1960’s moved to Village Hall becoming Church Flower Show and Craft Fete.
- Music on the Green
- Celebrating National events
