Stowupland Flower Show and Fete, its years at Stowupland Hall
In the first half of the 20th century the Stowupland Flower Show and Fete was held on park land to the rear of Stowupland Hall.
It became an annual event, altough there were a few years it was not held. In 1935 the committee decided not to hold the show because the previous year had seen a poor turn out. However it was held again in 1936 and was deemed a success.
In 1939 the 46th Flower Show was combined with the 57th Annual Stowmarket and Central Suffolk Farmers Club Show on Saturday 15th July.
We are unsure what happened during the war years, possibly it was paused and restarted in 1946.
Intriguingly the SFSF minute book minutes regular meetings up to July 6th, 1939 but then there is a gap in the record till April 1950. Though there is a note that the minutes for March 23rd had been confirmed and we do have a balance sheet for 1948.
The next programme we have in the archives is for 1949.
by the late 1960s it had downsized and moved along the road to the Village Hall.
Read Eric Noy’s memories of the Stowupland Fower Show and Fete from 1946
In 2020 Roger Lark (son of Rev Lark) shared his memories by email of the fete, “another fond memory is helping to run the clay pigeon shoot at the flower show as run by a farmer think it was Barker he has a collection of vintage tractors. Was paid £1 10s a bottle of tolly brown ale and fish and chips for tea, Happy days.“
