Stowupland Flower Show and Fete, its years at Stowupland Hall (post WW2)
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. For more on the Flower Show and Fete pre 1940s…
We are unsure what happened during the war years, presumably it was paused and maybe restarted in 1946. We have the minutes for a committee meeting in 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 press cutting went on to list the prize winners of the various categories.{see SLHG archives/OS1/scrapbook}
The next programme we have in the archives is for 1949.
Moving on to 1962
We are unsure of the date but a Saxham Street resident remembers an 8 foot wall that separated the private gardens of The Hall from the parkland and the horse racing events with jockeys riding Suffolk Punches. He also remembered the time when Black’s bullocks escaped from their field and careered down Saxham Street destroying 2 gardens along the Driftway. A sack of potatoes was given to the elderly lady (Mrs Carr) as apology but not to the gentleman.
By the late 1960s it had downsized and moved along the road to the Village Hall.
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.“
{Original documents from SLHG Archives, either in Catchpole’s Black case or OS1 folder.}
