Suffolk Historic Buildings Group

To List or not to list, this is the question - Dr Caroline Skinner
2026-01-19 19:00 - 20:00 (Europe/London)
To List or not to List, that is the question – Dr Caroline Skinner
What is ‘The List’ and what does it do? Why do some get added to the list and others don’t? Assessing a building for Listing has often been described as a dark art. This presentation explores the process for assessing buildings for listing.
Dr Caroline Skinner is the Listing Team Leader for Historic England in the East of England, providing advice to the Government on heritage. Her team are responsible for maintaining the National Heritage List for England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Late medieval shops and workshops by Leigh Alston
2025-12-05 08:00 - 17:00 | Lavenham Village Hall
Christmas Meeting at Lavenham Village Hall
Late medieval shops and workshops in East Anglia – Leigh Alston
The market towns and villages of Suffolk and Essex are rich in well preserved medieval and Tudor shops due to the region’s economic success in the 15th and early-16th centuries, followed by relative poverty after the collapse of the woollen cloth industry.
Leigh Alston is well-known to anyone who has been a member of SHBG for a few years – he was Chairman for 11 years. He is an architectural historian and building archaeologist of over thirty years standing, specialising in the timber framed structures of Eastern England.
Time to be confirmed
Booking details will be sent by email nearer the time. A buffet supper and seasonal drinks will be included in the price.

Housing The Poor c.1670-1870 by Dr Joseph Harley
2025-11-17 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Dr Joseph Harley is a Senior Lecturer in History at Anglia Ruskin University and an expert in the history of poverty, welfare, material culture and domestic life. His most recent publications include Objects of Poverty: Material Culture in Britain from 1700 (2025) and At Home with the Poor: Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in England, c. 1650-1850
It has almost universally been argued that the homes of the poor prior to the twentieth century were of the lowest quality, being overcrowded, unsanitary, comfortless, vulnerable to the elements and insecure. Joseph will test these ideas through the use of pauper inventories, and the remarkable archive of pastor Richard Cobbold, who painted and described the homes of the poor in his village of Wortham, Suffolk. Space was at a premium and so people would use the same rooms for a range of purposes such as sleep, work and cooking. Nonetheless, it is clear that the poor took pride in their homes and worked hard to keep them as well turned-out as they could be, despite being impoverished.

The Building Stones of Suffolk by Tony Redman
2025-10-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Tony Redman has spent five years surveying every stone-built building in Suffolk, and this talk will be based on his new book “The Buildings Stones of Suffolk, and the people who worked them”, recently published by the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. Tony has identified 50 types of stone which are present in 700 or so buildings, of which just over 500 are church buildings. He has also produced an alphabetical list of stonemasons living and working in Suffolk to 1999. The book can be purchased here: The Building Stones of Suffolk

Sproughton & Claydon
2025-09-13 | Sproughton, United Kingdom
Half day visit to buildings in Sproughton & Claydon.
This event is open to members only who have been sent instructions on how to book by email.
Further details including the event organiser contact details can be found in the Members’ Area.

Bardwell
2025-07-19 | Bardwell, United Kingdom
Full day visit to buildings in Bardwell.
This event is open to members only who have been sent instructions on how to book by email.
Further details including the event organiser contact details can be found in the Members’ Area.

Great War Huts in Hawstead
2025-06-07 10:00 - 14:00 | Hawstead, IP29 5NP, United Kingdom
This event is open to members only who have been sent instructions on how to book by email.
Further details including the event organiser contact details can be found in the Members’ Area.

AGM
2025-04-26 14:00 - 16:00 | The Old Town Hall, Hadleigh, IP7 5DN, United Kingdom
