Suffolk Historic Buildings Group

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.

The Building Stones of Suffolk by Tony Redman
2025-10-20 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | 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

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.

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.

To List or not to list, this is the question - Dr Caroline Skinner
2026-01-19 19:00 - 20:00
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).

Recent research into the Sun Inn, Saffron Walden by Douglas Kent
2026-02-16 19:00 - 20:00
The Old Sun Inn is an enchanting and much-cherished Grade I-listed historic building in Saffron Walden, Essex displaying some of the best pargeting – external decorative plasterwork – in England. Originally medieval houses, then later an inn, the property has subsequently been in mixed commercial and domestic use. The Old Sun Inn is currently undergoing a programme of major conservation, including work to its unique pargeting. The building, though, is open for visits and events by prior appointment or at other advertised times. You can find more about the building at https://oldsuninn.com/

Douglas has worked in the public and private sectors, offering advice on historic buildings to a range of organisations, such as English Heritage. He publishes and lectures regularly on building conservation and has contributed to various radio and television programmes. He also serves on many committees for organisations devoted to the historic built environment. In 2013, he became Chairman of the Hundred Parishes Society. Douglas is leading the conservation of the Old Sun Inn.

The Old Sun Inn is an enchanting and much-cherished Grade I-listed historic building in Saffron Walden, Essex displaying some of the best pargeting – external decorative plasterwork – in England. Originally medieval houses, then later an inn, the property has subsequently been in mixed commercial and domestic use. The Old Sun Inn is currently undergoing a programme of major conservation, including work to its unique pargeting. The building, though, is open for visits and events by prior appointment or at other advertised times. You can find more about the building at https://oldsuninn.com/

Douglas has worked in the public and private sectors, offering advice on historic buildings to a range of organisations, such as English Heritage. He publishes and lectures regularly on building conservation and has contributed to various radio and television programmes. He also serves on many committees for organisations devoted to the historic built environment. In 2013, he became Chairman of the Hundred Parishes Society. Douglas is leading the conservation of the Old Sun Inn.

Walpole Old Chapel
2026-03-16 19:00 - 20:00
Walpole Old Chapel – Katie Langridge, Cliveden Conservation
Walpole Old Chapel began life as a late 16th century farmhouse, and from outside, very little has changed. However, its interior was transformed in the mid-17th century into a non-conformist chapel, one of the best preserved of its kind – SHBG held an AGM there a few years back. It served its community for almost 300 years before closing in 1970 and is now owned by the Historic Chapels Trust and cared for by a group of local volunteers. Following several years of fundraising, a programme of repairs began in April this year, with Cliveden Conservation appointed as lead project managers of the first phase of work. Katie will tell us about the architecture of the building and the various aspects of repair works being carried out.
Katie Langridge is Head of Conservation and Operations in Cliveden’s East of England office.
