Sudbury
Sudbury is
an ancient Suffolk market town which has had
substantial wealth and status in the past and this is reflected in the
fine buildings, many kept in excellent condition. Here we
must
gratefully acknowledge the book 'Sudbury Suffolk: the unlisted
heritage' by David Burnett where amost all of the fine (unlisted)
structures in the town are carefully photographed and documented See
our Reading
List for
details. Naturally, a rich heritage often means interesting
lettering survives.
Let's start with:
'SEWAGE PUMPING STATION
CORPORATION OF SUDBURY
REFUSE DESTRUCTOR WORKS'
and let's not forget the date '19...03' set either side of the circular
window at the top. The refuse works with its large chimney is long
gone, but this Sewage Pumping Station survives in Ballingdon Street.
In Station
Road are warehouses belonging to 38 Market
Hill, probably built around 1840. The trading sign painted on
the
decaying bricks:
'WHITBREADS [?] BOTTLED ALE & STOUT'.
38 Station
Road features the former engineering works
of Barton & Co. which became 'Brunton Propellors Limited' (as
shown
on the screw-on lettering below) during World War I. 'ENGINEERS' is
painted on the upper strip and may be laying on a painted strip
covering earlier lettering. Barton & Co. are celebrated all
over
the town lettered into cast iron fittings such as the cellar grille of
the former public house next door, drain covers and on the railing
plates surrounding the cricket ground in Friars Street.
'SUFFOLK
AND ESSEX
FREE PRESS'
with chiselled caps for the top two lines and large and small caps for
the third, centred and positioned (rather high) in a decorative brick
cartouche. This white brick facade is at 54-55 Station Road and was
built in 1867. We're sure that there is lettering on the stone lintel
over the doorway at lower left - the middle word 'Press'?
'GREGORY
MILLS'
in decorative caps with a full stop announces the Sudbury Silk Weaving
Company's whereabouts, built in 1912. It became Vanners and Fennell in
1924 and is still in business in Gregory Street.
'VICTORIA
HALL
1887'
in Prince Street is an important part of the intellectual life of
Sudbury. The cast iron plaques have raised surrounds and the impressed
serif'd caps are picked out in blacl paint, as are the centred dots on
each side.
'18... A.P
...33'
carved into this interestingly shaped detail on the corner of 65 North
Street. 'A.P' stands for Ambrose Prentice, Grocer and Tea Dealer - the
original proprietor.
'AD 1886'
in roundels and leaf decoration on the former adorn the Masonic Hall in
North Street, built in 1886. The characteristic mason's dividers and
inverted square rest on a ceremonial cushion, all made of white stone,
are flanked by the terra cotta letters and numerals.
'THIS WALL
WAS BUILT
AFTER THE FIRE
1890'
The fire occurred in Grimwood's builders yard and workshop in Church
Walk, which was relocated to Weavers Lane (where Weavers Court now is).
Grimwoods built the appropriately named Phoenix Brewery on the site and
the plaque set into the wall commemorates the fact.
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throughout the Ipswich Signs and
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Lettering sites: Borin Van Loon
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