SOME GLIMPSES INTO THE HISTORY OF LEISTON
In the Beginning
The coastal parish of Leiston-cum-Sizewell rests on deep, well-drained sandy soils known locally as ‘the Sandlings’. Archaeological evidence of human habitation spans the Mesolithic, Bronze Age, Saxon, Roman and Medieval periods. Documentary evidence from the time of Edward the Confessor tells us that the manor of Lehtun (as Leiston was then known) was owned by Edric of Laxfield, a descendant of Edric Streone, an Ealdorman of Mercia who was of Danish ancestry. It comprised 12 carucates of land (about 5,000 acres) including a wood for 500 swine, 72 of which were fattening under the care of a swineherd. There was a mill for grinding corn, 5 acres of meadow, 4 draught horses, 5 cows, 112 sheep and 7 hives of bees. There were 3 churches and 100 acres of free land, valued altogether at £16. There was also a smaller manor in Lehtun held by a free man, which consisted of 40 acres and valued at 6 shillings, together with a third manor, the property of Edric, estimated at 20 shillings, and other smaller estates. The whole of this parish was estimated as 3 leucas in length, 2¼ in width (the word ‘leuca’, a Viking measure of length, later evolved into the Norman ‘league’, approximately three miles).
1066, Sizewell and the Abbot.
Edric of Laxfield forfeited his lands to Robert Malet after Harold II’s defeat in 1066 at the battle of Hastings. When Robert Malet died in 1106, all the lands of his estates, including the manor of Leiston, became forfeit to the Crown. In 1173, the manor was presented by Henry II to Rannulf de Glanville, Earl of Suffolk and chief justice of England as a reward ‘for his good service’. Rannulf founded a Premonstratensian abbey built on the Minsmere marshes and dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin in 1183. He gave Leiston Manor and a further church in the neighbouring village of Knodishall to the new foundation. The church of St. Margaret of Antioch thus came to be under the control of the Abbot. The history of the church can be found elsewhere in the Guide. Rannulf chose the Premonstratensians, an excessively austere and frugal order of white canons founded by Norbert, a German nobleman, in order to secure a place for himself and his family in heaven. The only part of this early abbey still standing is a chapel standing on a piece of higher ground by the sluice at Minsmere. Over time the Abbey increased in wealth and privileges. The Abbot’s income was boosted by claiming the rights of wreck, market, gallows, free warren, and the assize of bread and ale in his manor of Leiston. He ran a market at Sizewell (indicating that trade was expanding in the village and that it was a place of some urban status) from which he could exact tolls. In 1312, permission was given to the Abbot to hold another market and fair in July. In 1315 the date was altered to 29th November and the following 3 days. By 1362, flooding had damaged the foundations of the Abbey beyond repair and it was rebuilt at a safer site inland in 1365 under the patronage of Robert of Ufford, Earl of Suffolk. In 1379, all the Abbey buildings, except the church, were badly damaged by fire but were quickly rebuilt. The weekly market at Sizewell, that had been a source of income for the abbey for over 100 years, was not doing well. Sizewell become impoverished. The tradition of holding a market in Leiston has continued and is presently held on Fridays in the car park behind the parade of new shops to the west of the High Street. The annual Cold Fair was discontinued by 1844 but was revived in 1988 and is still an annual event. Coldfair Green was part of the parish of Leiston until 1985, when it became part of the parish of Knodishall.
So it was Sizewell-cum-Leiston then?
Twelve years before Henry VIII decided to dissolve the monasteries of England in 1536, the population of Leiston comprised 33 taxpayers. Sizewell had 40 taxpayers, indicating that the degree of prosperity and property in Sizewell still exceeded that of the village of Leiston. Henry’s orders were to “pull down to the ground the walls of the abbeys, saving those necessary for farmers”. Not much of Leiston Abbey seems to have been thought to be ‘necessary for farmers’. A farmhouse was built inside the south aisle of the church during Tudor times and a further house was added in Georgian times at the west end. Generations of farmers used the Lady Chapel as a granary and the walls of the sanctuary and transepts supported shelters for cattle, pigs and hens. This continued to be the case until Miss Ellen Wrightson bought Leiston Abbey in 1918 and began clearing the ruins and restoring the Lady chapel. An ancient Brittany crucifix, possibly 13th century, was imported from France and stands in the position of the high altar. By 1952, Leiston Abbey was in use as a conference centre and retreat house. Pro Corda, a national school for young chamber music players, bought Leiston Abbey in 1977.
Grand houses of their day.
In 1537, Henry VIII granted the manor of Leiston to the Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon, who was to swap it later for Henham Hall. Leiston Hall and manor then remained in royal hands until 1611 when it was given to the Duke of Buckingham. Leiston Hall is among several fine listed buildings in the parish, including a farmhouse built in 1588 at Wood Farm in Buckleswood Road, Bedwell’s farmhouse on the Leiston - Knodishall road, Red House farmhouse and Upper Abbey farm house and aisled barn (all 17th century). The Cupola, an impressive Georgian house which can be seen from the footpath which runs between King Edward Road and the Leiston - Knodishall road, was built in the 18th century as a two storey house. The third storey was added in the 19th century. Fisher’s Farm in Abbey Lane and Barkwith House in Haylings Road were built during the 18th century, when the timber framed core of Leiston House Farm, on the Saxmundham road, was completely encased in brick. The White Horse Hotel, built in about 1768 to serve the increasing needs of travellers, was heightened and re-fenestrated in the early 1800s and is now listed Grade II. In 1792, the road running from Aldeburgh to the Ipswich - Yarmouth road was turnpiked in order to pay for its upkeep. A hexagonal, thatched toll cottage can be seen on the east side of the Theberton - Leiston road by the turning off for Eastbridge. Other listed buildings include Angel Cottage in Sizewell Road and Greyshott Hose in Station Road. The recorded population of Leiston by 1801 was 823. At that time there were 100 houses in the parish. Some houses must have been very overcrowded!
Was your forefather a smuggler?
In 1778, young Richard Garrett from Melton married Elizabeth Newson, a Leiston girl, and set up as a bladesmith at a forge rented from William Cracey situated next to the present High Green buildings (listed Grade II) in the High Street. The premises, which were to the rear of the present Works House, comprised a thatched cottage, a blacksmith’s shop and a shoeing traverse at the end. At this time 8 to 10 men were employed at the forge and one horse was in use to drive a grindstone. This began the Garrett family’s connection with Leiston which was to result in the village changing from an agricultural backwater to a major industrial town.
When the first Richard Garrett arrived in Leiston it was a fairly wild place. Many fishermen engaged in smuggling, a highly organised industry on this isolated stretch of the coast. Chests of tea, tobacco and spirits were taken to regular hiding places such as underneath the floorboards of Leiston’s nonconformist meeting house. Farmhands could earn 25 shillings a night for moving contraband at a time when labourers were employed by the day for 5 or 6 pence. The flourishing yarn industry employed women and children but spinners were paid only 3 or 4 pence a day and looked to the parish for help. The smuggling trade kept families alive who would otherwise have starved. By 1810, the process of enclosing the common land in the parish began. The river Mismer was canalised forming the ‘New Cut’, and the land at Minsmere was drained. The area was further tamed by the Coastguard, who employed 6 men at the Sizewell station which had been set up to control smuggling. The Coastguard cottages can be seen overlooking the sea. In those days, before life-boats were specially designed and provided for the purpose of saving life, seafarers wrecked on our coast were dependent on the ‘beachmen’ (who, in fair weather, were fishermen). Each beach company had its own lookout, and a lookout is still to be seen on Sizewell beach. The beachmen later became the core of the life-boat service.
At last, Leiston-cum-Sizewell
By 1830, the population of Leiston had risen to 1,070 and 60 men were employed at the Garrett Works. Production of portable steam engines commenced at the Leiston Works in 1847, and by the time Richard Garrett’s great grandson (also Richard) took over in 1850 the firm employed 300 men. Richard Garrett (IV) sent an impressive array of the Works products and took 300 employees and their wives to the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in the Crystal Palace in London. Impressed by the stand of the American gun maker, Samuel Colt, who had developed a production method which was an approximation of an assembly line, Richard Garrett was inspired to build the ‘Long Shop’ in 1852, enabling portable engines to be assembled on a production line system. The Long Shop building is now listed Grade II*. The workforce called the building ‘the cathedral’ and indeed the acoustics are wonderful. The excellent Leiston Royal British Legion band, the roots of which can be traced back to 1859, occasionally hold concerts in this evocative setting. From 1851 onwards, the population of Leiston village continued to grow, while most villages shrank. Garretts produced its own gas, supplying seven public gas lights until the Leiston Gas Company was formed in 1910. The new gasworks was built on part of Carr’s coal yard to the north of the railway line. Construction of the first of the two gas-holders began in 1910. A new steel gas main system was laid and the gasworks began producing gas in 1911. The site in Carr Avenue is presently derelict.
The railway arrives.
As the railway began to rise in importance, Richard Garrett used his influence to have Leiston linked, via a branch line, to the main Ipswich - Lowestoft line in 1859. The line was later extended to Aldeburgh in 1860. The station (now private housing) was built at the junction of Westward Ho and Theberton Road (renamed Station Road to the south of the level crossing). The Crossing Keeper’s cottage at Crown Farm was unusual in that it had two storeys, unlike the majority of such cottages which were single-storey. The railway served Leiston until 1966 when the unpopular Beeching ‘axe’ fell on the Aldeburgh - Saxmundham branch line, and it was closed to passenger services. The goods spur from Saxmundham to Leiston Halt remains operational for heavy goods, nuclear fuel and waste for the Sizewell power stations. By 1862, there were 600 men employed at the Works, which now occupied over 10 acres in the centre of the village. The site was bounded by High Street, Crosses Lane (Cross street) and Gas Hill (Park Hill).
The Great War.
The 9th Suffolk Volunteer Rifle Corps, the bulk of whose membership was made up of Works employees, was raised in 1860 by Richard Garrett (III) and his son, Richard (IV), who became a captain. The Corps became ‘H’ Company of the 1st Suffolk Rifles in 1876. During the 1914-18 war, the Leiston men of ‘H’ Company were involved in some of the worst fighting of the bitter winter of 1914-15 and suffered very heavy losses, with some 70 local casualties being reported.
The commencement of Garretts ‘Top’ Works complex, situated beside the railway station, coincided with the outbreak of the 1914-1918 war. The last traction engine made by Garretts was completed in 1931. Originally Pride of Petersfield, it was later re-named Rob Roy, and the sign boards of the Engineers Arms in Main Street bear representations of Rob Roy. Formerly a beershop, run by a local blacksmith, The Engineers Arms was open for the sale of beer at breakfast time for the regulars. Men from the Works would cross the road and find their pints already drawn for them and lined up on the bar.
Tough times and then another war.
After the end of the great war, Richard Garrett & Sons Ltd. combined with a number of other engineering companies to form Agricultural and General Engineers Ltd. (A.G.E.). The group continued until 1932 when A.G.E. went into receivership. This was a tough time for Leiston, whose unemployment figure now stood at over 1,000. The Garrett Works was purchased by Beyer, Peacock & Co. Ltd. who created a subsidiary called ‘Richard Garrett Engineering Works Ltd.’. The firm secured a contract with the Admiralty in 1938 for the construction of naval guns and continued to supply both munitions and shell making lathes throughout the Second World War. It was during the Second World War that 500 acres of farmland, lying equidistant between Saxmundham, Leiston and Theberton was used as an airfield. The base was allocated to the U.S.A.A.F. for their use as a fighter base. The American airmen were dubbed the ‘Yoxford boys’ by Lord Haw Haw, the broadcaster on German propaganda radio. The airfield was closed in 1946 and by 1955 had mostly returned to agricultural land. Part of it became the Cakes and Ale caravan park where there is a model of a P-51 Mustang near the office. A memorial to the American servicemen from Leiston Airfield killed during the war was erected in 1980 on the front of the Council building in the Old Post Office Square. There is also an exhibition featuring the Yoxford boys in the Long Shop Museum. Townsfolk from both wars are remembered on the War Memorial alongside St Margaret’s Church.
All change.
A wide range of products was produced by the company after the war in an effort to remain viable and, in 1960, the S & S Machine Company awarded Garretts the licence to build its cardboard box-making machines. The first phase of the mock-Georgian Colonial House was built in 1969, and housed the apprentice school on the ground floor and the canteen and other facilities on the upper floor. The building was extended in 1977. In 1980, when Garretts finally closed, the original town centre ‘bottom’ works had already closed and moves were afoot to save the unique buildings. The ‘top’ works site is now the Masterlord industrial estate. The site of the ‘bottom’ works has been partly redeveloped for housing and the most important buildings retained to form the Long Shop Museum, the story of which appears elsewhere in this Guide. The Leiston Conservation Area, designated in 1979, originally included Old School Close, the Quaker Meeting House, the Long Shop, High Green, the bottom of High Street, Barclays Bank (previously the rectory), Dinsdale Road as far as Kitchener Road and Greyshott House in Station Road, but was extended to include Colonial House, the Constitutional Club and all the land surrounding them in 1989.
Religion
In 1670, a piece of land, then a quarter of a mile from Leiston near the road to Aldeburgh was purchased by the Quakers for use as a burial ground. Two cottages built on the site at a later date and can still be seen in amongst the 1960s housing development of Garrett Crescent and Quakers Way. The Quakers were an influential force in the town, owning several businesses including a branch of Gurneys bank (later Barclays). In 1713, the Quakers of Leiston built the first meeting house, and two cottages, on about 3 acres of land on the Park Hill/Waterloo Avenue corner. The Meeting House (now listed grade II) was rebuilt and opened in 1860. The Wesleyan Methodists first became established in the village in 1824 and the Reformed Wesleyans built a chapel in Prospect Place, opened in 1860, which is now a private house. The members of the Congregational Church in Leiston built a church (now the United Church) in the High Street in 1867.
Trade
In 1824 there were three good general stores in the village: one eventually became Baker Bros., another was situated where Cooper’s is now, and a third stood on the site of the present surgery car park opposite the White Horse in Main Street. There were 2 blacksmiths, 3 master carpenters, 2 wheelwrights, 2 coopers and 2 butchers. There was also a saddler in premises now occupied by the Black Horse. Charles Geater and Robert Gooch achieved modest celebrity in 1851 for the manufacture of roquelaures (knee-length cloaks) and capes for ladies. Not only were Mr Geater’s products waterproof, but he was a century ahead of his time in that his garments were what we would now call ‘breathable’! This particular product, however, was later overshadowed by its competitors, such as Burberry. The Geaters were also a farming family and later established a prestigious nursery in Westward Ho. Joseph Bell-Moore, a non-conformist, was responsible for the founding of the Leiston Co-operative Society in 1861. By 1864, the Society had about 120 members and had opened a shop in Crosses Lane, in hired premises. The shop moved to its present position in Sizewell Road in 1887.
Education
A ‘National’ school was built in 1837 and improved in 1847. Even after the building of the National School, children might still be employed on the farms, and were often kept from school; a practice which continued for many years to come. The National School was almost entirely rebuilt, and two residences added, in 1874, and again enlarged in 1895. The National Infants’ School was opened in 1899. These buildings have now been converted into private housing. The Higher Elementary (Secondary) School, later to become the Grammar School, built in 1908, and the Senior School, later to become the Modern School, built in 1912, in Waterloo Avenue, now house Leiston Middle School. In 1927, A.S. Neill bought Newhaven, the previous home of Richard Garrett (IV), to house his progressive school. He renamed it Summerhill, bringing the name from the previous home of his school in Lyme Regis. The school is still a thriving centre of learning in our community. The County Primary School in King Georges Avenue was opened in 1953. This was followed by a new Secondary Modern School built in 1964 on a site off Seaward Avenue, which became the High School when Leiston’s state schools adopted the comprehensive system in 1973.
Local Government, water and “electricity”
Leiston-cum-Sizewell was constituted an Urban District in 1895 because of the need to provide a sewerage system for the town. This status remained until local government re-organisation in 1974. There was still no public water supply so, in 1912, the Council provided its own pumping station, over two wells sunk into the gravel and crag, situated on the eastern side of Abbey Road and powered by a Garrett engine. The building is now a private dwelling. Some of the town was supplied with water from the Works well until just before 1914 when the U.D.C. put in a supply. The December 1971 report of the Medical Officer of Health stated that there were still 19 houses in the area reliant on stand pipes, and 17 premises relied on wells.
The Leiston Film Theatre in the High Street dates from 1914 when cinema was new. Frank E. Walker, a senior member of staff at Richard Garrett & Sons Ltd., together with a group of friends, noticed the success of travelling film shows brought to the town. They purchased a prime site in the town and built a cinema. ‘Leiston Picture House, Limited’, was formed in 1914. It is now the oldest purpose-built cinema in Suffolk.
In 1957 the Central Electricity Generating Board were looking round for sites for nuclear power stations on the east coast. Desirous of increasing opportunities for local employment, the Town Clerk persuaded them to consider land at Sizewell. There was a public inquiry, lasting half a day, at the Constitutional Club assembly room. As a result, Sizewell saw the building of Sizewell ‘A’ nuclear power station. It took 5 years to build, and provided employment to many. Some 45% of the staff were recruited from local sources. Sizewell ‘B’ nuclear power station was built, after a long drawn out public enquiry, and started supplying electricity in 1995.
The Avocet arrives.
The Sizewell Belts, situated to the north west of the power stations, comprising 134 hectares of grazing marshes, fen, reed beds and carr woodland, is owned by the nuclear industry. The area is managed for its conservation interest by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and includes areas which are open to the public for walking and bird watching. The Sizewell Belts have been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and are within the Suffolk River Valleys Environmentally Sensitive Area, together with the Lower Abbey marshes. During the Second World War, the low-lying farmland at Minsmere had been allowed to flood by closing the sluice. After the war had ended, it was found that four pairs of avocets had begun nesting. The land owners, the Ogilvie family, decided to leave the wetlands to allow them to continue to breed and, in 1947, Captain A.S. Ogilvie drew up a lease agreement for 1,500 acres with the then almost unknown group, the R.S.P.B. In 1959, Herbert Axell was appointed as the Minsmere bird reserve’s first full-time warden. He created the scrape, an area of brackish lagoons and shingle-topped islands adjacent to the sea wall. Avocets quickly colonised the area, together with many more common species. At peak migration periods, hordes of wading birds stop to feed, and many rarities have been recorded. As a result of the success of Mr Axell’s innovative scheme, similar scrapes began to be constructed on nature reserves all over Europe.
Source of information: “From Flint Knappers to Atom Splitters; a history of Leiston-cum-Sizewell” by D.Y and K. May (published by Quickthorn Books, Leiston).
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