Monday, 18 August 2008

historical houses

8 comments:

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

What an interesting house, Gina. Is there a story that goes with it? Is it tiny? Quite close to the road.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Looks like it has moss on top, nice capture!

gina said...

This is Willy Balls cottage, which used to have a heavy, thick thatch which overhung the road. Mr Ball kept Suffolk Punches and used to hitch one up to a cart and then collect villagers who wanted to go shopping in Colchester which is the nearest town about 6 miles away, at a time when there were no roads only tracks. At the end of the day he would pick everyone up and bring them home again.There is a weather vane on the nearby village school which has one of his horses, called Prince, depicted on it.

Katie J said...

I love those Suffolk Punches. For you gals that are not from these parts Suffolk Punches are heavy work horses. Strong and sturdy.
Interesting story Gina. Is that in your village? Wormingford? It is a wee place and strange roof. I can't figure out what the lower bit is made of. I reckon Mary that is Lichen on the top.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

WOW! very interesting story. WHy do they call work horses "punches?"

Katie J said...

Actually I have no idea. Just had a quick scan of some pages on the web and can't find the answer. There are many web sites and there is even a Suffolk Punch society in the States. Here is a link not to that but to an English site

http://suffolkpunch.info/e107/

I ought to know. I once typeset a book on an old IBM Golf Ball typewriter - remember them. It was written by a guy in Suffolk whose family used to breed them. We hired the typewriter and I used to do it at home to make some money when the kids were young.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I went to that website and I left them a note asking after I couldn't locate the answer.

Katie J said...

If you get a reply please let us know