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1. Did you know that the town was originally known as Thorney and
shared this distinction with the area of land where the Houses of
Parliament now stand?
2. Did you know that the town’s water used to be drawn up
through 300 feet of chalk underneath Stevens House in Station Road
when it was Stevens Brewery?
3. Did you know that The Rev Thomas Young invited Matthew Hopkins
‘The Witchfinder General’ to the town where he was paid
to locate, prosecute and condemn elderly ladies labelled as witches?
4. Did you know that Stowmarket escaped the ravages of the Plague
which got as far as Needham Market, but suffered several outbreaks
of smallpox including one outbreak in 1678 which killed fifty-one
soldiers billeted at various inns in the town. They were buried
in a mass grave in the churchyard that for many years was known
as ‘Soldiers Hill’?
5. Did you know that the Market Cross once stood on the site now
occupied by the Santander Building Society?
6. Did you know that the Green’s Meadow Football Ground was
named after Frederick Green who held a market garden there. He used
to sell his produce round parts of the town from the back of his
horse and cart in the 1940’s and 50’s?
7. Did you know that amongst all the men who died as the result
of two world wars, there is only one female civilian commemorated
on the town’s Memorial Gates? She is Mrs Rhoda Lilly Farrow,
the unfortunate lady who was the only victim of the German raid
on the town on January 31st 1941 when the Congregational Church
was destroyed.
8. Did you know that in 1854/55 a windmill had to be taken down
to allow for the setting up of the Cemetery (now the old cemetery
opposite the Vets) in Bury Road?
9. Did You Know that the ‘Tonic Sol-Fa’ or the Doh-ray-me-far-so-la-te-doh
music notation system was invented in Stowmarket by John Curwen?
Originally from Yorkshire, he was an assistant minister at the Congregational
Chapel in 1841-42. Curwen Road is named in commemoration of him.
10. Did you know that there used to be two churches in the churchyard
at Stowmarket, one dedicated to St Mary and the other to St Peter?
St Peter’s stood on the ‘footprint’ of what is
now the north aisle and St Mary’s was of a similar size and
stood close to the boundary against St Peters Hall in Milton Road.
One was for the people of Stowmarket the other for the people of
Stowupland. St Mary’s was taken down in the 1500’s and
much of its material was reused in the rebuilding of the parish
church we see today that has the dedication of St Peter and St Mary.
Until Stowupland got its own church in the 1860’s the people
of Stowupland used the north porch and occupied the north aisle
of the church and the Stowmarket people used the south porch and
occupied the south aisle and main parts of the nave of the church.
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