After many years of searching, we have at last found a picture of the Old Rectory in Occold. We found it on an Ebay listing for the original postcard but, regretably, this had already been sold and details of the buyer not known. The seller of this postcard is more than happy that we use this photo of the item. Unfortunately, it had his logo splahed in bright red across the picture so we have had to do some tricky image manipulation to get this result. So if you see anomalies across the middle of the picture, you will know why!!
History
We have also tried to find out more about the Old Rectory and below is a summary of what we have found so far...........
- It was built in 1846. The architect and surveyor was Christopher EALES of Chapel Place, Cavendish Square, Middx
- The plan and specification of the building is held at Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich - document number FF1/64/1. We will endeavour to get a copy of this item
- We know from the 1911 census that it had 18 rooms
Anecdotes
- From a booklet published by Percy Kerry, Village Memories, Notes on Farming and Rural Life in Occold, 1920-1930, to be published soon on this website
I can remember the first wireless I ever heard. The children from the school were taken to the Rectory where we stood around the table. On the table was a box and music came out as well as people talking. The old people could not believe that people from London were talking to us through the air with no wires other than the one on the apple tree (the aerial)
We have been up the Rectory and hidden in the boathouse. Another good place was up trees when they were in full leaf. We never told the others where we had hidden as it was useful another time.(Ed note: boathouse?)
When and why?
It was only built in 1846 so when and why was it demolished? My guess would have been that the Church could not afford it's upkeep and sold it off to a developer. If so, that developer might have demolished it in order to build the exiting houses in Old Rectory Gardens. But these houses do not look very old (around mid-1980's?) but nobody can seem to remember the Rectory so that could be completely wrong! It could be that someone who knows more may not be accessing this website so an appeal to put the word around to see if we can get any more information as part of the history of Occold.
We will update this page as and when further information becomes available. Maybe someone out there reading this can shed some light??
Update
You wait a long time and then 2 come along together! A later picture of the Rectory - courtesy of Dennis Smith.
- Who are the couple pictured here? We think we know but can't be certain
- What has happened to the downstairs windows - almost looks derelict?
