The Little Hall Museum, Lavenham

   Yesterday the bf and I were in Suffolk for our annual treat, a Christmas present in fact - lunch at The Great House in Lavenham.  Afterwards and slightly tipsy we went next door to the romantic, exquisite Little Hall Museum. This was our second visit and the first for me with a camera.  As you may recall I first blogged about The Little Hall back in 2013.  Way back then I gave a very short history of the place: a late medieval cloth merchant's house restored in the early part of 20th century by twins Robert & Thomas Gayer-Anderson who filled the place with beautiful things from the Middle East and Renaissance Italy.

   Anglo-Irish, or 'Ascendancy', Thomas & Robert (a qualified doctor) served in the British and Egyptian armies.  Both men were also romantics, adventurers, artists, homosexual, and avid collectors.  Retiring in 1929 Thomas bought and restored Little Hall and it was to remain his home until his death in 1960. Robert remained in the Middle East taking a number of civilian posts with the Egyptian government.  The medieval house in Cairo, Bayt al-Kradlea, which he bought, restored and furnished, and which he was forced to abandon due to ill health in 1942 and gave to the Egyptian government, is now The Gayer-Anderson Museum.  It was to Little Hall and Thomas that Robert returned to in 1942 and lived there for the remaining three years of his life.  The Little Hall then, I would guess, is primarily a reflection of the taste Thomas Gayer-Anderson.  It consists of a main, medieval block to the street and a longer wing at right angles which in part, I think, dates from inter-war period. The garden is very English and quite lovely.  The images reflect our route through the museum.

   Finally I couldn't resist showing yet another view of the outside with its gorgeous ochre limewash.

Suffolk

   I was hoping to bring you some pictures of the few days I spent with the bf earlier this week.  Alas, numpty that I am, I forgot my camera.  In particular I wanted to photograph Little Hall Museum in Lavenham.  It was my first visit and it was a charming place, somehow calm, and I could easily have moved in.  I would seriously recommend a visit. There is a photograph of the exterior elsewhere on this blog.  The garden was really lovely, small and all tucked away; inspiring in the choice of plants.  All together wonderful.

   Here instead is my drawing of the rear elevation of our friends' house in Hadleigh.  Small compensation that it is.

Kersey and Lavenham

     What's this?  Twice in one day?  Just feeling a little bored, and a bit under the weather - the sniffles and a sore throat.  So why not? The other thing is...every time I go to the bf's I always find plenty cultural stuff to blog about, stuff that in the end just gets shunted to one side.  To give one, brief, example: on my previous visit we watched Michael Powell's last film, the infamous 'Peeping Tom'.  I've said nothing about it - yet.  Just not had the time.

     Friday was bitterly cold.  Even so we broke our return journey at Kersey and Lavenham.  Hardly the weather to stand about and take photos, but I felt obliged....

     Kersey is a small and definitely (and, I suspect, self-consciously) picturesque village nestling in a deep valley.  In the Late Middle Ages it grew rich on the wool trade.  Subsequent poverty was the preservative. What interested me on this visit was the increasingly bolder use of colour wash on the cottages.  One time the limewash would have been invariably white - at a push 'Suffolk pink'.  I don't know if these bolder colours are more authentic.  They are certainly attractive.  The pub exterior (not shown) still retains it's early-to-midcentury interpretation of 'Tudor' - that is 'black and white' and lanterns and scrolling ironwork.  I don't think it should be despised for that.

     The view down the main street, (The Street), of Kersey from the north, pink washed cottage in the background, ochre and rust closer.  Blue rubbish bins make a temporary and piquant contrast in colour.  Other properties still in white.

     The north end of the main street.  The colours on the house on the left are most effective.  I'm pleased that no attempt has been made to strip the plaster back to reveal the timber frame.  In most cases can it be justified?

  

   A view of 'Ancient Houses', Grade 1 listed.  Marvellous late Medieval bay windows.  Perhaps the the timbering on the nearest end of the house to the camera should have been left under its protective coat of plaster?

   A view of the main street on the way back to the car

   We also went to the church, but the interior was a real shocker, with a chaotic re-ordering.  The screen, which has some lovely medieval paintings on the dado was relegated to behind some chairs.  Shame.  From there we drove to Lavenham through remote back lanes.
   Lavenham is a large village, almost a small town.  And like Kersey it is self-conciously picturesque.  It reminds me somewhat of 'Tilling' in E F Benson's 'Mapp and Lucia' books.  Far too cold a day for much sight-seeing I was determined however to photograph a couple of things.

   This is my favourite building in Lavenham, the 'Little Hall Museum'.  It was originally built in the late 14c for the Caustons.  Between the two World Wars it was purchased and restored by twin brothers.  They filled it with their collection of Middle Eastern artefacts.  I should think that their restoration exaggerated the medieval/Gothic aspects of the building.  I find the 'repairs' to the leaded windows a bit suspect. The colour wash must be a more recent thing. Here is the website.  The museum is open from the end of March until the end of October.  On the left is the restaurant  - 'The Great House' - where our hosts treated us to a delicious lunch the day before.

     Finally in Lavenham I took a photo of this florist's - 'The Gardener's Home' on Water St.  They have lovely displays.  Quite my favourite shop in the village.