Food MuseumAwaiting assessment

Assessed by Visit England Logo
Overview
The Abbot’s Hall estate goes back to medieval times and part of the key to its years of efficiency was having its own farm, Home Farm. In the 1960s, the then owners of the estate, Misses Vera and Ena Longe, donated 70 acres of farmland, Home Farm, the hall itself, and gardens to be used as a museum after local collectors had amassed a huge array of historic local memorabilia. The result is the Museum of East Anglian Life, which features farming as well as day-to-day living. This all-weather museum, which opened its doors in 1967, is set in an attractive river valley site. It has seemingly endless woodland and riverside nature trails for you to follow. There are reconstructed buildings, including a working watermill, a smithy, a windpump, and the Boby Building that houses craft workshops. The refurbished Abbot’s Hall is open as part of the museum, and houses exhibitions across eight rooms. There are displays on Victorian domestic life, gypsies, farming and industry. These include working steam traction engines, the only surviving pair of Burrell ploughing engines of 1879, and a Suffolk Punch horse.
Ratings & awards
award
VisitEngland Quality Assessed
Features

  • Children
  • Suitable for children of all ages

  • Facilities
  • Parking nearby
  • Cafe

  • Opening Times
Show more (2)
Location
Museum of East Anglian Life, Crowe Street, STOWMARKET, Suffolk, IP14 1DL
About the area
Suffolk is Constable country, where the county’s crumbling, time-ravaged coastline spreads itself under wide skies to convey a wonderful sense of remoteness and solitude. Highly evocative and atmospheric, this is where rivers wind lazily to the sea and notorious 18th-century smugglers hid from the excise men.
Area image

Food Museum

Awaiting assessment
Assessed by Visit England Logo
Ratings & awards
award
Overview
The Abbot’s Hall estate goes back to medieval times and part of the key to its years of efficiency was having its own farm, Home Farm. In the 1960s, the then owners of the estate, Misses Vera and Ena Longe, donated 70 acres of farmland, Home Farm, the hall itself, and gardens to be used as a museum after local collectors had amassed a huge array of historic local memorabilia. The result is the Museum of East Anglian Life, which features farming as well as day-to-day living. This all-weather museum, which opened its doors in 1967, is set in an attractive river valley site. It has seemingly endless woodland and riverside nature trails for you to follow. There are reconstructed buildings, including a working watermill, a smithy, a windpump, and the Boby Building that houses craft workshops. The refurbished Abbot’s Hall is open as part of the museum, and houses exhibitions across eight rooms. There are displays on Victorian domestic life, gypsies, farming and industry. These include working steam traction engines, the only surviving pair of Burrell ploughing engines of 1879, and a Suffolk Punch horse.
Features
  • Children
  • Suitable for children of all ages
  • Facilities
  • Parking nearby
  • Cafe
  • Opening Times
Show more (2)
Location
Museum of East Anglian Life, Crowe Street, STOWMARKET, Suffolk, IP14 1DL
About the area
Area image
Suffolk is Constable country, where the county’s crumbling, time-ravaged coastline spreads itself under wide skies to convey a wonderful sense of remoteness and solitude. Highly evocative and atmospheric, this is where rivers wind lazily to the sea and notorious 18th-century smugglers hid from the excise men.