Long
missing from this site (the nearest we got was Needham Market and Bury
St Edmunds), this is a glimpsed railway journey image until we made
a
proper
trip to Stowmarket. 2013 images
'STOWM......'
We noticed
from the train that, unusually, the station's
name is picked out in pale bricks against a red brick background on
both inner walls of the relatively recent bridge which carries a new
road, Navigation Approach, over the line close to the platform end. The
bridge links the town with the Cedars Park development and has a
relief mural depicting the history of the Navigation, showing the
horse-drawn barges and the maltings along the towpath.
The bricklayer/letterer must have had quite a challenge. Diagonals are
particularly tricky (see the 'W', 'R' and 'K' in particular).
Above: the view over an empty plot showing the two public houses which
once acted as a gateway to the railway station yard. By 2013, only the
Kings Arms is still open and the original cream cartouche panels can be
seen beneath modern painted signs.
Below: sadly, the station building itself, typically attractive
architecturally for this line, bears no integral lettering (compare
with Thetford station).
The platform boasts a signal box, long unused,
by the
look of things, which is right beside the level crossing between the
town and the Stowupland side of the line. Over on that side the
former public house, The Duke Of Wellington, plied it trade here at 7
Stowupland
Street. This pub building is now used as a chiropody practice. (see
the Lost Pubs Project in Links). The side
wall shown below still bears the shaped white panels on which the pub
lettering sat and there is a white blank window in the centre of the
frontage which was probably also lettered.
Back over the railway and The Pickerel (named after a young pike) is
nearby with
its well preserved relief lettering:
TOLLY
COBBOLD
ALES & SPIRITS'
... although the frosted lettering on the front double doors has the
look of modern vinyls (compare with The
Lion's Head in Ipswich). Suffolk CAMRA (see Links)
tells us that this pub is listed historically in Stowupland,and is a
16th century timbered pub having two bars and a separate restaurant
plus a small riverside garden. Confusingly, the building is said to
date from the early 18th century (perhaps they mean the present
frontage). Publican are listed back to 1800, with John Cobbold taking
over the pub in 1923.
See also the Pubs
& Off-licences page and the Tolly Cobbold House & Brewery
pages.
A short walk round the back streets on this side
of the
main road and a vague, once-lettered panel high up on a gable can be
see, but what might it advertise? A few more paces and the answer is
seen: The Royal William public house in a very tucked away spot, 53
Union St East. The Suffolk CAMRA website (see Links)
tells us that: "This unspoilt back-street pub is a
former beer house that has only had a full license since 1962. Tucked
away, but located quite close to the magnificent early Victorian
railway station. The beer is served on gravity from a small temperature
controlled room behind the bar or from a new gravity servery located in
an outside building. Darts and cribbage teams are active here,
otherwise friendly locals and good conversation are the order of the
day. Treasure it, there are few left like it."
Over the Bury Road an towards the town centre we find 12 Bury Street.
as well as three foliage discs on each gable, there are floral wreaths
in plaster with lettering within.
Within a
pair of crossed keys:
'CSS [see Update below]
LT'
The superscript letter after the
'L' looks like an 'I', but we think it is a 'T' with an underline
(presumably for 'Limited').
'A
1903
D'
[UPDATE 15.7.2013: "Noticed on
your web site that you were looking for info about the lettering CSS
Ltd. The building used to be the The CoOp originally called the
Stowmarket Co-Operative Society Limited. So it is SCS Ltd. Hope this
helps. -Ashley Barnard"]
Across the Market Place and one enters Ipswich Street with a coaching
entrance:
'THE OLD FOX
YARD'
During the 18th century The Fox coaching inn stood
here, and from its yard a daily coach, 'The Regulator', ran to Bury St
Edmunds and Ipswich.
This compares with a similarly curved arch coaching entrance in Eye.
Narey's Nurseries
Down the A14 towards Bury St Edmunds is the now-bypassed Narey's
Nurseries. Photograph
2012 courtesy Paul Horne
'MERRICK
BROS EDEN NURSERIES
STOWMARKET'
The main company name is painted
beneath the eves in large and small capitals (with initial letters
projecting above and below the smaller caps) with decorative serifs.
The last word is small and informally rendered surrounded by curlicues.
On the screwed-on
board at
the end:
'J. NAREY - SONS
EDEN NURSERIES'
From The London Gazette, 12 June, 1914:
"NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership lately subsisting between
us, the undersigned, Edgar Cyril Merrick and Arthur Howard Merrick,
carrying on the business of Nurserymen, at the Eden Nurseries,
Stowmarket, in the county of Suffolk, under the style or firm of "
MERRICK BROTHERS," has this day been dissolved by mutual consent. All
debts due to or "owing by the said late firm will be received and paid
by the said Edgar Cyril Merrick, who will continue the said business
under the style or firm of "Merrick Brothers" aforesaid.
—As witness our hands this tenth day of June, 1914.
E. CYRIL MERRICK. ARTHUR H. MERRICK."
Perhaps J. Narey later bought the business from Edgar Cyril
Merrick?
[UPDATE 29.9.2014: About time
that we put up these details of the building in the winter sunshine.]
At the end of the sign and below the metal feature, the sign-writer has
signed his work. We're pretty sure that this says:
'N. Gooding &
Son'
2013 images Details, below, show the decorative font used on 'EDEN'
and '...RIES'.
2013 images 
2013 images
Photograph
2012 courtesy Paul Horne
