Upcoming Events

How to make effective responses to consultations on planning applications

This workshop will cover three particular areas:

• Recap on the role of the Parish Council as a statutory consultee in the Planning process

• What makes an effective consultation response

• Using Neighbourhood Plans and Design Codes for robust responses

The planning process can seem complicated, and completing a Neighbourhood Plan can seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be, and it is the best way for your community to define what is important to you so that you can positively influence future development.

To register for the workshop please email Penny Rush at sps@suffolksociety.org

• John Lambton Rooms, National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket, CB8 8EP
• Arrival from 5.45pm, talk at 6pm, drinks reception 7pm-8pm
• Tickets £30 non-members,
• Please book your ticket in advance.

On Wednesday 14^th October at 6pm, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography of the Year Award, will give a fascinating talk on the extraordinary story of the meteoric rise and fall of King James I’s favourite, George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham.

With a novelist’s touch, Lucy transports us into a courtly world of masques and dancing, exquisite clothes, the art of Rubens and Van Dyck, gender-fluidity, brutal warfare and appallingly rudimentary medicine. These were dangerous and complicated times, an era where witch hunts coexisted with the beginnings of empirical science. Buckingham stood at its centre until his spectacular fall from grace.

Ranging from tempestuous scenes in Parliament to the emergent political force of public opinion, The Scapegoat is a rich and compelling story about sex, misogyny, diplomacy and power, with deep resonance for today’s world. Hughes-Hallett’s extraordinary recreation of the period delves into love, war-fever and pacifism in a society on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Witches: Suffolk’s Dark Legacy – join us for a guided tour of the exhibition at Suffolk Archives, The Hold, Ipswich.

Between 1645 and 1647, the Suffolk witch trials were some of the most brutal and widespread in England.  

Step into the story with a major new exhibition from Suffolk Archives. 

Unearth stories of some of the 150 Suffolk people who were accused of witchcraft, and the looming figure of Mathew Hopkins, Witchfinder General.  Little is known of Matthew Hopkins before 1644, he was born in Great Wenham, Suffolk and was the fourth son of six children.  His father, James Hopkins was a Puritan clergyman and vicar of St John’s of Great Wenham in Suffolk.  The family at one point held title to lands and tenements in Framlingham at the castle.

Understand how the feverish atmosphere of the witch trials reached boiling point through bewitching items including The Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches, and Daemonologie by King James I, on loan from the British Library.  

Explore how the image of the witch has evolved through time, from the old hag in a pointed hat to the self-sufficient witch of TV and film today. Beautifully illustrated through books, prints, and works of art including John Waterhouse’s The Magic Circle, on loan from the Tate.  

Be spellbound by the true story, and dark legacy of witchcraft in Suffolk. 

Join us on 18th November at 2pm at Suffolk Archives, The Hold, 131 Fore Street, Ipswich IP4 1LR

• 45 minute exhibition tour with a knowledgeable staff member and 15 minutes free time to look around
• Tea, Coffee & biscuits in a private room
• One hour workshop with an archivist to look at some fascinating witchy archives
• Arrival from 1:45pm, tour to start at 2pm prompt
• 2pm Guided Tour and free time to look around
• 3pm Workshop with archivist
• 4:30pm close
• Please book your ticket in advance – £25 for non members £20 for members