Until recently known as The Suffolk Building Preservation Trust, Historic Suffolk was created in 1973 by The Suffolk Preservation Society (SPS) to own and operate its headquarters, Little Hall in Lavenham. Soon thereafter the Trust acquired Pakenham Watermill, and more recently Thelnetham Windmill. For many years the Trust was a direct subsidiary of SPS, with a shared board of trustees. The two trusts are now completely independent of each other, though they collaborate on certain issues, and SPS still has its offices at Little Hall.
Little Hall is an early 15C hall house, which houses an eclectic collection of artifacts gathered by the Gayer Anderson brothers in the first half of the C20. Both mills are fully functioning, milling flour for sale to the public. All the buildings are open for visits, at times published on their individual websites. The Trust relies on visitors’ fees, sales of flour and other merchandise, along with donations, to maintain its properties.
Until very recently, looking after these 3 historic buildings was the Trust’s only function, but we are also called upon to help other heritage-minded individuals and groups to campaign for the preservation of buildings at risk. Historic Suffolk is currently running Save Our Stations jointly with SAVE and Historic Norfolk. This initiative was started initially to save Brandon station from demolition, but it has now expanded to include all the unused station buildings in the region