The Suffolk Secrets Fund - The Story So Far

This year Suffolk Secrets is delighted to be involved with a number of local projects thanks to the launch of our new Suffolk Secrets Fund, managed with the support of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).  

Over the last couple of months I have been visiting some of the project managers to find out a little bit more them and how our funds have helped.  Here’s the story so far...

Full Steam Ahead at Long Shop MuseumCurator Stuart Hines and his team of dedicated volunteers are going full steam ahead with their project to create a community garden at the Long Shop Museum in Leiston, with the support of the Suffolk Secrets AONB Fund.  This fascinating museum is housed in historic buildings that were originally the Works of Richard Garrett and Sons, the world-famous manufacturers of steam engines and other agricultural machinery.  The history of the Works and the Garrett family are brought to life in an extensive collection of engines, machinery, tools, photographs and other memorabilia.The community garden is part of a bigger vision for the Museum which includes extending the buildings to enhance the facilities including provision of a coffee shop.  The garden will provide opportunity for local school children to learn about a variety things – there will be a herb bed, summer house, pond and it will ‘bee-friendly’ too.  It will be open to the local community for free during opening hours of the Museum.The museum opens its doors for the 2017 season on 1st April with its popular Spring Steam and Activity Day.  Find out more here.  

Bonkers for the BeachKate Osborne, founder of Beach Bonkers is passionate about protecting our majestic coastline.  With the financial support of the Suffolk Secrets AONB Fund, Kate will be delivering a series of fun events and beachcombing walks for all ages to discover the treasures that lay hidden on our beaches and how we can protect them.Why not come along to Dunwich Heath on 5th April, play the Beach Bonkers giant board game and rummage through the table top beach.  (The National Trust also have pond dipping, and bug hunting taking place too), or get your wellies on and join Kate at Sizewell Beach on 8th April at 10.30 for a 2-hour beach combing walk!  You can find out more here    

More than WordsThe Cut at Halesworth, a former maltings and now an exciting arts centre is home to Naomi Jaffa and Dean Parkin, aka The Poetry People. With our support they will be combining their passion for the art of language and their love of Suffolk in a series of primary school workshops, called ‘Lines from the Landscape’.Encouraging children to capture their thoughts and feelings about our beautiful coastline, the resulting poems from this series will be put forward for the Suffolk Young Poets competition, the final of which will be held at The Cut in October.

Reach for the Sky!Suffolk is known for its huge skies, and we all love a good sunset don’t we?  Local nature enthusiasts Anne Gould and Jason Alexander plan to bring the dewy delights of dawn and the splendour of a Suffolk sunset to many more of us with their new online community ‘Love Suffolk Skies’.This new online community will encourage people to get out and enjoy Suffolk and share their experience with other like-minded people.  There will be online guides about walking routes, photography, wildlife and much more, plus a calendar of sunrise and sunset walks to take part in.The website isn’t ready quite yet, but take a look at their Facebook page  

Give Us Our Daily BreadHere in Suffolk we are blessed with many wonderful artisan bakers who use their skills to create traditionally crafted bread.  With our support, food anthropologist and illustrator, Bee Farrell is celebrating and documenting the artisan loaf by creating guide a called ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Bread’ which will document the history of artisan bread making in Suffolk and highlight some of our glorious bakeries.  Bee will also be running drawing workshops to widen the appreciation of artisan bread in Suffolk.

We’re excited to be involved in all of these projects and will keep you posted about their success.

Coming soon, more information about the other wonderful projects we are supporting.