The Redstone Family
Vincent Burrough Redstone (1853-1941) was a Suffolk historian who suggested to Edith Pretty that the Sutton Hoo Ship-burial should be excavated. He was a master of Woodbridge School and secretary of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology. He retired from Woodbridge School in 1921 and spent the remainder of his life researching historical topics. He was particularly noted for his study of Huguenot settlement in Suffolk.
Redstone's father came from Hampshire and was Master of Alton Workhouse. His father died two months after the birth of his son, from Scarlet fever. Redstone had been brought up in an orphanage at Wanstead in Essex and trained to be a teacher at Winchester Training College. He returned to teach at Wanstead. In 1880 Redstone moved to Woodbridge to teach at Woodbridge school. In 1880 and took up the post of General English master and Commercial Subjects. He was later to become 2nd master at Woodbridge School. He rapidly became a historian of note studying the archives of the Seckford Trust. He became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries. With his daughters Lillian and Elsie he was able to build up a large reference on Suffolk history at the Seckford Library and in his adjacent house, which was widely consulted by a wide range of scholars. It was here that Basil Brown was able to glean much of his information on the Saxon archaeology of Suffolk.
At the 1937 Woodbridge Flower Fete, at Woodbridge Abby, Edith discussed the possibility of an excavation with Vincent Redstone. Redstone then wrote to his friend Guy Maynard at Ipswich Museum that Mrs Pretty had invited him to lunch and would he accompany him “Mrs Pretty is very pleasing and intelligent JP". The luncheon appears to have taken place on the 26th July. Redstone took part in the excavations. In August 1939 he wrote with his daughter Lilian an article in the Woodbridge Reporter asking Was it King Redwald? who was buried at Sutton Hoo.
Vincent Redstone married Grace Linsey. They lived at 3 Seckford Street, Woodbridge in the old Woodbridge School Masters House, which was adjacent to the Seckford Library. They had three daughters. Lilian Jane Redstone (1885-1955) was the first archivist for East Suffolk and Elsie became the Seckford Librarian in Woodbridge.
Lilian Jane Redstone
Lilian Jane Redstone (1885-1955) was born in Woodbridge and a long and distinguished career as an archivist and preserver of records. She was the first Ipswich and East Suffolk Joint Archivist and her work is regarded as being the foundation of the Suffolk Record Office and many of the archive indexers bear her name.
She received an MBE in 1919 for her work during Wold War I in the Historical Records Section at the Ministry of Munitions. During World War II she worked to salvage and preserve documents moving them to a place of safety. She was adviser to academics worldwide, particularly The Chaucer Society in the USA. She was author of a number of publications including Ipswich Through The Ages.
Miss Elsie Redstone, who died on l4th January 1972, shortly before her 89th birthday, was the last remaining member of a family whose remarkable contribution to Woodbridge history is unique.
It is impossible to estimate the extent of the influence of this talented woman, which went far beyond the immediate circle of those who knew her as librarian at the Seckford Library at Woodbridge.
She was born of a family whose absorbing interest was history and transcribing Suffolk records. Her father, Vincent Burrough Redstone, came to Woodbridge towards the end of the last century as assistant master at Woodbridge School where he taught until 1921, publishing among other works 'Bygone Woodbridge' in 1893. Her two sisters, Mabel and Lilian, shared the same tastes, and Lilian became widely known through her many books and her work as an archivist.
Elsie took over as librarian at the Seckford Library upon the death in 1927 of Harriet Churchyard, the last of the daughters of Thomas Churchyard, the distinguished landscape painter.
Harriet Churchyard, the Seckford Librarian.
Elsie's interests were overwhelmingly concerned with Woodbridge and its past, and with her capacity for hard work and with the family archives behind her, her knowledge of the district became encyclopaedic. She had the great personal gifts of simplicity and eagerness to impart her learning to others. She was never impatient and was ever ready to give up her time to the many children an grown-ups who came to consult her.
There can be few people in Woodbridge who, at some time in their life have not come into contact with her either at the Library or as research students. Many of them, like the writer, will have spent fascinating hours at her quiet Seckford Street home trying to assimilate the mass of information she so unselfishly provided for them. Her home became the meeting place of students from all over England as well as from abroad.
It was a great blow to her when, in 1963, many of the old Seckford books were dispersed and the County Library took over, subsequently (1970) moving to new premises in New Street.
The valuable reference collection of Suffolk books, however, remained for a time at Seckford Street, where Elsie continued to look after it with loving care and until within a few weeks of her death she was still actively engaged in cataloguing and arranging her family's collection of manuscripts and books.
With Elsie Redstone goes the last link with old Woodbridge. A countless host will remember with gratitude her ready help at the college like library or the homely reference room at Seckford Street. Her passing brings to an end a life of dedication and service which few people can have equalled. It is also the end of an era in the annals of Woodbridge.
W G Arnott
Last edited 19 Aug 23