Old, and Some New, Photographs of Woodbridge & Melton
The Crown Hotel was one of the main coaching inns in Woodbridge.
This picture of the Crown Hotel was taken towards the end of coaching era. The man in the centre of the photograph was Poll Reynolds, a self appointed traffic warden. He died in 1910 aged 32 and is buried in the old Woodbridge Cemetery.
This building, which used to a maltings.. The walls on the ground floor were brick and they supported a timber upper storey. The southern end of the building has the characteristics of a heating stack used in maltings. The windows on the ground floor are a later addition and indicate a change of use.
Some time before 1937 the maltings was converted into an annex, called the Assembly Rooms, of the Crown Hotel. An entry in a Trade Directory for that year states that adjoining the Crown Hotel there was "a large assembly hall accommodating 300, with a dance floor; the hall is also used for meetings, shows, etc." The Assembly Rooms have been derelict since the 1970s but they are still part of the hotel complex.
The Quay Congregational Church was formed in July 1651 by the Rev Woodhall, together with fifty-five “brethren and sisters”. In 1689, John Bass, purchased the piece of ground on which the present Quay (Street) Congregational Church stands. The first Church to be erected on the site could seat 500. The present Quay Street Congregational Church was erected in 1805 on the site of the old one.
Between 1840 and 81 an narrow extension had been added to the southern end of Quay Street Congregational Church. The extension was a porch which provide direct access to the church from Quay Street.
In 1896 the Quay Street Congregational Church was renovated, new seats were installed along with a new pulpit, new system of ventilation and gas lighting. The organ was also overhauled and cleaned.
By 1827 a three storey house and a elegant two storey house had also been been erected just below the Congregational Church.
Below the two storey house there was a large garden. By 1875 the lower part of the garden used to create two semidetached houses which were set back from Quay Street.
Below the semidetached houses there was a triangular plot of land on which there was a building which was later used as an office.
Below the triangular plot of land there a single storey extension, with a sloping roof, which runs down to abuts Quay Street and Quayside. In 1840 this building was Studd's Quay Counting House.
For some time what used to Studd's Quay Counting House became The Home Made Sweet Shop run by A.S.Kell.
This modern photograph shows that there have been several extensions to what used to be Studd's Quay Counting House. There are all coloured light blue.
These two modern photographs are included to show the four houses below Quay Street Congregational Church in greater detail.
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