Old, and Some New, Photographs of Woodbridge & Melton
In 1749 Thomas Wood created a nursery on 5 acres of land which had once been part of the garden of Woodbridge Priory. The land was originally used for horticulture and then for storage. The land was sold in 1981 and became part of the grounds the Abbey Junior School. This acquisition made it possible to expand the Abbey Junior School in the 1990s. Two new buildings and car park were erected on part of the site of the former nursery. The entrance to the car park was via a wrought iron gate at the bottom of Turn Lane.
Linden House, which is just left of centre in the photograph on the right, is recorded, in 1925, as providing accommodation. By 1937 it was occupied by W C Mitchell & Son, chartered land agents, surveyors and valuers. By 1985 there were four companies using the building. They were (i) J F Jennings & CR Neans - accountants, (ii) K Moore & RC Pulley - chartered accounts and (iii) SERVOWARM - central heating. In 2020 it back to being a private residence but it is not known when this change occurred.
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The photograph on the right shows the Red House. It has been the home of two renowned military families, Lieutenant General Sir Ian Jacob and his father in law Major General Sir Francis Treherne. They both played a prominent part in the life of the town, but their reputations are built on what they did elsewhere.
When the First World War broke out Francis Treherne was Deputy Director of Medical Services of the India Corps which formed the part of the British Expeditionary Forces. During the war he was appointed Director of Medical Services of the Third Army. He was knighted in 1917 and two years later he retired with the rank of Major General and came to Woodridge with his family to live in the Red House, Cumberland Street. They became involved with the Red Cross and between the wars Sir Francis was enthusiastically engaged in training and lecturing to the Red Cross throughout Suffolk. After the Second World War he went on to teach the use of penicillin.
Ian Jacob become a professional soldier in 1918 and joined the Royal Engineers. After the Munich crisis in September 1938 he was promoted from the Canal Brigade in Egypt to be the Military Assistant Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence. From the outbreak of the Second World War, Ian Jacob served as the Military Assistant Secretary to the War Cabinet and worked closely with Winston Churchill. The Prime Minister obviously trusted and respected Ian Jacob because he accompanied Churchill on his 13 wartime journeys outside Britain, these journeys included the meetings with Roosevelt and Stalin. Churchill also endorsed Ian Jacob’s promotion from Colonel to Lieutenant General.
