Managing Director – Bridge Classic Cars
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Source: The Suffolk Punch Trust
This weekend we took a trip to The Suffolk Punch Trust to visit Santa and his Elves in the Grotto
We had such an amazing time and it’s a great place to visit with the kids, with lots to see and do.
…and of course, as always, we managed to find a classic vehicle or two!
The Oldest English breed
The Suffolk Punch horse is the oldest English breed of working horse. The Suffolk Punch Trust was founded to help protect the critically endangered Suffolk horse through its established breeding programme, raising public awareness and training a new generation of professionals to work with these iconic heavy horses.
The Trust has two large buildings housing a magnificent collection of artefacts. They show various aspects of rural Suffolk life, mostly in relation to Suffolk horses.
Heritage Museum
This exhibition hall contains lots of small items, many now housed here after the sad closure of the Suffolk Horse Society’s museum. The hall is divided into areas, each illustrating a different theme. These sections include:
- The history of the Suffolk Punch breed, the 250 year old Colony Stud and The Suffolk Horse Society.
- An area on Suffolk’s three big engineering firms: Ransomes of Ipswich, Garretts of Leiston and Smyth of Peasenhall – all leaders in making horse-drawn machinery.
- Artefacts showing the manual and child labour that was common in farming.
- Farriery displays showing the craft of the wheelwright and the blacksmith.
- An insight into rural life and what people did when not working on the farm.
- Info on the Suffolk breeds we have on the farm – plus equipment for keeping livestock.
- A look at the local industry linked with arable framing – brewing, malting and milling – and modes of transport in Suffolk, all dependent on horses.
- A collection of vintage grocery items from East of England Co-operative Society.
- A Ferguson tractor – a machine that spelt the end of the agricultural horse.
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