Welcome to Elmswell History Group

Welcome to our website – please make yourself at home and enjoy exploring our many pages.

Our village has plenty of history, the earliest part of which is described in our publication “Marker for the Millennium” (click onto this link to see it in full).  

Our history group exists to make this information known more widely and also, with our monthly talks, to learn more about East Anglia’s history in general.  


We hope you will consider coming to a meeting, as we are a very friendly group, and always offer a warm welcome to visitors and new members.  

Our current programme of talks and events is shown below.

We would love to hear from you, whether you are interested in local history generally (particularly if you are a current or former Elmswell resident and/or have any connections to our village), helping us with our researches, thinking of joining our group, or have comments or suggestions about this website.

Please click this link to contact us.

2026 Programme

Unless otherwise stated, our meetings begin at 7.30pm (doors open at 6.45pm) and held at the Wesley Hall, School Road, Elmswell, IP30 9EE – where there is ample free on-site car parking and at adjacent Tavern.

Admission: £4 Members, £6 Visitors, £2 under-18s – cash or cheque only (sorry, no cards)

8 January 2026: Members’ Evening. Threeshort talks, being a selection of members’ own researches, i.e. “Growing up on the Ickworth Estate”, “The History of Postcards”, and “Memories of 1950-60s Woolpit”.   Due to cold and icy weather conditions, this was postponed to 12th February – see below.

12 February: Members’ Evening. Three short talks, being a selection of members’ own researches, i.e. “Growing up on the Ickworth Estate”, “The History of Postcards”, and “Memories of 1950-60s Woolpit”.  

12 March: Roy Clare, “Suffolk Connections with Charles Darwin’s Voyage on the Beagle”

9 April: Mark Lawrence, “Hadleigh Guildhall“

14 May: Richard Brice of The Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company,

“Project to Construct a Replica (full-size) Anglo-Saxon Longboat” – buried in the 7th century, re-born in the 21st.

11 June: 7pm, AGM, then at 7.30pm, Terry O’Donoghue’s talk, “History of West Suffolk Hospital“.    

SATURDAY, 11 July: 2-4pm – Exhibition on “History of English Women’s Football since WW1“.

10 September: Annual subs due – £12pp (Sept-June) to join or re-join as Member & £4 at each attendance (£16 on first visit), or £6pp as a non-member Visitor. As we cannot take debit/credit cards, exact cash or cheque (payable to “Elmswell History Group”) would be much appreciated.

8 October: Grant Bage, “Ipswich Football Legend, Sir Alf Ramsey” 

12 November: Taff Gillingham (renowned local Military Historian), “Suffolk Regiment’s POWs in WW2” –  Born in Ipswich with a huge interest in British Military history since his teens, Taff’s interest in the Suffolk Regiment comes from his uncle, who completed his National Service with the 1st Battalion in Cyprus. His involvement with the Suffolk Regiment began in the late 1980s when he became involved with the Ipswich Branch of the Old Comrades Association, of which he later became Chairman.   Amongst other things, Taff is a Trustee of the Suffolk Regiment Museum, the creation of the Regimental Gallery at Moyses Hall in 1999, and the re-organisation of the Regimental Museum in 2004.   Co-author of the book “The Old Dozen – A Century of Photographs”, he has been most active in ensuring that Ipswich War Memorial had the names of the fallen of WW2 added to it in 2005, and that in 2017, a memorial to Sidney Day VC was finally erected in his hometown of Norwich.   It is now over 80 years since VJ Day, and WW2 will soon have slipped from living memory.   Many of the campaigns and battles of 1939-45 are firmly etched into the national conscious, but the story of the war in the Far East and, in particular, the disastrous campaign in Malaya, are not so well known.   Many service personnel and civilians were captured after the Fall of Singapore, but East Anglia suffered disproportionately, so it is appropriate that the story is told through a Suffolk perspective.   With anecdotes and artefacts from many of the Far East’s Prisoners of War that he knew, Taff will tell their stories and remind us why we must not forget.   Many local people will have relatives who served with the 4th or 5th Suffolks, 1st or 2nd Cambridgeshires or the other units of the 18th Division. Do join us then to learn much more from this excellent speaker.

10 December: Katie Howson, Singer & Musician: Performance of “Traditional Music of Suffolk Pubs“

Latest Updates

World War 1 Book For Sale

Read the Synopsis here