This year’s Belstead House local history weekend examined the impact that farming has had on Suffolk and was voted one of the best such weekends in recent years by most if not all of the 52 people attending.

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was the farm visit on Saturday afternoon during which members not only had the opportunity to browse in personal bygones and an agricultural museum that would not disgrace a large professional site, but were treated to an extended tour of the farm on trailers drawn by two of the farm’s tractors.

We had been promised a “tea and a cake” before we left. What we found awaiting us when we were dragged away from the display of ancient tractors and trades was considerably more than that. At the insistence of many of those attending a donation has gone towards the expense of keeping up the museum.

Among the lecturers, Clive Paine was in fine form when setting the style for the weekend with a lively talk on Arthur Young and his friends on the Friday evening. On Saturday morning we had Tom Williamson to speak on farming’s impact on the Suffolk landscape, and he accompanied us on the visit to the farm. In the evening Philip Aitkens gave a fascinating talk on the old farm buildings. David Cleveland of the East Anglian Film Archive gave a well-chosen programme of farming films on Sunday morning. Michael Stone gave us an insight into the life of the agricultural labourer of the 1840s as revealed by the Shrubland Home Farm labour book of 1842, and Bob Malster spoke of the Suffolk dialect as the language of the farming community.