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The village of Great Wratting, set in valley of the river Stour in the county of Suffolk, was accepted by the county as a Village of Outstanding Importance and designated as a Conservation Area in 1969
The earliest versions of the name Great Wratting show that the village was known in the Dark Ages as Wraet Ing - Ing meaning ‘place' and Wraet ‘madder'
The plant madder was crucial to our ancestors as a dyeing agent, the only real source of the colour red, and it was to Great Wratting that early medieval East Anglians would come when they wanted to wear or sell red clothes
The parish church of St Mary's is a fine medieval church and has been standing proudly for almost 1,000 years, the tower of which can be seen rising above the village from several directions
The box-wood topiary shapes in the churchyard, trimmed to the shape of features within the church, were begun by Bert Talbot in 1943 and are currently maintained by Quentin Walker
The Great Terrier of 1533, drawn up for Edward VI, stated that Great Wratting had three great bells and one Sanctus bell; two of the bells were eventually sold in 1757, supposedly to pay for the repair of the tower
There is a ford across the river Stour in The Street, where paddling and fishing are common pursuits
There were several POWs (German, Italian and Polish) welcomed to Great Wratting during WWII to work at Hall Farm
Some enduring signs of the sojourn of the POWs can be found in today's village.
In 1943-44, they built the large stone and cement ramp which graces the village green; its purpose was for loading milk churns and the sugar beet which was piled on what is now such beautifully maintained grass
The initials "POW" can be found carved in the ramp and in the wall, which they also built, at the entrance to Hall Farm
A Memory of Great Wratting, shared by Elizabeth Heap Tavela on 24th April 2014
Our family used to travel from London to a cottage called Redlon in Great Wratting for our childhood holidays during the 1950s. It was owned by the Cummings sisters and their mother. We looked after their Siamese cats and the spaniel called Bimmy while they were away.
Looking down the road from the cottage, we could see the cottages belonging to Mr and Mrs Pullen and "Old Abraham's" cottage. At the junction beyond these was the church with the Rectory nearby. Up the hill from the cottage was the village of Thurlow, where my brother went on foot or by bike to buy a fizzy drink called Tizer. Mrs Cornell came to clean and she lived "up Paradise"! Haverhill was a considerable walk away, but sometimes we all went together. More often, we had outings in the old family car to Bury St Edmunds, Ely and even to the seaside. Best of all was playing down by the ford in the village and having a "camp" up on the bank overlooking the road.
The Last Word - an excerpt from "A Harvest of Memories" by the villagers of Great Wratting, published in June 2001
"There is a magic to living here. It's so quiet you can hear the nightingales sing of a May evening. We have weather (unlike in towns) and the skies are always huge and ever changing. At night, even when there is no moon, you can see your way around with east by starlight."
"When I was young, I used to go on wild intrepid expeditions with Kate and my friend. We always got soaked and scared by bulls as we trekked down the river, through floods and thorns and bovines. Somehow it was always excellent fun and when we got home we'd drink hot chocolate and nurse our scratches and plan our next excursions into deepest darkest Great Wratting."