1961 Gary Cooper (super duper) died

1519  Leonardo da Vinci died

1912  Both boats sunk in the University Boat Race

They just seem to have so much fun at Brandeston Hall.  This time it was ghost stories by fire and candle light with storyteller Robert Lloyd Parry in period costume making a very convincing M R James.

1936  The Spitfire made its maiden flight

Brandeston Hall prep school are Anglian Prep Schools Cross-Country Champions again ... well, there are enough of 'em!

1957  Bill Haley and the Comets played their first London gig

The Eastern Angles take Cuckoo Teapot out on tour next week starting Wednesday and Thursday in Saxmundham.  Over the next three months venues will include Eye, Brandeston, Bredfield, Westleton, Hacheston, Woodbridge and Orford.  Take them in before the blue meanie Arts Council finish them off.

1901  Marconi sent the first transatlantic telegraph message

We may have lost in this year's Rugby World Cup final but who knows?  By 2019 maybe these guys will be contributing.  Brandeston Hall pupils Jack Scott, Will Owen, Matthew Warren and Jack Pearson were recently invited to play for the Prep School Barbarians; seems like a good start.

1879  The Suez Canal opened

Smiling modestly and wearing her medal  Brandeston Hall pupil Susannah Reid beat over two hundred other runners to win the West Suffolk Minor Girls Cross-Country Race in Ipswich, her first race of the season ...

... 8am-12pm on a Saturday try the slightly daft Love Bollywood with Raj and Pablo.

1971  Gene Vincent died in Newhall, California from a bleeding ulcer

1865  Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became Britain's first registered woman doctor

At Brandeston Hall this morning youthful models were doing a fine job on the catwalk for The World's Biggest Coffee Morning and as you can see above sometimes even finding the press pen (actually we were wandering round getting in everybody's way).   As far as we could see no Naomi backstage hissy fits but some understandable youthful pre-show peekings between the curtains:)

East Anglian Academy concert at All Saints Church, Brandeston

All Saint's, Brandeston is a little way from what might be called the centre of the village (well the pub anyway) and hard up against Brandeston Hall.  Like many Suffolk village churches its unassuming simplicity is engaging, helped by particularly attractive flower arrangements.  It says something about this part of the world that on a very sultry day the church doors were left open and traffic noise did not disturb the concert ... but then All Saints is set back from the road.

Organ concerts in churches are odd affairs as the pews force the audience to sit with their backs to the performer, a bit like being on a bus the driver has decided to reverse round his route.  Regrettably no duets as family matters prevented Suzanne Williams from singing but soprano Lindsay Gowers and organist Malcolm Russell clearly engaged the audience and they finished with "the" aria from Handel's opera Alcina.