th 3 ap 08

1882  Jesse James was shot in the back by a member of his own gang

This looks the feline's night attire, they've got a logo and everything, a Children's Book Festival in Woodbridge this autumn.

fr 7 mr 08

1999  Film director Stanley Kubrick died

When the Cross Quays pub reopened in Woodbridge some ten years ago a chum who had moved to Woodbridge as a teenager in the early 70s told

us he'd always known the building boarded up.  This card from the 60s (judging by the cars) shows that it was once a wine merchants called Barwells and there were traffic lights!  Barwells were a Norwich wine merchants bought by Tolly in the 1920s and there's still a Barwells off license in Cambridge.

tu 4 mr 08

1877  Swan Lake first performed

Soundingboard Productions are looking for Woodbridge folk for a Our Town in Sound.

we 13 fe 08

1692  The Campbells massacred the MacDonalds at Glen Coe

A while back we mentioned a 17th century Dennington shop token at auction?  Right now there are one Woodbridge (Grocer Henry Stebbing) and two Saxmundham (Draper Nicholas Shepherd) 17th century tokens on ebaY.

Three satnavs have been liberated from three vehicles in the Woodbridge area.

we 6 fe 08

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.

mo 4 fe 08

1953  Sweet rationing ended in the UK

Here are some more reasons to lock your sheds and pc kit stolen in Woodbridge.

sa 2 fe 08

1986  In Liechtenstein women voted for the first time in a general election

Superficially it looks like in Woodbridge someone made a half million profit out of a property deal in just a month.

sa 19 ja 08

1348  Edward III established the Order of the Garter

2008 is a leap year and at 10am on leap day Friday 29th Feb Woodbridge's Mayor Councillor Nigel Barratt is hosting a coffee morning in the Shire Hall.  A quid will get you coffee, biscuits and help the St Elizabeth Hospice.

January's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast

we 9 ja 08

1923  Juan de la Cierva made the first successful flight in an autogyro

It was looking dramatically picturesque by the tide mill in Woodbridge last night but there was no shelter from the wind coming off the water and it was perishing!  So we went for an aimless along the Thoroughfare where the Georgian Coffee House and Mrs Piper's have survived, Viccy Wine's had liposuction and its roots done to become the Wine Rack with WH Smith next door in matching dark blue livery, Currys are long gone as is, regrettably but perhaps inevitably, the camera shop at the opposite end of the Thoroughfare.

we 19 de 07

1981  All eight crew members of the Penlee lifeboat died attempting a rescue

New Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg has recruited ex Roxy Music member and Woodbridge boy Brian Eno to "Reach out with a love that will shelter you, with a love that will see you through".   We might have got that a bit wrong, it might be "Reach out beyond Westminster to people who don't get a say" ... well that's just about all of us then.

fr 7 de 07

1981  Joanna Bunkham became the first woman jobber on the London Stock Exchange

Woodbridge Thoroughfare really was heaving earlier this evening.  Children and parents could enjoy Daddy Christmas giving them sweets, carol singing, Punch and Judy (without the sausages routine because the P&J man could only carry so many props), a bouncy thingy, candy floss (Little Boy in surprise "It's soft!"), a fancy dress competition and probably lots more stuff we didn't get round to seeing.

su 2 de 07

1901  King Camp Gillette patented the safety razor

The Seckford Theatre in Woodbridge School is, apart from the naff sculpture and crap website, certainly impressive and even possibly innovative; the narrow side balconies have swivel bar stool type seating which intrigued us.  Last night the theatre hosted the Soundwaves CD launch.  We only got there in time for the top band We Start Fires who are three girlies and a bloke, all highly competent and driving out high powered indie pop which had the young males in the snake pit exuberantly moshing ... well pushing each other anyway:)

tu 16 oc

1984  Archbishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize

Here's why you need to email us and tomorrow morning there's a police surgery in the Woodbridge Costa Coffee. (Stylish eh?)

sa 29 se 07

1399  Richard II became the first British monarch to abdicate

As expected the Budgens car park in Woodbridge is now pay and display but that doesn't mean anything gets done about the weeds and interestingly part of the parking space is taken up with what is either a rocket launch pad or a minimalist bandstand.  Creatively the bandstand has disabled access but not a disabled exit!

fr 03 au 07

1858  English explorer John Hanning Speke, discovered Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake

Teddy is possibly the oldest surviving Suffolk built boat and she will be re-launched at Maritime Woodbridge next month.

we 25 jl 07

1984  Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space

Hey!  Woodbridge has got a Costa Coffee!  It's in that new building next to Woolworths that so creatively helps with the parking problems by being built on a car park.  Having discovered this around 10 o'clock last night we then wandered around peeking in the pubs most of which looked pretty empty, though the Mariner's/Tap&Spile/Mariner's had somehow found space to put a picnic table outside in New Street and it was being used by some young lady smokers.  We then went home so we can't help the police.

fr 22 ju 07

1867  Barbed wire patented

Looks like the free Budgens car park in Woodbridge is going to get a makeover (wonder if it'll stay free), the temporary traffic lights in the Ufford-Melton road have gone and it's that time of the summer again.