PICTURES: Sudbury Heritage Open Day celebrates town's rich history

The doors of Sudbury’s heritage centre and museum were open on Saturday to celebrate the town’s rich history, including its unique silk heritage.

The free event was staged by the town council as part of a national event called Heritage Open Days – England’s largest festival of history and culture, which brings together thousands of organisations, events and volunteers.

On show at the Sudbury Heritage Centre and Museum was a permanent display of the town’s history, including a photo archive featuring hundreds of images on a computer database. As well as artefacts and relics with local connections, the museum features war records and information on the town’s silk industry.

There was information on Sudbury’s oldest resident, Simon of Sudbury who was Bishop of London, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England.

A range of silk wall hangings were also on show in the town hall’s assembly room, along with a historical memorabilia display presented by the Sudbury Ephemera Archive.

Another element of the day was a tour of a flat in the town centre arranged by estate agents Boydens in North Street.

Following the Friars Street fire in 2015, a wall mural was uncovered in the ruins and has been incorporated into new flats accessed from Gainsborough Street.

Angela Jeffery, from Boydons, said: “It’s a piece of art on an open plan lounge and kitchen in the flat. It has lots of different sketches with Latin writing and is dated 1630, but we can’t be sure that’s the date it was done.

“The flat owner kindly allowed us to show visitors the artwork and everyone was very interested in it. It’s about six foot by four foot, and it’s black on a white background.”

Town council clerk Jacqui Howells said: “We had a lot of visitors to the Heritage Open Day and people brought along archaeological finds for us to have look at.

“The museum had lots of visitors, while tea and cake in the mayor’s parlour was very popular.”

She added: “We had good weather. All in all, it was a great day.”