Take a closer look at St Mary’s church tower in Halesworth. Can you spot the golden orb under the weathervane? Ever noticed it before, or wondered why it’s there and what it’s all about? Whether you have or not, it’s about time… trade and transport, and is a very unusual find for a town so far inland.
But first a quick detour, just to set out the stable, so to speak. English market towns are so often accompanied by their own eyebrow-raising myths and tales. Many of them are filled with the stuff of legends and handled with suspicion. It all stems perhaps from the days of post coaches and turnpike toll roads, when coachmen had a reputation for entertaining themselves and their passengers with stories.
A way to pass the time on long journeys between stop-offs at inns to ‘refuel’ or change the horses, ‘Cock and Bull’ stories soon became applied to any less plausible or embellished tale.
By the late 1700s market town Halesworth certainly had turnpike roads to nearby Bungay (1785) and Beccles (1796), linking up to London to Norwich networks and charging tolls for the easy passage of goods or travellers.
In Halesworth today, you’ll soon find evidence of historic inns on the town’s London Road/ Thoroughfare today – the still thriving White Swan, and the White Lion (now a residence) behind the church, with historic coaching inn/ hotel, The Angel, just around the corner, in the now semi-pedestrianised part of town. But what has all this got to do with ornaments on church towers…?
Halesworth Church Quarter & Thorougfare I Walk back through time
Halesworth’s cock and ball story all started in that very Angel Inn. In the mid 1700s, the town’s businessmen were feeling thwarted by the state local infrastructure – moving their goods (particularly malt for the brewing industries) to the coast for swift passage to market was a long and awkward trek.
The River Blyth did not come directly into the town and was prone to silting, ‘roads’ were little more than muddy tracks and all this was impeding the development of trade. What Halesworth needed was a freight ‘motorway’.
Around 1761, local businessmen met up at The Angel and mooted plans to dredge and straighten sections of the River Blyth. If they also constructed canals, locks and river basins, waterways could link Halesworth docklands directly to the harbour at Southwold, from where the cargo could be easily transported by sea to London or to northern ports.
The Angel’s then owner, Thomas Knights, was one of the pioneering businessmen, along with neighbour from No. 18 Thoroughfare, the attorney Peter Jermyn.
The Blyth Navigation was born and alongside it a Turnpike Trust gathered momentum. From 1761 to 1883, Halesworth was served by navigable waterways, where sailing wherries and boats with flat bottom keels could bring coal and timber in to the town and transport huge quantities of locally malted barley out.
Halesworth Blyth Navigation I Discover the history in Halesworth Town Park and Millennium Green.
Located on higher ground, the tower of St Mary’s Church has been a landmark for centuries. It can be seen from all around, and is firmly on the horizon from the wide and low-lying water meadows of the Blyth river valley.
In 1826, the landmark was actually even taller, being topped by a wooden cupola. It was the ideal place for a timepiece by which boats could set their chronometers and be mindful of the tides at the coastal ports.
The time ball predates the church clock and was created by Halesworth clockmaker, George Suggate, in 1806. Originally its pole rose not from the corner, but the centre of the tower (and later its taller cupola).
The ball would be lowered down the pole to indicate a particular hour (1pm) – the position of the ball could be seen from great distance and inform those travelling the waterways of the time.
In the same year that the cupola was added to the church tower, the people of the town commissioned the church clock from Mr Suggate. In its lofty position, the clock was on view across the town and its strike could be heard for miles. What’s more, additional funds were raised to pay for it to strike on each quarter hour – perhaps to keep their business meetings short, sweet and
