Author Description

This collection of old photographs of the Suffolk market town of Haverhill has been assembled for this book by members of the Haverhill & District Local History Group.It is appropriate as we move into a new century to take a look back at some of the changes that have taken place over the last one and this book gives is an opportunity to do just that. Some of these fascinating old photographs of the town actually go back further than the beginning of the last century. They illustrate a lost world that was Haverhill before the arrival of modern industrialisation, housing developments and all those other attributes of the twentieth century. In the first half of the century the town, like many others, was largely self-contained. Most of the population worked within or close to the town, had little need to leave it to shop for its everyday needs and would have found most of its leisure pursuits close by. Unlike today most of these leisure activities would have been self-made ones, like sports, music making, dancing, amateur dramatics and gala days.once familiar buildings, shops and businesses are all represented and the important role played by the Gurteen family as employers and in the civic life of the town are all record in these historic images. The book will appeal to all who know and love the town whether they have grown up here or have only recently come to know it.