Re-envisaging Suffolk's past: new discoveries from development-led archaeology

The next SAIH Wheeler conference is on 18^th October 2025, starting at 0930 at The Hold in Ipswich.

Ticket prices are £25 for members and £32 for non members. Ticket prices include a sandwich lunch; please let us know if there are specific dietary requirements.

Please pay via the donate button on this website (in the menu under "Publications"), and then email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Wednesday 29^th October 2025 at 10.00 am on Zoom: Kevin Wooldridge, The interesting history of Halesworth cemetery and its people (1855-19).

Saturday 8^th November 2025 at 2.00 pm at Elmswell: Dr Shalona Klazow, Medieval pilgrimages to the chapel shrine of Our Lady of Woolpit.

Saturday 22^nd November 2025 at 2.00 pm on Zoom: Ten-minute Talks.

Saturday 13^th December 2025 2.00 pm at Elmswell: Paul Drury, The medieval floor tiles of East Anglia.

Saturday 10^th January 2026 at 2.00 pm at Elmswell: Denise Parkinson, “Trist’s Flood: an eyewitness account of the 1953 great sea flood in rural Suffolk”.

Wednesday 21^st January 2026 at 10.00 am on Zoom: Dr. Francis Young, “Troublesome Friars: The Franciscans in and out of Bury St Edmunds 1233-1538”.

Saturday 14^th February 2026 at 2.00 pm at Elmswell: Dr. Tristan Carter, Freston: Excavating Suffolk’s oldest sacred landscape.

Saturday 28^th February 2026 at 2.00 pm on Zoom: Dr Nick Amor, In the footsteps of David Dymond - researching and writing history.

Saturday 14^th March 2026 at 2.00 pm at Elmswell, Dr M J Walker, 'A Hard and Grievous Battle; the Siege of Haughley Castle and the Battle of Fornham in 1173'.

The Building Stones of Suffolk and the people who worked them by Tony Redman - book launch

The formal launch of the latest SIAH monograph, The Building Stones of Suffolk, will take place on 6^th September from 2pm until 4pm in the St Edmund room at St Edmundsbury Cathedral centre. There will be an introduction by Rt Rev Martin Seeley, the former Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, who wrote the foreword and remains passionate about what makes Suffolk special, an introduction to the researching for the book by the author Tony Redman, and an exhibition of many of the stones found in the county, for people to handle.

Light refreshments will be available thanks to generous sponsorship by Lignacite Ltd, the last maker of artificial stone still working in Suffolk.

Tony Redman FRICS is a chartered building surveyor and historic buildings consultant based in Bury St Edmunds, a consultant with Whitworth Co–Partnership. He spent five years researching every stone-built building in Suffolk before writing this account of all the stones used in buildings. Of the 700 or so, just over 500 are church buildings.

Griff Rees Jones, broadcaster, Suffolk resident and president of the Victorian Society has said:

“I have greatly admired this book. Never mind The Stones of Venice, this is the true story of the Stones of Suffolk. Equip yourself with the ability to read walls and assess towers with this endlessly fascinating book written by a real expert. An essential and revelatory guide for anyone who especially treasures the beauty and majesty of Suffolk’s great church buildings.”

Copies will be on sale at the event: £20 for members of the SIAH, £25 for non-members

The book and how to order a copy

A definitive guide to the stones of which our county’s buildings are made. The book is part history, part field guide, and seeks to tell the stories of how the stones found in our buildings might have come to be here. Over fifty stones have been identified, following the surveying of all the stone-built buildings in the county. It also covers the artificial stones developed in Suffolk, including the earliest identified use of pre-cast concrete. The second part is an alphabetical list of the stonemasons identified as living and working within the county down to 1999. Research included the analysis of the three known masons’ archives in Suffolk, two of them for the first time.

The author, Tony Redman MA FRICS IHBC, is a conservation accredited chartered building surveyor who spent most of his working life repairing Suffolk buildings. He has been a member of the council of SIAH, is a trustee of the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stonemasons.

219 pages including 247 coloured plates, 21 maps, and indexed by name and place.

£25 plus £5 p&p, (SIAH members £20 plus p&p) - use the donate button under the "Publications" menu above.

Redman Building Stones cover