The pastoral past of Birch.

These rare pictures of a bygone Birch evoke exactly the sort of world that Thomas Hardy captured in his novels.

Life may have been harder in those days but it was certainly more picturesque. And it was decidedly less frantic than the rush and tear that have characterised the 20th Century as it has unfolded.

The photographs were loaned to the Standard by Miss Joan Weller of Chapel Road, West Bergholt. They were taken by her grandmother, Mrs Ann Blomfield, who was born in 1855 and lived for many years at Beckingham Hall, Birch.

Mrs Blomfield's husband Frederick was a magistrate and a former chairman of Lexden and Winstree Rural District Council. These pictures - all taken at the turn of the century - give us a perhaps unique glimpse of a vanished scene that will never return.

All pictures have been scanned separately - PBC_006_001 etc.

Date: 6 August 1982