ST PETERS VINEYARD – OUT WESTGATE ET AL

This yards entrance porch part of a Grade 2 listed house (now offices) is testament to a fine builder of the town responsible for an iconic town centre building, the Corn Exchange.  Having survived possible demolition in 1960 and internally much altered since it became a J D Wetherspoons pub in 2012. The frieze on its noble pediment can be seen on this porch with the very plaster-cast moulds for the various stone carvings of 2 people surrounded by symbols of a bountiful harvest, sheaves of corn, cattle, a plough, beehive, hops etc.

That builder was Lot Jackaman, who built the Corn Exchange in 1861. However there was another local builder here before Lot, John Darkin; Out Westgate then was known as Westgate Road. Not only was he the county surveyor and an exceptional builder, having worked on Clopton’s Asylum in the Great Churchyard and St Marys Church he was talented in different ways. Amazingly he constructed the gallows that were used for George Carnt, the last person hanged in Bury St Edmunds on April 22^nd, 1851, at the Bury Gaol in Sicklesmere Road.

However John’s talents did not end there because remarkably our Mr Darkin was a viticulturist, a grower of grapes! Having travelled extensively throughout France, he decided to set aside part of his builders yard that had a gentle south-facing slope at the rear to grow grapevines. The wine they produced at what he called his St Peters Vineyard (the name near the porch) was very successful. Why this name?  Well, to the rear of his vinery is St Peters Church, a Chapel of Ease for St Marys, which was built in 1858 by Thomas Farrow.  Coincidentally his foreman, no other than Lot Jackaman, they worked together on the restoration of the Norman Tower in 1845; thus St Peters as good a name as any!

To finish off a remarkable lineage of builders, H G Frost, took over Jackaman’s yard. Henry Frost had started his business in 1834, with son Harvey Frost taking over in 1875. His son, Harvey George Frost 1893-1974, would go on to greater glory. A pioneer in further education for building trade apprenticeships, chairman of West Suffolk College, the restoration of The Theatre Royal, construction of the water tower in West Road and Marjory Blyde Nursing Home in Hospital Road etc.

On his death in 1974, R. G. Carter (Robert George) founded in 1921 of Norwich, themselves no stranger to quality municipal works, purchased the St Peters Vineyard site. As for H G Frost builders they are now in their 6th generation and still with us today!

Hazells Histories are kindly provided by renowned local historian, Martyn Taylor.