Our Green

Thorney Green is an ancient and legally protected green, open space within the heart of Stowupland. In earlier times it was waste land covered by scrubby gorse. Today the Parish Council takes great care to ensure its grassy sward is well maintained and not spoiled, sullied or damaged .

. However over the centuries areas of the original green were built on. In the 19th century a Windmill was erected where Mill cottages remain today, The Retreat now stands where a Mr John Dent first built a blacksmiths workshop in 1738. And also in the late 19th century a pumping station was erected on the Green to improve Stowupland;s sanitation.

One of our locals who was born and bred in Stowupland remembered the time when the Green was still used for grazing cattle. In the 1930’s Oak Farm cattle would be grazed on the Green and as a boy Peter List earned 6d a night for keeping an eye on them.

And a young visitor to Stowupland during WW2 remembered Army Land girls walking cattle down Gipping Road from Columbine Hall to the Green. She remembered them as being so big they might have been Bulls!

The Green has several ponds studded around it. Before mains water was available these were the only source of drinking water for local people. Some have now been filled in, but click here to read  John Paddy’s memories of the 7 ponds