The Red Lodge
The
main focal point in the village is the Red Lodge Public House, which according
to some local historians, was so named by Charles I as one of three Hunting
Lodges in the region, the other two being the White and Green Lodges
respectively. We have so far been unable to substantiate these claims, but we
can confirm the existence of the Lodge as a Hostelry in the 1600's. This can be
seen from the Quarter Session Minutes of 1688 (where the landlord of the Red
Lodge is charged with harbouring suspicious persons, receiving stolen goods and
lost his license to sell ale) and also in the notation in the granting of powers
to the Bishop of St Edmundsbury, in the early part of the 13th century, where
his powers were limited to an area extending to the Red Lodge. It would seem
justifiable to assume from this that some sort of lodge was in existence during
the 13th Century, whether it was a Hostelry remains unclear.
In the 1841 Census for Red Lodge. Only two residences show, The Red Lodge and
the farm, the occupants of which are called Rayner. We moved to Red Lodge from
Durham City in the Northeast in 1987. According to my wife's family they had no
ties with East Anglia. This was proved wrong when we bought a house on land that
had previously belonged to the farm where in 1841 my wife's Great Great
Grandmother happened to be living! It was a little bit spooky when we found out.
©2000 Bob & Mary Burlison