The Museum
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MUSEUM IS NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. INFORMATION ON THE DISBURSEMENT OF THE CONTENTS TO OTHER MUSEUMS WILL BE POSTED HERE IN DUE COURSE.
The Suffolk Horse Museum is an exhibition devoted to the Suffolk punch breed of heavy working horse. The Museum displays the history of the breed and its Society, the work of the blacksith and the harness maker, the world of shows and showing, the work the horses did and the life of the horsemen. The museum has been laid out to illustrate various themes in different areas including a blacksmiths shop and harness maker’s workshop.
The Society’s remarkable collection of about 50 paintings are on show, including oils, watercolours and drawings, the earliest one dating back to 1790 by the artist Hobart of Monks Eleigh. There are also a large number of exceptional early photographs. The Museum will be of particular interest to the horse lover, as well as those interested in the countryside, in paintings and, of course, especially enthusiasts of the Suffolk horse.
The Museum is situated in an impressive Elizabethan building in the middle of the lovely old town of Woodbridge and is a fitting tribute to a breed of horse which touched on the lives of everyone living in the County of Suffolk before the days of the internal combustion engine.
