| Museum of East Anglian Life | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1967 |
| Location | Iliffe Way, Stowmarket IP14, England, UK |
| Collection size | over 40,00 objects |
| Director | Tony Butler |
| Website | http://www.eastanglianlife.org.uk |
The Museum of East Anglian Life is a Museum located in Stowmarket Suffolk, it specialises in presenting the agricultural history of East Anglia through a mixture of exhibits and living history demonstrations. It has recently taken to abbreviating itself as 'MEAL'.
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The site of the Museum was originally land belonging to the Abbots Hall estate. Changes to farming traditions in the 1950s and 1960s meant that many skills and ways of life were in danger of being lost thus the land and Hall was put in trust by the Longe family for the development of the Museum of East Anglian Life to preserve these.
One of the main features of the Museum is the variety of buildings situated within its 75 acres (30 ha) site which include:
The Museum also has two huts depicting different scenes from the 1950s including shops scenes, kitchens, living rooms and a Victorian schoolroom.
Currently the museum has been granted a 1.711 million pounds by the Heritage Lottery Fund to renovate Abbot's Hall, creating a new entrance to the museum and restoring the Abbots Hall complex as its centrepiece.
The Museum is notable for the animals in its possession, in particular the rare Suffolk Punch breed of horse. The most famous of these horses was Remus, who became something of a celebrity in the Stowmarket area.
The Museum also has other rare breeds including Red Poll Cattle as well as the Large Black Pig, Suffolk Sheep, Goats and Chickens.