Cookit Gallery

This is a photograph of the Mildenhall Laundry in front of the hotel.The laundry owned by Mr Donald Parker (1919) served the town and local villages for many years and provided much needed employment in the area until it was destroyed by fire. The Bank of England building was on the premises and operated as a bank until it ended up as a garage. Mrs Child and Mrs Lardner who along with their husbands owned the hotel in the 1990s were the daughters of Mr and Mrs Bill Williams who also owned the Bell Hotel in the High Street. Mrs Beryl Williams- no relation- told us that she remembered going to school there when Mr Mothersole was the headmaster and children from Beck Row and West Row were given bicycles so they could cycle to school but when they left they had to hand in their bicycles. Mrs Challice the sister of Chief Fire Officer Turner remembers two famous boys at the school. One was Wilberforce the grandson of William Wilberforce of slave trade fame and the other was Sir Max Aitken of the famous Beaverbrook newspaper family. The hotel has had a variety of uses- namely an hotel under various ownerships from the 1980s, a nursing home in the 1970s, requisitioned for use by the army in WW2 for Polish troops and a Scottish Highland Regiment ( at this time Mr and Mrs Luther Parker who owned it had the beautiful staircase boxed in to save it from damage and it was never unboxed).Before that it was a preparatory school for boys and girls who were evacuated to the area. Going back it was altered in the 1930s by Mr Luther Parker and his wife Mabel and divided into two flats.It was owned by Mr A E Lee,(1923-6) before that Mr Neame(1917) after Mrs Turner had a boarding house.She was probably responsible for adding a storey to the building using different bricks. Mr Luther Parker many years later said she ruined the building by making it too large to manage. Mrs Turner had bought it from Frederick Houchen, a solicitor in 1902 who himself bought it from another solicitor, Mr George Isaacson in 1891. Mr Isaacson had lived in it since 1881.Further photographs and information are available by telephoning Mildenhall Museum:01638716970