History of the Croft

The Fund was established following a public meeting of the villagers of Groton in February 1993, which gave a mandate to Trustees to proceed with the purchase of a field in the centre of Groton, known in recent years as the 'Croft'. Following the meeting, the Trustees circulated all 90-odd households in Groton & the appeal produced cash, loans & promises sufficient to encourage the Trustees to proceed with negotiations for the purchase, which was successfully completed in July 1993.

The' Croft', once known as 'Orchard Place' consists of about 8 1/2 acres of pasture that has customarily been used for grazing in the recent past. To the east, the field is bounded by Church Street, the medieval highway between Lavenham & Boxford, whilst the western margin is formed by Walnut Tree Piece, fringing Groton Street, itself the boundary between Groton & the neighbouring Parish of Edwardstone. To the north of the Croft lies Tanter ( or 'centers') Croft- once used for pegging-out, or 'tenting', cloth to dry (and a reminder of Groton's past as an important clothing town of Suffolk) which dips down the western edge of Coach Hill . To the south, Church Field, has recently undergone extensive tree planting which will, one day, provide an impressive woodland walk from the Parish Church of St Bartholomew to the south-western entrance to the Croft.

Once part of the Manor of Groton, the Croft formed part of the 'home farm' of the Manor, and about 100 years ago was still an Orchard. The Manor had been purchased by Adam Winthrop in 1544 from the Crown, following the dissolution of the Abbey of St Edmund by Henry VIII, who had been the owners since the 1160's. For the sum of £408/18/3 ( £408.92) Adam acquired the lands of the Abbey in Groton - extending to about 250 acres,along with the rights to collect wood, to fish & to operate a mill, went obligations to the Crown - to provide arms and armour & soldiers in the event of war. By the middle of the 16th Century, these obligations had been commuted for cash payments to the Crown. Records of the Manor of Groton survive from the early 16th to the 20th centuries.

The Winthrop family made their home at Groton Place, to the north-west of the Croft, & now converted, along with its' Barns into 6 homes. Legend has it that Adam Winthrop, in the 1550's, planted a 'novelty' tree - a Mulberry in his orchard. It is believed that this is the tree that stands today - ‘Morus Nigra' (Black Mulberry). The species had been introduced to England at the begining of Elizabeth's reign and these novelties were much prized by men of fashion. Adam's interest may have also been commercial, as the Mulberry was a food source for the silkworm, and silk weaving was becoming an industry that was gaining a toehold in the area of the Stour Valley, particularly in Sudbury & Braintree.Adams' grandson, John Winthrop, came to inherit the Manor, when his Uncle settled in Ireland. After a spell at Boxford Grammar School, he spent two years at Cambridge, and married at 17. His early married life was spent in Essex, managing the lands of his wife's family. He moved back to Groton upon the death of his first wife, and then married the daughter of the Clopton family of Castings Hall, Groton. Thomasine Clopton died in childbirth within the year. John then married Margaret Tyndall of Great Maplestead, a few miles south of Sudbury. It was a life-long union. When John Winthrop was appopinted Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, his wife, family and friends followed his lead in the Great Migration, when over 20,000 people left England, for the wilder shores of New England in a decade of population movement that has not been witnessed since the 1630's.

Such was the Mulberry legend, that when Boston commemorated its' 350th anniversary in 1980, it did so by planting a Mulberry , on Boston Common, in,the heart of the City. Attempts had been made by the present John Winthrop the 11th of that name, to transplant cuttings from the Groton Mulberry to New England. It was realised that the cuttings could not withstand the harsh New England winter. A variety of white Mulberry was planted in Boston on that day, but we know that the Groton Mulberry lives on in New England, at John Winthrop's home in Greenwich, Connecticut, where protection ensures its survival. At the public ceremony in Boston in 1980. to plant a Mulberry on the Common, John read his ancestors' address to the migrants at the begining of their errand to the wilderness: 'We shall be as a city upon a hill: the eyes of all people are upon us'. Prophetic words, used by many Presidents of the United States, most recently by Ronald Reagan, who incorporated them into his farewell address to the American people in 1988.

The Mulberry is one of the last surviving links , apart from GrotonPlace, with our forbears who made that hazardous journey to the New World. It provides a sentimental focus for our American visitors, and for us, it maybe symbolises our endurance. When Senator Robert C Winthrop visited Groton in 1847 he fondly imagined his ancestors sitting beneath the branches of the Mulberry - planning their vision of the New World. Whimsical perhaps, but the Mulberry stands as a powerful metaphor - it links the idealism & identity of one people who are now two nations - it is a symbol, & we, the current generation of Groton are proud to preserve it.

The Croft will serve as an amenity area for the village of Groton - those small hamlets which go to make up the Parish of St Bartholomew, scattered over 1600 acres of rolling south Suffolk.