The Food Museum Presents…

The Food Museum Presents… is our historical cookery video series, created in collaboration with Food Historian Dr Annie Gray and Historical Interpreter Kathy Hipperson.

With an 84-acre site here at the museum and a number of historical buildings, we have many possible eras and characters that we can explore. We’ve started the series in our historic Dairy Cottages, with the creation of sixteen videos, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of The Kitchen Project. 

Our series is fronted by Mrs Wilding, who was a real person. She lived in our Dairy Cottages which have been recreated how she left them when she moved out in 1975.

 

 

Who was Mrs Wilding?

Mrs Emily Wilding (née Rice, 1900–1978) was born in Woolpit, Suffolk, and spent much of her working life in domestic service. By 1921, the twenty-year-old was working as a kitchen maid at 6 Kensington Court in London, part of a household with several domestic staff. The following year she returned to Suffolk, taking up the position of Cook at Abbot’s Hall in Stowmarket in December 1922 – a role she would hold for seven years.

At Abbot’s Hall, Emily was responsible for the daily meals of the Longe family and their guests. She became known for the baked goods she produced for afternoon tea: rock buns and shortbread fingers, queen cakes, sponge and Madeira cakes, gingerbread and ginger parkin. For the summer tennis parties she made a special shortbread, cut into rounds and decorated with half a glacé cherry before baking.

In 1929, she left service to marry Fred Wilding, the farm’s Head Horseman and Foreman, taking on the role of stepmother to his two sons, Ken and Len. In 1936, the couple moved into 20 Crowe Street, where Emily took on the running of the dairy at the back of the cottages — preparing milk and cream for Abbot’s Hall and selling the surplus to local people from the cottage door, while continuing to keep house and care for her family.

Life at Crowe Street was modest but full. Fred grew vegetables on his allotment, milk came from the farm, and most shopping was done at the local International Stores, Turner’s grocers, and Burrows the greengrocers in Stowmarket. The dairy continued until the farm was given up in 1947.

As well as her work, Emily was a committed member of her community – a regular at chapel, active in the Women’s Voluntary Service, a member of the Women’s Institute, and a welcome presence at the over-sixties groups at the Salvation Army and Elim Church. In her later years, No. 20 was very much an open house, its front door always unlocked for friends, family and neighbours to drop in.

When Emily Wilding moved out of Crowe Street in October 1975, she left her furniture and personal belongings to the museum. She also shared her memories in recordings that the museum still holds today. It is thanks to her generosity that we can recreate her world so faithfully – and invite you into it, one recipe at a time.

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