The Food Museum Is Coming To You

This spring, the Museum of East Anglian Life, soon to be known as the Food Museum, is going on the road! From April to June 2022, the museum will tour its ‘Food Stories’ exhibition to rural communities in East Anglia.

‘Food Stories’ celebrates East Anglian recipes, cooking, farming techniques and dialect words that have been passed down through generations. The centrepiece of the exhibition will be a farm kitchen table featuring local recipes, photos, sound recordings and objects from our collection.

With our partners, the University of Leeds, we will be able to share historic sound recordings from the region of people talking about their food and farming memories. Visitors will also be able to take part in the University of Leeds’ Dialect and Heritage Project by contributing their own dialect words and filling in dialect surveys. We also encourage visitors to share their favourite or family recipes by bringing along a copy to pin up to our growing display.

The exhibition launches at the newly renamed Food Museum on Thursday 21 April 10am-5pm in the museum’s medieval barn and will go on tour to 20 locations across Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. The exhibition is generously supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, the Headley Trust and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Museum of East Anglian Life/Food Museum curator, Kate Knowlden said: “As part of our exciting transition to the Food Museum, we are taking the museum on the road and inviting people to share their recipes and food memories with the museum team at the exhibition. We would love to discuss visitors’ favourite recipes, learn about historic local recipes, or ones that have been passed down through families.”

Laura Kloss, Dialect and Heritage Project engagement officer said: “A number of the villages on our tour were originally involved in dialect research carried out by the University of Leeds in the 1950s and 60s. We are excited to bring the sound recordings back to the communities where they were originally collected, and learn more about local stories, memories and current dialect.”

Tour Dates & Locations

Thursday 21 April: Exhibition Launch at the Food Museum, Stowmarket

Saturday 23 April: Grimston Village Hall, Grimston, Norfolk

Sunday 24 April: Garboldisham Village Hall, Garboldisham, Norfolk

Saturday 30 April: Hemingstone Hut, Hemingstone, Suffolk

Sunday 1 May: Chesterfords Community Centre, Great Chesterford, Essex

Thursday 5 May: St Edmund’s Hall, Hoxne, Suffolk

Friday 6 May: Mendlesham United Reformed Chapel, Mendlesham, Suffolk

Saturday 7 May: Wreningham Village Hall, Wreningham, Norfolk

Tuesday 10 & Wednesday 11 May: Hungate Church, Norwich, Norfolk

Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 May: Ludham Local Archive Group Open Day, St Catherine’s Church, Ludham, Norfolk

Sunday 22 May: High Easter Village Hall, High Easter, Essex

Tuesday 31 May & Wednesday 1 June: The Suffolk Show, Trinity Park, Ipswich, Suffolk

Wednesday 8 June: The Hold, Ipswich, Suffolk

Saturday 11 June: Mersea Island Museum, West Mersea, Essex

Sunday 12 June: Tillingham Village Hall, Tillingham, Essex

Thursday 16 June: Canewdon Village Hall, Canewdon, Essex

Saturday 18 June: Doddinghurst Village Hall, Doddinghurst, Essex

Sunday 19 June: Orpen Memorial Hall, West Bergholt, Essex

Saturday 25 June: Rickinghall Village Hall, Rickinghall, Suffolk

Monday 27 & Tuesday 28 June: Christopher Jones’ House, Harwich Festival, Harwich, Essex