{"id":2622,"date":"2026-07-13T20:43:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/?page_id=2622"},"modified":"2026-07-13T23:16:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:16:49","slug":"james-breese-collection","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/james-breese-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"James Breese Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The James Breese Collection is a fascinating set of bills and invoices from the 19th and 20th Centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;6a55ff26ba8fe&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"6a55ff26ba8fe\" class=\"wp-block-image size-full wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1554\" height=\"903\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--pointerdown=\"actions.preloadImage\" data-wp-on--pointerenter=\"actions.preloadImageWithDelay\" data-wp-on--pointerleave=\"actions.cancelPreload\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/James-breese-with-plough-small.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/James-breese-with-plough-small.jpg 1554w, https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/James-breese-with-plough-small-300x174.jpg 300w, https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/James-breese-with-plough-small-1024x595.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/James-breese-with-plough-small-768x446.jpg 768w, https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/James-breese-with-plough-small-1536x893.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1554px) 100vw, 1554px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">James Breese with plough<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James Breese was born in 1861 and one of five boys brought up on their father\u2019s farm at Occold. He started raising pigs and was able to save \u00a3400, a large sum for a man of only 23 years of age. He then decided to hire a nearby farm. James was well aware of the need for hard work and eventually took on other farms in order to be more profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He lived at Church Farm, Saxtead, for which he paid \u00a3100 rent in 1900. By 1914 he had purchased Church Farm. His approach to farming was very much that of a business, which was somewhat unusual at that time, but essential in that period of long depression and low prices. Keeping a record of income and expenditure would be an important part of that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When his bills were paid, he put them on a spike, which when full was tossed into the roof space of the barn (early form of cloud storage). James died in 1944. When Church Farm was vacated many years later, the family had the foresight to keep all these records, which might so easily have been confined to the bonfire. There were seven large black bin liners bulging with paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They date from 1882 to 1957, and for Framlingham alone there are around 4,200 bills covering some 165 businesses. Typical examples of each company are shown along with name variations. That only represents about a third of the total, which include Ransomes, Garretts, Smyth, and many more well known Suffolk names, which are yet to be sorted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent years, other Framlingham bills have been received from other people, taking us into the 1960s. Did you know that W.H. Smith the newsagents, had a branch in Fram? These bills can be identified where the name is other than Breese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The James Breese Collection portrays all aspects of farming and domestic life over a period of some 80 years. It provides an insight to a way of life that has long disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-default\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20)\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the moment there are no captions to the images in the James Breese collection, and it is not yet possible to use the &#8220;search images&#8221; page to search the collection.<\/p>\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The James Breese Collection is a fascinating set of bills and invoices from the 19th and 20th Centuries. James Breese was born in 1861 and one of five boys brought up on their father\u2019s farm at Occold. He started raising pigs and was able to save \u00a3400, a large sum for a man of only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-with-sidebar","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2622","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2622"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2643,"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2622\/revisions\/2643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simongarrett.uk\/framarchtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}