The Suffolk Horse Society

The Suffolk Horse Society is the oldest of its type in the world, it having been founded as the Suffolk Stud Book Association in 1877. The Society's membership continues to increase and currently is around six hundred people, of whom only a relatively small number own Suffolks. The rest of the membership belongs to the Society in order to be part of saving this wonderful animal and new members are always very welcome.


The Museum

The Suffolk Horse Museum, situated in an impressive Elizabethan building in the middle of Woodbridge, is an exhibition devoted to the Suffolk Punch breed of heavy working horse. The Museum displays the history of the breed and its Society, the work of the blacksmith and the harness maker, the world of shows and showing, the work the horses did and the life of the horsemen. The Society's remarkable collection of paintings is on show, including oils, watercolours and drawings, the earliest one dating back to 1790. There are also a large number of exceptional and early photographs. The working area explains the work these horses did and how they did it. Work techniques of the horse era were done with an exactitude which would amaze the modern young farmer.

The large and important documentary archive collection will be available to those who wish to use it for serious study and school visits to the Museum are especially welcome.


The Suffolk Horse

The Suffolk horse is the oldest breed of heavy horse in Great Britain to exist in its present state. The breed dates at least into the sixteenth century but all animals alive today trace their male lines back to one stallion who was foaled in 1768. While the breed originated in Suffolk and the neighbouring counties, its origin like all other old breeds is unknown, but it is probable that the genes for large size emanated from the area of what is today Belgium.

At the height of its popularity there were huge numbers of Suffolks in East Anglia but the breed never moved out of its homeland. In the late 1930s the Suffolk did start to move out of East Anglia but it was too late, as agricultural mechanisation was coming into being.

The was big increase in food production caused by the second world war and the large, level arable farms of East Anglia were ideal for early machinery. This dealt the Suffolk a severe blow and numbers fell dramatically, and by 1966 only nine foals were born. It was realised that extinction was imminent and new breeders came to the rescue. At the moment there are approximately seventy-five breeding females in the breed, so the situation is still far from safe.

A most encouraging trend is the considerable increase in interest in breaking Suffolk horses to work and besides farm work they are being used for forestry tasks and in the tourist industry. Members of this Society are not only saving the Suffolk breed but they are also preserving the very considerable skills involved in working the heavy horse.


Visitor Information

Open from Easter Monday until the end of September and half term week in October. Tuesdays to Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Adults £2.00. Children and Concessionary £1.50.