For further articles and photographs of Snape's more recent history click here
The History of Snape, which was touched by
both the Roman and Norman conquests, can be traced back for over 2,000
years. It was, in its time, a more significant place than Aldeburgh which
now substantially outranks it in size. Although internationally known from
the fame Benjamin Britten brought it, it can also be credited with
pioneering two agricultural revolutions and hosting a horse race meeting
for almost 150 years. The Romans lived nearby. They evaporated the waters
of the River Alde to produce salt and traces of their salt pans were found
at Snape in the last century.
Anglo-Saxon Snape achieved a greater
significance as a burial place which may well have been used by the rulers
of East Anglia, the Wuffings, whose palace was nearby at Rendlesham.
Excavations have uncovered many graves and two boat burials, dating from
about the middle of the first millennium, on a site now bisected by the
road to Aldeburgh. A fine gold signet ring, illustrated here, was
found, among other artefacts, in the boat burial uncovered in 1862.
Archaeological clues also indicate that the original village was centred
on the higher ground in the area now dominated by the church. Wh
ether the movement of the population towards the
river was the result of plague, politics or providence has yet to be
determined. Certainly a church existed at the time of the Norman conquest.
In the Domesday Book of 1085 it was recorded as standing in 8 acres and
valued at 16 pence - which, by the standards of the day, was not as
dismissive as it sounds. The present building, shown here, dates from
the 13th century, with the porch and tower added in the 15th century. It
was originally thatched.
Even at the time of the Domesday Book
Snape must have had a population of over 100 people; the book records the
existence of 49 men who together with their families would have made a
reasonably sized village for the time. The population was further
increased when the Snape Priory was set up near the river by a local
landowner, William Martell, before he went off to the Third Crusade. It
lasted, despite a somewhat chequered history, from 1155 until 1525 when
Cardinal Wolsey closed it and stripped its assets to use, at least in
part, to set up Ipswich School. 
All that remains of it is a magnificent
barn, now part of Abbey Farm on the same site, built by monks and
carbon-dated to 1295. Probability suggests it was the monks - who
constructed their own water mill - who also built the first bridge across
the Alde. It was certainly wooden and by 1492 sufficiently in need of
repair for the then Bishop of Norwich to give permission for alms for that
purpose to be sought from travellers. The main traffic from London going
north, which is now carried by the A12, went for centuries by way of Snape
Bridge. The present 1960 construction succeeded a red brick. hump-back
bridge built in 1802 - still remembered with affection but more suited to
the horse than the internal combustion engine. The bridge, being the first
point at which the River Alde could be crossed without getting wet,
inevitably became associated with smugglers who needed to move their goods
across it. The Crown public house has a dormer window facing south which
was supposedly used to signal the all clear once the militias were in the
bar below seeking refreshment. The Crown also had a role in the great
attraction which brought crowds from London to Snape in the 18th and 19th
centuries long before the Maltings concert hall produced a similar
influx.
The Snape Race Course on the banks of the Alde hosted a
race meeting every year for the best part of 150 years. Entries were made
at the Crown or the White Lion in Aldeburgh. The map shows the situation
of the racecourse at the end of a long avenue of trees stretching from
Friston Hall when it was occupied by the Earl of Strafford. Racegoers, at
least after 1785, were able to arrive via the new road (the present A1094)
which was built by the Aldeburgh Turnpike Company and made Snape more
easily reached. The road's importance was not challenged by the railway.
Although a branch rail line was put through to Snape in 1888 it was only
ever used for goods traffic to the Snape Maltings. The River Alde played a
more significant part of Snape's development than the railway. As a small
inland port, with the growth of the Snape Maltings it was, by the end of
the 19th century, also a remarkably busy one. It was by Thames barge from
the port that, a hundred years ago, a significant cargo was sent to
Holland. Sugar beet had not been successfully grown in this country before
but a crop, planted on the field between the Crown and the river and
shipped to the Netherlands for processing, proved that it could be made to
pay. It was soon to become a staple of East Anglian farmers. If Snape
played its part in that farming revolution it had already played its part
in another. 
The village had three windmills in the
19th century. At one, Hudson's mill - which after it closed in 1933 was
occupied by Benjamin Britten - the first experiments were conducted which
led to what has been called The Suffolk Gold Rush. A Saxmundham bone
merchant, Edward Packard, conducted the initial experiments there which
led to the treatment of coprolite so that it could be spread as a
fertilizer. Coprolite, largely consisting of Tri-Calcium Phosphate, was to
be found in a strata of local crag. For the second half of the 19th
century fortunes made as coprolite sold for £2.10s a ton and an acre of
land in the right place could produce 300 tons. Although better
fertilizers were eventually discovered Edward Packard, made prosperous by
his process, set up a firm with two partners which eventually became
Fisons. Snape, which as remarked earlier, probably had over 100
inhabitants in the 11th century, was slow to expand and four hundred years
later had only grown to 485 souls. Yet as, at that time, it shared its own
rotten borough Member of Parliament for "Snape-cum-Aldeburgh" significance
rather than size was obviously the criteria applied. It now consists of
over 300 houses and 600
people.