Author Archives: Tom Bright

In the Autumn of 2019 the Reading Room Committee was approached by one of our members, Bill Hancock who is aiming to make Southwold the ‘swift capital of the East coast’, see if we would be interested in having swift boxes installed under the eaves of the building. Following generous sponsorship by Reading Room members, four boxes were purchased. These had been made by a local charity Special Objectives for the Locally Disabled (SOLD) https://www.soldstudio.co.uk/ …

The following article is the first in an occasional series about characters associated with Southwold and the sea. This article has been written by Bob Jellicoe. Sam May was born in Southwold in 1860. He was a fisherman and in his later days owned bathing machines situated under Gun Hill. A man of immense character and courage, he was elected cox’n of the lifeboat, Alfred Corry, in 1898, succeeding John Cragie. It is said the …

The Reading Room will be open every day over the Christmas and New Year period from 9.00am – 3.30pm, except for Christmas Day and Boxing Day when we shall be closed.

The annual tombola took place on a sunny Bank Holiday in August. A total of £157 was raised. Thanks go to all those who supported the event.

On Saturday 6th July, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UEA, led a workshop in the Sailors’ Reading Room as part of the event programme for the exhibition W.G Sebald- Far away but from where? https://scva.ac.uk/art-and-artists/exhibitions/wg-sebald-far-away-but-from-where Marking what would have been the 75th birthday of W.G. Sebald (1944–2001), the exhibition combines rare and unseen archive material with work by leading contemporary artists. In Sebald’s celebrated book, The Rings of Saturn, the narrator visits the Sailors’ …

On Monday 1st July the Reading Room was visited by Peter Willis, Neil Brooks and Tim Everton who were sailing the Nancy Blackett “a little white cutter” previously owned by the author of “Swallows and Amazons” and the inspiration for “We Didn’t Mean to go to Sea” the classic sailing book. The boat is kept at Pin Mill on the Orwell and maintained by The Nancy Blackett Trust, a charity set up to keep her …

A cake stall in support of the Reading Room will be held on the morning of Thursday 11th July outside the former Lloyds Bank. If you would like to donate a cake, please contact Anthea Marriner or email info@southwoldsailorsreadingroom.co.uk

The Reading Room held an event for its members on 1st June with the entertainment provided by the Lowestoft Longshoremen https://en-gb.facebook.com/longshoremen2016/ Over 80 people attended, the youngest being just 17 weeks old, who enjoyed a sociable evening of conversation and music. Two short excepts of the entertainment can be viewed at

Please note that the Reading Room is not associated with this event and all enquiries should be made to the organiser, William Thomson at www.tidalcompass.com

The East Anglian Writers Spring Outing which was following in the steps of W G Sebald, included a visit to the Reading Room on Sunday 19th May.