St. Johns Home was built in the second half of the nineteenth century to house workhouse children, but continued in operation long after the workhouse system ended. Such homes were rare outside London. Most workhouses kept children and adults separated, but on the same site.

This book gives a glimpse into the lives of pauper children and attitudes towards their care which hardly changed until after the Second World War.

The book contains rare illustrations of the Home and its inmates, and personal reminiscences of some of the people who lived there during the 1930s.

This book charts the history of the Trust, and the changing attitudes towards road travel during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During this period huge improvements were made in road travel due to the turnpike system. Small villages grew and flourished to serve the travelling public, and then declined again with the arrival of the railways. The coaching industry was in its heyday, giving employment to thousands.

The trust was set up in 1785, and erected tollgates at intervals between Ipswich and Yarmouth, including a spur to Bungay. The money raised was used to repair and maintain the road.

This book follows the changing fortunes of the towns and villages along the road we know today as the A12.

"Linda Sexton rightly points out that the turnpike trust documents at Ipswich Record Office are rarely used. The book clearly demonstrates the amount of information that can be gleaned from these apparently dry records and uses them in conjunction with other sources both printed and manuscript to give a full and fascinating account of those who lived, worked and travelled on what we now know as the A12"-- Bridget Hanley - Head of Collections, Suffolk Record Office.