The building which came to be called Cottons Yard, which dated from the 1840s, was formerly part of the yard belonging to Ezra Cotton and included Stanhope (named for a type of carriage), Rosemary Cottage and Milestone House. When Cottons Yard was bought by John (Pup) Barrett
in 1974 the yard had already been split up for many years and just Stanhope and Cottons Yard belonged to Lady Caroline Blois, a wedding present from her husband, Sir Ralph Blois.
Stanhope is still in Blois ownership. It was once let to American military personnel from RAF Bentwaters. The mural on the side wall next to Cottons was painted by artist John Bawtry around 1983.
Cottons Yard had been left abandoned and un-used, probably from sometime between the two wars except as a garage for a hearse which (according to hearsay) belonged to the local builder Mr Martin (The Retreat).
John bought the property in 1974 when Yoxford’s High Street, from the A12 to Morphey’s Coal Yard looked very down at heel with several virtually derelict houses and most lived in by very elderly folk.
Then he and a little later Sarah, who he’d met in 1978, set about converting it from being the carriage works it had been into a house and workshop, working on it weekends for the next seven or eight years before they were able to move in and start their family.
John was born and raised in Great Glemham but was living in Wetherup Street working as a furniture maker and restorer when he acquired the then derelict Cottons Yard. It was a family connection with the owner of Milestone House, Diana Rose, who had set her pottery there that
alerted him to the property.
Di’s daughter Bridget joined her mother in the pottery, married Harry Barclay, Landscape Architect. They raised their two children there. So in the space of a very few years Yoxford High Street went from having no children in it to there being eleven under the age of eleven: four Croft children, three Barretts, two Pendereds and two Barclays.
By this time there were three potteries in Yoxford: Ray Gardener who set up in the Primitive Methodist Chapel and Miss Debney who had her studio in the thatched cottage between The Retreat opposite the Kings Head where she lived.
Over the next thirty years or so, John and Sarah, having obtained planning permission for change of use, made the building their home, upstairs being living accommodation and the ground floor a workshop.
In 2012 John and Sarah sold Cottons Yard and moved to Field End, Little Street having bought it in 2007 from Jo Hanson. The bungalow was built in 1963 by Mr Martin.
(John (Pup) Barrett. March 2023)