Mabel Woods came to Suffolk with her sister Margaret in mid 1950s. Here she met her husband Oscar and had three children. The family settled in Sternfield in a house on a piece of land which is now part of the grounds of Sternfield House.
Graham Smith remembers:
Mabel had a sweet shop in a shed in the front of Start Farm. Had a bell and you rang it and Mabel would come out from the back to serve you. I used to buy sort of nut sweets and gobstoppers.
Manette Baillie remembers:
Mabel was always so nicely turned out and Oscar not so much! They were complete opposites. He liked to go out and play the squeeze box and she stayed at home. One night he came home the worse for wear and she had gone to bed and was asleep and he just sat on the corner of the bed and decided to entertain her with some songs. It did not go down well!
Mabel being interviewed at the Big Lunch 2015 on Benhall Green while trying to enjoy an ice-cream with close friend Kathy Feakes
Intreviewer: So we are here at the Benhall Big Lunch (on the Green) with this lovely lady here. What’s your name?
Mabel: Mabel Woods. I live just up the road, Coronation Row. It’s my first time here at the Big Lunch and I think it’s absolutely wonderful. I live alone and don’t get out very much and it’s so lovely to be amongst so many people, even if you don’t know them, you are a part of it all. I am really enjoying it. There are so many new people here. I see them go by as I sit in my bay window and I think ‘that’s a new stranger’.
Memories of Mabel by Brenda Burtenshaw, 2023:
I have known Mabel practically all my life. She was married to Oscar Woods and lived in
Sternfield for a lot of her married life where she raised three children, Simon, Nicholas (who sadly died a few years ago) and Gail. She ran a little shop there, my Dad used to send me down for his cigarettes. They lived adjacent to Start Farm where Oscar’s brother Rodney lived, there is no remaining evidence of their residence now.
She was an extremely talented seamstress and worked for Hurrens’ dress shop in Aldeburgh for many years doing alterations where she was very highly thought of. This was a high class dress shop which all the best dressed ladies frequented including ladies attached to the royal household who would visit the shop when they were staying in Sternfield at the Penn’s.
They moved to Benhall Green and lived at No 7 Coronation Row and this is where Oscar died. She was a leading light in both the Dorcas sales and the village Christmas bazaars making lots of lovely items including beautiful Christmas stockings which were very popular. She also made several knitted nativity scenes which she gave away. These included baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the three kings, shepherds and sheep. We put one on display in Sternfield church each Christmas, they were a real labour of love. She also did a monthly stint at cleaning Sternfield church until it got too much for her.
She loved her garden and always liked it to be well tended and colourful. She also liked to have company and enjoyed having visitors.
From Benhall Green she moved to Swann House in Saxmundham but she missed Benhall very much.
I used to enjoy my chats with Mabel she really is a lovely lady with a great sense of humour.
2012 Mabel Woods centre helping out at Dorcas Sale, Sternfield House
In December 2024 Mabel celebrated her 100th birthday with four generations of her family at Depperhaugh care home near Eye. Mabel died in 2025 and her funeral was held on 14th April 2025 at St. Mary Magdelene church, Sternfield.
