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With acknowledgement to History of Doddington
(Miss Norrington’s recollections)

This is new to their site:- Sharsted Court was an important
mansion and large estate in my early recollections. That
was in the lifetime of Chapman De Laune Faunce de Laune.
He owned extensive hop gardens and nearly everyone in the
villages went hop-picking for him. He used to give prizes
to the cleanest pickers, that is free from leaves and bunches,
and a large free party in the Oast house at the end. He tried
an experiment in growing tobacco but with little success* I
watched his funeral procession (all horse drawn vehicles of
course) passing through the then famous Sharsted walks.**
His son, Alured, succeeded him and was very popular. The
gardens were thrown open every Sunday throughout the
summer. There was a lovely cricket ground and many grand
matches took place, also the annual flower show and sports,
which attracted crowds from miles around***. He married
Miss Jamieson and had one son who survives him.

**No doubt to Doddington Church.

*** Looking through our photo albums there are quite a few
pictures taken in the 20s and 30s in which the club had a presence,
here is one of them. Top left shows ‘Beefy’ Russell ‘in the mile’ to
the right is a high jump. The bottom 3 pictures show a swinging
bucket of
water, and
two clubmen,
one pushing
the other in
a
wheelbarrow,
not sure who
got wet, but
the De
Laune won 5
bob each!

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