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Welcome To The Suffolk Punch Trust
The Suffolk Punch Trust:
Home of the Hollesley Bay Colony Stud
The Suffolk Punch Trust is a charity dedicated to help protect the critically endangered Suffolk Punch through its established breeding programme, raising public awareness and training a new generation of professionals to work with these iconic heavy horses.
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With the historic Hollesley Bay Colony Stud, we inherited a rich legacy of equine and agricultural history that deserves to be saved for future generations to enjoy.
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The prefix of the Hollesley stud is Colony, which dates back to the Colonial College days. The tradition here is to name foals each year with the same letter following on in alphabetical order.
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Every Suffolk horse can be traced back to a stallion, known as Crisp's Horse of Ufford, foaled in 1768.
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The breed is unique in its shape and can only be Chesnut in colour traditionally spelt without the 't'.
Our History
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Mid 1700's - Sink Farm was established on this site by the Barthrop family
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1880 - John Barthorp introduced the first Suffolk Punch to create the stud. This is where the prefix 'Colony' comes from - all of our foals born here are given this prefix
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1886 - The Colonial College formed to train gentlemen farming methods for the colonies
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1906 - London County Council used the site to create work for the unemployed
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1938 - The Prison Service took over the farm for rehabilitation of young offenders
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2002 - The Prison Service sold the farm and The Suffolk Punch Trust was formed