An American-born conservationist and a famous poet saved some of the finest 17th century cottages in Diss from the bulldozer.

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Roberta Holt-Wilson, a resident of Rickinghall, was no stranger to restoring threatened historic properties when she bought a number of run-down cottages on the south-east corner of Fair Green. Concerned about their fate, the Chicago-born member of the Suffolk Preservation Trust was determined to save them. But Diss Urban District Council blocked her plans to renovate them, believing that it would be better to replace the cottages with new buildings.

 

Another hurdle was finance. Mrs Holt-Wilson needed money to fund her scheme and with a deadline looming she went to London in a last-ditch attempt to secure borrowing. By chance she bumped into an old friend at Liverpool Street station - and from that meeting came a loan to kick-start the project.

 

Another boost came from the poet John Betjeman, who’d written about Diss’s neglected buildings and made a film about the town for the BBC.

 

A change of heart at the council followed, ensuring that the buildings survived. Roberta worked with architect Peter Codling to renovate the cottages, selling each one they completed to help fund work on the next during the 1960s.

 

Today, the row of cottages fronting the green and Denmark Street, including Fair Green House, is one of the town’s architectural gems.

 

Roberta died in 1992 and is buried in Redgrave. But the buildings she restored live on and continue to bring charm, character and significant historical interest to Fair Green.

 

Betjeman made a BBC TV documentary about the town in 1964, became Poet Laureate in 1972 and died in 1984.

LINK to TV doc at East Anglian Film Archive:  Something about Diss