Soon after being married, we move into Friends Field in 1975. The plot was an odd triangular shape and we negotiated through our Solicitors, to purchase a few additional yards of land from Richard Probert to square up the garden.
When the day arrived to move the boundary fence, Dennis came along to supervise the move.
Being total strangers to the village, Dennis soon made us feel at home and within a short time he rolled up his sleeves and helped me erect the new posts and chain link fencing.
I cannot recall the numerous amount of times that I have been up to the farm seeking help from Dennis.
ie:- Dennis have you got a large sledgehammer, I could borrow to break up my concrete drive.
I distinctly recall he found the heaviest one in the workshop and I was totally exhausted by the time I had walked down Cuckoo Hill and back to our house.
He was always more than willing to help me out, usually with the advice I was desperately seeking.

If he was working on his tractor in the field next door, he would always give us a wave or even stop for a quick chat
So with our friendship nearly spanning 50 years, we will always think of Dennis when we hear a tractor working in the adjacent field.
Alan Beales

Sammy Saer,
Unfortunately, Sammy has suffered from Type 2 diabetes for several years. This has led to restrictions in his mobility, especially walking
He always manages to get down to the recreation ground each day and stop for a breather on a seat nearest to the swings etc.
About a year ago, he mentioned casually to Dennis that he couldn't walk very much further without having to stop, but invariably there was nowhere to sit down.
Within a week and without asking, Dennis had positioned a large tree trunk which was precisely midway between Sammy`s starting point and the Millennium Bridge.
Jean Saer.

Bures Primary School,
Sponsoring a Suffolk Punch
I am pleased to tell you that two generous members of our Bures community, Dennis Ambrose and Gay Sayles have provided the funding for our school to adopt a Suffolk Punch Horse and become members of the Suffolk Horse Society.
Our Suffolk Punch is called Colony Ronny and she will be coming to the Bures Carnival on Saturday, in the hope of meeting as many of our children as possible.

Dennis Ambrose was my friend and mentor. His personal sponsorship and support of my dairy, my market stall, farming endeavours and my choices kept me on track over the last 7 years. His advice, friendship, inspiration and encouragement will live on in me.

He made me laugh so hard. A lovable rogue, sometimes maverick, often breaking the rules, who watched me load a whole trailer with straw bales after the school fete whilst he stood at the ice cream van with a Mr Whippy and simply directed; teaching me to pluck chickens on a machine and roaring with laughter when I was demented with the lice that had crawled off the birds into my clothes; the morning he didn't wake up when I was caring for him at Fysh House Farm last year, whilst Gay was away… ordinarily I would have called a Dr, or even an undertaker but I actually thought I would have to store Dennis in the game larder until Gay got back because he would have been in so much trouble otherwise; those ever absconding unruly piglets of Dennis' that were all standing in the middle of the road on Cuckoo Hill one night, their eyes glinting in the headlights of my car; however, Dennis had the last laugh when my piglets ran amok over the Causton Estate and Dennis and I ran up and down the cover trying to catch them.

Dennis was and will remain an inspiration for the community of Bures and where our planet is today; with the heart and mind of a true farmer, he understood the fragility of the environment, reusing, repurposing, and reimagining the resources around him, taking care of the landscape, nurturing, and thinking about his community and our future.

Dennis and his legacy are all around us everyday; a new barn for the use of the community on the common, 60 traders vying for 25 pitches at a monthly village market, a school playing field, a community woodland, 600 rolling acres of beautiful higher stewardship farmland, a Dragon on the hill... Flag poles, beacons, benches, plaques, gates, tea wagons, braziers... All around the village is evidence of Dennis' endeavours and effort. Whilst many of these facilities have been generously donated or the projects of others, they would not have happened without the enthusiasm, passion, toil and labour of Dennis. Dennis loved not only his village but all of us as well and he cared about our cohesion in our community lives.

When I drove through the lanes and saw the last of the straw had been baled and the leaves starting to fall, it all made sense; with the heart of a farmer, Dennis Ambrose left us when our harvests were in.

Dear Dennis was a good friend.
He supported me in his sympathetic way when my world was in chaos, and helped me in all manner of practical little things. He could be very serious but also very funny and often made me laugh.
I admired him very much for all he had achieved for the village and I was glad to have been granted the honour of being there with Gay and his family to say prayers for him after he passed away.
He was such a brave man, generous and uncomplaining, and his sometimes very dry humour never left him.
I owe a lot to Dennis and also to Gay, his dear, staunch partner.

Yvonne Kirchgaesser

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