Newson Garrett was converted into the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, which has become the principal venue for the annual Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts. Newson Garrett Newson Garrett (31 July 1812 – 4 May 1893) was a maltster, instrumental in the revival of the town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, of which he became mayor at the end of his life. Two of his daughters became famous as women's rights activists. Born in Leiston in Suffolk, Garrett was the grandson of Richard Garrett, who founded the agricultural machinery works at Leiston, and Elizabeth Newson, after whom he was named. Newson was the
Snape branch line the final years of operation the only traffic of any significance was coal and coke for the maltings and seasonal sugar beet traffic. The line closed in 1960 as a result of declining freight revenues. Another factor was the J15 locomotives were life expired (steam had largely disappeared from East Anglia by this time) and the route availability of the line was such that only low speed shunting locomotives would be able to realistically operate the line. The time that these locomotives would take to get to Snape would have affected the timetable on the East Suffolk Line so the