Letters to the Editor

THE NEW STYLE OF THE SOCIETY'S AWARDS EVENING
from Barbara and Peter Barker

We attended the Society's Annual awards evening at the Suffolk College and were very impressed with the new venue. Parking was easy and free - the Lecture Theatre was a short walk from the front entrance, past an interesting display of photos of the nominations. Comfortable raised seating made for a good view of the screen and the hall was just the right size for the event. The slide presentation used up-to-the-minute technology - no getting slides stuck in the projector - the images glided across the screen from the computer. Afterwards we went into another room for the super buffet laid on by the College.

It was a pity more Society members didn't attend - you missed an excellent evening. Hopefully this will be a permanent venue for further awards evenings.

 

IPSWICH'S INTERNATIONAL STAMP DEALERS

from D L Saunders

I read with interest Ruth Serjeant's article in the October 2002 Newsletter and it brought back memories from my childhood.

As a young boy in the late 1950s, I started to show an interest in stamp collecting. My father took me to the Whitfield King office in Lacey Street to get my first 'proper' stamp album, a smart red loose-leaf album with gold embossed lettering on the spine. Unfortunately, the only thing I can remember about the visit was that the building was an office rather than a shop and it was on the right hand side of Lacey Street. I still have that first album tucked away and enclose a copy of the frontispiece with the company name and logo ....

 

NOT MANY VICTOR MELDREWS IN THE IPSWICH SOCIETY!

from Ken Wilson

I was interested in your reference to Victor Meldrewism in the October Editorial, particularly since in this necessarily condensed analysis I recognised a few "Irregular verbs". They are:

  • I complain -justifiably, I expect things to be done properly,
  • You grumble - unnecessarily, You are a bit fussy,
  • He whinges - annoyingly. He seems to think everybody should be perfect,
  • I recognise possible difficulties, I am prepared to trust people,
  • You look on the black side, You are a bit easy going,
  • He is a dreary pessimist. He is a gullible fool.

 

THE FORMER SCHOOL IN BOLTON LANE

from Beryl Harding

I was interested in the letter from Beryl Savidge in the July 2002 issue of the Newsletter about the work in the former school in Bolton Lane. The description of the development of the school is accurate, a far as my knowledge goes, although I cannot agree that the provision of secondary education for all was a disaster. However, the history of the evening work was not entirely as described and goes back further than suggested. The Women's Evening College, offering evening classes in what were then called Domestic Subjects, was the brainchild of Miss Jarrett, the Headmistress of Northgate School for Girls. As she left for a London appointment in 1934, it must have existed before then; indeed I taught an English class there in 1934 and 1935.

The transference of this work to the Civic College was a small part of a general reorganisation. Before that formation, Ipswich had four institutions of further education - the Schools of Art, Technology and Commerce and the Women's Evening College. These four units were transferred to the Civic College as seven departments. The School of Art was unchanged; the School of Technology provided the Departments of Engineering, Science and Building; the School of Commerce was divided into the Department of Commerce and Management, and the Department of General Studies, of which I became the Head. The bulk of the evening work in English and Foreign Languages had been provided by the School of Commerce; they became the core of the evening work in my new department. The Women's Evening College became the Department of Domestic Studies and its English classes were discontinued.

[Chairman's note: Beryl joined the College before the building of the new campus and retired in the 1970s, having established the new Department of Social Work which pioneered such professional courses in this area.]