Summer Opening at St Peter's

Once again I would like to thank all the members of The Ipswich Society who have volunteered to be on our St Peter's rota over the summer of 2011. Your contribution to keeping the church open every Thursday is invaluable and visitor numbers continue to increase. For 2011 the number of recorded visitors was 2311, an increase of 251 over the previous year. We also had a further 462 visitors during the Heritage Open Days weekend in September, and over the Maritime weekend in August we opened and over 400 people dropped in to see the church.

The church is used throughout the year for rehearsals on four nights per week. The St Peter's Band and our Training Band rehearse on a Monday night, the Ipswich Hospital Band rehearses on Tuesday nights, the Ipswich Youth Steel Band on Wednesdays and The Suffolk School of Samba on Thursdays. Apart from our regular concerts, this year we hosted An Audience with Roy Hudd for the Suffolk Alzheimer Society, Hamlet was performed in April, a Didgeridoo Concert was held in February and we have hosted several conferences and meetings throughout the year including The Ipswich Society's Awards evening in November.

In October I handed over the management of St Peter's to Andrew and Amanda Mayhew who can be contacted on the St Peter's phone (Tel 225269) or by e-mailing the Centre. They are planning to increase the opening over the winter period with a number of weekend events.

We re-open for the summer season on Tuesday, 1 May 2012. I have been most grateful for your loyal support since we started in 2008 and hope you will continue to support us and the new managers in the future.

Bernard Westren (former manager of St Peter's)

The Ipswich Society Thursday rota has been very well organised by Jean Hill. She would like to have more volunteers for 2012.