Editorial

Another fine image from the Society's Slide Collection / Flickr website: the demolition of Turret Green Baptist Church, near Silent Street. The congregation moved into Christ Church, Tacket Street in the 1970s (hence the current Baptist/United Reform Church denomination) and the church was demolished soon after. The original church in Turret Lane later became the Church Hall, and survives today as offices.

Have you noticed the mistletoe? Well, it must be 'that time of year again' which prompts the observation. I write these words in mid-December and recall that an eyecatcher tree on Rushmere Road, near Digby Road, has for years boasted globular growths of mistletoe, high up in its boughs. Now, I notice, even immature trees around the Heath Road Hospital site are hosts to this harmless, parasitic plant. For some reason, mistletoe is sprouting on garden and estate trees in Ipswich. Perhaps it is climate change or, dare I say it, the fact that I haven't noticed this phenomenon until now...

Putting this issue together through November and December 2014, it seems that there is no shortage of things to talk about in and around Ipswich. Judging by the Newsletter archive, it was ever thus. The town faces new challenges in the twenty-first century unimagined in the era of the Ipswich Society's birth, the sixties. This observation is prompted by some work currently underway on an exhibition which the Society will stage next year on the 'Fore Street Facelift' carried out in 1961, prior to the visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Ipswich. The recent, sad death of Brian Jepson calls to mind that it was Brian's kind gift of architect drawings of the buildings in Fore Street prior to the makeover which will form the core of the exhibition. If you have memories or memorabilia relating to the project and the colour scheme which was overseen by noted local architect, Birkin Haward, please contact the editor.

My thanks go to contributors to this issue. Letters to the editor, articles, snippets, are always welcome.

Robin Gaylard