Front Cover: Arras Square on a warm October day 2022; despite being empty, the former BHS store looks rather grand, partially screened by trees and softened by planters. Photographs by Tim Leggett

"The Port of Ipswich is situated at the head of the River Orwell, 12 miles (19km) from the open sea and handles 2 million tonnes of cargo per year. It is the UK’s leading grain export port and handles a range of other products such as fertiliser, cement and aggregates." Paul Litten,  ABP Port of Ipswich’ (see Chairman’s remarks on page 3).

Ipswich has been given some media coverage recently by the BBC. As part of a 15-minute series (Generation gap) on Radio 4, The cab driver was broadcast on 23 November 2022. It concerned Ian Fountain who started working in his father’s taxi company office 50 years ago when he was only twelve. Eventually he set up his own cab company and the programme is an intimate look at the life of the taxi driver in and around our town.

Earlier, on 11 November, BBC1 television carried We are England: Making waves – building boats which was a 30-minute documentary about the internationally-known Spirit Yachts. Formed by Sean McMillan and Mick Newman in 1993, the company has grown steadily and achieved much success in the high end, timber-built sailing yacht business. They have over 80 boats to their name and now employ over 55 people in the modern building adjoining the 1880 Public Warehouse on the island site of the Wet Dock. Splendid drone sequences of the location, filmed during the height (and heat) of summer 2022, showed off Ipswich at its best. Well worth seeking out on BBC’s Iplayer, if you missed it.

Robin  Gaylard

Below: a similar scene in the summer when the ‘Cornhill cubes’ display screens featured the ‘Big hoot’ owl trail in the town.

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