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The Church of St Clement has recently benefited from removal of the old pew platforms, installation of a splendid, suspended oak floor with voids around the outside to accommodate services, and repairs to the internal plasterwork. All care of the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust.
Jackie Sadek, our AGM speaker in April, introduced many of us to the word ‘factoid’. The book Broken homes uses the word in its sub-title. The dictionary defines a factoid as: ‘an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact’. A variant would be the term ‘Alternative facts’, which was a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, during the Trump administration in 2017. ‘Fake news’ followed hot on its heels suggesting that all the ‘news’ we hear and read should be treated with scepticism, or even cynicism. This is dangerous stuff and feeds the dragon of conspiracy theory. The KGB are particularly successful in telling Russian citizens – and the rest of the world – that black is white – and that you shouldn’t trust anyone who claims otherwise. However, we should also be aware of sources of such misinformation closer to home… (For more on Jackie Sadek’s talk, see pages 3 and 13.)
Our cunning plan to give members added value by giving away our publications to them started with Ipswich: a town to be proud of (2019). This was followed in our Newsletter distributions by Public art in Ipswich (2021), Ipswich Maritime Trail (2021) and Guide to St Clement Church (2022) and the new Ipswich Women’s History Trail with this issue. For possibly the first time, the Society is mailing out our Heritage Open Days booklet in August – this is a tribute to the hard work of our HOD organiser, Neil Thompson. The lack of a TIC to handle the distribution and act as a main outlet for the booklet means that we have to do the work ourselves. Please pass on the booklet to friends or neighbours if you’re away, or not able to visit venues for HOD 2022.
Robin Gaylard
[N.B.: a free copy of the 2022 edition of The Ipswich Women's History Trail booklet published by The Ipswich Women's Festival Group was distributed with this issue of the Newsletter.]
Below: details of the St Clement renovations showing repaired plasterwork on the interior of the south wall and the cluster of pillars emerging through the suspended floor. The project cost around £150,000 including fees plus VAT. The contractor was F.A. Valiant & Son, specialists in the restoration and conservation of churches.