Heritage Open Days and a Ghost

A report on the Open Days will have to wait till the next Newsletter. With better weather than forecast, many people should have enjoyed their visits. 5,000 copies of the Society's attractive brochure should have been an encouragement.

Gippeswyk Hall on Birkfie1d Drive was a new venue but not a new building! Although thousands of people pass it every day, they may be too concerned about the sharp bend in the road to look at the Hall. Pevsner's Suffolk (1961) describes it well as "a three bay brick house of c.1600. Diapering with blue bricks. Two-storeyed with a three-storeyed gabled porch. The entrance had a four-centred arch and a square hood-mould." However, the book also said that it "has been demolished". This must be the most ghostly house in Britain.

[If there is any excuse for this mistake by the great Nikolaus Pevsner, it might be because a lower range of buildings at the southern end did formerly exist, as seen in a painting by Fred Russel of 'New Place Ipswich' which Bob Kindred, Borough Conservation Officer, has drawn to our attention.]