This Ipswich Society initiative is driven by our annual tradition of opening up buildings and places of interest to the public on Heritage Open Days (HOD). 

The pandemic has had a major effect on one of the Society’s highest profile and popular events. 

In both 2020 and 2021, local organisations and groups were, understandably, reluctant to open their venues in the usual way. The uncertainty surrounding infection-rates, new virus variants and potential public caution means that we have had to be imaginative in response in the expectation that normal Heritage Open Days can return in 2022. 

Rather than make a one-off ‘virtual HOD’, we are developing an online resource as a mini-site on our website called ‘Ipswich Heritage Icons’ launched to coincide with the traditional HOD weekend. This is intended to bring all sorts of information, locations, history, photographs, videos and further links together in one place to promote Ipswich in the future.

Each web-page will deal with one notable building or feature of the town. Society members will know that there are many such heritage assets in Ipswich, so the Heritage Icons website will grow and develop over time to show the world the riches of the first Anglo-Saxon town and the historical legacy left by successive generations of inhabitants.

We intend to include not only notable buildings (Ipswich has over 600 statutory listed buildings), but locations such as our Wet Dock and historic Waterfront, our magnificent parks and rivers and so on. If you are a regular volunteer or just interested in helping us, please check the current list of heritage assets: www.ipswichsociety.org.uk/heritage-icons and see where there are gaps in coverage. Then contact our HOD organiser Neil Thompson, whose details are on the inside back page of every issue, to say what you would like to do. Neil will maintain a master list to ensure that there is no duplication of effort. Help us to put Ipswich’s Heritage Icons on the World Wide Web in a user-friendly and attractive way.

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