Issue 190 Newsletter Jan 2013
Contents:
• Editorial: Bad and Good Publicity
• New Members
• Chairman's Remarks
• Jack Chapman
• Peter Underwood
• Ipswich Society Awards 2012
• Recent Planning Matters
• Growth & Infrastructure Bill
• Ipswich Conservation Panel
• Suffolk Preservation Society
• Future of St Mary-at-the-Quay
• Shorts of All Sorts
• Griff's Voice for Civic Voice
• Bristol and Ipswich
• Ipswich Women's History Trail
• Sir Stuart Rose at Conference
• The Night Time Economy
• Who runs the Town Centre?
• Bus Wars - Winners and Losers
• Celebrating Broke's Success
• Demise of the High Street
• Food in Pubs
• Correction - Trees on Orwell Quay
• Thursday Thanks
• News and Comment
• Puzzled
• Harman, Henry VIII, Hansa
• Shops Empty and Full
• A Day out in the Fens
• Street Markets
• Committee
• Lectures and Outings
Editorial: Bad and Good Publicity
Sir Stuart Rose (ex-Chairman of Marks & Spencer) might have been a successful businessman but
he wouldn't make a good diplomat. His performance at the Ipswich Beacon Town conference
received plenty of local publicity which was probably the main aim. But if you exaggerate to get
people listening, you run the risk of being taken literally.
He is reported as saying, "It is the most depressing place I have ever seen. Standing in the town
centre with the empty shops, it is a barren wasteland." As someone who shops in the town centre
several times every week, I think Sir Stuart must only visit Ipswich on non-market days in the late
afternoon, because it's never like that in the mornings and early afternoons. The danger is that the
only people who might think he's right are those who don't come to town already and so they'll
conclude "I'm right after all." Yet those are the very people you need to attract into town.
As for clearing the Cornhill for cafe tables and special events, how many days in the year would
that valuable space be used, compared with the four days a week all the year round of the market?
And markets do bring visitors and vitality to town centres. They might attract shoppers with, on
average, thin purses or wallets, when Ipswich badly needs to attract more people with fat purses or
wallets. But a successful town centre needs both kinds of purses and wallets. John Norman has
written on this subject elsewhere in the Newsletter, but I can't resist having my say. Have your say
in the next Newsletter?
I'm writing this as the Christmas lights are creating a talking point. Whether or not you liked the
lights and particularly the 'tree', this all represented good publicity because people want to come and
see for themselves. The whole lighting project clearly showed an overall design in silver (with some
gold) which I thought was stylish - more Regent Street than Las Vegas!
On pages 4 and 5, this issue of the Newsletter contains two obituaries, sad to say. Peter Underwood
and Jack Chapman were great assets to The Ipswich Society and deserve all the praise accorded to
them by the Society. Those who knew them personally will also remember them with gratitude and
affection.
Neil Salmon
Chairman's Remarks
I am aware that although I am writing this column at the end of November it will be well into
January before you have the opportunity to read it. However, a happy, healthy and successful New
Year to you all.
That might beg the question of how we measure success, a question I have been pondering in
respect of the debate we are currently having about the Northern Fringe development. After
considerable deliberation, with arguments both for and against individual aspects of the project,
there are still politicians who are suggesting that we have not been focused, that the proposals aren't
good enough and if others had done the Master Planning it would be better.
Such comments are relatively easy from the outside without consideration of the financial
constraints, the topography or the predictions of where residents will be employed and how they
will travel.
The Northern Fringe Community Steering Panel on which The Ipswich Society is represented (I am
Vice-Chairman) continue to meet on a monthly basis, have taken the opportunity to visit Milton
Keynes and Cambourne (near Cambridge), both new developments with good and poor components
and have deliberated for hours in Grafton House. The exhibition of Options is taking place as this
Newsletter is published (see below).
The second Beacon Town conference took place with Sir Stuart Rose delivering a much heralded
keynote address on the future of Ipswich Town Centre. His suggestion of moving the market caused
much press comment and my own report occurs later in this Newsletter.
The Griff Rhys Jones lecture was a very full and enlightening evening with the President of Civic
Voice in fine form. Griff started on a lighter note but was soon into the serious matters of urban
sustainability. Neil's report elsewhere in this Newsletter gives a comprehensive account and Ruth
Stokes' 'Puzzled' comments are worth a read. A very special thank you to Vice-President Chris
Wiltshire who introduced the evening with a short slide show from our newly digitalised slide
collection.
I am indebted to another of our Vice-Presidents, Bob Allen, for all his contributions to our Awards
evening. He turned what could have been a fairly dull list of 'also ran' nominations into a lively
thought-provoking evening. The judges found three worthy winners which were featured in a full
page article in the local press. Here the lack of understanding of the link between the Question Mark
on the University piazza and the electronic display on top of the concrete chimney across the road
was highlighted; the published photo had been cropped to exclude the LEDs on the chimney.
Both Mike Cook and I were asked again to contribute to the adjudication of the Civic Trust awards -
Mike in Essex and myself in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. It really does open your eyes as to
what is possible in these austere times. The results will be announced in Cardiff in the spring.
There is a massive sway away from Civic Societies, particularly at national and rural levels (CPRE
and Friends of the Lake District both have declining numbers) and many are struggling in their
current form. This trend is causing Civic Voice concerns and the Executive of this Society have
debated the need for a national campaigning organisation.
John Norman
Jack Chapman
Most members will know that Jack Chapman, our Chairman until April 2012, died on 3 October. A
separate notice added to the October Newsletter promised this appreciation of his services to the
Society and to the wider community. It is based on a eulogy written and delivered by Mike Cook at
Jack's funeral on 15 October, together with information from other friends and colleagues.
Jack was very much a Mancunian in many ways; his upbringing as a barber's son in Collyhurst, a
suburb two miles to the north of the city centre, was in the 1930s very tough. He was selected for
the great Manchester Grammar School; that must have been a trauma, to travel across the city some
four miles to a giant of a school with well over a thousand pupils.
At 18 he was conscripted into the RAF and was trained as a radar technician. He spent most of his
service time in Ulster which even then was hazardous. After his economics degree at the London
School of Economics he started teaching in Higher Education. He thought he was going to stay in
London so he and Ann bought half a house with a friend. It's interesting that a new graduate in his
early teaching career could afford to buy a house in Highgate!
In late 1969 he was appointed Head of Liberal Studies at the then Civic College. Later he became
Head of the Department of General and Pre-Vocational Education. This involved setting up courses
for Youth and Adult Training in co-operation with the Manpower Services Commission. Further, he
organised the Office of European Relationships at the Civic College and was responsible for
exchange programmes, particularly with Czechoslovakia. He was also involved in trade union
affairs, becoming Chairman of the College branch of the National Association of Teachers in
Further Education.
He became a Magistrate on the Ipswich Bench in 1971 where he continued for 32 years. In addition
to regular Bench sittings he was elected on to various committees and appropriately was responsible
for the training and continuing education of magistrates. Retirement from the college in 1992 gave
Jack and Ann time for travel but this was soon cut short by the tragic early death of Ann.
As Chairman of The Ipswich Society, Jack ensured that it should be concerned with every aspect of
the overall development of the town. He formed good relationships with, but firmly independent of,
the Borough Council. He held close discussions with IBC's Chief Executives, James Hehir and
latterly Russell Williams, which were helpful to all. He was a member, then Chair, of the Waterfront
Steering Committee and Partnership during the important years of the Waterfront's development.
Delegation was one of Jack's great skills. Not for nothing was he a life-long Fabian, a society
named after the Roman general renowned for wearing out his opponents by small repeated attacks
to victory. Thus one could say that whilst Jack had no big works to his name his was a work of
gradualism to improve life for all. In that, he was successful in many largely unsung respects.
P.S. Jack was very fond of the dock and the river. Even so it was a pleasant surprise to learn that he
had set aside money for friends and colleagues to enjoy a river trip in his memory as far as
Felixstowe docks on the Orwell Lady. Organised by his son Daniel and daughter Kate. this took
place on 9 November when some fifty people were entertained by a jazz band and enjoyed excellent
food and drinks and, of course, good conversation.
Mike Cook, Neil Salmon
Peter Underwood
Peter Underwood, who died on 4 December aged 88, was the most important contributor to the
achievements of The Ipswich Society during its first thirty years at least. He was a founder member
of the Society in 1960 and served successively as Secretary, Newsletter Editor, Chairman and Vice-
President. His knowledge of Ipswich from childhood, from academic study and from knowing so
many people and learning from them was matchless. (Some of this learning took place in The
Greyhound and latterly The Dove.)
Added to those qualities, Peter was a person of robust independence but also a natural bridge-
builder. For example, he was pleased to represent the Society as a committee member of the Suffolk
Preservation Society because a constructive relationship between the county town and the wider
county was always dear to his heart. (In the same way, he joined two of the relevant teachers' unions
to encourage them to talk to each other!)
In the early 1960s Borough councillors of both main political parties tended to be suspicious of the
Society. More than anyone else, Peter helped to establish the Society's credentials and good faith.
So when the Borough set up the Conservation Advisory Panel he was elected Chairman and served
on it for decades. The Panel also inspired the creation of two charities, Ipswich Building
Preservation Trust and Ipswich Historic Churches Trust, Peter being an executive trustee of both.
The Society and all Peter's friends were therefore delighted when he was awarded the MBE in 1998
"for services to the Ipswich Society and to conservation in Suffolk”.
Much of this voluntary work was by no means straight forward. He often had to make time in his
busy life to prepare for appearances as the Society's spokesman on controversial planning matters.
Being a geographer, he was also in his element when involved in considering strategic planning
issues with the relevant authorities. One of the most memorable of those planning experiences led to
the saving of The Sailors' Rest in St Peter's Street. An hour before the hearing of the appeal against
demolition, Peter and Don Chipperfield got into the building and jumped up and down on the attic
floors to prove that the building wasn't about to collapse as the developers asserted. But I fear that
Peter's biggest disappointment was Ipswich's failure to create The Gipeswic Centre which multi-
disciplined Peter tried to promote to show the international importance of Ipswich in terms of its
geography, history, archaeology and the development of the English language from the "Angle-ish"
first spoken here on our shores. He was always keen to point out that' our' English became the
international language of communication in the air and at sea.
Peter was educated at both Northgate Grammar School for Boys and Ipswich School. (Perhaps that
combination started off his bridge-building!) He served as an RAF pilot and instructor at the end of
the Second World War in Britain and Canada and then went as a mature student to read geography
at University College, Oxford. After graduating, he taught in the influential Geography Department
at Northgate before retiring in the early 1980s.
Amongst the many other organisations Peter was involved with, I should emphasise his roles as a
Magistrate and, with his wife Pam, as a Marriage Guidance counsellor. For many people he was 'Mr
Ipswich', the person you went to if you wanted to find out something about the town that seemed a
bit obscure. For me, he was also a good neighbour, a valued teaching colleague, wise man and
friend.
Neil Salmon
Ipswich Society Awards 2012
Fewer nominations than usual, no big projects and very little that was really distinguished - and
weather rather forbidding on a dark November evening. Consequently, could we expect a small
attendance and a depressing experience? In fact, it turned out to be one of our most enjoyable of
recent Awards events. More members than usual arrived so more chairs had to be brought out to fill
the nave at St Peter's. And the whole evening went well thanks to good organisation with cheerful
greeters, effective amplification so not a word was missed, an enjoyable variety of food and drink in
the second half of the evening, and above all a constantly thought-provoking descriptive
commentary by Bob Allen.
Tony Marsden. who co-ordinated the Awards this year, welcomed members and guests and outlined
our procedures. He then introduced Bob Allen, one of our Vice-Presidents and a former Chairman
of the Society. who once again kept people interested and entertained.
This is a brief summary of some of his comments on the various projects nominated by members
for the judges to consider.
Orwell Quay paving scheme: the Dock showed Victorian vision - wonderful opportunity now for
new uses. Quality of paving divided the judges. Future planting/sculptures?
'Just for the Day', bridal shop, Norwich Road: former Hare & Hounds pub bought by Coe's who
have made great commitment to this street. Re-painted and tidied up. Fascia lettering?
Clarkson Street large extension to back of big residential terrace facing London Road: valuable
extra accommodation. Good brickwork. An odd flat roof between the gables.
Northfields, Valley Road: 4 new detached houses with good brickwork and cladding. Not 1930s'
pastiche but could they have been more architecturally ambitious?
Travelodge. Duke Street: large but fits well in street scene. Good use of colours. Escape staircase
nicely cladded in wood. Big downpipe feeding into a right angle bend!
Park View, Chantry Care Home: different kinds of accommodation needed; reflected in the
changes of architectural styles? The grounds pleasingly designed.
Corn Exchange refurbishment: very important Victorian civic building which had been under
threat as public venue. Little Waitrose neatly inserted. New doorway from Princes St.
Fire and Rescue Station. Ransomes Europark: fire stations used to express civic pride which was
still evident in former Colchester Road premises. This new building purely functional.
UCS Question Mark sculpture: appropriate that universities should probe knowledge. An artistic
statement relating also to LED display on chimney at Suffolk College which spells out Q-U-E-S-T-
I-O-N-? in successive letters. Pleasing black and white stone materials.
Landmark House: "like an enormous ocean liner" overlooking the A14. Built for Hewlett Packard.
now refurbished for SCC and Suffolk Police. Only the new work judged.
Wolsey Art Gallery: early 1930s traditional style; recently refurbished with world-class air
conditioning to allow any work of art to be safely exhibited.
Hope Mews, Foxhall Road: an 1882 orphanage extended with some materials re-used. but part of
the new building looks like "a collision" with the old. Good design of gates.
Tony Marsden announced the judges' decisions as follows:
A High Commendation for Wolsey Art Gallery:
• Architect, Hilary Brightman
• Builders, Seamans Building
• Clients, IBC
A Commendation for UCS Question Mark:
• Designers, Langland and Bell
• Clients, UCS
A Commendation for Northfields, Valley Road:
• Architects. Wincer Kievenaar
• Clients. Landex Property
Our President, the Mayor of Ipswich. Councillor Mary Blake. presented the winners with their
certificates. Chairman John Norman thanked all these recipients. the judges, Bob Allen and the
audience - with an hour or so left for us to enjoy our conversations and the refreshments.
Neil Salmon
Recent Planning Matters
Tesco, Grafton Way
The B & Q store has been demolished even though Tesco's application has not yet been heard by the
Borough's Planning and Development Committee. The Society continues to object to the principle
but I fear the town centre is going to have to change (see my article in the October Newsletter).
Tesco's revised drawings were received on 6 December involving an increase in the size of the retail
store floor space by 640m sq (gross) to 9422m sq in total (gross) and re-configuration of the
building, access and parking arrangements. Time has not permitted thorough examination of these
latest plans but at first sight the Society's objections will be reinforced!
Futura (former Crane's) site
The John Lewis/Waitrose stores opened on time on 8 November to huge crowds. Parking marshals
were employed but traffic was backed down Nacton Road and to the A14 as predicted here but
denied by the Highways Agency and Suffolk County Council. The entrance from Nacton Road will
be opened as soon as possible; they are also considering bringing forward other Section 106
highway improvements.
Town Centre
Ipswich Central has organised a modern Christmas tree and brand new lights. There has been a
'Marmite' response -love it or loathe it! But this is good publicity and together with a European
market there has been a sense of revival.
Former fire station site, Colchester Road
Planning permission has been granted to Hopkins Homes for 59 dwellings including 25% social
housing. The developers have agreed to several changes to the design of the gable ends fronting
Colchester Road and reduced their height to conform to the roofline of the other houses after firm
comments by the Conservation and Design Panel. Many other desirable changes were applied.
Suffolk County Council requires a contribution of £388,000 for education, libraries, waste, extra
care housing and broadband.
Golden Key pub, Woodbridge Road
The Borough's Planning Committee refused conversion of this Greene King pub because the
Highways Agency stated that it would not be safe opening on to Woodbridge Road at the
Roundwood junction. The Planning Inspector allowed the appeal with costs against IBC which were
high because Greene King hired expensive traffic consultants who refuted the Highways Agency's
figures with more figures. I wonder who pays - IBC or SCC? We don't know who the operator of
the small supermarket store will be. It is still open as a pub.
Land next to the Mermaid, Yarmouth Road
Marstons applied to build a 28 bed lodge hotel. The design was so plain, shed-like and unappealing
that the developers were asked to come back with a more attractive design. It is worth noting that
the hotel employs nobody; cleaning and janitorial services are contracted out. Entry and payment
will all be conducted by credit cards.
16 Constitution Hill
An application for an extremely large mansion on the site of the Victorian gardens of the Grade II*
Listed 'Woodside' has been withdrawn. Apart from the visual aspects of the design. its size would
have impacted severely on the green view from Valley Road.
'The Spinney', 108 Westerfield Road
This house designed for his family by Birkin Haward in 1960 was swiftly' Spot Listed' by our
former Conservation Officer, Bob Kindred, to save it from demolition three years ago. Now Listed
with great support from our former Suffolk Twentieth Century Adviser and the Society, it has been
bought by a private buyer who wishes to carry out some updating. It has generous glazing but of
single thickness glass and a thin roof and largely uninsulated walls. Appropriate changes have been
designed which will have minimal impact on its appearance.
Westbourne Library, Sherrington Road
Through the efforts of the Friends of Westbourne Library it has been Listed Grade II. It was
designed by the Borough Surveyor, E McLauchlan, as an air raid shelter and gas decontamination
centre and built in 1942. It is a rare survivor of such a type of building with a tower perhaps once
used as a look out when it was a shelter, but a decontamination centre typically had a water tank in a
tower to serve the showers, eye douche and boiler room. There would have been an air lock,
undressing area, showers and drying room. It was converted to a public library in 1946-7. (Editor:
from fear in war to love of books: great!) It is also unusual in having Modernist decorations, like
those of the neighbouring Broomhill Pool, also designed by McLauchlan.
The Friends of Westbourne Library, led by Garath Jones, have done sterling work in saving the
library and setting up a credit union. Mark Ling. born in Sherrington Road and Chairman of the
Broomhill Pool Trust has driven hard with councillors, the Borough and MPs to improve what has
been an under-resourced area. It seems their enthusiasm energy and persistence is starting to payoff.
Mike Cook
Growth & Infrastructure Bill
This Bill is wending its way through Parliament currently and may be more deleterious to the
planning process and hence the built environment than the National Planning Framework. Its
proposals include:
• Some major planning applications (nationally significant business and commercial projects)
will be able to be submitted directly to the Secretary of State, where Local Planning
Authorities have a very poor record in deciding applications.
• The affordable housing obligations in Section 106 agreements may be re-negotiated where
the development is not viable.
• Stopping misuse of town and village green applications to undermine planned development.
• Cutting back the volume of paperwork which applicants have to submit with a planning
application.
• Making it easier for local authorities to choose, if they wish, to dispose of surplus land held
for planning purpose, with the aim of getting more brownfield land back in use.
• Removal of red tape around the roll-out of superfast broadband.
Our national organisation, Civic Voice, and the CPRE are objecting but there doesn't seem to be the
outcry associated with the National Planning Policy Framework when sustained campaigns led by
the National Trust succeeded in moderating the original proposals.
We have been asked to write to our local MPs and to the Planning Minister, Nick Boles; this we are
doing before Christmas; additionally I have met with Dr Dan Poulter, MP.
Mike Cook
Ipswich Conservation Panel
Ipswich has had a Conservation Panel for at least 37 years. For about 25 of those years, Peter
Underwood was the Chairman and it was through the Panel that he and Bob Kindred had such an
enormous effect on the built environment in the town. It has always been a group of professionals
together with councillors and planning officers who have sat monthly to discuss all planning
applications, highway design and any other measure which might affect a Listed building or a
Conservation Area directly or indirectly. It owes its continuing existence to enlightened regimes at
Ipswich Borough Council over many years. The Borough has provided the Panel with its meeting
place, officer time and administrative support.
For a few years the Panel has been attempting to change its remit. The loss of CABE and the
introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework have provided the final straw to make the
changes to its constitution. One good paragraph in that document is to make it good practice for
every local planning authority to have a design panel which should comment on every aspect of
planning design wherever it occurs throughout the local planning authority.
So the ' pswich Conservation Advisory Panel' has been renamed the 'Ipswich Conservation and
Design Panel'. It has been strengthened by the inclusion of more architects and is now receiving
training. It is strongly supported by the councillors who sit on the Planning and Development
Committee. Hopefully, its views on urban design will be expressed more strongly and more heed
taken of them by developers so that they will come to present a better standard of design than
heretofore.
Mike Cook
Suffolk Preservation Society
Another task that Peter Underwood fulfilled was as the Society's representative on the SPS. Not
many years ago Jack Chapman prevailed on me to follow in Peter's footsteps. Now, I have to be a
paid up member and a trustee of the charity, not just a mere observer.
Like many charities with full time professional staff and an office, this long recession has caused
the SPS considerable financial problems. It has a complicated subscription structure which has
become too low and it has relied on large bequests with their consequent income to survive. Now its
investments have fallen in value and its income plummeted. It has been spending capital at such a
rate that it would only survive after 2017 without paid staff.
Cutting expenditure, re-organising its investment policy and actively seeking wealthy donors has
increased its life by a few more years. Finally, its extremely able Director, Simon Cairns, has
decided to move on to Colchester Borough Council as Planning Development Officer. He has been
succeeded by his equally well qualified wife. Fiona Cairns, on two days a week basis. Clearly the
service SPS provides will have to be curtailed. It has been agreed that Simon will remain the SPS
representative on the Ipswich Conservation and Design Panel.
Mike Cook
Future of St Mary-at-the-Quay
One of Ipswich's finest medieval churches, redundant for several decades but cared for by the
Churches Conservation Trust, now has a much brighter future. The Heritage Lottery Fund has
awarded £3.6m for the church to become a heritage and wellbeing centre. a project set up by
Suffolk Mind and the CCT. The grant will make possible the necessary strengthening of the church
and a new building at the south-east corner of the church.
Shorts of All Sorts
'Favourite Independent' business - Ipswich Central ran this competition open to the public. Votes
were cast for 50 different businesses. Top award went to Image Beauty Salon, followed by
Pickwicks, The Tea Boutique, More than Memorable Cheeses and Craftability.
Vue Cinemas have received planning permission to create 9 screens inside the Buttermarket
Shopping Centre in the big spaces where a succession of department stores have all closed. It won't
open till summer 2014 - an indication of the scale of the work to be done.
The impending closure of what was originally Reavells (Compair Reavell was taken over by
Gardner Denver of USA) will sadly mark the end of nearly all large-scale engineering work in
Ipswich after two centuries of many great achievements by many different firms.
Aurora is the newly opened restaurant in the striking tent-like structure on Orwell Quay. Built as
part of Persimmon's development of flats and houses there. it has remained unoccupied till now.
UCS has been allowed by IBC to delay development (because of the recession) of the land south of
the lames Hehir Building on Orwell Quay. UCS has bought the former Ransome's Shed 8 site
(being used as Duke Street car park) on the other side of the Hehir Building. When UCS does build
on both sites we should have a splendid waterfront university.
Ipswich was considered one of the safest towns in the UK according to a property magazine's
survey based on crime figures, house prices, health facilities. education and public transport. Exeter
was in top spot, Ipswich 9th.
Ipswich Maritime Trust's 'window museum' (part of The Mill. ex-Cranfield's and visible from
the quayside in a lane) features a new display of photographs illustrating the history and
development of the docks. It will be open for the next four months and is well worth a look.
The New Wolsey Theatre has been acclaimed as the most welcoming theatre in the UK by the
Theatrical Management Association. The theatre recognises the roles played by all of its staff and
its volunteer ushers.
John Lyall (the original architect for The Mill) is working on a scheme to demolish the remaining
Victorian Cranfield's buildings (but retaining the waterfront façe and colonnades) and to fit out
the rest of the 23 storey tower block. Good news for the Waterfront and for Ipswich.
We are spending £21 m on Ipswich Transport Fit for the 21st Century which includes removing
railings from most of the road junctions in the town centre - whilst at the same time installing new
railings either side of the toucan crossing outside the new John Lewis in Ransome's Way. Ironical?
(N.B. the £21m scheme does include much other work!)
Various uses for the Cliff Brewery site are being considered by developers. The former Tolly
Cobbold brewery itself could include a small concert hall/lecture theatre and elsewhere on the site a
supermarket and just possibly a new home for the Transport Museum which will have to move from
Cobham Road before its lease runs out. Whether residential uses can be included depends on the
future of the nearby storage fuel tanks.
Griff's Voice for Civic Voice
Griff Rhys Jones, professional actor, entertainer, broadcaster, is also President of Civic Voice, the
national organisation which our Society belongs to. In this capacity he addressed some very happy
members in the Atrium of Suffolk New College on Friday, 12 October. Far from being a 'celebrity
figurehead' for Civic Voice, Griff is obviously putting heart and soul into the organisation with all
his talents coming together. His enthusiasm and conviction that civic societies exist to be
constructively influential came across with the humour and directness of a stand-up comedian. It
was inspiring and refreshing.
He values the uniqueness of each town. He'd rather go for a walk in a town than in the country and
he's not just interested in the centres of great cities but the characters of side streets and the
evidence of heritage and continuity there. In our case therefore it was relevant for him to say how
he started to love Ipswich aged eight - although on that first visit it was as a relief from being on his
father's boat day after day and they didn't get further upriver than Pin Mill. On a later visit he
followed father's sou-wester and oilskins through our town.
He stressed that people today should see themselves as the guardians of a town with a civic
responsibility. But he went on to say, .I do embrace the twentieth century. I'm not Prince Charles ...
I'm in favour of good design, imagination and creativity of people today." However, in his view, the
twentieth century has been "the greediest and most self-centred" century with its obsession, for
example, of driving motorways into old towns.
At present, he thinks planning is facing a crisis with the Government's abandonment of many
valuable and specific planning criteria to be replaced by a simplified 50+ page document which will
favour developers and commerce. As far as towns are concerned, he emphasised the value of more
mixed uses from now on (in line with the 'views of our Society and indeed of Ipswich Central)
creating places where it's a joy to live. He mentioned as a nice reminder that multiple uses even in
somewhere like London's Oxford Street mean that the shops share areas where lots of people are
living nearby.
However, in towns like Ipswich Griff said, "'Let the big shops go from town centres.. Trying to keep
them is a lost cause anyway. Instead planners, residents and local politicians should work out for
themselves what a town is for. And the future of a town involves getting our civic societies' voices
on the agenda.
In a following brief question and answer, Chris Wiltshire referred to an "'institutionalised low self-
esteem in Ipswich" and instead we should "glory in what we've got, our unique features. - which
elicited warm applause.
Before Griff's sparkling talk, Chris himself entertained us with a presentation drawing attention to
the Society's very recent digitalisation of our large and diverse slide collection (6500+) which will
become much more readily accessible.
I think I can speak for all in saying that the evening was hugely enjoyable and informative. The
College kitchens produced a wonderfully varied range of tasty canapé a very good advertisement
for what students and staff can do.
Neil Salmon
Bristol and Ipswich
After spending a week in Bristol during November. I was surprised to realise how similar the paths
of that city and our county town have travelled over the centuries. Both started as Anglo-Saxon
settlements up a river a fair distance from the sea. In the 1800s both established enclosed areas of
water for the purpose of improving continuous trade. Bristol with its 'Floating Harbour' and Ipswich
its lock-gated dock and both have redeveloped their harbour areas calling them .The Waterfront'.
Centuries earlier both had spawned merchants who were great traders and became rich men,
sending their ships to far away ports in search of trade. One big difference was that Bristol grew
very wealthy on the horrific slave trade and looked towards Africa and the Caribbean. From the late
1700s onwards they both gave birth to many world renowned companies. Bristol's name being on
Fry's chocolate, ground breaking ship building and, much later, Bristol aeroplanes. Meanwhile
Ipswich was also becoming famous for manufacturing, with Ransome Sims & Jefferies, Ransome &
Rapier, Fison's fertilisers, high class provisions from Burton Son & Sanders and Pretty's produced
corsets by the thousand.
The difference now is that Bristol has a large recently opened Museum celebrating the amazing
things that have happened during the life of the city; it is on the Waterfront in an old quay shed
called the M Shed.
Returning home, I can only dream that one day my town will have such a museum where
schoolchildren, tourists and locals can learn about the equally amazing town that stands at the head
of the Orwell before all the artefacts and personal stories are lost. Such a museum would hopefully
complement our existing excellent museums but tell the continuous story of the town and its
achievements.
Ken Nichols
Editor: our Museum could have been The Gipeswic Centre, as Peter Underwood originally
envisaged it.
Ipswich Women's History Trail
On Thursday 18 October at the Tourist Information Centre, with the enthusiastic support of the
Mayor. Councillor Mary Blake, we launched our Trail booklet which celebrates the contribution of
women to Ipswich life over the centuries.
The Trail takes people on a walk around central Ipswich, looking at where the most influential
women of the town lived and worked. The booklet gives brief details of the lives of over 20 women,
and of what makes them worth remembering - from the three women martyrs who were burned at
the stake in the 16th century right through to 20th century high achievers. Artists, politicians.
benefactors, writers - virtually every area of cultural life is included. Some women will already be
familiar - Edith Cook, for example, the aviator, or the writer Jean Ingelow. Others are less well-
known: the embroiderer Judith Hayle or World War One taxi driver Olive Turney.
The Trail has been compiled, with the help and support of lpswich Borough Council, by Ipswich
Women's Festival Group. Group member Joy Bounds said: "Many women have contributed to the
dynamic development of lpswich, but their achievements are not always recognised in history
books. This walk provides an enjoyable way to learn a bit about these women and perhaps draw
inspiration from them." In addition, for those not familiar with Ipswich, the Trail will take them to
many of the most interesting and attractive areas of the town. The walk can be done in either one or
two parts - one to the north of the town centre, including Christchurch Park, and one to the south
including the Waterfront.
Joy Bounds
The booklet costs 75p and is available from the Tourist Information Centre and other outlets.
A Brief Review of the Trail booklet
I feel sure many members would find much of interest in this well presented colourful booklet.
It is stirring to be reminded that Alice Tooley and Emma Pownder survived their illustrious
merchant husbands and carried on their businesses successfully. One wonders whether the 16th
century was kinder to such women than would have been the case in later days. We also learn about
Eliza Acton who wrote the first domestic cookery book and Constance Andrews a leading
suffragette and of course Edith Cook (pioneer aviator) and Jean Ingelow (Victorian poet) who are
both commemorated by Ipswich Society Blue Plaques.
The authors, perhaps wisely, allow facts to speak for themselves. It would have been understandable
if indignation had broken through. We are simply told that one of the most distinguished women,
Nina Layard, wrote a paper for the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1906 about her
archaeological excavation of the Hadleigh Road Anglo-Saxon site. It had to be read by a man as
women were denied admission to the meeting. Miss Layard is said to have sat behind a curtain to
listen. (Marginally better than the women harpists of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra who had to
perform behind a curtain.) And it's a reminder of how disgracefully women were discouraged or
held back well into 'modern times' when we learn that Mary Whitmore was the first woman Mayor
of lpswich in 1946. (Perhaps some good came out of the war?)
Neil Salmon
Sir Stuart Rose at Conference
Ipswich's second Beacon Town conference, 14 September 2012
I'm not sure if Sir Stuart had read the Mary Portas Report or simply chose to ignore it but some of
his suggestions were different from hers. Sir Stuart suggested that the town needed smartening up,
which is true, but both Ipswich Borough Council and Ipswich Central might take exception to some
of the detail in achieving this, given that they both make serious contributions to litter and graffiti
removal.
He went on to suggest a few trees would improve the impressions visitors get but fails to realise that
it is almost impossible to plant trees amongst the mass of underground services in city streets. (We
tried when Duke Street roundabout was changed, and there might be one, but only one, when the
junction of Museum Street and Friars Street outside Willis is improved later this year.)
His most controversial suggestion was to move the 'scruffy' market away from the Cornhill and
replace it with continental style tables and chairs. Given that it has taken at least 30 years for the
market to progress from Tower Ramparts to Crown Street to Civic Centre to the Cornhill, and that
Mary Portas places great emphasis on a market to bring footfall, the Borough Council is unlikely to
take up the former M&S Chairman's suggestion. However, the Council leader did jump up and
promise £200,000 of public funds to implement some of these suggestions. I'm sure details will
follow.
Sir Stuart also suggested improvements to the route from the station to the town centre (clearly
nobody had told him of the £21 million investment which includes the removal of subways under
the Princes Street roundabout) and implied we need better signposting. My opinion is that the newly
installed diagrammatic monoliths are simple and clear, and I note that the same map has been
launched in a paper version as an Ipswich town centre walking map, available from the Tourist
Information Centre.
It was good to see a number of Ipswich Society members at the conference. I was able to invite
them via e-mail after the last Newsletter had gone to press. If you want to be included in similar
alerts, please let the Secretary have your e-mail address.
John Norman
The Night Time Economy
The mention in the last Newsletter of the 'Night Time Economy' (NTE) raises an important topic
which is starting to be researched and understood. We should all be interested in the welfare and
future of Ipswich's town centre, even if we claim not to go out in the evening. The NTE is an
indicator of the health of a town's success or failure to manage its services and facilities. Too often
evenings and nights in town centres are characterised as populated by vodka-pop swilling louts, but
the NTE actually represents a wide range of important opportunities for Ipswich.
The NTE can be defined as the economic, social and business activities which occur between 6pm
and 6am ('after dark'). These include the operation of restaurants, theatres, pubs, clubs, football
stadiums, cinemas, concerts and other cultural activities. These aspects of the economy are often
overlooked, yet they are crucial drivers of tourism, leisure and business growth. It is estimated that
the UK's NTE employs 1.3m people and contributes £66bn to the UK economy. Not only do these
NTE industries provide taxes for our local authorities, although Central Government takes its share.
but there are other employment and economic outputs. Of course there are also costs associated
with the NTE, including policing, vandalism, cleaning and healthcare. Only by researching the net
effects can it be shown that for most towns and cities, the benefits can contribute much more than
most of us would acknowledge. These NTE industries provide jobs and wealth but also deliver
social and community benefits too. The key is to have a night time experience which is safe and
conducive to the local population and economy.
The Cardinal Park area is an example of some of this activity being concentrated with restaurants,
cinemas, bars and nightclubs within a short walk. This is in contrast to more isolated parts of
Ipswich such as the Wolsey Theatre or the Regent Theatre which are comparatively cut off from the
town centre. Additional considerations to this include traffic, pedestrian flows, customer perceptions
and popularity of the services on offer.
Ipswich has gained full Association of Town Centre Managers' Purple Flag accreditation. This
means that the "centre is managing its night time experience and thus helps overcome any negative
public perceptions that may exist." The Purple Flag also helps to promote areas like Ipswich's
centre, attracting residents, new businesses, tourists and visitors. The Purple Flag accreditation has
built upon the national Best Bar None scheme "promoting responsible management and operation
of alcohol licensed premises." Whilst there are challenges to managing a night time economy, the
benefits in getting it right can extend beyond simply the expandable pockets of chains like
Wetherspoons!
Monty Guest
Who runs the Town Centre?
Ipswich Borough Council, Ipswich Central or Suffolk County Council?
In a letter jointly signed by Mark Bee and Judy Terry in the East Anglian Daily Times on Saturday,
17 November. I read that Suffolk County Council wish to be included in the extensive list of
organisations running the town centre. (In addition. Suffolk County Council are taking over the
running of the town's road network from April.)
However, whilst Christmas is still firmly in our minds. we should question who was responsible for
the Cornhill tree, the Christmas lights and, on the other hand, the four-day Christmas market (that
promised 150 stalls and delivered half this number)?
We could also ask what happened to the Ipswich Town Centre Master Plan, suggesting that we turn
the 'Golden Mile' from an east-west well established route to a north-south (Tower Ramparts to
Lower Brook Street) shopping experience - when the Evening Star offices are rebuilt as shops! My
research for articles elsewhere uncovered the demise and demolition of Tollemache's Upper Brook
Street brewery in 1961, the site of which became Tacket Street car park. If it has taken 50 years (and
waiting) for this town centre site to be developed for retail, what hope is there for sites in Turret
Lane?
There was talk of a 'Vision for Ipswich' group, including input from the University; and the
Chamber of Commerce has always had the interest of the town at heart. What is clear is that with
many organisations pulling in different directions, particularly when the politics of town and county
come into play. Ipswich town centre is likely to suffer from lack of steer.
John Norman
Bus Wars - Winners and Losers
Russell Nunn's article in the October Newsletter was of particular interest as I live in east Ipswich
roughly in the middle of the two main contested routes and had been coming to similar conclusions
about the unsustainable nature of the current services.
It seems both our local Ipswich Buses and the Norwich- based part of the national First Group are
throwing all they have into this battle, cutting fares and investing heavily in new buses and
additional staffing to provide a more frequent service, which overall is far in excess of our needs.
With so many buses running during the day there is currently no need to consult timetables as there
will always be a bus of some description along soon, which is just as well as the actual timetables
seem less well adhered to than they used to be.
If passengers take pot luck like this, using whichever bus turns up, the patronage will remain evenly
split and the 'war' could well be long and protracted. This will seriously drain the resources of both
companies and is indeed unsustainable in the long term. The ultimate winner will come out of the
battle scarred and less able to continue providing such a good and cheap service, which is not really
in passengers' best interests.
Rather than awaiting the outcome, I think passengers can have some say in this by exercising their
discretion and choosing to ride with whichever company they would prefer to see running these
services in the future. If they vote with their arms in this way, only flagging down their preferred
bus company, their votes will count and we will sooner reach a conclusion to this unnecessary
battle.
Patrick Taylor
Celebrating Broke's Success
Des Pawson of lpswich Maritime Trust, Richard Edgar-Wilson, President of the Old Ipswichian
Club, and I are progressing with work on three ways of acknowledging Admiral Broke's success
and abilities, and the bicentenary of his defeat of the USS Chesapeake in HMS Shannon on 1 June
1813. We plan to:
• Have a one-day symposium in Ipswich at University Campus Suffolk, which is linked to the
Universities of Essex and East Anglia.
• Hold a concert at St Martin's, Nacton, Broke's home village, where he is buried.
• Publish a book/anthology of papers by a variety of writers for which I would provide the framework and would edit.
We must stress that these would all be aimed at interesting the general public who are largely
ignorant of Broke and the War of 1812, rather that the academic world, although the scholarship
should still be of high quality. The agreed date is the weekend of 12-13 October 2013,10 am to 5.20
pm. The symposium will be held in the 120-seat lecture hall of the UCS Waterfront building in
Ipswich's great Victorian Wet Dock. The large attached foyer will be used for a buffet lunch and for
the launch of the anthology, as well as a display of other relevant books, especially those of the
speakers. The concert is being organised on the Sunday afternoon by Richard Edgar-Wilson, the
international tenor. Broke was at Ipswich School before entering the Royal Navy at a tender age and
the concert is doubling as the Old Ipswichians' President's Event for 2013. Please let me know if
you feel you can contribute in any way.
Tim Voelcker
Demise of the High Street
Footfall in the High Streets of Eastern England fell by 6.2% during the second quarter (May to July)
of 20l2. The number of vacant shop units rose to 11.5% and the overall picture remains bleak. The
High Street is no longer the place we go shopping. So where do we go?
Footfall into out-of-town shopping centres and retail parks also fell, but by an almost insignificant
1% nationally, but spending on the web almost doubled. A noticeable factor in the downturn in retail
spending is in areas where a significant proportion of the workforce is employed in the public sector
(as in Ipswich).
However, if you think Ipswich has too many empty shops, take pity on the good folk of Bradford
West Yorkshire, Britain's fifth largest city by population. The city council gave planning permission
for a new shopping centre in 2004, the developer dug an enormous 23 acre hole in the centre of the
city and then pulled out as the recession hit. No matter how hard you try, you cannot fill a hole with
charity shops, community workshops or even fly-by-night retailers selling Christmas tat.
John Norman
Food in Pubs
Forty percent of Greene King sales are now in food, part of a market worth £42m across the UK.
Leading players include the Greene King Hungry Horse chain, Mitchells and Butler's Toby and
Harvester Inns (planning permission for one of each has been granted at Ravenswood) J D
Wetherspoon (two new pubs in Suffolk this year, viz. Bury St Edmunds' Corn Exchange and
Stowmarket's Willow Tree) and Marston's (The Mermaid in Yarmouth Road Ipswich, with a lodge
hotel planned on the vacant adjacent site). Family dining out has moved up from the kids' favourite
take-away to one where price, service and ambience of the surroundings knock the traditional pub
for six.
Two asides to this article. The first is how amazingly popular The Mermaid has been since opening
with a full car park lunchtimes and early evenings. Secondly, the application for planning
permission for the Marston's lodge hotel was for an unacceptably bland building. Ipswich Borough
Council's Development Control Committee rejected the application.
John Norman
Correction - Trees on Orwell Quay
The Newsletter has suggested that the lack of trees on the repaved Orwell Quay was down to an
objection by Associated British Ports. I am asked to point out that ABP wanted to retain the
flexibility of a clear quayside but did not object to trees in tubs (as can be seen on the east side of
the Quay alongside the James Hehir Building).
John Norman
Thursday Thanks
May I thank all the volunteers at St Peter's by the Waterfront for helping out on Thursdays from
May until the end of September 2012. It was much appreciated and I hope that they'll all be
available to call upon for that same help in 2013. I'll be contacting them from March onwards, and
if there are any other members of the Society who would also like to give a few hours on a
Thursday, please contact me.
Jean Hill
News and Comment
'Ipswich Icons'
Even if one thinks the word 'icon' is over-used nowadays, it's possible to be very pleased that the
Ipswich Star and the EADT are carrying articles by The Ipswich Society on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, respectively. The subjects covered so far are Pykenham's Gatehouse followed by County
Hall, St Mary at the Elms, the history of the port up to the opening of the Wet Dock. the Society's
Awards, the Custom House and the Running Buck. The articles should prove informative to the
general reader and are good publicity for the Society.
Buildings 'At Risk'
English Heritage has a national list of Grade I and II* buildings which are vacant and in poor
condition. Local Authorities are encouraged to list their Grade II buildings similarly .at risk'. IBC's
list consisted of Cliff Brewery, the Old Bull in Stoke Street and County Hall. But they have now
had to add St Michael's Church in Upper Orwell Street (badly damaged by fire), 4 College Street
(house on corner of College Street and Bridge Street), and 1-5 College Street (next to Wolsey's
Gate). IBC urges the buildings' owners to make them weather-poof and secure while still vacant.
Two New Names
We are getting used to 'The Saints', i.e. St Nicholas Street and St Peter's Street, a useful name for an
area which includes a variety of shops and other businesses. The owners, supported by IBC. have
obtained funding from the Government to help promote the area. 'Blackfriars' might take more
getting used to. Although the remains of the Blackfriars monastery are still to be seen between
Foundation Street and Lower Orwell Street, this is to be the 'brand' name of the wider Fore Street,
Orwell Place, Eagle Street and poor old Upper Orwell Street. Both these 'new' areas are crucial to
the admirable aim of linking the Waterfront to the town centre. Christmas lights in Fore Street and
the new name should be a welcome start to what will be a long and gradual process of linkage.
Sherrington Blue Plaque
The Society's most recently installed Plaque was unveiled on 20 September. It is on the east wall of
lpswich School chapel and easily visible from Henley Road.
Sir Charles Sherrington. the great neurologist, was a pupil at Ipswich School and after retiring
returned to the town living briefly in Graham Road and then 73 Valley Road. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize in 1924, was President of the Royal Society and appointed to the Order of Merit. Mike
Cook, you may remember, gave a lecture about Sherrington which was reported in the April 2012
Newsletter.
John Norman
Puzzled
Griff Rhys Jones' talk on 12 October was both enlightened and thought provoking but was there not
an elephant in the atrium? The future direction for all planning and building design, including in
Ipswich, must adjust to any anticipated future changes, such as the climate, yet no mention as far as
I recollect was made of this. Are we not fiddling while Rome burns, or now more likely, floods?
Flood damage claims are already increasing significantly year on year. It seems unlikely that the
predicted sea level rise of less than a metre this century is realistic, bearing in mind that the report
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on which it is based made no allowance at all
for ice melt. Now we are experiencing ice loss in the Arctic and West Antarctic which exceeds the
most pessimistic of the models, due to the dreaded tipping points which are already kicking in. Last
year we experienced the wettest spring since records began some 150 years ago, the autumn rains
caused widespread flooding and hurricanes are apparently beginning to encroach on areas
previously thought to be safe.
The Environment Agency now has the power to restrict residential development in flood areas, but
it needs to go much further and faster on all fronts. We have to dramatically cut energy consumption
if we are to keep carbon levels down to a figure which will prevent a catastrophic irreversible
temperature rise. It's estimated that some 60% of the saving will have to come from a reduction in
heat loss from buildings. However, our relatively puny new building regulations don't come into full
force until 2016, and we are still giving awards to buildings with no solar collectors at all. In
Germany, as from next year, all new buildings must be capable of producing 40% of the energy they
consume themselves. What I wonder are Griff's thoughts on this?
Am I being irresponsibly alarmist? We almost certainly won't know until it's too late. but surveys
indicate that well over 90% of those scientists who have been actively involved in the research (and
there are literally thousands of them; the Met Office alone has some 200) now accept that not only
is global warming happening, but that man is largely responsible. Bearing in mind what a
disputatious lot scientists are, this is probably a higher consensus than Newton enjoyed, and nobody
has messed with him for over 200 years now. Amazingly, the first laboratory experiment to
demonstrate the greenhouse effect was carried out by an Englishman back in 1836, and the
investigations have continued ever since, so an extraordinary amount of work has been done on the
path to our present understanding: far too much to sweep under the carpet.
But little seems to be happening. Why are we not galvanised into action? What is happening to the
proposals for large wind turbines in the area? Is anyone investigating local suitable sites for river
turbines which are proving so popular, and in many cases profitable, in Europe?
Griff referred to the damage done to our infrastructure and housing stock by the Luftwaffe, but this
will prove a mere pinprick compared with any future world conflict. Am I being unjustifiably
alarmist again? A largely ignored Pentagon paper in 1997 proposed that climate change will be a
greater threat to world peace than terrorism. Pakistan for instance gets nearly all its water through
the rivers that first flow through its old rival India, which itself has serious water shortages, and like
Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
It is my generation that must take most of the blame for the carbon level increase. (Incidentally I am
70.) We were the first to heat the whole of our houses at the same time as we cooled local areas of
them with fridges and freezers, one energy source fighting the other. Also there was little attempt at
conserving all the extra heat within the area for which it was intended. Wherever you look, the
energy consumption of our generation became profligate. We were the first to drive or fly
everywhere. If one looks at the graphs showing atmospheric levels of carbon, it was precisely at this
time that they started to take off so dramatically, to a level not experienced for some 4 million years,
when temperatures were a catastrophic 4 degrees higher. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that
humans only flourish when temperatures are within just 1 degree of the present level: a sobering
thought. As we drove the short distance home after the meeting (I could have walked, but thought it
might rain) 1 recollected sitting in the atrium, pleasantly warmed in an attractive space probably
three times the volume of space needed, absorbing Griff's thoughts, and eating unsustainable
quantities of red meat (I have to confess to the consumption of at least three sausage rolls) and with
my feet probably little more than a couple of metres above sea level.
I found myself increasingly puzzled by the complete lack of curiosity about these problems, either
by Griff or by me and other members during question time. I would love to learn if there are other
members of the Society (as well as Mike Brain, of course) who share any of the same anxiety, and who like me are having increasing pangs of guilt.
Jo Stokes
Harman, Henry VIII, Hansa
If you find yourself in the charming Cotswold town of Burford in Oxfordshire do try and make time
to visit the church of St John the Baptist. As you enter the church look across the north aisle wall
where you will observe an imposing piece of masonry, described as "not so much a funeral
monument as a thanksgiving for a successful life set up in 1569 by one Edmund Harman.”
Born in Ipswich in approximately 1509, Edmund's first appearance in history occurred in 1530
when he was admitted to the Barbers' Company. Then in February 1536 he is described as being a
King's barber and a member of the Privy Chamber. His paternal grandfather was a "gentleman" and
his maternal one may also have been entitled to bear arms. But it is unlikely that a young man from
the provinces would have got so far so fast without a patron. Yet it is not clear whose Edmund was.
Wolsey of course came from Ipswich but after his fall in 1529 a connection with him would have
been more of a handicap than an advantage. A more likely figure was Sir William Sabyn, an
Ipswich merchant who owned the house called the Steelyard: he was not only a ship owner and
"vice-admiral" but also a sergeant-at-arms responsible for the King's safety. His duties included care
to see that the men who brought razors close to the royal throat could be trusted not to cut it! What
better way of ensuring this than to choose for the job people whose background one was familiar
with? Moreover there is evidence that Sabyn shared the progressive religious views for which
Edmund was to be conspicuous. It may be relevant that Butts, the King's physician, also came from
Ipswich. In 1537 Edmund had been elected as a member of the Court of Assistants in the Barbers'
Company, appearing eleventh in the list of seniority. In 1539, described as a "Groom of the Privy
Chamber", he became Senior Warden and in 1540, at the presumed age of 31, Master.
In 1543 Edmund is for the first time described as "The King's Servant., a title of which he was not
the only holder. Whereas previous grants to him had only been of positions bringing in money, he
now received one involving tenure of land, namely the Hospital of St John Evangelist Burford, with
certain lands belonging to it in Burford itself and in neighbouring Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire
villages. Although this is the first mention of Bur ford in connection with Edmund, he must have
been there already since his wife Agnes was a daughter of Edmund Silvester, a prominent merchant
of the town. 1539 has been suggested as the date of their marriage and their daughter Agnes was
born in 1542 followed by fifteen further children (9 boys and 6 girls) all of whom are depicted on
Edmund's monument in the church.
In 1546 the King's rapidly failing health increased the jockeying for position at court, so as to
decide who should be in control when Henry was replaced by the boy Edward. But no matter who
won the struggle, Edmund was likely to lose. There would be a reduced demand for royal barbers
when a boy of nine became King. Edmund must have viewed the future with dismay. On 26
October, in one of the King's last lucid intervals, Edmund Harman, the King's Servant, was granted
for his services the Lordship and Manor, the rectory and the advowson of the vicarage of Taynton,
which had formerly belonged to Tewkesbury Abbey.
On 26 December Henry's illness took a turn for the worse and he sent for his will. It was found to
require revision and was brought back again when it was signed "with our own hand" in the
presence often witnesses among whom Edmund stood second. He also received a legacy of 200
marks (£133) "in token of our special love and favour". After the death of King Henry the barbers
on 1y went on being paid for two quarters and it is a reasonable hypothesis that Edmund came fairly
soon to live as a country gentleman on his estates in the middle Windrush valley. His wife was
buried at Taynton on 30 March 1576 and Edmund himself died at Burford on 19 March 1577 and
was buried at Taynton on 10 April 1577.
The 1574 heraldic visitation of Oxfordshire by Harvey and Lee recorded a Harman genealogy
which was almost certainly supplied to them by Edmund himself. The family name seems to have
been spelt indifferently "Harman" and "Herman", which points to them having been of Germanic
origin. It describes his father Robert and his grandfather Paul as being of lpswich, Paul being a
"gentleman". But Edmund's great-grandfather Peter was said to have been "of the Steelyard". The
best known Steelyard was the depot of the Hansa merchants in Lower Thames Street, London,
where imports were weighed on the King's Beam to assess their liability for duty. But the Hansa
also appear to have had a minor depot at Ipswich during the fifteenth century, although its exact
location and dates are obscure. In the following century Sir William Sabyn's house. situated near the
quay, was known as the Steelyard. In 1460 an Ipswich merchant, John Caldewell, in making his
will, had expressed the hope that his son might have "the place at the cay where Herman dwelleth”.
In East Anglia other Hansa depots, also known as Kontors, were located at King's Lynn and Great
Yarmouth. The Hanseatic warehouse in King's Lynn is the only surviving Hanseatic League
building in England and was constructed in 1475. There is a suggestion that certain German cities
of the League had a bias towards a Kontor; thus Bremen with King's Lynn, Hamburg with Great
Yarmouth and Cologne with Ipswich. Sources: Tolsey Paper No 6, The Tolsey Museum, Burford,
1988. Internet, Hanseatic League
Michael Atkinson
Shops Empty and Full
Empty shops throughout most of the country are blighting the look of our streets, not to speak of the
consequences for businesses. In Ipswich the situation is not as bad as in many other towns and
cities, but the locations of some vacant premises are particularly sad aesthetically - for example in
The Walk and Thoroughfare, that unique and quite intimate precinct, and in Butter Market where
Clarks and the Early Learning Centre occupied an attractive building. Yet next door the newly
opened Patisserie Valerie has enjoyed great success and almost always there are people ogling the
cakes in the window as well as eating inside.
A Day out in the Fens
On 12 September, fifty Ipswich Society members set out to discover the unique blend of landscape,
engineering and history which characterises The Fens. Our first stop, Prickwillow Drainage Engine
Museum, is in the original pumphouse on the River Lark. It houses an Ipswich-built Vickers Petter
diesel pump which drained the fenland here during the first half of the 20th century, pumping water
up to the river. After a short excellent talk on the history of fenland drainage, the Vickers Petter was
started up for us - impressive, noisy and very effective - and next door. the modem electric/
electronic pumphouse keeps up the good work.
Our journey north to Wisbech traversed the peat fen below sea level and then the slightly more
elevated silt fen. Bob Markham's commentary helped us to pick out features of this subdued
different landscape. Periodically we travelled over slightly raised sections of road, identified by Bob
as 'roddens', abandoned river courses left above the fields as the peat has shrunk after drainage.
Most of the dwellings in this area have been built on 'roddens' for their greater stability - we saw
many tilted telegraph poles and experienced much hummocky subsidence in the road across the
peat! At Welney we crossed the man-made Bedford Level which carries water northwards to The
Wash along its two great waterways separated by flood meadows. They flow several metres above
the peat fen and the banks, needing constant care, are maintained by 'bankers' - a vital occupation in
this part of Cambridgeshire.
The Wisbech & Fenland Museum is free. and packed to the rafters with well-labelled specimens.
Entering gives an immediate sense of deja-vu, time-travelling to Ipswich Museum as we know it
from 140 year old photographs of what is now the Arlington's Restaurant on Museum Street. The
two museums have an identical opening date, 1847. Octavia Hill, founder of the National Trust and
the Kyrle Society (forerunner of our own Civic Societies) was born in Wisbech. 2012 is the
centenary of her death - a good time to visit her birthplace, a Grade II* Listed Georgian town house.
Born the year after Queen Victoria's accession to the throne, Octavia was an advocate of public
open space - as she put it. "Places to sit places to play in. places to stroll in, and places to spend the
day in.”
We returned home across the Suffolk fenland (yes, we have some) via Lakenheath with a stop for
tea at the fine church here. The exterior is a mosaic of building materials from the Cambridgeshire/
Suffolk borderlands: clunch. a type of chalk found locally; carstone, brown sandstone from the fen-
edge: brown cobbles from ancient river terraces of west Suffolk and grey flints from the fields. The
interior takes the breath away- murals as old as 12th century adorn the walls, with St Edmund
opposite the door, watching you enter. The church has a crucifix of contemporary design made from
bog oak from the fens. Farmers often plough up huge tree trunks out of the peat - remnants of long
gone forests many thousands of years old.
Caroline Markham
Street Markets
Town centre traders certainly can't rest on their laurels in this continuing Age of Austerity. One
sensible response is to hold street markets where some of the local shops bring their wares out into
the open, sometimes together with other traders. Markets held in Dial Lane (October), Giles Circus,
Queen Street and St Nicholas Street (November) and Fore Street (December) have all helped to
bring people into some of the less 'obvious' but important streets. Ipswich town centre is so much
more than the 'golden mile’!
Lectures and Outings
• 13 April Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Forest
• 21 May Legal London
• 12 June 'I never noticed that' - an evening walk in Ipswich
• 11 July 'Ipswich's Oldest Valley' - an evening walk in Henslow Road
• 21 August Great Dunmow Maltings and Ingatestone Hall
• September John Norman.s East London, including the Olympic Park