April 2015 Issue 199
Contents
Editorial
New members
Chairman's remarks
The Grand Old Duke of York
Planning Matters
Ipswich Garden Suburb
Ipswich Local Plan
shopping with Mum 1941
A 'Future Garden Suburb'
Snippets 1
Review: Ipswich Arboretum
Review: Ipswich Book of Days
Letters to the Editor
Fore Street Facelift Exhibition
The First Driver's Lament
The Ipswich Coin Hoard 1863
Another Wiltshire doodle
Wolsey Angels saved
Snippets 2
A breat of fresh air
The Society on Facebook
Musing about 'Gyppeswycke'
Our back pages
Officers, Society contact details
Dates for your diary
Tailpieces
Will we see its like again? (see page 2)
Editorial
The answer to the question posed at the foot of our cover page is: ‘Let’s hope not’. Some cynics
might see this gigantic version of dining-room furniture as a triumph of speculation over
vision. Standing for eight years as monument to 21st century man’s hubris, The Wine Rack is
due to be completed in forthcoming months. The structure has been rumoured for much of its
existence to be composed of internal quality concrete so, given the extremities of the weather
to which it has been exposed, due for demolition before anything else could be done with the
site. But soft! It turns out that all is well and the building will be completed after all. No pun
intended (well, not much), but it does make one reflect…
I should draw your attention to all the articles in this Newsletter and the excellent contributors,
too. In particular, I commend our special supplement A Tale of Three Cities which contains
some thought-provoking research on our town along with an interesting commentary. R.G.
33 new members
Chairman’s remarks
We have secured the services of Terry Baxter as speaker at the Society’s Annual General
Meeting at the UCS Waterfront building on Wednesday 29 April. With Terry’s co-operation we
are trying something different this year. Terry is Chief Executive of Ipswich Central, the BID
(Business Improvement District) company who are, with others, responsible for ensuring that
we have a successful town centre, one that attracts both residents and visitors from a wide
catchment: people who find reason to linger and enjoy the ambience and, of course, spend their
money here rather than at the multitude of alternative shopping destinations that are available
across the region.
Terry will paint a picture of where we are now but would then like to pick up on your ideas as
to what needs to change, what needs to improve and how we, collectively, sell Ipswich to the
world. What we don’t want are negative comments; it is all too easy to criticise what has gone
before, and for the most part we know what’s wrong. What we need to know is how to put
things right.
We are probably talking about change and change is unsettling: it disrupts the town, it disrupts
the ambience and it disrupts the people, but it is change that we need. A simple example is
replacing buildings, making them fit for the twenty-first century and suitable for retailers and
their customers. Today’s retailers need large, flat floor spaces that are easily accessible (from
the front and from the rear), over which the occupier has complete control and in which he can
display the goods without the distractions of windows, columns or dark corners. The out-of-
town stores have developed this model and it works, so which town centre buildings can we
knock down to make way for the creation of a modern city centre?
There was much criticism amongst members about the proposal to revamp the Cornhill but
most agree that it is tired and worn, that it doesn’t offer anything different to a multitude of
other public squares in other town centres and that even the market, on the four days per week
doesn’t completely fill the space. It blocks the entrance to the Town Hall, to Manning’s and the
Old Post Office – something has to give…? Your suggestions as to what would be appreciated
and will give us ideas for discussion.
The ongoing improvement to Tower Ramparts Shopping Centre seems to be working but what
are we to do with the Buttermarket Shopping Centre? Yes, it’s been sold but is it to be retail, or
leisure? Should we build an additional shopping centre elsewhere and how do we get the
evening economy working again? It has been suggested that we need a walking connection
between the Cornhill and the Waterfront, so which route should it take? Before you answer
that question consider how many times one of your visits to the town centre includes a coffee
by the Wet Dock marina?
How do we get specialist independent retail outlets to succeed? What help do you think they
need to get beyond their first year, and how can we get half a dozen to open together, trade
together and attract customers from outside Ipswich?
Send your ideas and questions to me (contact details on page 23). We’ll select the best and
Terry will comment at the AGM.
John Norman
The Grand Old Duke Of York
Like many pub stories, John Norman’s amusing thoughts in July’s Newsletter on the origins of
the Duke of York pub in Woodbridge Road may perhaps owe more to someone’s lively
imagination than to history. The interesting ‘Ipswich Icons’ article in the East Anglian Daily
Times that he quotes is rather harsh on the poor old Duke of York. There are other Dukes of York
who might have been the one in the nursery rhyme but as the article says, George III’s second
son, Frederick (1763-1827), seems the most likely. He became Colonel of the Lifeguards in 1782
at the age of 19 and, with a little help from his father, shot rapidly up the higher ranks of the
Army to be made a full General in 1793 at the start of the French Revolutionary War. An abortive
Flanders campaign that he led in 1793-5 may have been the reason for the rhyme, but it caused
him to make a massive reform of the incompetent and corrupt Army when made its Commander-
in-Chief in 1795.
In the words of Sir John Fortescue in his massive History of the British Army, published in 1930,
“[he did] more for the army than any one man has done for it in the whole of its history”. This
included setting up Sandhurst as the first officers’ training college and organising the defences of
England against a possible French invasion. This may actually be the truth behind the rhyme if
the troops quartered in the various barracks along the east and south coasts were sent out on route
marches, ‘there and back’, to keep them fit and occupied while they waited for the invasion that
never came? It seems possible that this was part of the Duke’s training programme to shake-up
the army and make it able to face Napoleon’s formidable troops. Perhaps a military historian can
enlighten us.
A large number of pubs were named after him; a survey in 1864 listed 32 called Duke of York in
London alone, many of them linked to troops who had fought in the Peninsula War. The other
local pub with that name, as John Norman mentions, was on the Ipswich Road in Woodbridge,
where it meets Barrack Road – a rather similar situation to that in Ipswich. By 1836 both pub
and barracks had disappeared according to the tithe map records. There the site is shown as a
field, called Duke of York Piece. In recent years it was wholly transformed from a garage and
service station into a pub once more, initially called The Seal. The hand of history then reached
out nearly two hundred years and it was renamed the Duke of York, claiming to be ‘on the very
hill up which the Grand Old Duke of York marched his 10,000 men’. Duke Frederick’s name
lives on.
In his day it was nationally famous, not just for a nursery rhyme with political overtones. His
downfall had come in 1809 when his mistress, Mary Anne Clarke – a fetching courtesan – started
selling commissions in the Army. In a complicated scenario she had to face a House of
Commons committee and claimed that the Duke was complicit in the sales, which she admitted
carrying out.
A twelve-day enquiry acquitted him but he felt bound in honour to resign, put under pressure by the parliamentary
opposition and a crushing cartoon by Cruikshank published two days earlier. In those days personal honour ranked as more important than it often seems today. Two years later, it was all found to have been a put-up job with a false accuser. The Duke of York was exonerated and reinstated as Commander-in-Chief. On his death in 1827, the whole army agreed to forgo a day’s pay to meet the cost of the Duke of York Column which now stands in London at the junction of Lower Regent Street and The Mall.
Tim Voelcker
Planning Matters
Ravenswood areas U,V and W. The original concept for this estate of 1,200 houses was one
of integration: a mix of owner occupier and social housing such that the casual visitor would
not know the difference. It is generally agreed that this has worked well but the latest phase, 94
dwellings by Ipswich Borough Council, will all be paid for by the Homes and Communities
Agency. The layout is reasonable and the architecture, by a Colchester firm, is contemporary
and crisp. They will be well insulated low-energy houses.
However, this change in policy has upset existing residents and, quite reasonably, dozens
objected. Following the granting of planning permission the scheme has been 'called in' by
Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
Former Mann Egerton's (Landspeed) Garage, 96 Princes St + part of car park. Ipswich
Borough Council, as owners, propose demolition of the garage and, using part of car park to
build a modern five storey office block, the architects (Cornish) have designed an unassuming
building to go around the corner into Friars Bridge Street. It could be occupied by one or up to
ten firms. IBC see this as economic promotion which The Society supports but they have
missed the opportunity of commissioning either a local firm who might well have pulled out all
the stops and designed a landmark, or a star – which would have cost them more, or having an
RIBA competition. Instead they have a medium-sized London firm which has designed a large
number of decent modern idiom buildings but in our view has failed to deliver a fine design.
St Margarets Green/St Margarets Plain (former Kwik Fit). Architects KKM of North
London have submitted a quite ordinary design for a residential care home on this important
town centre corner site. The vehicle entrance would be on St Margarets Green with five
parking places and the pedestrian access from Crown Street. Planned are four storeys with
lounge and day room on the ground floor. It is, in the Society’s opinion, wrong on a number of
counts.
Babergh: Belstead House. Conversion of the listed house and the erection of 115 new
dwellings (plus a 65 bed care home) in the grounds. Current use: dog-walking with a little
cattle grazing. The core is a 17th century farmhouse with original beams and plasterwork;
additions, since the 1930s, include the restaurant and residential accommodation. There is
some opposition on loss of green space and potential increase in traffic.
Babergh: Poplar Lane. Land between A14 (west side), A1214 (south side) and A1071
Hadleigh Road. Taylor Wimpey have aspirations to build 355 houses on the 55 hectare triangle
of land at the back of the Holiday Inn, London Road. Currently the land is agricultural
(including seed suppliers Thompson & Morgan) but is allocated on the Babergh District Plan
as mixed use including employment (6.5 hectares), a nursery, a primary school, roads and
Sustainable drainage systems ponds and a substantial number of houses, some affordable.
Incidentally, we are keeping our eye on Regatta Quay (the ‘Wine Rack’), where the developer
has applied for planning permission for the extra (13th) floor which appeared in 2007;
additionally they applied to avoid paying ‘Section 106’ contributions which they claim would
make the scheme unviable. More comment on this on page 18. Mike Cook
Ipswich Garden Suburb
We must now call the proposals, heretofore always known as the The Northern Fringe, The
Ipswich Garden Suburb.
It is, of course, not a Garden Suburb as conceived by Ebenezer Howard over a hundred years
ago because the original conception was of an independent benevolent corporation owning all
the land whereas our Garden Suburb's land is owned by a multitude of developers who, led by
CBRE (self-styled, the globe's development leaders), have one over-arching aim: to make
money.
To that end they can employ an army of skilled and experienced professionals to manage their
expectations. When faced with such a juggernaut it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
achieve the People’s desires.
Nevertheless, they have lost the very first round; the full planning application to build a few
houses of poor design with no infrastructure has been withdrawn. Suffolk County Council, who
have total authority for the planning and maintenance for every highway everywhere in Suffolk
(the A14 and the A12 southwards remain with the Highways Agency), reviewed the Traffic
Analysis and Transport Plans; they have reported to Ipswich Borough Council, the responsible
planning authority, that they could not approve the development without a considerable
improvement in these two areas . Several other important considerations have not been solved
by the developers, in particular the house design, the timing of the on-site infrastructure and the
sewer drainage.
So, Ipswich Borough Council has agreed that the hearing of the outline application for the area
to the south of the railway and abutting onto Westerfield Road will be put back to September
2015. We expect the revisions by the end of May.
The Ipswich Local Plan 2015
By the time you read this, our response to the Public Consultation on the Submissions will
have been returned. A Local Plan is the vital, legal requirement that governs how town planners
control the way our towns are configured in the next years; they are the reference point for
resolving planning applications. The Borough's long term planners draw up a set of Core
Strategies, Development Policies and Site Allocations. Additionally, there are submissions on
Sustainability and Ecology. Probably a thousand pages!
They are open to public consultation which finished on March 5 2015, after which appropriate
revision takes place. Then they are submitted to a Planning Inspector who assesses the
soundness of the plans and once again they are amended before becoming the adopted Local
Plan. In the absence of such a legal document, it is very hard to administer planning at all,
Luckily, Ipswich has an excellent planning department and we have always been up to speed.
We expect to have the Enquiry in public, at which The Society may give evidence, before the
end of the year.
Mike Cook
Shopping with Mum, 1941
Today’s young child would not recognise the world of sixty-odd years ago. I don’t think the
word ‘toddler’ was used for a three and a half year old then. Going to the shops did not
involve being strapped into a car seat, being driven to the supermarket and then dumped into
the seat on a trolley where all sights and tempting touches are safely out of reach. For me in
Ipswich in 1941 shopping trips were much more interesting.
To start with I would be helped with my sensible lace-up shoes. My coat would be buttoned up
and my bonnet securely tied under my chin before I was sent to go to the toilet and asked
“Have you got a clean hanky?” My Mother would take my hand as we walked down the road
and round the corner to The Avenue which was an unmade road under an avenue of large elm
trees. Then we crossed Park Road with proper curb drill, and into Christchurch Park. We
walked down the main driveway and I was allowed to run on the grass but not to dawdle.
Mother would point out red squirrels and interesting birds. We left the park just past the
Christchurch Mansion under the large plane trees, having walked about a mile. Now I had to
take Mother’s hand again. There were no zebra crossings but neither was there much traffic.
Our first stop was at Colman’s Corner to visit Swinton’s the Butcher. Here there would be a
queue, often trailing out the door. Once inside the shop the black and white tiled floor was
covered in sawdust (to mop up drops of blood from the fresh meat, though I never queried it). I
loved to scuff my shoes in the sawdust and make patterns whilst I waited. Mother would shake
my hand and tell me that I was getting it in my shoes. My other joy was the sturdy metal bars
in front of the counter put there for customers to rest their baskets. There were about five the
length of the counter and I loved running my hands along them and feeling their smoothness.
The shop smelt of sawdust rather than meat. I do remember the big wooden block where the
butcher Mr Swinton Senior used to swing a large cleaver to cut very small pieces of meat. He
was a big man, with a round jovial face and ready smile for all his customers. He would lean
across the counter and say to my Mother “I’ve slipped a bit of kidney into the bag for your
little girl, Mrs Jones.” I didn’t realise then how precious that was but I did enjoy it when it was
fished out of the gravy and vegetables on to my lunch plate.
We had quite a walk along Great Colman Street, where there was nothing to look at, across
Northgate Street into the alley way by the old oak house and round by the huge flint-knapped
church of St Mary Le Tower. I knew that that was where I was Christened even though I didn’t
know what it meant. My father had told me all about it and about flint-knapping. There was
some flint knapping on the church wall as well which I could look at as we hurried along, the
meat safely wrapped in white paper and then some newspaper at the bottom of Mother’s
basket.
The next shop was the dairy shop, Maypole, next to Mac Fisheries where sometimes we got
some kippers. That was another shop with exciting smells and all the fish laid out on a marble
slab with little bits of real parsley to decorate it. If you bought white fish the fishmonger gave
you a few sprigs of parsley. Later we used to go across the road to Sainsbury’s for our dairy
produce.
I was enthralled by Sainsbury’s but Mother said it was very expensive. It was a large, high hall
with counters down each side selling different products, cheese, butter, meat etc. You had to
queue at each counter but there was a bentwood chair for the customer, not children, to sit down on whilst they were being served by girls in white aprons and with white caps on their heads. When Mother paid for her purchases the girl put the money and the bill in a canister and put it into another container hanging from sort of tram wires which criss-crossed the shop. She would pull a lever and with a loud clanging the container would whiz across the shop to the end, where in a high room visible to the shop, girls in the accounts department would deal with it and send the change whizzing back. I thought it would be great fun to work there.
My parents grew most of their own vegetables but if Mother wanted to buy some extra we
would walk to the market which was held in the Corn Exchange. This building still operated
as a Corn Exchange on certain days. When you went in for the market you could see the
dealers’ high desks stacked up at the sides, with painted signs above then showing their firms’
names and the commodity they dealt in such as oats or barley.
On market days all sorts of people came in and set up stalls on wooden trestles selling what
they had grown. I don’t think any of it went through Covent Garden. There would be fresh
lettuces and bunches of beetroot nestling alongside precious black market farm eggs. Even as
a small child I knew that eggs were rationed and shouldn’t have been on sale. My Mother
would have described herself as law abiding but she would happily buy one black market,
expensive egg for my tea. It was just wrapped in newspaper and popped in her basket. By this
time I was usually pretty tired and we had a long walk up hill home so I was allowed to sit on
the shelves under the corn merchants’ stands whilst my Mother finished her shopping.
Shopping wasn’t always for food but I think we went out for food probably twice a week.
With no refrigerators meat had to be bought as it was needed. Apart from that when you have
to carry everything, and you have to walk home up hill with a young child it is easier to do it in
small batches. I expect the other problem was with everything rationed, the shops only had
small quantities.
On some occasions we went to buy clothes. My mother made most of mine so it was shoes
and material that I remember. The shoe shop was in the Butter Market just up from Cowell’s
the printers which is where the Buttermarket Shopping Mall now stands. I always had Start-rite
or Clarks shoes as I had ‘difficult’ feet. We would sit on hard chairs and the assistant brought a
stool with a slope at the front. I had to put my socked feet on to the slope and she would sit
decorously side saddle on the stool and measure my feet. There would then be a discussion as
to how much room should be allowed for growth. Eventually shoes were brought out for my
Mother to choose. They were usually brown lace-ups. I wanted red shoes. I had never seen
red shoes or even a picture of red shoes but that was what I wanted. However I was not
consulted and I was duly laced up into these heavy, stiff new shoes. Then came the fun bit. I
was lifted up onto a small platform and told to push my feet through an opening in a large box-
like structure. The assistant pressed a switch and I was told to look through a small viewing
window at the top. There were my feet all greenish. I could see the outside of the shoes and all
the bones in my feet. I was told to wiggle my toes and I could watch whilst my Mother and the
shop keeper looked through two other viewing windows and discussed the peculiarities of my
feet. I was fascinated. It was certainly worth putting up with brown lace-ups which I hoped
would soon be too small so we could go again.
Going to buy material was fun as well because we had to go into the large department store
called Footman & Pretty, know locally as Footman’s. We went in through the door in Lloyds
Avenue and passed under the stairs to the fabric department. My Mother always looked at
many different materials before she chose a suitable print. She would explain the different
types of material to me, and having carefully wiped my hands with a clean handkerchief allow
me to feel some of the special materials and explain why they were
unsuitable for us and what they could be used for. The number of coupons was always the biggest criterion in the selection. Materials with the utility mark took fewer coupons.
Sometimes we would go into the next department to buy a pretty handkerchief
for my Grandmother. When we had finished all our purchases they had to be put on the account as my Father provided my Mother with an account at several shops so that she didn’t have to carry too much money. People didn’t have cheques and credit cards in those days. My Mother signed the bills and then they were put in a container which was put into a chute on the wall and when the shop assistant pulled a lever there was a whoosh and it disappeared up a pipe in the wall, to the accounts department which on this occasion we couldn’t see. Eventually there would be a rattle and the receipted bill would return.
Having carefully put this away in her handbag my Mother would gracefully get off the high
chair where she had been resting. The shop assistant would hand her a brown paper parcel
carefully tied up with string and with a loop for carrying. The Floor Walker would stroll up and
thank Mother for her custom and the doors would be opened for us to leave.
Shopping was an event which we obviously enjoyed because I can recall it in such detail. It
wasn’t the purchases but the ceremonies that went with it that gave it such impact. Perhaps a
little of this would make retail therapy better today.
Clare Urry (née Jones)
A ‘Future Garden Suburb’
If you went to the World War I Exhibition at the Town Hall in November you may have come
across a coloured map, printed by Cowell’s of Ipswich in about 1922. The railway was still
marked as the GER; the amalgamation of 1923 was still to take place after which it was part of
the LNER.
Maps are always fascinating and this one more so, because it features an Ipswich we think we
can remember and pointers to the future: a period of time into which we have now arrived.
Every word tells a story but three caught my eye. In the triangle of land between Hadleigh
Road, London Road and the railway line were the words ‘Future Garden Suburb’.
(Where’ve I heard that recently?)
The forty houses to a design by architect Harold Hooper and built by G.A. Kenny and Sons are
today Allenby Road. The very first council houses in Ipswich.
The classic example of a Garden Suburb is probably Letchworth, a new town by Raymond
Unwin following the advice of Ebenezer Howard which was built at the start of the twentieth
century. There are a number of factors that made Letchworth work; the land was in the single
ownership of the Development Corporation having been (compulsorily) purchased* under the
New Towns legislation. The density across the town is ten times more spacious than the
number of homes per hectare planned for the Northern Fringe and the design of individual
houses was to a quality standard it would be difficult to match today.
Next time you are pulling out of Sainsbury’s, Hadleigh Road take a look at the houses opposite
and think ‘Garden Suburb’.
John Norman
*The land was mainly purchased from the Family of Quakers who in turn had assembled the
site with the intention of a Quaker Community.
GER: Great Eastern Railway
LNER: London North Eastern Railway
The area shown on a 1902 map; note the small number of houses
Snippets 1
St Edmund’s House
St Edmund House (previously part of SCC County Hall) is being converted into flats. No
planning application is needed because such a conversion these days only requires a Prior
Notification (14/00810). We understand 74 flats are planned. The fact that the building is
being used is good news; it was becoming a bit of a problem to its Rope Walk neighbours, but
the way that it can be converted without consultation is a worrying development.
I personally have some doubts about the viability of the flats. St Edmund House was built as an
office block with large floor plates; most of the usable space is some distance from the
windows. The flats will consist of a combined lounge and kitchen with natural daylight on the
south elevation, leading into two bedrooms (no fenestration) and two ensuite bathrooms (with
mechanical ventilation). Between the bedrooms is the single entrance off a central communal
corridor with a similar flat immediately opposite (which obtains its daylight from the north
facing external face of the building). J.N.
A design workshop....
… on the proposed ‘Northern Fringe’ residential development in Ipswich was organised by
local boy Euan Connolly as part of his Planning dissertation and, on January 20, members of
the Ipswich Society assisted Euan in the chilly ‘Society Boardroom’ in Pykenham’s Gatehouse
on Northgate Street.
Pens, pencils, post-it notes, maps and file paper were employed by attendees attempting to
design their dream solution to the ‘Northern Fringe’ problem, with the simple provisos that (a)
the scheme is assumed to be going ahead and (b) that some development was required (in case
some bright spark designed a series of fields, hedges and a remote farmhouse). Numerous ideas
were put forward on this controversial scheme and we hope that the exercise was helpful for
participants and for Euan. We wish him all good luck in this project.
Buttermarket shopping centre
As this Newsletter was being prepared for publication, news broke about the sale to developers/
investors of this important site. A mix of retail and leisure use including restaurants is likely.
Croydon’s, 50-52 Tavern Street
The work carried out before Christmas on this early building with its decorative 1929 facade
(built onto the truncated timber frame after a road-widening scheme) may have removed some
excellent internal woodwork and plaster mouldings. Entering the old Croydon’s Watchmaker &
Jeweller store was a cultural experience: cabinets filled with silver plate, a fine staircase,
stained glass window, café and much varnished and polished woodwork. The business was sold
and went into receivership in 2004 and by that time had moved to Butter Market. The building
is not Listed and has been empty since Blacks’ outfitters moved out in 2012 – part of the
original store is now a Virgin Media outlet. The Borough Council Leader, the Borough’s
Conservation Officer, an English Heritage inspector, the local MP, our own Chairman, the local
press and others (no response from the Tesco Chief Executive yet) have all been involved in
the concern surrounding the future of the building; however, by the time you read this, the
‘stripping out’ of the empty part of the ground floor may already have taken its toll.
Ipswich Arboretum: a history and celebration by David Miller. Gresham, 2014, £10
This is a delightful book. In fact it’s really like four books in one – a fully researched history of the Arboretum, a
lovingly told account of the head gardeners and their work, a very useful tree trail and a fascinating collection of photographs, some from old postcards.
It has long been accepted that Ipswich is blessed with outstanding parks. The Arboretum in Christchurch Park is
arguably the most special of them all. The Upper Arboretum, created as a public park in 1853, is also our oldest public park. (Christchurch Park itself was taken over by the Corporation in 1895 and the Lower Arboretum, which had existed only for private subscribers, in 1922.) So it is very appropriate that an ideally qualified person should at last tell the story of these precious assets.
David Miller, the author, was born in the Arboretum lodge
next to the Henley Road gates. He clearly learned a great deal about the park’s plants and
trees from his father who was Head Gardener from 1966 till 1991. Now his recent
researches have enabled him to describe how our Victorian benefactors finally won over the
foot-draggers after six years of persuasion, followed by protracted negotiations with the
nurseryman at the northern end of what is now the Arboretum. Then we come to the
creation of the Brett Fountain, the Arts and Crafts shelter (not a bandstand, we are
reminded), the sequence of distinguished gardening achievements and the horrible night of
the Great Storm of 1987, when the author lay awake in the lodge hearing the trees come
down. Happily major restoration has taken place since then and we can all enjoy the
“healthful and harmonious recreation” envisaged by Councillor James Allen Ransome in
1847.
I hope David Miller will have the pleasure of seeing visitors to the Arboretum using his book to identify and appreciate the splendid range of trees. But anybody acquiring his book will realise that producing it was a labour of love for him and his other contributors.
(All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Friends of Christchurch Park for the benefit of the Arboretum and the Park.)
Neil Salmon
The Ipswich Book of Days by Rachel Field.
The History Press, 2014, £9.99
When I got this book I did not put it down. There are many snippets of unusual, intriguing and not-well-known facts. For instance:-
January 1800: there was a soup kitchen in the yard of the Coach and Horses, Upper Brook Street.
January 1842: The lock at the new Wet Dock was opened; apparently not everyone was happy about it.
January 1847: Rev. John Nottidge, who built Holy Trinity Church in Back Hamlet at his own expense, died and there follows in the entry a potted history.
1297: Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward I, was married to the Count of Holland at King’s Hall near St Peter’s Church.
1868: The Town Hall was opened; there was some dispute about whether the clock would be set to ‘Ipswich Time’ or GMT. At this period Britain did not have a standard time.
Here are some snippets for April when you may be reading this review in the Newsletter:-
1. April 1967: the Jimi Hendrix Experience supported the Walker Brothers at Ipswich Gaumont.
2. April 1911: about thirty Votes For Women campaigners spent the night in the Old Museum Rooms (Arlington's) to avoid filling in their census returns.
3. 14 April 1863: the last public execution took place in the archway off St Helen’s Street by the goal.
I was not sure that I was going to like the format of a Book of Days but I found it to be a good
read and informative. Also, some of the items were intriguing so it led me into researching
them in more depth.
Mandy Gaylard
The Brickmaker’s Tale by Peter Minter. Bulmer Brick and Tile Co., 2014. Society members may be interested in this book, published just before Christmas 2014, as many will have visited the Bulmer Brickworks or attended one of Peter’s talks. The book is available from the company office (address below), from the Kestrel Bookshop in Sudbury or by post. The cost is £30.00; please add £3.00 postage & packing if you would like one posted. Bulmer Brick and Tile Co Ltd, The Brickfields, Bulmer, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 7EF.
email: bbt@bulmerbrickandtile.co.uk; telephone: 01787 269232
Letters to the editor
Logo & mistletoe from Jean Smart
Thank you for the explanation regarding the Ipswich Society logo in the last Newsletter. It’s
amazing how often we see something and take it for granted; our eye and brain has learnt that
particular logo is that of the Society but I was not aware of its makeup and of its significance.
Now when I see the logo I can actually see distinctly the component parts.
On a point of seeing things and accepting them, Ed. – there have been ‘balls’ of mistletoe in the
trees all around the town for at least the last 10 years that I know of; I am always amazed that
they are still in situ after the Christmas period.
The Ship from Ken Wilson
The photograph [from our Slide Collection] of Bernard Reynolds’ Ship in the January
Newsletter is a reminder of the many imposing features that once enhanced what was to have
been the main entrance to the Civic Centre on the lower ground floor. These included John
Green’s dramatic mural of the river. (I was assured that this would be preserved – where is
it now?)
The Ship as pictured is, even then, deprived of its original watery surroundings and it now
stands, a short distance away, high and dry on its mound like some latter-day Noah’s Ark.
The Fore Street Facelift 1961 Exhibition
When Queen Elizabeth II visited Ipswich in July 1961 to open the Civic College, the Society
joined local architects to give a major – and much needed – refurbishment to Fore Street, so
that the royal motorcade could process along an attractive, decorated thoroughfare. Architect
drawings and hand-coloured plans of the colour scheme, contemporary and present-day
photographs, press coverage and maps will be on display from October 2 to 16. Please make a
note in your diaries for a Members’ Launch Evening at the UCS Waterfront building at 7pm on
Friday 2 October 2015 which will include the exhibition, a short film, speakers, drinks and
canapés. More details and tickets will be included in the September Newsletter.
The First Driver’s Lament
I drive, as lonely as a cloud, The kids among them danced; but they
My empty bus o'er Belstead Hills. Probably would travel free:
A queue one day saw I, a crowd, A driver could not help but say
Showing their collective wills. 'I do not want their company'.
At the stop, beneath the trees, I drive and drive, but often thought
Alas! my plight they would not ease. How very few my bus has caught.
Stood back, did they, all in line, For oft, when for new fares I ply,
None giving me the time of day. In vacant – known as 'empty mode',
They waited for a bus – not mine – An Ipswich Bus goes flashing by,
And merely waved me on my way. Full occupied, along the road,
Should I stop? a bold advance, And how my heart with sadness fills,
Would one come aboard, perchance? To hear the other driver's trills.
The Ipswich Coin Hoard of 1863
The recent discovery of a hoard of around five thousand Anglo -Saxon silver pennies from the
reigns of Cnut and Ethelred II in a Buckinghamshire field has reminded me of the Ipswich
Coin Hoard of 1863. The commonly accepted version is that one hundred and fifty coins were
discovered in the Butter Market, and that only seventy-five are known today. They are all silver
pennies of Ethelred II , and twenty-seven of them are from the Ipswich Mint: the first coins to
be struck in the town. There are suggestions that the discovery place was the site of the Mint.
However, I have done a bit of investigating. There was a very enthusiastic numismatist about
fifty years ago who wrote an in-depth article on the hoard, and I have rediscovered this piece. I
have also found the original account of Sir John Evans, who was consulted about the Hoard.
It appears that a workman involved in the demolition of a house on the corner of St Lawrence
Lane and the Butter Market, now the location of Robert Gatward's most easterly shop, found
an earthenware pot. There are two versions: one, that it was under the doorstep and two, that it
was ten feet down at the bottom of a rubbish pit. There were other broken pots next to it (?) It
contained over five hundred silver Anglo-Saxon pennies, all of which were covered in a
reddish oxide. It was stated that only one hundred and twenty were in good condition. They
seem to have been sold off rather quickly. A Mr R. Francis of Ipswich communicated the find
to Sir John Evans, an eminent numismatist and archaeologist of the time. He was able to
examine, identify and list sixty of the coins in 1864. I think that these coins were in the
possession of Mr Francis and Mr J Warren and Rev. Pollexfen.
Subsequent work has tracked down another fifteen coins from the hoard. Some of them are
now in the British Museum Collection. I have examined this revised list, and counted only 23
from the Ipswich Mint. Strange, perhaps I am missing something.
Also there is something odd about the hoard. Sir John Evans noticed some unusual features. All
the coins, from whatever mint around the country, have the identical reverse: the ‘first hand of
providence’ as it is called. Some of the dies are unknown elsewhere; some of the
abbreviations for the Moneyers and Mints differ from the usual.
Couple that with the fact that the house where the find was made had been the
home of James Conder, a draper and keen numismatist who minted his own low value coins and tokens, and a small level of suspicion creeps in. Was Mr Conder a forger who buried a pot full of coins to ‘tone’ or ‘age’ them, and died before the process was complete… and nobody likes to admit that they spent a lot of money on a fake, do they?
Louis Musgrove
!Working on your behalf for a better Ipswich
It’s 1987 and Dr Chris Wiltshire, now one of the Society’s Vice-Presidents, is giving the
Executive Committee meeting on the 14th of April his undivided attention as he Chairs it.
Wolsey angels saved for the nation
“The recovery of Wolsey’s angels is one of those miracles that historians pray for; something
that seems irrevocably lost has been there all the time. To claim the angels for the nation would
connect us to one of the liveliest eras of our history and one of its most remarkable men.”
Hilary Mantel
The Victoria & Albert Museum has now successfully raised the money to acquire four highly
important bronze angels originally designed for the tomb of that son of an Ipswich butcher,
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, chief adviser to King Henry VIII and once one of the most powerful
men in England (and pre-eminent patron of the sculptor Benedetto da Rovezzano).
The campaign was very much aided by a grant of £2 million from the National Heritage
Memorial Fund, the Art Fund generously contributed £500,000, and the Friends of the V&A gave
£200,000; a further substantial gift was made in memory of Melvin R. Seiden, and many other
private individuals and trusts, most notably the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts, also donated.
Over £87,000 was raised from a national public appeal and The Ipswich Society contributed £250
towards this important venture. Around £33,000 of that came through on-site donations and
selling £1 ‘Save the Wolsey Angels’ badges in the V&A Shop.
During the fundraising campaign, all four of The Wolsey Angels were reunited for the first time
since 1988 in the V&A’s Medieval & Renaissance Galleries. Now that the pieces have been
acquired they will undergo conservation treatment and their differing surface appearance, due to
their recent history, will be investigated and harmonised. They will go back on display once the
work has been complete.
The existence of the angels remained unknown until two of them appeared at auction in 1994,
unillustrated and catalogued simply as being ‘in Italian Renaissance style’. They were acquired
by a Parisian art dealer and later the Italian scholar Francesco Caglioti convincingly attributed
them to Benedetto da Rovezzano. In 2008 the remaining pair of angels was discovered at
Harrowden Hall, a country house in Northamptonshire, now owned by the Wellingborough Golf
Club, where all four angels once stood on top of the gateposts. English examples of Rovezzano’s
work are rare. A lobby is growing to bring the angels to Ipswich on loan.
Snippets 2
Anton House
If you have driven into Grimwade Street recently you will have noticed building work being
carried out, just south of the junction with St Helens Street. Barnes Construction have been
converting St Andrew’s House, the 1930s building at the back of the old County Hall, into 35
one bedroom and 17 two bedroom flats. The original three storey building had a fourth floor
added in the 1970s and all four have now become residential accommodation. Following the £5
million conversion for Iceni Homes, the building gets a new name: Anton House.
Sugar Beet
IBC have purchased the former Sugar Beet site, Sproughton Road, for a reported £10 million
(it was originally sold by British Sugar for £18 million). There will be an expected £8 million
additional expenditure on site clearance (demolishing the silos) and decontamination.
The vendor was effectively NAMA (the Irish Government’s bad debt holding company, the
National Asset Management Agency) who also own The Mill (Cranfield’s) and until recently
the Wine Rack (Regatta Quay or as it should be known – Albion Wharf).
The Wine Rack or Regatta Quay
Firstly let’s get rid of both of these silly names and use something historical, with a bit more
meaning, like Albion Wharf.
The Wine Rack was sold to John Howard (Suffolk) subject to planning, which has now been
granted. At the Planning meeting the agent promised:
• The building will be fully clad within 12 months
• The ‘stack’ car park system will be implemented
• The space allocated as a theatre (originally for the Red Rose Chain who have subsequently built a new theatre at Gipping Hall) may be utilised as intended, although the final decision has not been made. It could be converted to office space.
• The Concrete Frame is Structurally Sound.
We do know that John Howard has been in negotiation with builders and suppliers to move
things forward. This information came from the November minutes of the Planning
Committee and thus is somewhat dated; things should by now be progressing. The work
you’ve probably seen going on in the car park is actually for the adjoining site. The car parking
for the shell building is within the core. J.N.
Town centre
13.4% of town centre shops are currently vacant (December 2014 figure).
Pykenham’s Gatehouse
The Gatehouse in Northgate Street, opposite the library, will be opening to the public again on
the first Saturday of each month from May to October 2015 between 10.30 and 12.30. This 15th
century building is a rare and valuable survival of medieval Ipswich and well worth a visit -
children especially are intrigued by the hidden stairway. Ipswich Society volunteers to assist
with these open days are always welcome – please contact secretary@ipswichsociety.org.uk
A Breath of Fresh Air
By the time you read this I shall be on the move from our Wolsey Street flat to a more
permanent home; meanwhile Bob and I have enjoyed our short sojourn in ‘the Saints’,
particularly the breath of fresh air (or should that be hot air?) from our balconies.
Our bedroom balcony looks south down Wolsey Street to Cardinal Park, an area I was pretty
indifferent to before I moved here (and that’s being charitable – I have never really come to
terms with the destruction of the horse tramway depot to make way for a ‘car park’). Closer
scrutiny however reveals a thriving and lively open space full of young people with plenty to
do, well-equipped with useful (and used) seating and litter bins. Liquid is my ‘favourite’ venue,
providing Ipswich youngsters with amusement well into the small hours on Friday and
Saturday nights. And I have great admiration for the owners of the burger van that appears in
the Jewson’s layby on Wolsey Street from midnight until about 4am (sorry I’m a bit vague on
the timing of this one!) on these two nights to cash in on the egress from the night club.
There is lots of pedestrian traffic from Cardinal Park through Wolsey Street and Cutler Street to
the ‘the Saints’. The whole area works well with the two – quite mixed in terms of size, rent,
etc. – residential blocks between the Cardinal Park leisure venue and the specialist shops in
‘the Saints’ (and with such a wealth of excellent eating places I’ve given up cooking!). I did
most of my Christmas shopping in St Peter’s Street and received compliments from relatives of
both the London and Chinese variety on their individuality. Of course the high footfall owes
much to the presence of Willis nearby with its periodic discharge of office workers to the
shops, restaurants, the cinema and St Nicholas Church which they use quite regularly as a
conference centre.
St Vincent House is in full view across Franciscan way from our living space balcony. It is
being refurbished and there has been a skip in Cutler Street for much of our stay, providing The Church of St Nicholas from the balconysome diverting amusement as skip, delivery lorries, cars and pedestrians vie for the ‘shared space’. We can see into St Vincent House: the road works barriers from Cutler Street are
currently stored on the second floor and there are two exercise bikes on the third floor (much used by the incumbent office workers). And, keeping the best till last, the Willis building dominates the view to the north from this balcony (over the winter we have watched the glass come off and then go back on again) and, with St Nicholas Church in the foreground and the Unitarian Church behind, what more could you wish for? It is a study in quality architecture from the 14th to 20th centuries – the perfect backdrop for a cup of tea and a breath of fresh air.
Caroline Markham
The Ipswich Society Facebook page
After much deliberation between the Executive Committee members over
several months the Ipswich Society is now on Facebook!
Nothing else has changed. We still have our traditional website and our quarterly Newsletter and
our Secretary will continue to send out reminders and updates to members by email just as she
always has. Our Facebook page is just an additional tool in our communications armoury.
Why should the Ipswich Society use Facebook?
Whether we like it or not, we live in a changing world and increasing numbers of people are
choosing to use social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook to receive their information.
Many organisations similar to our own have been using Facebook for some time and have found
it beneficial. It appeals to younger people as well as reaching a far wider audience than our other
methods. (Some of our ‘posts’ were reaching over 2000 people within a week of us launching the
page last December). For the Society to continue in the long term it will need to be able to attract
younger people who prefer this form of contact. In this busy world we need to make our message
friendly, informative and easy to read, and by using Facebook we can easily add to the stories
by using internet links and images.
How does the Ipswich Society use Facebook?
The Ipswich Society looks upon its Facebook page as a ‘real-time’ Newsletter. Many of
the stories on the Facebook page will be the same as in the Newsletter but as events and talks
draw near we can post reminders and current information. Last minute activities can be notified
and volunteers requested etc. We can use the page to alert members to relevant activities going
on in Ipswich by referring them to local media reports as they happen and providing
internet links. With our bigger projects such as Heritage Open Days and our forthcoming Fore
Street Exhibition we can update members and use Facebook as a platform to publicise these
events. Other similar minded organisations will share our posts putting the message out to a
much wider public who may be interested and want to take part in what we do.
We can also use the page to make people more aware of all the things we are already doing on a
regular basis such as promoting our ever-growing Flickr image archive which drew
unprecedented publicity for the Society when it was officially launched in January this year with
a blitz of media coverage, some of which stemmed from our Facebook page. We can make
people more aware of our Blue Plaques, Winter Illustrated Talks, Summer Outings and events and
anything else as these things occur, giving people a wider awareness of what the Ipswich
Society does as well as making people aware of current activities of similar organisations which
may be of interest to our members.
How do I use Facebook?
Using Facebook is very easy. To view our Facebook page is exactly the same as viewing our
website. You just click on the Facebook logo on the Ipswich Society website homepage and it
will automatically take you to our Facebook page. No password is needed and you don't have to
type anything at all. The posts are updated regularly with current information and activities. Some
stories will have links in blue which if clicked on will give you additional information on a story.
Sometimes two or three stories a day may be added, and will remain on the page so they can be
read at a later date. Clicking on photos will enlarge them and show the text more clearly.
If you have not used Facebook before just try clicking on the Facebook logo on our website or go
to https://www.facebook.com/ipswichsociety .... It's as easy as that. We have had a very positive
response from those who have tried it and our viewing ‘hits’ have been steadily rising. If you add
a shortcut to your desktop you will be able to open the page whenever you like with just one click
and browse the site.
Tim Leggett
Musing about the name Gyppeswycke
I have heard many people ask about the origins of the name Ipswich and its medieval precursor
Gyppeswycke (other spellings are available). In truth no one knows, but there have been many
suggestions over the years. One of my favourites is still that of Lillian Redstone in her book
Ipswich through the Ages published in 1948. She suggests that there was a tribal leader called
Gippa. So ‘The Gipping’ is Gippa's river , and Gippeswic would be Gippa's Wic (vicus: Latin
for village or neighbourhood). When it comes to a big smile on my face, I always have one for
the Gippa!
Anglo-Saxon words have been studied to provide a clue, giving rise to the idea that the name
derived from the bend in the river, or the way it opens out into the Orwell.
The medieval hunting bag – the gypsire – is the same shape as the medieval walls of Ipswich.
Easy, but risky, to jump to a conclusion there.
If we look at the main entry for Ipswich in the Domesday Book we have ‘GEPES wiz’.The
book is in Latin and there is no Z in Latin, but as it is a place-name in red, the scribe might be
trying to denote a different sound, perhaps “ch", or perhaps just made a funny “c".
If we look at coins of the era, for example, one inscription reads ‘IOHAN ON GIPES’. This is
regarded by experts as ‘IOHAN AT IPSWICH’.
But what if Ipswich was not an Anglo-Saxon town, but a Viking town in the Danelaw (see the
article on Thingstead in issue 196)? We could look at Norse for a meaning of the name. And if
the P in GEPES is actually a capital Thorn, then you have GEPES (roughly pronounced
YETHES ) meaning ‘Jew’. So ‘GEPES wich’ would mean in Norse: ‘The safe harbour where
the Jewish Trader/Moneyer lives’!
And ‘IOHAN ON GIPES’ could possibly mean ‘Iohan The Jew’. Now there is a thought! As it
says in the Book of Ely in AD 996: ‘Ipswich is a good place to do business!’
Louis Musgrove
Volunteers at St Peter’s by the Waterfront
In our last issue the Society’s volunteer organiser at St Peter’s by the Waterfront, Jean Hill, wrote a piece thanking volunteers throughout 2014. She also asked for any new volunteers for St Peter’s in the coming year to
contact her. Unfortunately, her telephone number was out by one digit. Apologies for the slip of the finger and her details are shown below. Do get in touch if you would like to get involved. [Editor]
Jean Hill (26 Christchurch Street, Ipswich IP4 2DJ. 01473-413252)
Corrigenda
Our back pages
We rejoin sculptor Bernard Reynolds, as Ipswich Society representative, at the Conference of Civic Societies of the Eastern Region in Norwich, 28 October, 1964. His write-up in Issue 6 of the Newsletter continues.
“The problems of the countryside were taken up by Mr Herbert Taylor, an architect who
specialises in rural housing. His immediate concern, he said, was that commuters were thrusting
deeper and deeper into the countryside. Every new building presented a frightful problem and
they as a firm refused to undertake the design of individual houses. They liked to think of
themselves as artist-designers (not the long-haired type!) sensitively relating groups of buildings
to vast landscapes aesthetically conceived mainly in the 18th Century. The alternative would be to
redesign the whole countryside and in these days this was a practical impossibility. In any event,
he considered, county authorities should employ designers who would be responsible for the
aesthetic control of a whole district.
“Mr R.I. Maxwell, Planning Officer to the Norfolk County Council suggested that in the past
there had been immense pride, from squire to labourer, in every inch of the town and countryside.
This seems to have faded now that farm mechanisation and efficiency had reduced the man power
for the visual upkeep of estates…
“The meeting was thrown open to discussion and among points made were those by the Earl of
Euston who spoke of the awakening abroad to the threat of modern development to the
architectural heritage of their cities and told how in France André Malraux, Minister of Culture,
had been authorised by General de Gaulle to spend a half a million pounds on the study of the
problem…
“The Buchanan film ‘Traffic in Towns’ was shown. This dealt with the traffic menace in general
and gave examples of successful attempts to keep vehicles out of selected areas of cities, of
pedestrian segregation schemes, and finally suggested how an area of North London could be
developed to accommodate at various levels, one upon the other like a layer cake, public
transport, through traffic, local traffic, pedestrians, shops, industrial, social and commercial
buildings and dwellings such as might be necessary sixty years hence.
“The principal guest speaker in the afternoon was Mr Tim Rock of the Civic Trust. He spoke of
the special isolation of real and urban councils in the East Anglian area. Borough Councils and
County Councils must cut out the competitive status-seeking and work together. They must see
the priorities of their own programmes in relation to others’ and co-operate on combined
programmes.
“During the ensuing discussion Mr Norman Scarfe, the Earl of Euston and others spoke on the
tragedy of many of our historic city centres which had in the last ten years had their individuality
and character reduced to nonentity by speculative developers. Mr Tim Rock described how they
worked. After selecting a suitable district they would make extremely attractive offers to the
owners of the key properties. After completion of sales they would leave the properties empty for
five or six years until the whole area began to run down. They could then buy the rest at very
reasonable prices which the owners felt glad to accept. Immediately they would confront the town
council with a magnificent redevelopment plan which usually carried the day but which meant
piecemeal planning and was perhaps not at all what the town needed. And the scheme would
hardly be likely to take into account the special character which belonged to that part of town.”
Plus ça change…
R.G.
The Ipswich Society
email: secretary@ipswichsociety.org.uk
Registered Charity no. 263322
This Newsletter is the magazine of Ipswich’s civic amenity society established in 1960
Executive Committee
Dates for your diary
Outings:
Wednesday 22 April 2015: Eltham Palace outing, London;
Wednesday 20 May 2015: Colourful characters and fascinating facts, Ipswich evening walk;
Thursday 25 June 2015: William Morris and the Olympic Park, London outing;
Wednesday 15 2015 July: Prickwillow Drainage Museum outing with guided tour of Ely;
Thursday 3 September 2015: Elton Hall, Peterborough outing.
Events:
Wednesday 29 April 2015, 7.30pm
The Ipswich Society’s Annual General Meeting,
UCS Waterfront building,
Speaker: Terry Baxter on 'Increasing prosperity in Ipswich'.
Refreshments will be available. See the AGM booklet accompanying this Newsletter.
Friday 2 October 2015, 7.00pm Fore Street Facelift Exhibition, Members’ Launch Evening at
the UCS Waterfront building: exhibition, speakers, short film, refreshments. (Exhibition runs
from October 2 to 16).
Newsletter deadlines & publication dates (the latter may vary by a few days)
Deadline for material: 1 December; Publication date: 22 January;
1 March; 2 April;
1 June; 17 July;
1 September; 9 October.
Given that this Newsletter is No. 199, it follows that our July issue is our 200th and an event
for some celebration, perhaps. The Ipswich Society was founded in 1960 in response to losses
of period and ancient buildings in the town and the erection of some questionable modern
replacements. The Society continues to be an active and vibrant organisation.
And finally, a puzzling photograph from our Slide Collection on Flickr. Where on earth is this?
Is it Ipswich at all? Hang on, those buildings in the background with the pointy tops… aren’t
they part of the St Matthews Street ‘development’ in the early 60s? The ones which today stand
next to the BBC Suffolk building? So this must be the part of St Matthews Street which was
demolished to build the roundabout approaches. Difficult to imagine today.
Another fine brain-teaser from our Flickr collection; thanks to Tony Marsden for drawing it to
the editor’s attention (thanks for your, er, support…).