April 2018 Issue 211
Contents
Editorial
New members
Chairman’s remarks
Planning matters
Review of Frank Grace's final book
The Ipswich galley of 1294
The Wolsey tondo
Letters to the editor
Ipswich Society Awards 2017
Kenyon & Trott photographs
Snippets 1
Who belongs to the Ipswich Society?
Waveney House in Lacey Street
About our Excursions Committee
Fire service history in Ipswich
Birketts on the move
General Data Protection Regs.
Snippets 2
Barbrook memories continued
Ipswich Society officers
Diary dates
Fantastic fire service photograph
'I know him...' The story of the Bob Allen's discovery and rescut of hte Woldey tondo, see page 7
Photo courtesy Friends of Ipswich Museums
Editorial
Our coverage of The Ipswich Society Annual Awards, the event taking place in mid-November,
customarily appears in our April issue. This gives us time to digest and celebrate the
nominations and award-winners. It also means that full details with a wealth of colour images
are published in a dedicated album on the Society’s web-based Image Archive. This, and the
Society’s Facebook and Youtube presence, are linked on the bottom of our own website’s
homepage: www.ipswichsociety.org.uk. While not all members have a computer, nor access to
the internet (apart from the public libraries), this additional medium gives us the chance to
expand on the limited coverage in our Newsletter. It provides an opportunity for members and
the public to look at all the nominations, many of which they may not have been aware of, and
to discuss good and bad points. Ultimately our Awards seek to encourage and praise good
design and careful thinking about community, context and craftsmanship. Tony Marsden’s
article is on page 10, with further images.
Historian Bob Malster, whose Maritime Suffolk book was reviewed in our January 2018 issue,
wrote to your editor: ‘I have just written up the story of the Ipswich galley of 1294, and
wondered if it might be good enough for the Newsletter. There is a chapter in the book on the
same subject, but I have written it up in an entirely fresh version… It was the article on the
stern rudder in the last issue that prompted me to wonder if an article on the galley might find a
place in the Newsletter.’ We are proud to include the article on page 6.
How many members does the Society have? Thanks to Celia Waters, our Membership
Secretary, we are able to share our 2017 membership numbers with you. And Ray Atkinson
was so pleased with our article about ‘The Warren’ in our last issue that he sent the latest Lacey
Street News from which we are pleased to use an article about Ray’s house. Both on page 16.
Robin Gaylard
36 New members
Retired fireman John Harvey with some of his display of fire service exhibits; see page 18
Chairman’s remarks
The Society’s biggest battle of the year so far was to oppose the architect’s proposals for ‘The
Hold’, Suffolk County Council (SCC)’s new Record Office to be located on the University
campus. A difficult one, as we didn’t object to a new Record Office, nor to its proposed location,
its joint use with the University or even the removal of trees protected by Tree Protection Orders
(TPOs).
What we did object to was the design, and we weren’t alone; both SPS (Suffolk Preservation
Society) and RIBA Suffolk (Royal Institute of British Architects) also saw the missed opportunity
to create a landmark building. The Suffolk architects had discussed the scheme at their meeting,
their secretary had written a letter of objection and architect Tony Swannell and I both spoke at the
Planning Committee.
Neither of us can quite understand why SCC’s development proposals in the centre of Ipswich
should be determined by the SCC Planning Committee (most of the members of which don’t even
have an IP postcode). The fact that they are going to award themselves planning permission is
probably a ‘no brainer’.
The public meeting of the SCC Planning Committee was by far the least participation-friendly I’ve
ever been to. To suggest that the public were ‘tolerated’ is an understatement, and that to speak at
the meeting (as we were entitled to do) was an intrusion into their deliberations.
The Chairman and the Planning Officer presenting are so far from the public gallery it’s impossible
to see expressions on their faces, or to see their eyes, impossible to determine if they are listening
or establish if you’ve got your point across. The TV screens displaying the plans are arranged for
Councillors and not the public.
Objectors are allowed five minutes to present their case; there were two of us so just two and a half
minutes each. A warning bell sounds after two minutes to completely put you off your stride, and
at exactly two and a half minutes the Chairman interrupts, even if you are in mid-sentence and
says, quite forcefully ‘time’s up’. Thus it is near impossible to deliver your message, particularly
when it’s not as negative as being an outright objector.
We were obviously not going to win but when the Chairman counted the show of hands he
announced a different figure to the number of Suffolk County Councillors in the room (?).
Cornhill
Most of you will have noticed that work is under way on the Cornhill where it is pleasing to see a
local contractor undertaking the improvements. As I write, there are still issues with the market
traders: those in upper Princes Street feel cut off (the contractor’s hoardings enclose almost all of
the public square blocking the line of sight from Lloyds Arch), those in Queens Street are clearly
reeling, attempting to operate in what feels like total isolation, detached from upper Princes Street
and out of sight from Giles Circus.
There has been some last minute publicity from the Borough Council to try and rectify matters but
given the five years since a move was first mooted, and Suffolk County Council’s position
(expressed in stone by the pedestrianisation of Queen Street, complete with underfloor electrical
hook-up points) and indecision before the move actually happened, were palpable.
It all smacks of 1972 when they moved the market from its long-standing location inside the Corn
Exchange to the Greyfriars shopping precinct where it simply died.
There is clearly no decision on where the market is going once the Cornhill repaving is finished. If
all of the stalls had gone to Queen Street as SCC intended then they could have stayed but, with
some in upper Princes Street, the hot food in Queen Street and presumably occasional stalls on the
new level platform in the Cornhill it will be, to say the least, scattered.
John Norman
[Sadly, the development of ‘The Hold’ in Ipswich seems to be inextricably linked to the planned closure
of Lowestoft’s branch of the Records Office by Suffolk County Council; surely a retrograde step. -Ed.]
Planning matters
Velsheda (The Wine Rack). In 2006 consent for a 20-storey, 290 apartment block with a theatre
was granted. Two additional storeys, plus changes to the roof profile have been approved since.
The theatre was to be the Red Rose Chain home, but that's now in Gippeswyk Hall so why
another convenience store? The developer is optimistic that the project will soon be completed.
‘The Hold’. Suffolk County Council is the statutory authority for the county archives, which
currently have a central store in Gatacre Road and subsidiary offices in Bury and Lowestoft.
Their strategy in these straitened times is to transfer the functions on Gatacre Road to a new
building shared with the University on the University-owned car park in Fore Street opposite The
Question Mark, and over the road from the Waterfront Building.
This new building is on a prime site and has vital cultural, heritage and educational functions. At
a cost north of £15 million, the county and its capital are expecting a landmark building of an
outstanding quality to stand comparison with the Willis building.
Appointment of the architects utilised a panel of outside assessors and an internal selection
process. The chosen team, Pringle Richards Sharratt are an internationally recognised firm
specialising in top museum projects. To our chagrin we saw a very ordinary design of a largely
one storey building with a difficult-to-understand main entrance towards Fore Street and
presenting a windowless facade to the car park. After considerable discussion and several
meetings the Chairman wrote and spoke to both councils’ planning committees in conjunction
with Suffolk RIBA*, criticising their proposals for the new build. As expected, it was passed
nem con in January. Assuming funding from the University and the Heritage Lottery Fund
remains in place we shall no doubt be disappointed in due course. What a missed opportunity.
Sugar Beet Factory, Sproughton. Ipswich Borough Council, who bought the site using their
ability to borrow money at low rates, applied to Babergh District Council within whose
boundaries it sits. It was one of Babergh’s major employment zones and they have previously
refused permission for a largely residential application. This application is for an Enterprise Park
which will attract central government funding. Amongst the proposals for the 130 acre site are a
car showroom, a local retail centre, restaurant pubs, takeaways, and an 80-bed hotel. We await
Babergh’s decision with interest.
Eden Rose Coppice Trust. This is a tiny charity supported by the Society which has reclaimed
the Brickmakers Wood which lies between Alexandra Park and Suffolk New College with a
small frontage on to Back Hamlet. Wasted (mind the pun) by drug abusers, dealers and their
paraphernalia it has been reclaimed despite two arson attacks as an arboreal, biodiverse haven of
rest particularly for those suffering from mental illness and terminal conditions. They have been
supported by a £150,000 grant from Jewson’s to build a wooden, glass-panelled dodecahedron,
8.5 metres across and 3 metres high, with a sedum-covered, coned roof. Looks good.
Henley Road. A second attempt to build a house in the garden of number 57. This is a small, L-
shaped cottage: simple and plainly boring. Being smaller, it takes rather less of the six flats’
amenity space and has a bit more for itself. We will be objecting to the loss of garden of a large
house and to the unpleasant little design itself; also the general loss to the Conservation Area,
particularly of the brick boundary wall to St Edmund’s Road
Thurleston Cricket Hall, Henley Road. This derelict site has reappeared as a 68-bed care
home. Quite exciting plans for similar enterprises of decent architectural expectancy have been
approved but never built. The site has now been sold on, with a ‘change of use’ permission, to a
large-scale developer LNT who sells on developments to Ideal Care Homes. It is a routine, off-
the-computer set of plans which were done better by Victorian local authorities when building
municipal hospitals and asylums. Considering that it is opposite a listed 1811 mansion and a
group of listed farm buildings makes it all the worse. We shall oppose its design, but not its use.
Mike Cook
(*Royal Institute of British Architects)
Book review
‘In the name of God, Amen’ Ipswich wills from the seventeenth century
by Frank Grace, published 2017.
I had promised to write a review on the final book from Frank Grace for this issue of the
Newsletter but it would be remiss of me not to mention his extensive contributions to the
historical research into Ipswich’s past.
You will almost certainly know Frank wrote Rags and bones, the social history of the Rope
Walk area of Ipswich, a wealth of other books and edited the Suffolk Review for thirty years.
Frank was a significant historian, researcher and lecturer whose contributions will be
sorely missed.
Ipswich wills from the seventeenth century at first appears as if it might be rather dull but what
Frank has done is to take the almost unreadable script of some 250 wills and testaments and
turn it into a time-limited social history of Ipswich. It is at least part of the social history for
one of the first things we learn is that the peasants without did not need to leave a will because
they had nothing to leave.
It was during this period that Ipswich was among the top ten towns in the country measured by
wealth, a wealth that was held by the few and the majority simply working to live and living
each day as it came.
We learn that the term ‘Gentlemen’ was changing, from being applied only to the ancient
landed gentry to a wider group, those who now had access to new money, merchants and
tradesmen. A surprise is that some of the land and property listed in the Wills was widely
scattered, not only across Suffolk but into other counties as far afield as Cumberland and
Northumberland.
Most of the new money had come from the wool and cloth industries, and from the shipping
required to export the products of the wool towns. In fact the list of ships mentioned in the
wills gives an insight into the activities of the time. There were ships, carvels (a light, fast sea-
going vessels), hoys (coastal vessels rigged as a sloop) and lighters (barges).
William Mosley who died 5th December 1639 was a merchant, probably the richest amongst
all of those featured. Frank reveals a list of his beneficiaries, and the bequests made to their
benefit, a list that includes Henry Drewe, William’s brother-in-law who (according to the Will)
by ‘foolish and unthrifty course’ wasted his maintenance and is in great want and misery.
Despite the implied threat he gives him 2/6 (two shillings and sixpence) per week, part of the
ongoing income from the rents of William’s extensive property portfolio.
It is a fascinating and readable book and I recommend it, not only to Ipswich residents who
will recognise local names and places but to anyone interested in social history.
John Norman
Frank Grace managed to complete this book just before he died in the autumn of 2017.
The Ipswich galley of 1294
When the first King Edward was preparing for war with France in 1294 he gave orders through
his Treasurer, William de Marchia, Bishop of Bath and Wells, for 26 towns on the east and
south coasts to build 20 galleys for his service, some of the towns being paired to construct a
galley between them.
One prominent south coast port, Southampton, had to send for a Gascon master shipwright
from Portsmouth to superintend the work, and had to lay out a shipyard and plant a thorn fence
around it to keep out the pilferers. The absence of any mention of such preparations in the
accounts submitted later to the King’s Exchequer by John de Causton and John Lew, the
Ipswich bailiffs, implies strongly that no such preliminaries were required.
And the town was also instructed to provide a ‘barge’ as a tender for the galley; no mere small
boat, the ‘barge’ was big enough to need 30 oars. Although this is the first record of a ship
being built on the Orwell, it is evident that Ipswich already had the facilities, the skilled
workers and the expertise needed for the construction of such craft. It is likely that ships had
been launched into the Orwell when the Saxons were living on its banks.
We have no plans or pictures of a medieval galley, but all the same we can have a fair idea of
what it looked like. For one thing it was quite different from the galleys of the Mediterranean;
it would have been a large vessel, possibly 100ft or more in length, basically similar to the
Viking ships in which the ‘Danes’ had come to Gipeswic 300 years earlier.
The Ipswich galley would have been built clinker-fashion, with overlapping planks fastened by
iron nails clenched (riveted) on the inside. The planking would have been fastened before the
framing timbers were inserted. We know that this method was used because there is mention in
the accounts of clenchatores and contra clenchatores or holderes. The clenchatores were
clearly the men who clenched the nails, that is, turned the ends of the nails, while the holderes
were those who held the dolly on the head of the nail to prevent it being driven out by the
hammer blows from within the ship.
A hundred oars were supplied to give the galley both manoeuvrability and speed, and there was
also a mast and square sail for use when cruising and there was a favourable wind. There has
been much speculation among the experts as to how the oars were arranged, and the only firm
conclusion arrived at is that some of them were probably supplied as spares to replace those
that got broken in bad weather.
Perhaps the spares came into use when the galley went to sea on a trial trip, because it was
caught out in a severe gale and badly damaged. The accounts presented to the Treasury tell us
that it was ‘torn apart and broken by the fury of the sea’. One rather cynical historian has
suggested that the damage was due to bad workmanship on the part of the men employed to
build the vessel, but this cannot be so; the King’s Exchequer accepted responsibility for the £5
6s 6d that it cost to repair the damage, the work occupying seven men for eight days. There is
ample evidence in the records that when work proved faulty it was the builder who paid to put
it right, not the King.
Bob Malster
The Wolsey Tondo
When I was a teenager I played the part of Autolycus in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. This rogue is described as ‘a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles’ and I always felt that the phrase caught something of my own pleasure in seeking out items needing a little refurbishment – the source perhaps of my lifelonginterest in conservation. Well, some months ago I happened to be browsing in Blackheath Demolition and Trading reclamation yard near the Hythe in Colchester – a place full of ‘unconsidered trifles’: sash windows, cast-iron fireplaces, bricks, timber, tiles,
furniture, and odd items that defy categorisation. A not-at-all-pugnacious Cardinal Wolseyat the rear of Christchurch Mansion
The centre is housed in an old dockside warehouse on several floors and in one gloomy corner of the top
floor I came across some large pieces of moulded plasterwork. All included figures in full or bas-relief; some were terminally fractured and all were covered in what looked like centuries of accumulated dust and cobwebs. The one that caught my eye particularly, however, had a familiar inscription: ‘Wolsey Art Gallery’ and above the inscription was a large relief of the head of Cardinal Wolsey. It was clearly a tondo* of the completed stone bas-relief above the garden entrance to the Wolsey Art Gallery at the rear of Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich. I enquired and discovered that the casts had been disposed of by a local firm of stonemasons – L.J. Watts of Colchester - clearing out their yard they had chanced upon these items which appear to be full-scale plaster models perhaps for commissions completed in the 1920s and 30s. The asking price was £500.
It seemed to me that it would be a great loss if we did not in some way acquire the tondo for Ipswich. The Ipswich Heritage Forum was an obvious group to consider this opportunity and, through the good offices of Richard Wilson and the Friends of Ipswich Museums, the tondo was snapped up at a bargain price.
Further researches revealed that L.J. Watts had a site in Cemetery Road, Ipswich, until c.1934 and Richard Wilson speculates that the tondo may have originally come from the Ipswich site. The Wolsey Art Gallery opened in 1932, a permanent memorial of the celebrations of the Wolsey Pageant which was held in Ipswich to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the Cardinal’s death in November 1530. We are uncertain why the plaster tondo was originally made. It might have been produced by the designer, A.W.Bellis (1883-1960), as a mock-up of
the design to be carved by the stonemasons [see the photograph on the front cover].
At the time of writing the future siting of the tondo is still under consideration. I would be
interested to hear suggestions from readers of the Newsletter. The cover illustration shows that
the condition of the tondo is good considering it has been languishing for eighty years or more!
Who knows what other unconsidered trifles are out there waiting to be discovered?
I would like to express my thanks to Richard Wilson, of ‘The Friends’, and to Robin Gaylard
for their help in producing this note.
Bob Allen
[*Tondo: a circular easel painting or relief carving.]
Letters to the Editor
The boat in the Cut from Fred Sedgwick
This picture shows a rowing boat. I have been taking pictures of it for about ten years now,
from different angles, at different tides, in different moods and in different weathers. It’s
become something of an obsession.
The boat is in St Peter’s Dock, roughly opposite to the Old Customs House and the ‘Wine
Rack’. I’d love to know if any of your members know anything about it. How old is it? Who
did it belong to? What did he – or she – use it for? Who climbed up that ladder (just visible in
my picture) for the last time, leaving my boat (that’s how I’ve started to think about it – my
boat) abandoned? A hundred yards away is another wrecked boat, far, far gone, its shape lost,
rough angles everywhere. It resembles an abstract version of ‘my boat’.
I share with John Constable a love of rotting things. He wrote ‘I never saw an ugly thing ... old
rotten planks, slimy posts and brickwork, I love such things’. You can see how true that is in
his most famous pictures of Flatford, and even more in his Barges on the Stour in the V & A.
The decay of the buildings near St Peter’s Dock, those empty windows, those redundant down
pipes – they too inspire, if not love, a need to take pictures.
Anyway, I suppose it was in that spirit that I wrote a poem:
When My Ship Comes In
Twice every twenty-four hours the moon
pulls into view my ship that has come in,
drags water seaward. Exposes
wild wooden trapezoids of gunwales,
random planks, pocked, green, diseased,
a dismantled dank ruined ship shape
at such peace. And there’s a ladder
where a few decades ago a man
climbed upwards leaving my ship to die.
But I found it.
Woke it
with a camera click
these lines.
(from Learning outside the primary classroom by Fred Sedgwick, Routledge 2012)
Any information about ‘my ship’ would be welcome.
Ipswich Windows and The Warren
from Mark Beesley
I've read your piece in the Ipswich Society Newsletter [Issue 210] about Ipswich windows – very good. We visited Leek in Staffordshire before Christmas. It's a former silk mill town and an architectural history buff's paradise. There is a church and a town house designed by Norman Shaw himself and a lot of buildings designed by a local architect called William Larner Sugden, who was a protégé of Shaw. One of his buildings, a bank, has Ipswich windows.
I've also found one on a house overlooking the churchyard in Woodbridge. Here is a photograph of the window in Woodbridge. It is at the back of a house on Seckford Street, overlooking the churchyard. I've since spotted another one, on the Red Lion pub at Martlesham. Once you start looking for them they're all over the place!
I also enjoyed the article about the big house in Lacey Street and its lost garden.
J. Rotherham Cattermole from Glory Annette Chenery
I was interested to read the item in January Newsletter [Issue 210] headed ‘Rotherham House’.
The Ipswich architect J. Rotherham Cattermole was designer of the town’s finest villa:
‘Woodside’ on Constitution Hill. This was the home for many years of Russell Paul of Paul’s
Malt. He was a friend of my late father, William Chenery, an early Taxi Proprietor (from 1920)
who bought a second-hand Packard from Mr Paul.
Membership renewals for 2018
Thank you to those members who have renewed their membership for 2018, and also
for the donations – whether intentional or otherwise.
If you have yet to renew, please pay by cash or cheque to: Membership Secretary, 32 Cowper Street, Ipswich IP4 5JB, or direct to the Ipswich Society account: number 80489018, sort code – 204451. If membership isn’t renewed shortly, it will be assumed that you no longer wish to be a member and no further Newsletters, or Society
information will be sent.
Individual membership is £10; and £15 for family membership.
Ipswich Society Awards 2017
We were very pleased, on the evening of Wednesday 15 November, to present our Annual
Awards. This year's nominations had been only in the order of twenty or so and the quality of
them was considered by some to be somewhat middling. However, we did manage to come up
with four winners for which Commendations were awarded.
As in the past, the audience for the ceremony at St Peter’s on the Waterfront was over a hundred
persons including nearly thirty invited guests associated with the nominated projects.
It is heartening every year to meet the representatives of the projects because their enthusiasm
for our ceremony and the honour they feel in being invited to share this occasion with us
is gratifying.
This year the presentation of all the nominations was given by our Vice-President, Bob Allen.
During the course of the hour he spoke it was evident that a great deal of deliberation had been
taken by our adjudication panel in this year's awards. The presentation itself was put together by
our Vice-Chairman and, as last year, the novel introduction of a map to locate the nomination
helped the audience. The photographs accompanying each element of the presentation further
reinforced in us a sense that there was immense variety in the nominations, not only in structure,
but also in quality. We have Tim Leggett and the Vice-Chairman to thank for the photographs.
A Commendation was awarded to The Gates, just off Victoria Street. This fresh, bright, smart
addition of quality housing is to be welcomed in this part of the town.
In 1963 Anglia Television broadcast a film about slums, their chosen location: Victoria Street,
Ipswich and some depressing scenes emerged. Ten years later all of the interconnecting streets
between Bramford Road and London Road were closed to through traffic and rush hour 'rat
running' stopped. The area improved, helped by improvement grants and other investments and
it became a pleasant place to live.
More recently, however, the area once again became deprived and depressed, with scenes
reminiscent of the past. With this as the background it was a very brave developer who chose to
create 'The Gates', a development of nine houses in back-land off Victoria Street. The Gates is
commended, not only for the investment in this rundown area but for the quality of the
development and its contribution to Ipswich. Congratulations, therefore, to the developer, David
Saunders of DH Saunders Property Ltd, Ipswich. The development is a real nod to modern
design and has been achieved with a generous amount of access space along the frontage. The
large properties present a striking face to the gated close and should herald further improvement.
The Commendation for The Old Bell recognised the care and thinking undertaken by the
proprietors in restoring a significant building in our town. Roy and Matt of Gwinnell & Sons
rescued a neglected piece of the history of Ipswich, appreciated the importance of the
conservation of the structure and set a standard to which others in that part of town will have to
match or exceed.
Their efforts in bringing The Old Bell back into use at considerable expense was not the first (or
most expensive) re-use of a listed building, but they saw the value in iconic and prominent
buildings for their offices. Converting an old pub into a funeral parlour was a stroke of genius,
an ideal use when nothing much else (in this location) would have worked. It marks a striking
gateway point to the riverside and an impressive exit landmark in an extremely complicated and busy hub.
The award of Commendation for the refurbishment of the detached north Ipswich house in St Edmunds Road is to acknowledge the way a run-of-the-mill late twentieth century structure has been transformed into a modern, contemporary house. The collation of varying but complementary materials and colours and the use of large areas of glass present a striking new face on the street. There is a lesson here for those of the town who might sneer at
modernism and quail at the prospect of rusting Corten steel, raw concrete and splashes of glass rearing up infilling gardens and on odd sites. The place for contemporary interpretations of architecture is here and now – the owners’ (Jonathan and Julie) statement amidst the grandeur of north Ipswich is audible and harmoniously welcome.
Awards 2017 Commendation: Whitehouse Community Primary School, Ipswich. Darren Fellowes, Katherine Williams, Cath Anderson, The Mayor, Cllr Sarah Barber, Tanya Griffiths, Cllr Paul West, David Rhymes, Sarah Beth Licence, Simon Girling – Director SEH (French) and John Norman, Chairman of The Ipswich Society.
The Commendation for the annexe at Whitehouse Community Primary School, providing six
additional classrooms, was co-ordinated by Suffolk County Council, designed by Concertus and
built by SEH French. We recognised the project as: ‘An energetic, engaging addition to the
school environment. It was fun and joyous in relating the colour and texture of the materials to
the classes within, for pupils to enjoy texture and shape in the solid form of their own building.’
Councillor Paul West, SCC Cabinet member for Ipswich said: ‘We are thrilled to have been
recognised by the Ipswich Society for this award. The new classroom block at Whitehouse
Primary School has provided much-needed additional classrooms which have been well received
by the many children and teachers who use them’.
The growing population of this local school demanded a new classroom block. The result is a
thoughtful and sparkling edifice which is useful and fun, giving delight with its external face to
many of the children who will use it.
The Mayor, Cllr Sarah Barber, and the Chairman of the Executive Committee, John Norman, presented
the awards and we were able to have a very pleasing refreshment break with food and drinks; members and guests had a lengthy opportunity to discuss the projects.
Tony Marsden
Whitehouse Community Primary School annexe
More 2017 Awards winners
Commendation: The Old Bell Inn, Ipswich.
Matt and Roy Gwinnell of Gwinnell & Sons, Funeral Directors, accepted the award for the restoration of this
significant building in our town which has found a new role in the 21st century. ‘It marks a striking gateway point to the riverside and an impressive exit landmark in an extremely complicated and busy hub.’
Commendation:
The Gates, Ipswich.
A surprising and daring development in the environs of Victoria Street, it is a fresh, bright, smart addition of quality housing and is to be welcomed in this part of the town.
Architect: Last & Tricker, Developer: DH Saunders Property Ltd,
Contractor: Premier Construction Services (Ipswich) Ltd.
Commendation:
St Edmunds Road, Ipswich.
The refurbishment of this detached north Ipswich house has taken it from a run-of-the-mill late twentieth century structure to a modern, contemporary house with varying but complementary materials and colours and the use of large areas of glass. Clients: Jonathan Horsfield, Julie Burton
Contractor: Jackaman Builders Ltd
Following our article on this Ipswich electroplating firm in the October 2017 issue, Philip Hancock sent some photographs of the company in the 1980s. Philip wrote: ‘As a keen
photographer, I decided to record many of the small workshops that operated in the St Stephens Lane area but, like Kenyon & Trott, were about to close or move to alternative premises…
‘I too had a workshop in St Stephens Lane (above J.G. Andrews watch & jewellery shop) from 1970 until the whole area was demolished to make way for Buttermarket Shopping Centre in the 1980s.’
Snippets 1
Ipswich Market
From 30 January the market has operated in Princes Street and down into Queen Street because
of the re-vamping of the Cornhill. Although IBC has provided new awnings for stalls and
advertised the details of the move quite well, there are some drawbacks. The further the stalls
stretch down from the Cornhill the more it’s a case of ‘out of sight out of mind’. It is greatly to
be hoped that the major traders will be able to return to the completed Cornhill, as shown in
some of the artist’s impressions of how it will look. The other stalls could then be re-located to
positions as close as possible to the Cornhill.
Ipswich Buses
Our bus company (still owned in effect by IBC) continues to provide good services. The new
timetables and routes beginning in February inevitably have their pros and cons depending on
one’s needs. It is unfortunate that a previous half hour service is reduced to an hourly one but
that’s the result if fewer people used it. The No 5 and No 6 routes are easier to understand and
remember for the irregular user, going to the hospital for example. The company also deserves
plaudits for investing in 14 double-decker buses with ‘green’ diesel engines that will reduce
pollutants. Incidentally, it would be interesting to know how many Society members use our
buses, regularly or occasionally.
Ipswich houses
The Borough council in early February set out its plans to build 200 homes this year, 60 of
which will be on the Tooks Bakery site (Norwich Road) and the others on smaller sites. Some
will be council homes and some affordable homes to buy. Regardless of ideological
differences, this is surely valuable assistance to our younger generations.
Crown Street car park
The pale grey frame of the new multi-storey car park looks functional and impressive. It
should last longer than its ‘concrete cancer’ predecessor. A nice touch is that the surrounding
hoardings carry posters advertising some of the treasures of the nearby museum.
Building maintenance
Scaffolding in Thoroughfare creates a minor obstacle for pedestrians but it is good to see such maintenance carried
on, especially during a quieter time of year for shopping. In the nature of our present-day investment-led ownership of town centre properties, rents are already arguably too high. Let’s hope that the necessary caring for our town’s buildings doesn’t mean even higher rents for tenants.
NPS
< This map created by our Membership Secretary, Celia Waters, shows central Ipswich (the lower part) which fits into ‘Greater Ipswich’ (the upper) in the grey area. These are ‘IP’ postal areas and the numbers in brackets are explained in the article overleaf.
Who belongs to Waveney House in Lacey Street
The Ipswich Society?
Who belongs to The Ipswich Society?
Paid membership survey for 2017
Individual: 1,253 (of which 353 are family memberships)
Corporate: 25 (including 7 non-profit)
Gift Aid: 552
New members in 2017: 84
Postcode area breakdown
IP1 – 212;
IP2 – 70;
IP3 – 78;
IP4 – 279;
IP5 – 38;
IP6 – 28;
IP7 – 7;
IP8 – 18;
IP9 – 31;
IP10 – 9;
IP11 – 15;
IP12 – 24;
IP13 – 10;
IP14 – 8;
IP15, IP16, IP17, IP19 – 9; IP22, IP23, IP30 – 3;
CO – 14;
Other UK – 23; Abroad – 3.
People sometimes ask us "How many members does the Society have?" We are aware that the figure is always changing, which makes it difficult to answer.
Counting a 'family' as two people (which is quite a conservative estimate), gives us 1,253. We can count Corporate members as 2, so adding 50 totals 1,303 members at the end of 2017.
84 new members joining last year is something to celebrate. The postcode breakdown is equally interesting with so many members living outside the Borough, including Colchester postcodes (14), further afield (23) and abroad (3).
Waveney House in Lacey Street
On 7 October 1890 Captain P.J. Fitzpatrick was buried in the Old Cemetery, Ipswich in what is still an imposing plot. He was laid to rest next to Bridget Fitzpatrick (his wife/sister?) who was buried on 7 March 1881. In 1881 Captain Fitzpatrick was the owner (and occupier?) of Rozare Cottages – numbers 105, 107 and 109 Lacey Street – built in 1875.
In 1884 Captain Fitzpatrick had number 103 Lacey Street and named it Waveney House. He had been Lord Waveney’s batman during the Crimean War. Following Captain Fitzpatrick’s demise his (second?) wife sold the house in 1891, by auction at the White Horse Hotel in Tavern Street. It was bought by William Parmenter of Whitton for £415.
The house was rented out for a number of years to tenants (by different owners?). In 1927 an unsuccessful attempt to sell the property was tried, when it was being rented by a Mrs Cresswell for £35 per annum. In 1952 the house was purchased by Jack and Rene Daniels. Jack was the string bass player in the band at the Ipswich Hippodrome and he offered the house as theatrical digs to visiting artistes, including many famous names.
If research is correct, Lord Waveney was Sir Robert Alexander Shafto Adair, born in 1811 in Flixton Hall, near South Elmham. He was Lord Lieutenant of County Antrim, a Colonel in the Suffolk Artillery, Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria, also M.P. for Cambridge (1847-52 and 1854-57). He died in 1886 so it could be possible that he attended any housewarming ‘do’ at number 103 – i.e. ‘Bobby Shafto’ was in our street!
The Ipswich Hippodrome ran from 1905 to 1957 and its last few years of productions included A-list entertainers such as Bruce Forsythe, Roy Castle, Peter Sellers, Anne Shelton, Lita Roza, Shirley Bassey and Wilson, Kepple & Betty, any one of whom might have stayed in the attic of Waveney House.
[Thanks to Ray Atkinson for permission to reprint this from Lacey Street News, Winter 2017/18. Ray got in touch because he was keen to use material from our recent article about Rotherham House in Lacey Street.]
The workings of the Excursions Committee.
Many Ipswich Society members may recall the days when all the Society’s excursions were
efficiently organised and managed by Beryl Jary – quite an onerous task!
These days the excursions are the result of the joint efforts of the ‘Excursions Committee’,
comprising several enthusiastic Ipswich Society members who endeavour to provide a varied
and interesting selection of excursions during the summer months.
You may not be aware that we meet annually at Pykenham’s Gatehouse, usually in July, to
discuss the success – or otherwise – of excursions undertaken in the previous season and to
plan our visits for the following year.
Subsequently, the work begins: contacting venues, finalising dates, booking coaches,
reconciling costs and finally taking bookings. The whole process can be quite time-consuming.
However, we all take pleasure in providing a positive and pleasurable experience for our
fellow members.
Experience has shown that it is impossible to predict what will prove to be popular. Sadly, on
the odd occasion, we have had to cancel proposed excursions owing to lack of interest, whilst
some have proved so popular that they have had to be repeated, (visits to the ‘Olympic Village’
and ‘Whitechapel Bell Foundry’ being two more recent examples).
What makes a successful excursion? Despite issuing a questionnaire some years ago and
sharing feedback from those booking our excursions, we have never found the magic formula.
Some members can only participate in weekend excursions, owing to work commitments,
some much prefer weekdays. Some enjoy glorious gardens; others love historical buildings.
Some prefer local venues, whilst others are prepared to travel further afield and, as always,
value for money is a consideration.
With our constantly changing and growing membership we often discuss whether to repeat
successful excursions. How many years do we wait before a repeat visit allowing newer
members to experience those visits previously enjoyed by long standing members?
Whatever your preferences are, as a committee we always strive to offer a wide variety of
choices to satisfy all tastes and welcome suggestions for future events.
We are currently looking for members to join the Excursions Committee. Should you wish to
know more about our activities and consider being involved in the organising of excursions then we would be glad to hear from you. Initially, please contact Caroline Markham secretary@ipswichsociety.org.uk .
We look forward to seeing some of you during the coming season.
Chris and Lois Terry
(on behalf of our fellow Excursion Committee members)
Fire Service History in Ipswich and Suffolk
an Illustrated Winter Talk by John Harvey
Ipswich Corporation established the first public fire service for our town in 1875 – the Ipswich
Fire Brigade. In 1899 it acquired purpose-built premises in Bond Street and this building,
remembered by many of us, was the first and best loved workplace of our speaker, John
Harvey. He described the necessary routine of cleaning and checking the equipment, drills and
crucially the Bond Street bell call-out. Ipswich, being a port, is no stranger to large fires –
among the risks in the 1950s were a power station, an ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant, a gas
works, flour mills, oil/chemical storage tanks and maltings (the ‘best customers’ according
to John).
And it seems that fire-watching has been the hobby of Ipswich people through the years. John
quoted a report of a fire at R & W Paul’s in 1911 which was ‘watched by thousands of people’
and recounted his own experience at a fire at their Felaw Street Maltings early in his career. At
Bond Street they had actually smelled the smoke just before the bell sounded and in this case
John was the one who climbed the 100 foot turntable ladder to operate the high pressure water
jet. He noticed a crowd of people on the far side of the New Cut watching the proceedings,
with an ice cream van doing a roaring trade!
The Bond Street Fire Station, described by Graham Smith in our April 2016 Newsletter, was
demolished in 1984. The houses opposite still exist, though not the field behind them where the
horses for the 19th century fire appliances were thought to have been kept. One of the early
motorised appliances acquired by the Ipswich Fire Brigade was a 1938 Leyland Cub fire
engine. It saw service in London in World War II when the Ipswich Fire Brigade lent a hand at
the docks and oil refineries there. This vehicle, preserved in the Ipswich Transport Museum*,
was still in use by John and his fellow fire officers for training in the 1950/60s.
John told many stories of close shaves, such as the family in Shakespeare Road who managed
to escape a gas explosion using a knotted sheet to descend from a first floor window – and also
some distressing accounts of fatalities, though mercifully these have been few owing in no small part to the courage
of our firefighters. The tale of the ‘saving of Ipswich’ illustrates this point. A tanker lorry delivering ammonia at
the dock had a fire in its insulation under the outer skin – and it was right next to Fisons ammonium nitrate (an
explosive!) store. John and a fellow officer put out the fire wielding their axes and a water hose. If they hadn’t – who
knows? In a similar incident in Texas City USA, which was not controlled, the explosion killed 567 people.
*As well as the Leyland Cub mentioned above, Ipswich Transport Museum has on display one of the big Dennis
pump escape fire engines used in the dockside fires – well worth a visit.
https://www.ipswichtransportmuseum.co.uk/
Caroline Markham
A selection of photographs from the Harvey album of Fire Service memories on the Ipswich Society’s Image Archive. From top:
1936 Leyland pump escape, in 1964; Guard of honour at a colleague’s wedding; Hook ladder drill; Appliances at Bond Street Fire Station, 1964; Deep lift test (Pump escape), 1964. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ipsoc/albums
Birketts on the move
The law firm Birketts have become sufficiently well established to commission a new five
storey office block in Princes Street. This is a development that will, once occupied, add
credence to the ‘business quarter’ that is rapidly developing between the railway station and the
town centre.
Increasing the available space for their desks has allowed the company to grow. Birketts are
moving out of the former town houses in Museum Street, and a number of rented offices
elsewhere in Ipswich. Some of these offices spaces were very cramped; some were in
immediate need of renovation and some basic repair (put off because of the forthcoming move)
and being in the town centre lacked parking spaces.
It was Birketts’ original intention that they would occupy perhaps two-thirds of the new
building and ‘let’ the rest to a different (complementary) organisation. Things haven’t worked
out like that; Birketts has grown and when they move in they will occupy almost all of the
building, certainly sufficient that there won’t be a joint occupier.
Today Birketts have 165 partners and some 650 staff.
A further interest to the Society is the possible proposal by the Borough Council to build a
multi-storey car park behind the Drum & Monkey, formerly the Sporting Farmer public house,
in Princes Street. This development would provide essential car parking spaces for the rapidly
developing offices in the Princes Street corridor.
However, it is likely that the proposed car park will attract two or three hundred cars every day:
cars that will arrive predominantly in the morning rush hour along the already crowded Crane
Hill, Norwich Road and the other arterial routes into Ipswich. And the availability of a car
parking space will reduce the attractiveness of the alternative Park & Ride service.
Each car will bring congestion, pollution and frustration. I wonder which of the alternative
forms of transport are being promoted at a similar level of expenditure?
John Norman
General Data Protection Regulation
Your Committee has been preparing for this new government regulation on how personal data
is held which comes into practice on May 25th. We are committed to protecting your privacy
and have completed an audit of the information you give us on your membership forms. This
showed that we are already doing things the right way to keep your information secure, and
only minor adjustments to some forms are likely to be needed. Your contact details enable us
to send you Newsletters (via our distributor through the post or direct to your email address)
and other Society information and we do not pass them to anyone outside The Ipswich Society.
We are developing an Information Policy document in line with the new regulation and this
will be posted on to our web site for you to view when complete. Meanwhile if you have any
queries about the data we hold on you please contact me on:
secretary@ipswichsociety.org.uk
or at 61A Fonnereau Road IP1 3JN.
Caroline Markham, Hon. Secretary
Snippets 2
The Suffolk Records Society celebrated sixty years – and sixty published volumes – in 2017.
Several of the titles deal with local subjects: Great Tooley of Ipswich (1962), Poor relief in
Elizabethan Ipswich (1966), The Ipswich Recognizance Rolls (1973), The Ipswich Probate
Inventories (1979), The town finances of Elizabethan Ipswich (1995), Ipswich Borough
archives 1255-1835 (2000). Amongst the many other titles are eight volumes of John
Constable’s correspondence. [http://www.suffolkrecordssociety.com]
Whither the bridge? (continued)
This issue of the Newsletter was being finalised when Suffolk County Council made further
announcements about the proposed Upper Orwell Crossings. Bore-holes and geological
assessments have been taking place with a temporary plant and office yard established just off
Ballast Wharf Walk, near Wykes Bishop Street. As so often, the announcements beg as many
questions as they answer. It is said that the landing-points of the largest bridge are just a
proposal, but it’s unlikely that they will change, given the very limited options.
A new roundabout would be built on Holywells Road opposite the east end of Toller Road
(which will be closed to traffic) with a road rising from the roundabout going over Cliff Road
and the ancient shipyard near The Cliff. Angled south-westwards, the bridge would pass over
the Orwell, the Griffin Wharf branch line and, curving very close to housing on Discovery
Avenue and Virginia Street, would join the roundabout at Rapier Street/Hawes Street. One
wonders whether there should be a dock exit from the new roundabout as heavy lorries leaving
Cliff Quay would need to head north up Cliff Road, turning at the top of Patteson Road on to
the Myrtle Road roundabout, before heading south to the new roundabout and to access the
bridge.
The Society’s AGM talk about the bridges is particularly well-timed (see Diary dates, page 23)
Barbrook memories continued
(from our last issue…)
After the closure of his shop in St Peters Street, I think Douglas Barbrook – my grandfather’s
brother’s son – with his radio construction talents, moved to Colchester. The only written
details I have of his later exploits were from an article and picture in the Evening Star of a
robot (a peak-capped, white-coated ‘man’) which he had designed and built, and fitted with
some proximity sensing device of his, it saluted motorists as they drove into the petrol filling
station just outside Colchester on the main London Road.
I believe that my grandfather originally trained as an electrician with Cranfield’s flour millers. When work was short in the 1920s he had to take on loading lorries with sacks of flour or grain. At that time I think they weighed 2 cwt. (one-tenth of a ton) and, with him being a slightly-built man, it did him great harm. I think he had to leave owing to his failing health,
but soon acquired 45 and 45a St Nicholas Street. After him, in around 1947, it became the Cardinal Café. Those two shop sections are now, of course, re-united with Curson Lodge following its extensive renovation by the Ipswich Building Preservation Trust.
I can tell a very personal and amusing tale about that which occurred at the time the Mayor was declaring Curson Lodge ‘reopen’. I turned up on the wrong day for public viewing, but almost became ‘star of the show’ when I blundered in on the ceremony, clutching my photographs.
Grandfather too seemed to be ‘ahead of his time’ as, even before World War I, he owned aClyno motorcycle combination and then in 1930 a Clyno car with which he also towed a boat trailer. Sailing around the
bay at Felixstowe then was a very smart thing to do, especially as his family could round off their day with afternoon tea at his hut which he had built and positioned in Beach Station Road – one of the first on that site.
That all came to an end in 1939. I think the boat went first, then the car, and then he simply dis-assembled his hut and brought it home on the train a few boards at a time for the duration of the war and concentrated on his shop. But in around 1947, once the Felixstowe sea-front was reopened, he gave up his shop and took his dis-assembled hut back to Beach Station Road and rebuilt it. There it remained until the whole site was cleared for a building development quite recently.
John Barbrook
The Ipswich Society
Registered Charity no. 263322
www.ipswichsociety.org.uk | https://www.facebook.com/ipswichsociety | email:
secretary@ipswichsociety.org.uk
This Newsletter is the quarterly journal of Ipswich’s civic amenity society established in 1960
(views expressed in the Newsletter are not necessarily those of the Society).
Dates for your diary
Society Outings
Saturday April 21: American Cemetery, Cambridge and King’s College Chapel.
Sundays May 20 and 27: Borin Van Loon’s The Secret Signs of Ipswich – an evening walk.
Tuesday June 12: Bradenham Hall gardens, Norfolk.
Saturday July 21: Penshurst Place, Kent.
Wednesday August 15: A tour of Harwich with the Harwich Society.
Thursday September 27: Holland Park, the Design Museum and Leighton House, London.
Ipswich Society Annual General Meeting: Wednesday April 18,7.30pm: followed by a talk by
Suffolk County Council Highways Engineer, Suzanne Buck, on The Upper Orwell Crossings.
Venue: The Waterfront Building, University of Suffolk, Neptune Quay, Wet Dock.
First Winter Illustrated Talk of 2018: Wed. 19 September is ‘Where have the houses gone?’ by Lisa
Psarianos. Also, please note…
Wednesday 11 April, 7.30pm: Steve Worsley talk on Railway Architecture. Ipswich Transport
Museum, Cobham Road, Ipswich, IP3 9JD (Suffolk Industrial Archaeological Society).
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.
A fireman perches 100 feet up on a turntable ladder – the appliance stationary in Bond Street, outside
the Fire Station in the 1960s. The features here from the foreground back are: cottage roofs on east
Bond Street, houses on Shaftesbury Square, St Andrew House (East Suffolk County Council offices,
now ‘Anton House’), the spire of St Helen Church, Zoar Chapel roofs, Kings Avenue, Alexandra Park.
The photographer must have been positioned in the hose tower which once dominated Bond Street.
Photograph courtesy John Harvey