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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

Issue 211 April 2018

© 2024 The Ipswich Society, Registered Charity Number: 263322

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