Contents 

Editorial                              

From the saddle                         

The Ipswich Institute              

Chairman’s remarks          

Ipswich railway station, Part 2   

Bill Serjeant       

Planning matters                  

A really creative partnership      

Street Scene       

Trinity Lodge                       

How big is a house                   

Ipswich Society Awards 2020 

Public art in Ipswich           

Letters to the Editor                  

Society officers and contacts   

 Planning for the future     

Local List 2020                     

New members   

Editorial 

Planning application in June 2020: erection of a 20 metre high ‘Phase 8 Monopole’ (phone mast). This would have been sited where the pavement widens right next to the Woodbridge Road bridge over the Felixstowe branch line (near the junction with Belle Vue Road) and close to residential flats. The mast would have been the same height as Anthony Gormley’s The Angel of the North and goodness knows how deep the foundations would have been – as deep as the railway cutting and beyond? Of course, there are a lot of people in our culture who are constantly demanding ‘better coverage’ as they hold their mobile telephones aloft. Perhaps this application (refused by the Planning Officer) gives us a glimpse of tomorrow. (A similar monopole application in Nacton Road was withdrawn.)    

Covers photographs 

Our front and back covers show just a small selection of the town’s public art: 

1.   Bust of Thomas Wolsey, main staircase, Town Hall, by James Williams, 1871. 

2.   Question Mark, Neptune Quay, by Langlands and Bell, 2008. 

3.   Triple mycomorph (fungus form), Christchurch Park, by Bernard Reynolds, c.1992. 

4.   Ship, Civic Drive roundabout, Bernard Reynolds, 1971. 

5.   Sor of hing, St Matthew’s Roundabout, by Mervyn Crawford, 1963. 

6.   The navigator, Orwell river path, by John Atkin, 2003. 

7.   Tam, grassed area near Black Horse Lane, by Honoria Surie, 1995. 

8.   Against the tide, on the west side of Bridge Street, by Laurence Edwards, 2004. 

9.   Niche sculptures, St Mary-At-Elms west front, by Charles Gurrey, 2006. 

10. Tondo of Wolsey, Christchurch Mansion, by A.W. Bellis, 1932. 

The article on page 8 explores some of the artistic riches to be found in Ipswich 

… if you look.                

Robin Gaylard 

Yewtree miniature Rent table by Titchmarsh & Goodwin, see page 6.

Chairman’s Remarks 

So the Cornhill is finally finished (almost – the handrails for the Town Hall steps have yet to be 

fixed). What have we gained, what benefit has the revamp brought to the town?  It would be 

difficult to comment on the market which is certainly smaller but this is surely down to the 

Covid crisis rather than the move into Princes Street. 

It is also difficult to comment on the attractiveness of the fountains given that they haven’t, 

until just recently been switched on this year. No children playing, adults sitting in deck chairs 

fascinated by the dancing waters and no Cornhill activities, this wretched disease kills  

almost everything. 

The drabness of the previous scheme has mellowed, the grey green concrete standing stones 

(Cornhenge) have gone, and the dominance of the slate grey street furniture, although still 

there, is reduced by the new white planters – almost limestone troughs in appearance. 





The difference is that limestone troughs are not indigenous to East Anglia and the real thing 

develops a patina of lichen, moss and natural weathering. The Cornhill planters are more likely 

to attract an urban patina of cigarette stub marks, the scuffs and scratches of being in a town 

centre and the residue paint from where the graffiti has been removed. 





From a personal perspective they create a visual barrier between the open square and the Town 

Hall, a wall that separates when the original criteria was exactly the opposite.  You may recall 

that the first schemes, those short-listed from the architectural competition, all had the level 

platform of the Cornhill extending right up to the ground floor of the Town Hall. These 

schemes were rejected because of the plethora of steps. 





Some good news: your Executive met face to face at the beginning of September, outside and 

socially-distanced around a table tennis table and we decided to progress with arrangements for 

members to come together. (I write this as the beginning of the 'second wave' becomes 

apparent and just before the limit of six people gathering was imposed). 





Firstly, I will lead a couple of short walks exploring the history of the town and port, the walks 

will obviously be outside, party size will be limited to fifteen and individuals can maintain 

their own space away from others in the party.* 





Secondly, we are making the necessary early arrangements for three Winter Talks in Museum 

Street Methodist Church, these are potentially more risky and we are relying on the 'R' rate 

falling (rather than rising as it is right now). We traditionally meet on the third Wednesday 

evening of the month so the January Newsletter will have the latest details.*  





It will be necessary to book (such that we can limit numbers) and indicate the number in your 

'bubble' (chairs will be arranged in small clusters).  You may want to mark January 20, 

February 17 and March 17 in your diary. The AGM is planned for April 21 either 'face to face' 

or by using Zoom depending on how things develop. 


John Norman             

[* both these ventures are dependant on the prevailing restrictions at the time.]     

Planning matters 

St Peters Dock. This length of the waterfront is owned by the Borough. Continuing 

improvement is taking place; 4-6 College Street is to be restored, the site of the maltings is 

being actively considered for development, the brick portion of the Burton warehouse has 

received a grant for its conversion into a space for the Gecko International Theatre and the 

quay itself has been rejuvenated by Suffolk County Council.  

Multi-storey car park, Princes Street. One certain outcome of the pandemic will be more 

home working and less office use. This will have unforeseen and unpredictable effects on the 

use of offices, of cities and towns, retail and hospitality industries therein, and transport 

systems. So, Ipswich Borough Council’s economic strategic plan to make Princes Street a high 

end office boulevard with a good railway service at one end to the City and Canary Wharf and 

a thriving town centre with retail and varied hospitality offers around a modernised Cornhill at 

the other with a modern multi-storey car park in the middle for out-of-town callers, is well 

thought out and will be a big economic driver for the town. The act of God that is Covid-19 has 

made the outlook, at present, not quite so rosy. However, things may well change and this is 

only an outline application. As has been pointed out, the land use will be much more efficient, 

as there won’t be an increase in the total number of spaces and it will be greener because it will 

triple the number of electric car charging points in central Ipswich. The land vacated may well 

become a hotel and housing in the near future, as well as a green space. 

Broomhill Pool. When I last wrote  in these pages optimistically about the future of the lido; 

all was proceeding smoothly with the appointment of contractors imminent. Then the virus 

struck; lockdown day coincided with their appointment. The chosen operators, a large not-for-

profit charitable trust, Fusion-Lifestyle, had to close all their 84 leisure facilities across 

England and furlough their 2,000 staff. They have reopened most outlets, including five out of 

six of their lidos (Hinksey, Oxford has developed a leak). So, their future plans and finances 

have been turned upside down and all major capital projects put on hold, at least until 2021. 

Currently, we do not know how matters will proceed for Broomhill Pool; however, I have been 

optimistic for eighteen years and remain absolutely confident that the lido will reopen. It's not 

‘if’ but ‘when?’. 

9-11 Museum Street (former Strutt and Parker offices). S & P have been granted permission to 

convert this listed, late Georgian house to nine one bedroom apartments. Whilst we are always 

happy to see more dwellings in the town centre, surely the time has come to insist on larger 

apartments, maisonettes or even a whole house. Museum Street, when all the office-to- 

apartment conversions are occupied will become a warren of the young, transient population. 

Time for a rethink, but it is difficult to see how the planning system could be changed to 

regulate such matters; this includes the future conversion of no longer used office buildings to 

rabbit hutch habitations when permission is not required for change of use. 

Ipswich Local Plan. Meanwhile, The Ipswich Local Plan has reached the final stage of its 

production: interrogation by a Planning Inspector at a series of open meetings. When they 

commence – presumably virtually – we shall be observing and, if necessary, contributing. 

Note, that as Ipswich has a Local Plan, no land to speak of and an efficient planning 

department, there won’t be many changes within the Borough boundary. But outside, in the 

District Councils (which happen to be run by Conservative councillors), plans are less well 

developed and there is land aplenty. Voters may well not be so happy. 

The Business and Planning Act (2020) introduced at the end of August, under the cover of 

Covid-19, this allows for the enlargement of a dwelling house with up to two extra storeys on 

an existing two storey building, an extra one storey on a bungalow together with the demolition 

of small buildings and their replacement with taller and larger ones and the enlargement of a 

dwelling house consisting of the construction of up to two additional storeys, where the 

existing dwelling house consists of two or more storeys; or one additional storey, where the 

existing dwelling house consists of one storey, immediately above the topmost storey of the 

dwelling house, together with any engineering operations reasonably necessary for the purpose 

of that construction. There are several restrictions where permission will still need to be 

obtained (only 1948-2018 houses). But it could lead to a rash of unsightly extensions upwards. Additionally, there are 

changes to the classification of businesses to allow easier change of use, largely for the hospitality industry, Isuspect. 

For the first time that I can recall, I can find no application in the last few weeks worthy of inclusion in these notes. 

Mike Cook 

(See page 10 for Mike’s summary of the new Planning White 

Paper – Ed.) 

Trinity Lodge – aka ‘The Mansion House’ 

Standing half-way up Back Hamlet, Trinity Lodge commanded splendid views over the river and 

countryside beyond. It has been suggested that it was built as a farmhouse in the 16th century. 

The once thatched roof remained hidden under Victorian slates for decades until major 

renovation work was undertaken in 2003. An 1881 Ordinance Survey map depicts a substantial 

garden and orchard. We know that Trinity Brick Works adjoined Fore Hamlet when the map was 

drawn and, lower down the hill on the other side of Back Hamlet, was another brick and tile works; plus the Old Pottery which was to become the site of Ipswich Civic College in the 1960s

Above left: Trinity Lodge during renovations c 2003 and teh Lodge with teh T&G entrance to the right

In his book Rags and Bones, Frank Grace states that some important townsmen lived in elevated 

positions such as Bishops Hill and Back Hamlet, away from the densely populated town. One 

would expect the vicar of nearby Holy Trinity Church to live close by at Trinity Lodge. Instead, 

it was home for the vicar of St Lawrence, whilst Rev. Francis Maude, the vicar of Holy Trinity 

Church, lived in an equally elevated home on Bishops Hill. 

In 1924 furniture manufacturers Gordon Goodwin and Frederick Titchmarsh purchased a 

builder’s yard from Alfred Gayford situated in the one-time garden of Trinity Lodge. Later they 

bought a terraced house, 106 Back Hamlet for office accommodation, then in 1948 the ‘Mansion 

House’ or ‘Trinity Lodge’ was purchased for £2,370, together with a parcel of adjoining land 

thereby providing wider access to their premises.

During the hot summer of 1963, fire destroyed their workshops and the following year I joined 

Eric Lait at the drawing board in their new building. Eric had worked for the firm since 1936 and 

aside from a spell in the RAF during World War II this was his only job. Whilst working together 

he told me about his early years with the firm, various former employees, special commissions, 

etc. He was then living in Back Hamlet and spoke of the night of the fire when he, together with 

Jeremy Goodwin and his wife, rescued drawings from the burning buildings, these rolls of full-

size drawings were then stored in the attic of the Lodge which Eric didn’t favour visiting. 

Apparently a colony of rats also lived there!

In the early sixties, the ground floor of the Lodge was let out to tenants; one of Gordon’s sons 

with his family in one part which included a fully panelled room and Gordon’s secretary and her 

husband in another which was later let to one of the cabinet-makers. My first impression on entry 

to the hall, with its decoratively tiled floor and curved balustrade, was of a rather fusty smell.

When the tenants moved on, Trinity Lodge sadly waited for care and attention. On occasions 

Jeremy Goodwin would ask me to come up with some ideas for converting the building into a 

number of self-contained flats; another time, my brief was to consider four independent 

dwellings but nothing ever became of them.

In the seventies business was booming, men were on overtime and the new workshops were 

spilling over with furniture. Some pieces were briefly stored in the Lodge and sometimes a 

polisher worked there to give more room in the polishing shop.

Since his early days, Eric had taken black and white photographs of all new items and in the 

seventies he began to use a large room in the Lodge as a studio. He took a polaroid first, then 

using a wooden plate camera fired two shots at varying apertures before processing them in the 

darkroom. Just prior to Eric’s retirement in 1986, Mike Atkins came on board and from then 

onwards all shots were in colour, the negatives being sent to Colchester for processing.

Often I set up the shots, decorating with props, considering the preferred angle to give the best 

image. Unlike many professional photographers we had no screens, or rolls of coloured paper, no 

fancy lighting. However, there was a selection of wallpapers which I stuck on the wall with Blu- 

tack for a quick change of background, also odd lengths of fabric suggested window drapes. On 

one occasion a professional photographer, accustomed to shooting the homes of celebs etc. for 

glossy magazines, was commissioned to produce a range of photographs for a new brochure. He 

used 35mm film and took dozens of each scene as he said the film was cheap. 

Clients came from all over the world: princes, presidents and kings. I often wondered what some 

of them would think of us working as we did  on a shoestring, capturing their splendid and costly 

commissions on Kodachrome.

Trinity Lodge was sold in 2002 ending the in-house photography. Ipswich Building Preservation 

Trust had contemplated renovating the sadly decaying building but such thoughts came to 

nothing and in 2003 a property developer stepped in to transform Trinity Lodge into two 

adjoining houses. 

Heather Staff

O.S. map  detail 1881

Public art in Ipswich 

The familiar image of the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon helmet, as represented  in sculptor Antony Robinson’s 1995 

Longship screens at the Old Cattle Market (repositioned in 2017).

Those with good memories may recall a Society Winter Illustrated Talk in 2013 to accompany the publication of  The Public sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk by Richard and Sarah Cocke. Richard, who had visited many towns in East Anglia made an interesting point about Ipswich. ‘You have a fine range of public sculpture and very few ‘breeches statues’ which clutter other towns’. He was referring to the almost inevitable statues of ‘great and good’ (mainly) men who made money, held high office, did good works etc. to be found in other conurbations. In 

Ipswich we don’t seem to go in for this, even for the most deserving characters – perhaps it’s our history of slightly bolshie  non-conformism. Even Herbert Hampton’s large, cast iron statue of Queen Victoria, 1904, complete with stone plinth and four lions couchant, which was once sited in front of Christchurch Mansion was melted down for armaments in World War II. 

So, taking a stroll around the town can provide a wonderful survey of three-dimensional art 

through time, but you’ve got to know where to look. The figure of Ceres, repurposed for the 

first Corn Exchange from the figure of Justice which had topped the Market Cross, can be seen 

in her weathered state at the foot of the staircase of the Town Hall. An oft-overlooked, and 

rather good, bust of Wolsey (shown on our front cover) stands at the top of the staircase. 

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Ipswich boy that he was, has taken his time to be immortalised in 

sculpture. There is Barnabas Barrett’s 1867 central head on the frontage of the Town Hall 

facade, followed by A.W. Bellis’ relief tondo on the Wolsey Gallery (our April 2018 issue tells 

the story of the maquette) and finally David Annand’s 2011 seated portrait at the top of St 

Peters Street. This last was a major achievement by the late Dr John Blatchly and others. 

Of course, everybody has a view on a public sculpture, if they notice it at all, and these 

opinions can be quite strong – for and against. This might be the place to speak up in favour of 

the fabled Sor of Hing on St Matthews roundabout. This 1963 modernist construction by West 

Suffolk sculptor Mervyn Crawford was made to fit into the rather brutalist 1960s architecture 

of the Civic Drive development. Apparently, its informal nickname derives from a critical  

letter to the local press, where the writer referred to it as being the ‘sort of thing’ appropriate to 

London but not Suffolk. Unfortunately the paper’s press malfunctioned and the letter ’t’ didn’t 

reproduce; the name stuck. Nick Wiggin, proprietor of the well-known local chemist’s shop on 

the corner of Berners Street and upon which the sculpture was fixed, tells us that he got some grief from 

the Conservation Officer when he installed the burglar alarm see in the photograph. Even the pigeons like it and have nested on the open end of the hollow tube. 

Back to the figurative: local artist Sean Hedges-Quinn created statues of Ipswich Town managers both of whom went on to manage England: Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson, 2000 and 2002 respectively, sited close to the football ground. But a more sensitive, thought-provoking figure sits cross-legged in the shade of trees close to St Mary-at-Elms: Tam by Honoria Surie. Her daughter Tam (Tamasin) is seen moulding a piece of clay – quite appropriate as her mother, now Honor Hussey, went on to run Butley Pottery. 

Tucked away in the middle of Felaw Maltings, now Maltings Terrace, is a large work by Vanessa Parker of the Hitcham-based Land & Sculpture Design Barley sculpture, Felaw Maltings

Partnership: Barley sculpture, 1999. Tall, elegant and very site-specific to the former maltings, 

it is seen more by those inside the buildings than by passers-by. Another well-kept secret is the 

fine work Spirit of youth, 1990, by John Rivera in  St Mary's Court, off Museum Street. This 

through-way (thanks to negotiations with the office owners) is open to the public during office 

hours. The bench in the small garden once boasted a bronze, large-brimmed hat – to 

accompany the running children – resting on a wooden bench, but metal thieves ripped it off to 

be melted down. [At this point the writer uttered an expletive, not wholly complimentary to metal thieves.] 

If you like pure abstraction, Innocence by Linda Thomas, 2007, is pleasing in its simplicity and 

beautiful design (it has the dimensions of the ‘golden ratio’). This work is sited close to the 

Christchurch Park play area and provides a tapered ‘eye’ for viewers to observe either rolling 

parkland, or playing children and families. It has survived vandals who discovered how hard 

Portland stone is. See the October 2017 issue for Linda’s own photograph of her work. 

This really scratches the surface of Ipswich’s riches. The Borough Council, to coincide with 

the London Olympics of 2012, produced a fine guide to the town’s public art entitled the (only 

slightly strained) Artathon. Once a paper publication, now only on the web: 

https://www.ipswich.gov.uk/sites/www.ipswich.gov.uk/files/Artathon.pdf 

but it lacks the map and actual trails. Still useful, though. 

R.G. 

 

Above: the memorial sarcophagus at the foot of the Cenotaph in Christchurch Park by 

sculptors Earp, Hobbs & Miller; bronze on Portland stone plinth and support, 1924. 

‘The sarcophagus which was inspired by Renaissance models with two feet on a plinth is 

made up of up of weaponry including bundles of spears, regimental standards, bandoliers of 

ammunition, maces, machine-guns and a Stokes gun – invented by Sir Wilfred Scott-Stokes 

(1860-1927) who was the managing director of the engineering firm Ransomes & Rapier of 

Ipswich. The draped Union Jack and flag of St George shows respect for the dead whose 

victory is suggested by laurel discretely growing around the knapsack and bayonet. At the top 

is a rifle and British army round helmet accompanied the rest of the soldier’s equipment: gas 

mask, water bottle and ammunition belt.’ 

The photograph and description are from the invaluable Public Sculpture in Norfolk & Suffolk 

website: http://racns.co.uk created by Richard and Sarah Cocke. 

Planning for The Future 

The Government White Paper on the consultation to revolutionise the planning system of 

England is an 84 page document starting with Mr Johnson’s foreword: ‘Thanks to our planning 

system, we have nowhere near enough homes in the right places. People cannot afford to move 

to where their talents can be matched with opportunity. Businesses cannot afford to grow and 

create jobs. The whole thing is beginning to crumble and the time has come to do what too 

many have for too long lacked the courage to do – tear it down and start again. That is what 

this paper proposes. Radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second  

World War.’ 




The document is highly critical of the current, 1947-designed system, of poor software, too 

dependent on a single planner, of local plans only being present in 50% of Local Planning 

Authorities, and of taking seven years to complete. Some of these statements are true but they 

are not what has stopped affordable houses being built. 

It is true that the process of determining developers’ contributions (Section 106 or SIL) is slow 

and inaccurate. Further, design quality is poor; they would like ‘design codes’ rather than 

current guidlines. What we do build is too few, too small and badly designed. 

There are many questions to be answered, many of them political. 

To overcome these deficiencies there are twenty five proposals to which readers of the White 

Paper are asked to reply as a public consultation. The Ipswich Society has already commenced 

formulating a studied and controlled response. Meanwhile, we would like to hear members’ 

views so that we can incorporate them into our response. Please contact us via email or 

Royal Mail or telephone (see details on the back page) before the end of October because we 

have to send our reply by November 11. The White Paper link is:- 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/

file/907647/MHCLG-Planning-Consultation.pdf 

Mike Cook 

Above: relief mural in decorative brickwork, coloured ceramic and cobbles (uncredited artist) built into 

the side wall of the town centre Sainsbury’s supermarket, Dogs Head Street.  

From the Saddle (written in April) 

For my daily exercise, mid-crisis, I have occasionally taken to my bicycle. Only having set off 

one day in the Woodbridge Road area, I suddenly had the idea of taking a different route. 

Rather than heading out to the surrounding villages, as I would often do, I thought I would 

stick to the Ipswich area. Initially I thought I would try a simple circuit by attempting to choose 

a route that would look like a smooth circle once mapped on my cycling ‘app’. Before another 

few hundred yards had passed, however, I developed my thoughts further. 

I was a fan of the Ipswich Corporation Transport years and, in particular, the bus routes of the 

1970s which, of course, were little changed from the trolleybus routes of the post-war years. I 

suddenly had the idea of making my circuit of Ipswich aligned to many of the Corporation 

routes (numbers in parenthesis), termini and sites of that period, without straying beyond the 

original Borough boundary if possible. 

I was then at Sidegate Lane roundabout, by the Royal George. That was it! The idea was to be 

implemented – first stop Sidegate Lane (11) turning circle. Like many of the surviving turning 

circles this one is now used as car park space for local residents, but it is intact. 

From there I made my way through the Selkirk Estate to tick off the rest of the no. 11 and 11A 

routes, Renfrew Road etc., which was added when that estate was built. Within no time at all I 

was at the original Lattice Barn or if you prefer the Rushmere terminus at the end of Playford 

Road (3). It was a sunny and warm early April morning and that was two routes or termini 

ticked off within minutes. From there it was an easy ride to Foxhall Road roundabout (5) and 

through Broke Hall (4), before crossing Felixstowe Road bridge and turning 180 degrees into 

Cobham Road to pass the museum or if your prefer, the Corporation depot. Many times as a 

teenager had I biked there on summer evenings to watch the buses return to the depot after the 

daytime service wound up. This also covered the Felixstowe Road and Kingsway versions of 

the no. 4 route. The Kingsway blind was latterly only shown when the bus was essentially 

returning to the depot. In trolley days the service turned at St Augustine’s roundabout. The 

Broke Hall terminus was another one added as the estates around the town mushroomed. 

I peddled along Lindbergh Road (2, aka Priory Heath), which was wired in trolleybus days, 

and on to Nacton Road to ride to the Airport and Crane’s sites both of which were at the limit 

of the Borough (2A). I used to deliver newspapers around this area so know it well. I even 

passed the house of one of my very first girlfriends, but don’t tell anyone. The memories of all 

those men from Crane’s cycling home along Nacton Road after their shift seemed as fresh as 

ever. The buses would be busy too with the top deck full of smoke! 

Clapgate Lane and the Reynolds Road extension (6B) were soon behind me as I sped along 

Landseer Road (6A) recalling how the AEC Regents loved to stretch their legs on this open 

downhill stretch. I wondered what speeds they were capable of – above 40 mph? Perhaps 

someone in the ITS family might know? 

As I travelled ‘via Duke Street’ as the blinds once proclaimed, I was unsure whether to stick to 

the Waterfront and head straight for Bourne Bridge which would keep my ‘circle’ of Ipswich as 

neat or round as possible. In the end the bus theme took over. I decided instead to follow the 

various eastern routes’ main path to Electric House, past Fore Street Baths, Sneezums and 

Martin & Newby. When I left school years later, my mate Clive got a job working in Martin & 

Newby and got to wear the routine brown overall coat they all wore in there. I digress. Up 

through the Wash and across Majors Corner, past the Grey Green coach station and I was soon 

‘pulling in’ to Electric House. 

Once there it seemed obvious to ‘become’ the Ipswich Station (X) and cycle down Lloyds 

Avenue, across Cornhill and down the full length of Princes Street. As it was ‘mid restrictions’, 

the Cornhill was deserted. Certainly there were no corrugated iron-roofed shelters, bus only 

lay-bys or ‘green bus stops’ to admire. My memory of the X was of largely empty buses which 

once at the station used to have a long layover before returning to Cornhill possibly as an 8 or 

9B – but others may correct me. I also mused which Corporation or Borough Transport vehicle 

had the honour of being the last to pass under the Lloyds Bank building before the Avenue was 

curtailed. In another life I became the Manager at that bank and looked down from the 

windows hoping to see the 12 head off under my desk! 

Next stop was Bourne Bridge which did mean an element of doubling back on myself. I was 

careful not to reach the Ostrich mini roundabout as that would have possibly taken me across 

the Borough boundary and goodness me, Corporation buses never did that except on high days 

and Suffolk Show days. 

Back along Wherstead Road, I then turned to cycle up Station Street and Luther Road to reach 

Maidenhall Approach (1B). Like Whitehouse, Chantry and other places around the town, the 

postwar expansion of Ipswich was and is still evident. I chose not to circumvent Stoke Park via 

Stoke Park Drive as my memory told me that was essentially a 1980s development: or certainly 

the bus route came along much later than the early 70s. Therefore, I cycled along Belstead 

Road, a preserve of the 208 Eastern Counties route, of course, before charging down 

Cambridge Drive (12) to meet Birkfield Drive (12A). My journey through Chantry took me 

then through Annbrook to Ellenbrook (12B and 7B) and thence up Bridgewater Road to 

Hawthorn Drive. It was if I was following an AEC Swift. I weaved my way through to the 

north western side of Chantry to the edge of the park and to London Road (7 and 7A). I 

recalled the trolleybus extension through Dickens Road, so arrived by Fred’s Café from 

Hadleigh Road and the now forlorn Earl Kitchener pub§. Many other iconic Ipswich estate pubs 

were to be found along my route too of course, most now in the history books. The Golden 

Hind is still open but the Duke of Gloucester and Waveney have long gone, amongst others. 

[§We read that the Earl Kitchener reopened, August 2020. -Ed.]

I took a quick detour along West End Road to turn in front of Constantine Road depot. How 

could my ride not encompass this heartbeat of the Ipswich public transport scene? But soon I 

was back cycling along Yarmouth and Bramford Roads. The buses I passed on this cycle ride 

were all empty. I feel for the driver as keeping to time is impossible so you see many buses 

waiting for time at bus stops along the way. Rather like being a train driver in these odd days! 

Was there a turning circle near the Red Lion pub? It looks like there was once. Next terminus 

was Adair Road and the Whitehouse estate (8) via Ulster Avenue. Being an east Ipswich lad 

this was certainly foreign territory for me, as indeed was Whitton, Shakespeare Road and 

Defoe Road (9, 9A and 9B) but of course the Maypole terminus was very familiar as it was on 

the main northerly route out of Ipswich and then the A45. 

My cycle ride was nearly complete as I turned into Henley Road. I was worried for a moment 

that this was beyond the Ipswich Borough boundary but I am not so sure now. Once again, you 

may know better. Did the border not stretch out towards Westerfield here somewhat? Either 

way a quick circuit of the ‘by-pass’ would allow me to complete much of both the circulars (0). 

As a child at St Matthews School but living on Broke Hall, I would often catch the Woodbridge 

Road or Felixstowe Road circulars if I could as they were somewhat unusual and being a 

fledgling enthusiast, that was attractive. Furthermore ADX 1 and ADX 2 were often allocated 

to the circulars and they always carried an appeal, even then! I certainly recall alighting in 

Bixley Road one day to be reprimanded by the conductor. He insisted I should catch the no. 4 

as the circulars were meant for the children at St Albans and Northgate. I told my parents I had 

been told off and they rang Constantine Road to complain! 

One other story on a non-transport theme came flooding back. My brother often travelled home 

with me from St Matthews but being ‘normal’ (i.e. not into buses and trains at all) we would 

come home together on the no.4. The longer trip on the circular was of no interest to him. At 

that time a lot of the Ipswich Town youth team had digs on Broke Hall or in that part of the 

town. Indeed they were part of the FA Youth cup-winning team in which George Burley 

played. They also caught the no. 4 bus. They would try and get the same bus as ours because 

my brother had a ‘party piece’ which would entertain those on the top deck. He could (and I 

think still can) carefully fold the whole of the outer part of his ear into a parcel, retained by the 

opening to his ear canal and earlobe! It would remain folded in place for a varying length of 

time before slowly releasing and sort of popping open again. This would be met by a round of 

applause from all who would witness such a thing. And all on an AEC Regent double-decker 

along Felixstowe Road. 

Back to 2020 and 26 miles later I reached my starting point at the Royal George. The map is an 

interesting shape and it was a rewarding trip as the memories came flooding back so if you 

have a bike, clean it down, get it mobile again and relive your own segment of Ipswich whilst 

keeping healthy. 

I am very happy to be corrected on any inaccuracies regarding the routes and numbers as much 

of this came from memory. I am combining the end of the trolleybus era with the changing 70s 

motor bus world, after all, and that marked the beginning of much change. I am confident some 

Ipswich Transport Society expert opinion can develop my thoughts further! 

Tim Ward 

(This article first appeared in the Ipswich Transport Society Newsletter.) 

Ipswich railway stations, Part 2: Ipswich Station (1860) 

[Part 1 of this article appeared in the Ipswich Society Newsletter August 2020 (Issue 222).] 

In 1846 the Eastern Union Railway (EUR) and the Ipswich and Bury Railway (I and BR) had 

already decided that running trains into Croft Street terminus was only a temporary situation. 

They planned a new joint station at the north end of the tunnel. Croft Street Station would then 

be closed. 

To that end; the EUR engineer, Peter Schuyler Bruff, set up a competition among architects to 

design the new station. Nineteen entries were received and Sancton Wood was the successful 

candidate. He submitted two designs; one was an Elizabethan and the other an Italianate style  

of building. 

Sancton Wood had trained with Sir Robert and Sidney Smirke in London. The latter had gained 

some fame by designing the spectacular circular reading room in the British Museum in 1857. 

Mr Wood had already designed the rebuild of Bishopsgate Station for the Eastern  

Counties Railway. 

The joint board chose Wood’s Italianate design but shortage of money prevented it from being 

built at that stage. It was not until 1858, when the I and BR had been absorbed into the EUR, that 

work commenced. The station was eventually completed and opened in 1860. 

For over twenty years there was no island platform. It was finally opened in 1883, the 

latter now accommodating platforms three and four. Many people board trains from the island platform but have never noticed the heads of the gods which decorate the outside of the upper walls of the waiting rooms here. I counted sixteen in all. (More about the heads in The Ipswich Society Newsletter, January 2020,  Issue 218.) 

To the west of the island platform were the Head of a god on the island platform waiting room building 

carriage sidings, known from time All photographs by M R Russenimmemorial as the ‘found out.’ I can find no-one who now knows why the area gained this appellation – it seems to be lost in the mists of time. This area latterly has been used as a parking and refuelling area for Freightliner container traffic locomotives; the powerful Class 66’s, rumbling away as they wait for their turn.  

Before we move to the exterior of the station: there is an apocryphal story concerning one of 

the early stationmasters at Ipswich. Stoke Hill tunnel has always had a problem with water 

trickling its way through the hill, trying to make their way to the Rivers Gipping and Orwell 

but much of the water enters the tunnel via the roof. The story goes that this worthy railway 

official would send one of his young porters into the tunnel to top up his whisky tot from the 

dripping spring water. Much better than ordinary tap water. 

Back to the main story - The station when first built had a wide concourse area in front of the 

building with a section for horse-drawn cabs on the right-hand side of the station as you faced 

it from the road. The whole area in front of the station became more and more cluttered with 

street furniture and traffic as the twentieth century advanced. Interestingly the roofline of the 

building has not changed much at all since 1860. 

Left: The cluttered area in front of the station in 2011 

In 2017 work was carried out re-organising and upgrading this area. The work took much longer than anticipated but is an improvement generally. 

Below: the new look area in front of the station in 

September 2017 

[MRR]

One problem did emerge after the work was completed. The taxi rankcan be seen in the left-hand 

picture above. In the original design, the path alongside Burrell Road, was to be much narrower and with no trees.The widening of this path, inorder to include the avenue of trees, upset the taxi drivers because it narrowed the taxi rank roadway. This gave them problems particularly with loading and unloading wheelchairs 

etc. They were particularly upset because, apparently, they were not consulted on the change. 

The interior of the station has also been completely remodelled. 

Right: Station building interior 2011 (Before the changes) [MRR]

The new glass-walled booking hall in 2017. Now in 2020 with brand new motive power on the line; along comes the lockdown. One wonders whether the new ‘working from home’ practice will decimate the commuter traffic on the line. We are now in completely new and unknown territory… in every walk of life. 

Merv Russen  

A really creative partnership 

Growing up in my formative years ‘Over Stoke’, I was acutely aware of the engineering  

manufacturing base of Ipswich, from Ransome Sims & Jefferies, Cocksedge and Compair 

Reavell to my late father’s employers Ransomes & Rapier Ltd at the Waterside Works.

My father was employed as a quality control inspector. For many years his job entailed him 

travelling around Ipswich and across the UK, carrying out quality inspections on components 

being manufactured for Rapier machines by a wide variety of specialist engineering 

companies, both large and small. As a manufacturing centre, in my Oxfordshire ‘exile’ years in 

the mid 1980s, I remember often driving  on the Coventry Ring Road and seeing the multitude 

of component companies serving the Ryton Motor Works. Ipswich also had, for many years, 

several smaller engineering companies in and around the environs of the town. One such 

company was C. W. Juby Ltd. of Whitehouse Road.

Fast forward to my teen years. Eventually in 1968, I became friendly with Dave, who was an 

articled clerk for a chartered accountancy practice but who had, after leaving grammar school, 

gone initially to Maidstone College of Art to study sculpture. By 

the end of the decade we had transformed ourselves by growing 

our hair longer: from mods into blues-loving hippies. Our 

rendezvous was always the Vaults Bar of the Golden Lion Hotel on 

the Cornhill in Ipswich.

One evening we started a casual conversation with Kevin and his 

school friend, John. Either on that occasion, or on a subsequent 

one, Dave mentioned his interest in sculpture. The conversation 

eventually then turned to Eduardo Paolozzi, to which Kevin 

replied that his father worked for Juby’s engineers as a welder, and 

had been responsible for assembling the works of art! Having 

myself been to different sculpture parks, and in particular the Paolozzi

Henry Moore Foundation near Bishops Stortford, it is easy to understand why the artist/sculptor often needs someone else to build their vision. Indeed, Anthony Gormley now has his own works in London, but  in earlier times would have needed others to cast the life size effigies of himself.

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was born  in Scotland and was the son of Italian migrants. He studied in Edinburgh and London, worked in Paris and eventually established a studio in London. In the mid-1950s he moved to Thorpe Le Soken in Essex. He was a founding member of the British Pop Art movement, producing  lifelike works with cubic elements. In the 1960s and 1970s he produced many machine like sculptures, some of which were in the Tate Gallery for many years.

Book jacket: Eduardo Paolozzi by Judith Collins. Lund Humphries, 2014 Len Smith of Elmcroft Road, was a skilled welder for many years and, between the period  1962-1971, whilst at Jubys he 

worked with Paolozzi, assembling his sculptures. When interviewed once on Look East he modestly said that  he just followed the sculptor’s instructions. However, Paolozzi often worked in aluminium and bronze, and these materials would require exceptional skill to be welded into the right positions on the sculpture. Many of the castings were produced by another Ipswich engineering firm, but assembled at Juby’s.  Paolozzi had the vision, Len’s skill made his ideas reality.

Len helped assemble Paolozzi’s works when they were exhibited, and on occasions the sculptor had lunch with Len at his home. A friendship over many years had developed. Sadly, both Len and Eduardo have passed on, but the links of the international sculptor with the engineering craftsman need to be brought out more into the mainstream and recognised. 

If in the future, when  I travel through Tottenham Court Road underground station, I will appreciate the Paolozzi mural which is there, in the knowledge that a skilled engineer played an important part in the sculptor’s career.

Graham Day

(My thanks are due to my own memory and the Ipswich Paolozzi’s signature, Tottenham 

remembers Facebook group.) Court Road tube station mosaic

[Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005) was also a visiting lecturer at the Ipswich School of Art. He 

opened the present Art School in 1987 and he was knighted in 1989. Eduardo Paolozzi: General 

Dynamic F.U.N., a Hayward touring exhibition from London’s Southbank Centre, featured in the 

Art School Gallery in January 2017. 

His links with East Anglia extended to moving his family to Thorpe-le-Soken in Essex in 1955. 

Founded in 1954 by Nigel Henderson and Paolozzi, Hammer Prints Ltd was established to create 

textiles, wallpaper, statuary, ceramics, furniture and more, working from a studio at Henderson's 

home at Landermere Wharf near Thorpe-le-Soken. Hammer Prints coincided with the artists’ 

involvement in the Independent Group, a contingent of artists, architects and writers who 

celebrated popular culture and mass production. Paolozzi's notes stated: ‘it is the object of 

Hammer Prints Ltd that an attack be made on the craft field using the silk-screen as the media to 

be exploited.’ –Ed.] 

How big is a house? 

Of all the countries in the EU, England has the smallest homes by floor area.  A recent study 

found that homes in England were, on average, just over 70 sq metres (750 sq feet).  This can be 

compared with Italy: 108 sq m (1,160 sq ft), and Germany: 93 sq m (1,000 sq ft).  For 

comparison a typical three bedroom 1930s British semi is about 90 sq m (just under 1,000 sq ft). 

Choose to live in an average sized home in Canada where they have the largest homes in the 

world and you’ll get 150 sq m, the United States, by comparison, averages only 130 sq m. 

The average size of the UK home has shrunk, and because of the housing shortage paralleled 

with changes to planning requirements it is shrinking rapidly.  Since 2015 there has been a 

marked increase in the conversion of existing office buildings into studio apartments and large 

houses into homes of multiple occupancy. 

What we miss are the Parker Morris Standards, a set of parameters set out in a report on public 

housing Homes for today and tomorrow.  The Ministry of Housing’s Design Bulletin No. 6: 

Space in the Home published in 1963. 

In 1967 there was a change in the way the standards were calculated, not by occupancy levels but 

by the utility of the home. In 1980 the approach changed again, with the focus on building more 

homes, the floor space requirements were largely dropped although the Building Regulations do 

set some standards for circulation space, means of escape and space requirements for people with 

disabilities. 

Some cities developed their own minimum space standards. For example, London introduced a 

set of rules in 2011 and the Housing Corporation set standards for housing receiving public 

subsidy.  The Joseph Rowntree Foundation set their own ‘Lifestyle Homes’ standards but the 

national house builders, developers and builders converting existing property frequently had a 

free reign, making their own decisions on what they thought would sell (the shortage of homes 

meant that whatever they built, sold) .   

By 2012 we realised that we were getting things wrong, some of the new property was simply 

too small for comfortable living, one bedroom studios frequently accommodated two people 

(sharing) and inevitably children came along.  Thus the coalition government undertook a 

fundamental review of building regulations which was labelled ‘the biggest single change in 

housing standards in a generation’   The review prescribed that space sizes for all new-build  

homes around the country would be brought into line with the London Standards.   

In October 2015, the government introduced a new nationally described space standards which 

set out detailed guidance on the minimum size of new homes.  According to this standard, the 

minimum floor area for any new home should be 37 sq. m.  Should be – but doesn’t, by law, have 

to be.  Some home builders are taking advantage of Permitted Development rights, converting 

offices into bed-sits of miniscule size. 

And not only are some so small there isn’t room for a cat, they don’t 

have windows (no natural daylight).  Dividing large open plan offices 

in to small studios inevitably means that some rooms are away from the 

outside walls, occasionally such conversions don’t have amenity space, 

access to public transport or even local shops.  The clientele group has 

changed from well-healed office workers earning a regular wage to the 

socially disadvantaged for whom the low rent is just about affordable.  

Needless to say, such conversions deteriorate fairly quickly. 

John Norman    

Letters to the Editor 

Dick Stokes, Arthur Ransome and George Orwell from Ivan Cutting, Eastern Angles 

Good to see the mention of Dick Stokes in the bonus Society Newsletter the other week (Issue 

220: The mighty leviathan!) regarding Ransomes & Rapier. Arthur Ransome, who was related to 

the Ransome element, talks about him in his autobiography. Consequently I put him in the play 

Red Skies that we were due to tour this Spring. It tells the story of a fictional meeting between 

George Orwell and Arthur Ransome in 1939 in Southwold. Orwell was about to write Animal 

Farm when someone tells him Arthur Ransome is in the harbour with his wife Evgenia who was 

once Trotsky’s secretary. 

In the Second Act, set in 1940, Orwell finds his way to the Ransomes’ home near Pin Mill and 

stays over, during which there is an air-raid. Evgenia beds him down under the table, which is 

‘where we put our MP Dick Stokes when he is here’. At least the latter part of that sentence  

is true! 

The first ‘bridge to the station’ from Spencer Greystrong, River Gipping Trust 

Thanks for a most informative article by Merv Russen about the first railway station in Croft 

Street. Your readers might be interested in the attached painting entitled Bridge West of Stoke 

Bridge. The painting is in the collection of the Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service. We 

have their permission to use it on our web site and in our presentations. 

Clearly, the only bridge currently west of Stoke Bridge is Princes Street which leads to the 

present railway station and this picture certainly doesn't show that. 

The painting is by Robert Burrows (1810-1893) who was born in Ipswich. We believe the picture 

dates from around 1847 just after Croft Street Station was opened. There are references in the 

Suffolk Chronicle of July 1847 to 'new business premises situate in the New Street in the course 

of formation from the Corn Hill to the Railway Station'.          

Image courtesy Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service

The new station wasn’t opened until 1860 and this bridge was constructed to take traffic from 

Croft Street station across the river, just upstream from Stoke Bridge. It was replaced by Station 

Bridge in 1860. We think the building at the end of the bridge was an ale house, once the 

Locomotive, later the Railway Tavern but since demolished, at the junction of Burrell Street and 

Willoughby Road. That must have been where ‘the working men, numbering some 200’, had 

their dinner. The church tower is St Mary-a-Stoke and the windmill was at the top of Stoke Hill. 

Ipswich villages from Tim Voelcker 

The Chairman’s remarks in the July Newsletter about additional Newsletters instead of an AGM 

spoke of the value of the novel form of discussion, quite apart from it saving the normal 

meeting’s costs of over £1000 which instead were used for the extra Newsletter. In his article 

Coronavirus, he expressed a hope that we will emerge from the Covid-19 crisis as a less selfish, 

more caring, more thoughtful nation: ‘The care we have shown to each other must continue’. It 

may be that (a) working sometimes from home may prove more acceptable in some cases both to 

employers and employees; that (b) the frail and elderly may be better placed at home, rather than 

in crowded care-homes with a higher risk of infection, if given the correct help.

He suggests that ‘businesses will rethink their working model’. Should the Ipswich Society 

likewise take a closer interest in the way the surrounding countryside is changing? The months of 

lock-down will have temporarily changed habits of recreation of many Ipswich residents. Will 

the numbers of cyclists, runners and walkers that took exercise on the Suffolk lanes this year in 

the fortunate fine weather have changed their minds about the importance the of countryside? 

How do you evaluate this against the need for more housing or the dangers and frustrations of 

more car traffic? How quickly the roads filled again when the restrictions were lifted. The Post 

Opening Project Evaluation by Essex County Council of the recent ‘improvement’ of the A120 

from Braintree to Stanstead Airport was circulated by our Chairman last September. As he 

pointed out, it was considered to have had an adverse effect on the environment, to have 

increased the price of houses in a wider area, to have diminished the Flitch Way’s use by cycles 

and frightened away wild life by its noise.

Should the Society Newsletter and meetings be more concerned than at present with the 

surrounding countryside? I have found the Society Newsletter of great value ever since 1976 

when we came to live in Bucklesham and I started a job in Ipswich. The information it made 

available under Neil Salmon’s editorship was as valuable domestically as from a business view, 

and it continues today. But it leaves an impression that the town and the countryside are different 

worlds that should stick to themselves. This is particularly relevant to planning which, perhaps 

understandably, seldom features sites outside the town itself. Yet steadily the Felixstowe 

peninsula that surrounds the town fills with buildings instead of farmland and changes its 

character.

In recent months, a commercial developer whose advertising boasted that ‘their objective since 

they started had been maximising the Financial Benefit for Landowners’. They sought planning 

approval for creating a new village of 2,700 houses on the farmland on the Bucklesham Road 

into Ipswich, including much of the existing village of Foxhall. The plans showed little of how 

such a large development would impact upon the two existing villages, upon secondary 

schooling, water and sewerage availability, on public transport or – above all – on public 

transport or general transport linking to Ipswich. They explained that this was because they 

would not be doing the actual development themselves but, if they obtained planning permission, 

they intended to sell the site to another developer on behalf of the local landowner. When they 

were told that East Suffolk had already located sufficient new sites for the forthcoming period, 

they believed there would be a sufficient demand from Ipswich for the housing.           (continues

Fortunately, when the planning authority considered the application, it was evident that there 

were a number of weaknesses in its plans, especially in the view of the objectors that the impact 

of traffic on what becomes  the primary road link between Ipswich and Felixstowe in the event of 

hold-ups on the A14, especially Operation Stack in the event of high winds. Although, for the 

moment, the danger of this potential problem is temporarily ended, does it indicate the potential 

danger and should the Society consider such events when they arise outside the actual boundaries 

of the town?     [A response from the Society follows. – Ed.]

Ipswich Villages – John Norman, the Ipswich Society Chairman replies. 


Are there boundaries to The Ipswich Society’s patch? Do we limit concerns and comments to 

schemes and proposals inside the Victorian boundary? Should we expend time and resources 

studying planning applications in the open countryside, in the hinterland between Ipswich and 

Hadleigh (Wherstead and Pinewood), or between Ipswich, Woodbridge and Felixstowe 

(Brightwell Lakes and Foxhall)? 





Clearly, the pressure is on. Suffolk, like most counties, has a housing shortage. There is little 

opportunity within the borough for major schemes so, understandably, developers look to the 

green fields beyond the boundary.  Some applications are very speculative suggesting sites that 

are not on the Local Plan, some suggest extending an established village and some are, in 

retrospect, in an area where both the housing need and the opportunity come together (for 

example, Trimley villages). 





What the Ipswich Society doesn't want to do is interfere when the local society has a greater 

cause for concern; there are Civic Societies in Hadleigh, Woodbridge and Felixstowe. We do 

however work closely with the Suffolk Preservation Society – Mike Cook is our representative 

–  they have a superb, professional team of planning experts who watch, like hawks for the 

speculative schemes that push boundaries. 





Additionally, we try to avoid comment when there is a local pressure group whose rationale 

may be slightly different to our own. This is particularly true when their objection involves 

major expenditure, a judicial review for example; our constitution limits where we spend our 

members’ money. We are The Ipswich Society. 





In the case of the Northern Bypass I chose the neutral middle ground, presenting the outcome 

of building such a road elsewhere and I know that some members disagreed with this negative 

approach. However, those people could – as Tim Voelcker has done – write to the editor. 

Interesting letters will be published, particularly those which promote discussion. 

Railway Correction from Merv Russen 

Stuart McNae has kindly pointed out an error in my piece in the last Newsletter (Issue 222) entitled Ipswich Railway Stations: Part 1. I stated in the text that The Coach and Horses Inn in Upper Brook Street closed in 1975. In fact, it closed in 1985. Stuart knew it was later than stated because he remembers having a drink there in the 1980s. I gleaned my erroneous information from a book by David Kindred entitled Ipswich: Lost inns, taverns and public houses. 

Miscellaneous matters from Graham Day 

The August Newsletter was the usual treasure chest of interesting items and articles. The 

Chairman’s observations on the options for Local Government Reorganisation reminded me 

that when I was working at the old County Hall in the early 1970s the possibility  of Suffolk 

including the Harwich area of Essex was a live issue. This was eventually dropped. From an 

Ipswich point of view, a single unitary authority based upon the County Council would no 

doubt be problematic as the county town would lose its separate  identity and voice and 

probably be poorer for it as a result. 

Merv Russen’s article on the Croft Street railway station was also very interesting as I noticed 

that George Hudson ‘The Railway  King’ was again financially involved with yet another 

railway company before his fall from grace. Last year, for my 69th birthday, we stayed in York 

for two nights. During one afternoon we stopped at a tea shop near the Minster. I suddenly 

became intrigued by a  stone plaque on the wall of the National Trust shop. The shop had 

originally been a draper’s, owned eventually by George Hudson. True to form, George had 

married the daughter of the owner, worked in the business and eventually became  its owner. 

We also had a tour around The Mansion House. On the staircase leading up to the ballroom 

were portraits of Lord Mayors of the City. George had been Lord Mayor twice. I saw a portrait 

with no nameplate, and asked if it was indeed George Hudson. The guide looked slightly 

embarrassed; eventually she explained because he became a disreputable figure his nameplate 

was removed. An early example of ‘wokeness’, perhaps. 

Merv’s article also reminded me of the existence of the two pubs opposite the station site, 

namely the Great Eastern and the E.U.R, both many years ago being converted to residential 

use; a portent at the time of things to come, although we did not realise it. Part of my street 

scene when I was growing up and now gone. 

I am also glad that there will be more in a subsequent issue about the public art of Ipswich – an 

underrated  feature of the town which needs to be shouted about more. 

In my perambulations around Ipswich, I have also become aware of the changes being made to 

some of my former workplaces. No 39 Princes Street, the location of Inland Revenue Ipswich 

1st District (my first job), is being marketed as a change to residential use. All I hope is that 

whatever happens, they take out the ‘dumb waiter’ rope parcel lift. I have not so fond 

memories of  having to unload the stationery deliveries and put them on the dumb waiter for 

hauling up to the top floor store. As clerical assistants duties go, this was the most hated. Well, 

we solved the problem; one day we made it so heavy that it crashed to the basement, and 

splintered into a myriad fragments.I don't think it was ever repaired, and other arrangements 

for stationery deliveries were made. Success! 

In the late 1980s, I worked for Blocks Solicitors (formerly Black and Cullingham) in Arcade 

Chambers, Arcade Street. Blocks was a new name when I joined as partnership manager. Now 

I see it has become part of Ellisons from Colchester, and eventually the Blocks name  

will disappear. 

Which brings me back to the start of this piece, and local government in Ipswich. Nothing 

appears to be moving  with the former County Hall premises in St Helens Street, my second 

job location. Bearing in mind the  history of the former court in the building, the lack of 

any demonstrable progress continues to be a shameful episode. 

The Local List 2020 

Pubs, churches, sports domes and even a bus stop are among 54 structures in Ipswich set to be 

added to the list of local buildings of special interest. Ipswich Borough Council’s Local List was 

drawn up in 2013 to recognise buildings and structures in the town with historic or architectural 

merit which do not qualify for formal Listing by Historic England. This year, 54 new additions to 

the list are to be considered and, while most are residential homes, there are plenty of other 

prominent public structures. Outlined below are some of the most unusual. 

  

Civic Drive Spiral Car Park. The car park, built between 1964 and 1967, is loved and hated in 

equal measure in the town, but is considered to have architectural value with an “interesting 

approach to provide car parking”. The car park also contrasts to more traditional multi-storey 

complexes, according to the Local List. 

  

Nacton Road bus shelter. While there is, of course, more than one bus stop in Nacton Road, the 

mid-20th Century bus shelter at the junction of Clapgate Lane is a little more eye-catching than 

most. It was built among the house building boom of the inter-war years to serve the growing 

community in east Ipswich, and is cited for inclusion on the 2020 Local List for its ‘distinctive 

design’ and ‘landmark value’. 

  

Two sports domes are proposed for inclusion in 2020. A common sight during the 1960s and 

1970s when architect Birkin Haward designed a series of domes across schools in Ipswich for 

sports use. Dale Hall Community Primary School is among those to still have one, and is the 

first of Haward’s domes to be constructed in the town in 1967. The dome at Inspire Suffolk is 

also up for inclusion, having first served as a sports hall for Nacton Heath Secondary School. 

‘Contributing to a distinctive architectural language of sport and recreation in Ipswich in the 20th 

Century’. 

  

Corporation Avenue Railway Bridge. For those familiar with the Bourne Park area of Ipswich, 

the 19th Century buff brick arch will be a prominent landmark. ‘The highly decorative 

appearance of the bridge shows the pride in transport infrastructure which was so prevalent in the 

19th Century, with progress in engineering being celebrated by ensuring structures were 

prominent and architecturally detailed.’ 

  

Constantine House, Constantine Road. The Local List said Constantine House is included for 

‘historic interest as a relic associated with the industrial history of the town and approaches to 

early 20th Century public transport.’   Dating back to the 1920s, the Constantine House range 

was built to provide power to the trolleybus network which replaced the trams. Today it is an 

office complex, but still contains reminders of its transport past. 

  

Public houses. This year there is a drive to recognise some of the town’s favourite pubs: The 

Mulberry Tree may be closed to drinkers but is getting a new lease of life as a community 

centre/mosque, while other pubs for inclusion are The Station Hotel, The Gardener’s Arms,  

The Earl Kitchener, The Inkerman, and The Man on the Moon. 

  

Churches. Several churches are also due for inclusion this year, including St Augustine’s 

Church, St Francis Church and St Mary Magdalene Church. 

John Norman 

[Congratulations to Mike Taylor and Rebecca Styles, Ipswich Borough Conservation Officers, 

for all the work they’ve done on this list and the Ipswich Urban Character Area documents. 

Local listing can confer a certain amount of protection to structures and buildings which might 

be threatened with demolition or drastic changes. –Ed.] 

Looking forward to the future at the Ipswich Institute 

The Ipswich Institute Reading Room and Library is based in the centre of Ipswich. In normal 

times we offer our members leisure learning courses, in the daytime and evenings, as well as a 

library of over 8,000 books and audio books, a café and a restaurant. Along with many other 

organisations we had to close our doors in March but back in July we re-opened the library and 

Page’s Café in Tavern Street. 

As an independent library we have been able to offer our members the opportunity to choose 

their own books and browse the shelves, as well as taking suggestions for new editions to add 

to the library after so many months of no new books. Page’s Café has also been busy 

experimenting with new flavour scones such as stilton and walnut, coconut and cherry and 

cheese and onion. They are running a limited menu but have sandwiches, jacket potatoes, soup, 

pastries and cakes as well as an afternoon tea special offer. We have seen our number of 

visitors slowly increase over the past few weeks and welcomed some new members to 

the Institute.

Over the coming months, government guidelines allowing, Matilda Betham-Edwards

we hope to open our other building, Admiral’s House in Tower Street. This will allow us to re-start leisure learning courses, which we aim to do in 2021, and finally open our new café – The Chart Room – which was due to open back in April. 

We are looking for some suggestions of lesser-known historical women who were either well known in their lifetime, or who made a real impact in their field of expertise, to showcase in the Chart Room Café. Our first choice is Matilda Betham-Edwards, who was born in Suffolk in 1836. She was a novelist, who wrote her first published novel age just 16, a travel writer and a member of the Ipswich Institute! Her contacts and friends included George Eliot, Henry James and Lord Kitchener. Suggestions can be sent to: 

library@ipswichinstitute.org.uk 

and you can find out more about becoming a member on our website www.ipswichinstitute.org.uk 

Jo Rooks, General Manager

William Ronald Serjeant, 1921-2020  

Bill Sergeant, who died earlier this year, left a legacy to the Ipswich Society for which we are 

most grateful and are currently thinking of a lasting tribute to mark Bill’s life. 

Bill was born in Sheffield in March 1921, he was educated in Oldbury, Smethwick and Burnley 

and was a trainee on the Government’s Engineering Draftsman scheme at the outbreak of war.  

After the war he read history at Manchester University, a course which involved a two week 

residential with Canon Purvis, keeper of the York Diocesan Archives. He took the Diploma in 

Archive Administration at the University of Liverpool qualifying at the age of 32. 

He worked in Record Offices in Sheffield, Liverpool, The Isle of Man (where he met Ruth), 

Nottingham and, in 1970, East Suffolk. After Local Government reorganisation in 1974, Bill 

was appointed County Archivist for Suffolk, a challenging task of bringing together the staff of 

the former East and West Suffolk offices. 

Parallel to his professional career he was a member of the Society of Archivists – Regional 

Representative, Vice Chairman and in, 1976, Chairman. In 1982, the year he retired, he became 

the Society’s President for six years, thereafter Vice President. 

Whilst Chairman he served six years on the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Public 

Records, the first County Archivist to be so appointed. Additionally he was first Secretary and 

then Chairman of the British Association for Local History. His passion was local history and 

this is where his advice and guidance were often sought, and rendered.  

In Ipswich he became a valued member of the Suffolk Records Society (he was Secretary for 

17 years), the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History and the Suffolk Local History 

Council, he edited The Suffolk Review for twelve years until his retirement from his 

professional role as County Archivist. 

On retirement, he was invited to become visiting professor of English and Local History at the 

Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he occasionally 

delivered lectures. It was the start of a love affair with the States that he 

and Ruth enjoyed for a number of years. 

Bill was a member of the Ipswich Society, a founding member of the 

Ipswich Building Preservation Trust and, on retirement, he returned to 

his roots by acting as honorary archivist for two Suffolk families, the de 

Saumarez of Shrubland Hall and the Tollemaches  

at Helmingham. 

His passions were music, classical and jazz, film (he served on the 

committee of the Ipswich Film Society for almost 30 years) and local 

history, overseeing the publication of the four volume Probate Records 

of the Archdeaconries of Suffolk and Sudbury, from 1354 to 1444. 

John Norman Ipswich Library

In the short space of time since the last Newsletter – and with 

Covid-19 – things have slowed down. Several of the longer 

term projects have completed or are nearly there. 

The Mark 2* Cornhill completed in August as planned, with 

modified paving and steps, additional handrails and permanent 

bespoke planters built into the steps and paving which include 

lighting. The fountains have been serviced and are on most of 

the time. They are sometimes turned off when it is breezy so as 

not to spray passers-by. The bases of the trees have been 

replaced with metal surrounds topped with resin which should 

no longer sink.  There do not seem to have been the negative 

comments there were when the project was originally opened in 2018. The additional handrails 

still have to be fitted to the Town Hall steps. We won't really see what the finished scheme looks 

like until the scaffolding is removed from the old Post Office. [*or 3 or 4? – Ed.] 

Work continues on both the old Post Office on Cornhill, and the former Burtons/Dorothy Perkins 

building which is being restored and refurbished ready for Diechmann fashion footwear to move 

in. The scaffolding was removed from the Burtons building on 11 September.  Both projects 

should complete before Christmas 2020. 

The Farmers’ Market on Cornhill, which stopped for lockdown, is back and is held on the first 

Sunday of each month unless circumstances change. 

The refurbished Children’s playground in Christchurch park has been completed.  Within 

minutes of it being reopened it was packed with excited children. With a Castle style climbing 

frame and slides as the central feature there are many other play facilities including swings of 

various types and roundabouts, see-saws, a variety of climbing-frames and other activity 

structures. There is plenty of seating around for parents. 

It was reported in the Ipswich Star on 5 The future Gecko centreAugust that the former Burtons building 

on St Peters Wharf on Ipswich Waterfront has been awarded a £3m grant from central government under a scheme to invest in 'shovel-ready' local projects in England to aid economic recovery in response to the Covid-19 crisis.  This is on condition that the building work is completed by April 2022. The Ipswich Star reported that ‘Amit Lahav, artistic director of Gecko, said that the £3m grant will provide finance to power the project forward. He said that with £499,999 from the Arts Council, awarded last November, they are in a position to start work on the Gecko Creation Space almost immediately and are looking to be ready to move in by Christmas 2021. He said that when the work is complete Ipswich will be home to one of the most extensive, up-to-date rehearsal and making facilities in the UK.’ 

The New Wolsey Theatre Pavilion and concourse project, which includes a refurbishment of the theatre foyer and cafe, has continued to progress. As I write the front overhangs on the golden roof are being added to the building and men working on the site said they hope to complete the building work by the end of September 2020. 

The building work on The Hold on the University of Suffolk Campus on Fore Street is complete 

and fitting out is in progress. The building will have to ‘dry out’ for several months before the 

Suffolk Records can be transferred to the building. The main reception and foyer section which 

includes a cafe and an exhibitions area should be opened to the public in August. 

Work to save 4, College Street opposite the Wolsey Gate, an historic merchant house on Ipswich 

Waterfront, can begin after securing planning permission for work to take it off the ‘at risk’ 

register. The council’s planning committee gave approval at its meeting on 27th August for the 

work, which will also see the wall come down around the Waterfront gateway of the former St 

Peter’s Warehouse to open up views of the docks. 

The former Botwoods garage on Princes Street, until recently ‘Landspeed’, has been 

demolished. The plan is to eventually build an office block on the site, but current circumstances 

mean this will not happen for sometime. As the town is quieter at the moment due to Covid-19, 

instead of turning the site into a temporary car park the site will just be tidied up saving money in 

these uncertain times. There are plans to build a hotel on the adjoining site where the Drum and 

Monkey stood which is currently a temporary car park and further plans to build a seven storey 

car park on the former Livestock Market site off Portman Road behind these two sites. 

Menkind used to have a shop in the Accessorize unit in Tavern Street and are advertising for 

staff for what is described as a temporary concession outlet within Debenhams. Possibly a 

Christmas pop-up store, Menkind was very popular when it was in Ipswich before so maybe this 

will be longer term if it is successful.  This would undoubtedly help  to increase the footfall 

within Debenhams over Christmas, depending on the latest Covid-19 rules at the time. 

Ma Belle Present, a cards, stationery and gifts shop recently opened at the top end of Lloyds Avenue in the unit formerly occupied by Attitude. 

The proprietor of the former Casablanca Restaurant in Tacket Street (which recently closed) is taking a new tack and converting the unit into a convenience store called Gateway Continental and a Lebanese Take Away called Ali Shi. 

Lloyds Avenue

To beat Covid-19 the Cult café bar on Orwell Quay has created an outside bar using a souped-up shipping container and has also created additional outside seating with the clever use of pallets.  This is proving very popular.  When the weather is not so good you can go inside with the usual distancing and Track and Trace.  

Numbers inside are limited.  All the cafes and bars on Ipswich Waterfront are currently open with the usual Covid-19 rules applying at the the time. 

Tacket Street

The Black Horse pub in Black Horse Lane has reopened, with new tenants James Keegan and his stepdad, Vince Gorman. They are holding wide-ranging live music gigs with regular music nights on Saturdays. The numbers have to be limited because of social distancing and Track- and-trace applies. They hope to eventually start serving food as well.    

Tim Leggett 

The Ipswich SocietyAwards 2020 

The Executive are currently pondering the possibilities of staging our Annual Awards 2020, there 

are two decisions to be made: i) do we collect nominations and allow the judges to decide on 

those entries worthy of an award and ii) do we hold an Awards evening or distribute the 

certificates in a Covid-safe manner? 

You will appreciate that these are two separate but linked decisions, we could decide on the 

Award winners without the presentation evening (with the problem of how do we let the winners, 

and our members know), the opposite is obviously impossible. 

Deciding on the projects worthy of an Award is relatively Covid-free. The nominations can be 

submitted electronically; the judges can visit each project* on their own (which is their usual 

practice), create their own shortlist and discuss the merits of possible winners at a video 

conferencing meeting. 

There is of course one key question before all of this; that is: are there any new buildings, public 

realm projects or road enhancement schemes that come anywhere near the judges’ criteria? There 

is certainly a lack of new large buildings and – don’t blame the Coronavirus – we are looking at 

buildings that were substantially underway throughout 2019 (and completed in 2020). 

What disappoints me is the architectural quality of two of the educational buildings completed this year, Copleston and Thurleston High Schools (now called Ormiston Endeavour Academy). Both are of remarkably similar design, and almost identical externally to the new school at Gainsborough, previously Holywells but now Ipswich Academy, which was completed in 2013. 

All have been built by the Department for Education’s Priority Schools Building Programme, 

designed to renovate, or replace schools where conditions are so bad it affects teaching and 

learning. I am sure that they provide a better learning environment than the structure they 

replaced, that there was no choice as far as the occupants were concerned, take it or leave but 

they are a low cost (per square metre) functional stack of boxes without style or identity. 

They simply don’t compare with Suffolk New College in Rope Walk or ONE in Scrivener Drive, 

both of which have panache and an individual identity that enhances learning. Yes, I appreciate 

that OFSTED will say that good quality teaching can happen irrespective of the building but, I 

know which I’d rather teach in. ONE (formerly Suffolk ONE) in particular, with its central street, 

its library floating over the heads of students in the refectory below and the many places to sit, 

relax, revise and discuss the finer points of earlier lectures. 

Nominations for the 2020 Awards are now open; (nominations close: Friday 16 October 2020) all 

you have to do is email the Vice Chair: antmarsden@hotmail.com with the name and location of 

the project you consider worthy of further consideration. If we cannot present the Awards this 

year we’ll hold the Certificates and present them at the same time as the 2021 Awards. 

John Norman 

*the nominated projects are only ever inspected from the public highway, it is the contribution the 

projects make to the street scene (and thus to the ambience of Ipswich) that is critical for these awards. 

New Guinea: echoes of Tacket Street 

When, in the 1960s, I lived in Canberra (’23 suburbs in search of a city’) I was recruited to 

design a village courts system for the prospective independent state of Papua New Guinea. 

On an early research trip I was landed by helicopter somewhere between West Irian and Mount 

Hagen. Typically, none of the locals had encountered a white – in my case, Suffolk-pink – 

person, so I was surprised that the first group (of hunters) to contact me were not impressed by 

my pigmentation. We walked for a day and most of a night to their village – frond and stick huts 

– where, at about 4am, I was shown an open entrance and crept in. Someone was asleep. I flicked 

my lighter and was startled, as was he, to find a European of my own age. 

Tempted to blurt ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’, I said ‘Bernard Brown, ANU Canberra’. He 

replied ‘Michael Brown, Melbourne, in PNG as Director of Health, Bougainville – but across 

here researching malaria’. It was odd, here in the ulu, to meet another Brown. It would get odder. 

I said that I was in PNG via Australia – out of England. He said ‘Ditto’ but added that, although 

born in England, his folk had brought him to Melbourne as a boy. I mentioned that I was born in 

Suffolk. He said ‘Snap – almost’. He was born in London and christened at a place named 

Ipswich. I pressed him further and he said ‘a Presbyterian Church in Tacket Street’. I one-upped 

him by inquiring ‘The Reverend Shrubsole?’. He didn’t know, but allowed me to say that I was 

christened by him there in 1934. So, I guess, was he. 

His father, an Aussie, had attended medical school in London and had met Michael Brown’s 

mother, a singer at the D’Oyly Carte (Gilbert & Sullivan). The plot thickened because my 

mother, Beatrice Welton of Providence Street, had gone for an audition to the D’Oyly with 

another Ipswich girl in 1930 or ’31. My mother was unsuccessful; the other, his mother, was 

accepted. She married a doctor in London and brought Michael back in 1934 for his Ipswich 

christening. 

She had been in the Tacket Street choir and the Girl Guides with my mother – and, in our native 

hut in the back of nowhere at dawn at the other end of the world, we rehearsed names that we 

had heard at maternal knees, names such as Flora Baines, Miss Kathleen Gibbons (Gibbons Flour 

Mills), Kitty Day and even more Browns: Bill and Gladys. Bill, with my father Syd, was a Boys 

Brigade member in a Tacket Street group led by Frank Goddard – of Goddards the Builders. 

We shook hands as he, Dr Michael Brown, donned an enormous backpack and walked off in the 

general direction of the Fly River. We agreed to write. But never did. 

On returning to Canberra, I wrote to my mother, then living in Hadleigh. By return post, weeks 

later, she sent an old photograph (‘I want it back’) of young mothers at Tacket Street Church 

reunion circa 1936 with me in a pushchair next to Michael Brown in one with our respective 

mums. I seem to remember him saying that his mother’s name was Effie. 

Does it ring any bells with readers? Effie would be about 118 years old! She would have been a 

darned good soprano. 

What are the odds of two Tacket Street mums’ little boys meeting in a nameless New Guinea 

village thirty-odd years later? 

Bernard Brown 

My only recent contact with the church was attending a service in the 1980s with my cousin 

Eileen Wyard (neé Welton), a ‘regular’ all her life.  

The Ipswich Society 

Registered Charity no. 263322 

www.ipswichsociety.org.uk | https://www.facebook.com/ipswichsociety | https://www.instagram.com/theipswichsociety 

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. We make every effort to comply with copyright and GDPR 

law in our publications; please contact the Hon. Secretary if you have concerns about any content. 

Left: Harvest: a ceramic mosaic, oft-overlooked, on the rear wall of the Co-operative store, over Cox Lane.  

An uncredited work: ‘1962 in a spirited rendering inspired by Picasso’.

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.