December 9th - Once a Year

 I had my once a year trip to the town centre of our county town of Ipswich earlier this week. Seems strange to say that as I used go much more often (I also go twice for the dentist but rarely go into the town centre at the same time). 

When Col went in to the Suffolk County Council Highways department office - usually once a week - I would sometimes get a lift in, especially at this time of the year when I was hunting for small presents for the children's Christmas pillowcases - long before Amazon and the internet of course.

Now the town just looks so sad, with so many empty shops, it's really depressing to walk round. This year it was the Samaritans second-hand book department that had disappeared since last year as well as the big names of Poundland and Wilko.  I do miss Debenhams at Christmas- it was always good to look round - long gone now of course.

As usual I went into the old church for my coffee and cheese scone for breakfast. It employs people with learning disabilities or getting back to work after trauma. They do Christmas bookings and there was a party of ladies all having a Christmas coffee morning and other tables laid ready for lunches. - Looking very festive.

One reason for going into town was to pop the cards for relations in the town into the Scout Post boxes and to tour the charity shops to see what Christmassy things they had for sale.

I found two books I'd not seen before, one is Christmas pages from Good Housekeeping magazine between 1922 and 1962  and the other is a old book of short Christmas crime stories. I was also searching for a Christmas mug, with no luck,  to replace the Christmas cup and saucer, that was passed on to a charity shop a couple of years ago because it was too big and heavy to lift when full.

In the Oxfam shop I bought a pack of  Christmas placemats for the grandchildren - they have a picture to colour on one side and puzzles to do on the other..

Then I went up the A12 to Woodbridge to call in at the theatre to pick up the book I should have got last week  (when it was too foggy to get there). I'd booked my ticket early enough to get this book included  and when I couldn't go I rang for them to hold it for me if they could (otherwise I could have had a credit note for another event.) They had kept the book for me so I ended up not being out-of-pocket after all as the book is worth more than the ticket price!

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Then home on the small roads cross country and it was surprising to find many places with standing water - we really have had more than our normal rainfall this autumn/early winter.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

I is for Ipswich

 County town of Suffolk, population roughly 134,000, one of the oldest established towns in England and somewhere I've been going for shopping a few times a year since I was small. We always took the bus there with Mum in the school holidays and it was once full of department stores and really busy all the time.

Now like so many other towns it has many, many empty shops. This was the Co-op, huge store over two floors but has now been empty for many years.

Below is the historically important Ancient House. For many years it was home to Lakeland but they closed during Covid 

As well as the empty Ancient House beside it was once BHS - another big shop now standing sad and forlorn  and on the opposite side of the road a row of empty shops including the old Edinburgh Woollen Mill store.

There are lots more empty premises but it was too depressing to take more photos. Even the Hotter shoe shop has gone since last time I was in town, and it was always so busy.

Every now and again the Borough Council spend money on various bits of the town.

This is The Giles Statue . Giles was a cartoonist from Ipswich and his statue was on the other side of the road but money was spent moving it across the road to make "Giles Circus"

Below is the result of another  bit of "tidying and tarting up" - a photo from summer a few years ago. Now Debenhams is also closed after being the biggest department store in Suffolk.

The Town Hall

With so many empty premises the town seems to consist of coffee shops and charity shops. I avoid Costa, Café Nero and all the rest and always go for a cuppa in the old St Lawrence's Church. The staff are people being helped into work after mental health problems or learning difficulties. There is always plenty of space .

I didn't go in all the charity shops in town but in the Salvation Army shop found this little bit of Poole Pottery in the shape of a buoy, it's actually a bell, and just appealed to me for my Summer Seasonal display.

Finally found a  ring bound diary for next year for not too much money. I've been looking in The Works in Stowmarket for weeks but the Ipswich shop is bigger and had this. I like a ring bound one because it will keep open and lay flat.

There's a bargain Cancer Research Charity shop in town where they sell off leftover things from their other shops (I think) and they had lots of last years packs of Christmas cards. I really didn't need any Christmas cards but these were rather nice so they've been added to my Christmas drawer.

On the way home I called in to the out of town shopping centre to look for some lampshades for the bedroom. The Range, Dunelm and B&M all had nothing suitable.

I wonder which shops will still be open next time I venture to town.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

St Mary at the Elms, Ipswich

 

Another very old Ipswich church, more Anglo-Catholic than many others in Suffolk, it was  open both for the Heritage Open Day and because it was Church Cycle Ride day. It's just a little way out from the town centre and feels so welcoming inside. 

The tower is made from Tudor red bricks brought from the Netherlands and thought to be originally for Cardinal Wolseys College, which was never built.

The Norman porch has three niches containing recent sculptures by Charles Gurrey. A  triptych with Christ flanked the Blessed Virgin and St John.

 A closer view with a photo from the Suffolk Churches website

 In the C12 there were 39 churches in Ipswich which was a prosperous port at that time, among the 39 was St Mary's Chapel which had a carved figure of Our Lady of Grace or Our Lady of Ipswich, visited by the great and good of the time but in September 1538, during the Reformation the figure was taken to London to be burnt. The story says that it was saved by Catholic sailors and taken to the Italian town of Nettuno and experts have said that the old wooden statue at Nettuno know as "Our Lady of The Grace" is the one from Ipswich.
In the church now is a new oak replica, carved by  local man Robert Mellamphy and  placed here in 2002 and it is this that get the church it's mention in the 100 treasures book.

The Stations of the Cross are also carved wood

Across the churchyard is St Mary's Cottage dating from 1467 and thought to be the oldest occupied house in Ipswich.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

St Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich

At last this town centre church was open for both the Heritage Open Day and the Suffolk Churches Cycle ride. It's right in the middle of town and is the civic church of Ipswich for all official occasions .

There was a church here in 1200 but this church is completely Victorian. As usual with town churches it's difficult to get a photo of the whole thing.

This is the reason for this church being in the 100 treasures book. It's the memorial for William Smart who was MP for Ipswich when he died in 1599. The memorial is an oil painting on wood showing a panorama of Ipswich at the time and the words are an Acrostic of what can be seen each starting with the letters in WILLIAM SMART. Because all the lights were on I couldn't get a head on photo as there was too much reflection.
Visible landmarks include 8 churches, a monastery, a mill and the river.

View down this wide church to the altar

Beautiful stained glass everywhere so I don't know why I only took one photo. You can see all the other windows in their glory HERE.

Very elaborate carved pulpit

There are angels and saints on the choir stalls

There is a grand gilded altar piece dating from 1895

On columns are wrought iron stands to hold the Mayors mace and sword during a service

The font dates from early C15

It was good to be able to visit and see what was here as usually the gates are locked so you can't even get into the churchyard.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Heritage Open Day

Thank you to everyone for comments about the auction on yesterdays post, sorry for not replying, I had a day off!

On Saturday I had a lovely morning out in Ipswich, visiting some of the places only open to the general public on Heritage Open Days.
I've put in some links which explain more if you are interested.

First of all must show you the Cornhill "modernisation" now the concrete henge has been removed. Here's how it looked a few weeks ago. Very strange concrete things put there just a year ago and already falling to bits

And now ....gone!

My sister said there was lots in the local paper about the changes.

Anyway, back to my real reason for being in our county town

The front cover of the brochure shows the Unitarian Meeting House reflected in the Willis building. Both open for visiting but I had other places to go.

And this is the actual Willis Towers Watson Building now 40 years old (originally it was Willis Faber). Famously designed by Norman Foster it was revolutionary in the 1970's. An open plan office building that even had a swimming pool and still has a roof garden. It caused much controversy when it was built but we are all used to it now.
It was open for visiting but modern buildings like this don't really interest me so I didn't bother

Just two photos of the outside as I walked by.

Now this is much more interesting to me. 3-5 Silent Street. (The only Silent Street in the country?) A medieval Grade II listed timber-framed building. Originally part of a much larger building built as an Inn. Just a small part open on Saturday, one ground floor and one first floor room...on the left of this photo below

The two buildings here were once one Tudor Inn- One of the most complete and important Tudor Inns anywhere in the country.

 

 There were lots of information boards to look at in this building, now empty since it closed as a second-hand  book shop in 2011 and a leaflet had been produced to explain the history.

It seems it was always an important high status Inn because it lay opposite an important house, now demolished, called Curson House.  Cardinal Thomas Wolsey hoped to use Curson House as his retirement home (he didn't live long enough to retire!) and people from the entourages of the visitors to Curson House would have stayed at the Inn. Catherine of Aragon visited Lord Curson in 1517 and Henry VIII in 1522.

This map of Ipswich showing Curson House with Curson Lodge opposite dates from 1610

Wood panelling in the downstairs parlour is thought to be original 17th century, although it has been cut and moved since then. (The bunting is for Heritage Open Buildings)

There was once a rear courtyard and gallery which would have given access to people staying in the upper rooms at the Inn and these windows which now look over the stairs would have looked down into the courtyard

Photos show the uses of the building during the first half of the 20th Century.

Photos of some of the wallpapers found under the modern paint and plaster. The earliest dating to Georgian period

 I also visited the Bethesda Baptist Chapel. I'm sure I've been here in the past when taking part in singing competitions as a member of Wetherden Baptist chapel. Bethesda is huge chapel built in 1912 in classical style on a site used by various religious groups since 1782.

Polished granite two storey columns at the front and wide steps leading up to the big doors.

There is an upper balcony on 3 sides of the chapel with the organ up on the 4th side. The church was full of donations for Harvest Festival - lots of tins of food rather than the fresh produce with which we used to decorate our village chapel in the 1960s.

From the entrance to the front

And from the front looking back to the entrance. I had a nice chat with the lady who was welcoming people by the door, she had once lived in Great Finborough near Stowmarket and knew the leaders at Wetherden Chapel when  I was going there.

I also visited two Churches that get a mention in the 100 Treasures Book. One I've tried to visit before but it's normally locked. I've written separate posts for them which will appear sometime later this month.

Still many other interesting locations to visit on next years open days.

Another thing to mention is  spotting an Ipswich Town FC legend!......... GEORGE BURLEY  In Costa in Debenhams just enjoying a coffee with his wife, several people noticed him, you could see them nudging each other........ but no one bothered him.
He was playing for Ipswich back in the days of 1973-77 when I used to go and watch with boyfriend of the time. 
It's fair to say he was a better player than Manager - as a manager he kept getting sacked!

Back Tomorrow
Sue