Issue 30 Jan 2016
Newsletter January 2016
Newsletter No. 30
Ipswich’s early paddle steamers
Most people rightly associate the Steamboat Tavern with the steam boats that used to ply from Ipswich to Harwich and London, but did you know that 2015 was the 200th anniversary of the first steamboats from Ipswich?
The first commercially successful paddle steamer in the UK was 
the Clyde-based Comet introduced in 1812 and was made
possible due to recent advances in boiler and cylinder design. A
great number of boats of this kind were built to work in river
estuaries; their use being limited as they were only designed to
work on smooth waters.
On 25th June 1814 a notice appeared in The Ipswich Journal
announcing the imminent start of a Steam Packet Service to
Harwich; this was followed up on the 2nd July with a further
announcement including details of the agents and timings of
sailings - 10am every morning from Ipswich and 6pm return from
Harwich. However, these were early days of the new engine
designs and, just like today, the introduction of new technology
did not always go to plan! Hence on the 13th August the 
proprietors issued an apology for the delay in the start of the
service, and rather optimistically proclaimed that everything would
be fixed within three weeks!
Their steamer, the Orwell, was built at Great Yarmouth by James Lepingwell with a Norwich foundry supplying the engine. However, as the announcement makes clear, the engine was not
sufficiently powerful and a replacement was obtained from the noted London engineers H Maudslay & Co., and was delivered by sea. In the
event the Orwell went into service in 1815 between Ipswich and Harwich. Unfortunately this service was not a success and seems to disappear from history within a few weeks. It is possible that the Orwell
went to the Thames and was renamed the Richmond and entered service between London, Richmond and Twickenham.
There does not appear to have been any mention of paddle steamer or steam packet services until September 1825 when the launch of the steam vessel The Ipswich was announced, proclaiming services to
London in a maximum of 10 to 14 hours with every sort of refreshment and accomodation exceeding anything seen before, particularly for ladies! Bearing in mind that the alternative transportation to London was by stage or mail coach, it may well have been attractive to
many. The Ipswich made her first voyage in March 1826 from London to Ipswich, and returned to London towing another steam packet for its engines to be be fitted. Her scheduled voyages commenced in April and took around 11 hours to complete. She made weekly sialings from spring to autumn between Ipswich, Harwich and London, and was
joined by the sister ship Suffolk later in 1826. In 1829 her owners, now known as the Ipswich Steam Packet Company, replaced her with a new
vessel called…..Orwell.
Moving on a few years, with the Great Eastern Railway and their sea-going fleet from Harwich to service, they also introduced paddle steamers for ever popular excursions between Ipswich, Felixstowe and Harwich and had steamers called the Ipswich and the Stour built in 1864, which were replaced by the Orwell and Stour in 1873 and 1878, and an excursion paddle steamer Norfolk in 1897. These vesssels featured in many of the postcards of the time, a couple of which are shown below. This nicely brings us back to the Steamboat Tavern as the paddle steamers either moored on the quay adjacent the pub or directly opposite on the other side of the new Cut.
Postcard images courtesy of Leonard Woolf
Newspaper images © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
All Newspaper images reproduced with kind permission of
The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Fraser Yates
Page 2
IMT membership (1)
It is that time of the year when subscriptions payable. To all those members who have paid by Standing Order, a big ‘thank you’ for renewing and for also minimising the task of chasing people for their subs. We will send out reminders with the March talk information to all those people whose subs are still outstanding.
Fraser Yates
IMT Member News
Leonard Woolf
Congratulations to Leonard Woolf who, to the accompaniment of the biggest cheers that rang through the Snape Maltings’ auditorium, was the winner of the Green Hero award in April 2015. Leonard Woolf, of Rushmere St Andrew, is a well-known and respected local market gardener, grower and champion of the natural world. All his working life, Len has held steadfastly to his green principles by promoting biodiversity and the protection of wildlife as an integral part of sustainable farming practice before it was ‘fashionable” to do so. He practices what he preaches and encourages others to do likewise.
The Ipswich Maritime Trust would like to thank Leonard for giving us permission to scan his extensive collection of postcards and include them in the Image Archive.
Fraser Yates
It is with great sadness that we report of the death of two of our stalwart members.
David Barton
I have to report the death at the age of 93 of David Barton who was one of the founding members of Ipswich Maritime Trust. He was very active in the early days and sat on our management committee for many years in the 1980s and early 1990s
This Photo is from group photo of the Maritime Ipswich 82.
Des Pawson
Shirley Patrick
The Team that call themselves ‘The Window Wizards’ are saddened that they will no longer have the help and wisdom of Shirley Patrick who died on the 25th of June.
Shirley was a member of the IMT management committee for a number of years and an active member of the Window Wizards who put together the Window Museum displays. Our sympathies go out to William, her husband, who helped with our most recent display.
Des Pawson
Museum News
Our 13th Window Museum Exhibition
Celebrating the Thames Sailing Barge Showing barge builders’ methods and tools, with photographs, paintings and models
The Trust has recently completed its 13th Window Museum display at Albion Quay on the Waterfront, this time celebrating the Thames Sailing Barge.
The display features a one-third scale detailed model showing exactly how these unique wooden vessels were constructed, and the methods and tools the barge builders used.
Also on show are barge models of every size and type, many crafted by the bargemen themselves who spent their whole working lives sailing them on the east coast in all weathers throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The beauty of these craft have always attracted artists and photographers, and the display also features oil paintings by local artists including Roger Finch, Anthony Osler, Honor Surie, and Cor Visser. Photographs from the Trust’s extensive Image Archive are also featured.
Stuart Grimwade
Doubling our storage space
I am pleased to announce that Ipswich Maritime Trust has doubled its storage space for artefacts and Window Museum fittings. After due consideration we bought a “new” container from Adaptainer of Rose Lane here in Ipswich. “New” means that it had just the trip from the Far East to Felixstowe, and whilst a little more than a second-hand one we thought it to be well worth the extra. It has been installed with the permission of ABP, head-to-head with our existing container. Bob Pawsey, Fraser Yates, Ben Bendall and I set up railway sleepers for it to sit on and Colin Waters helped Ben & I position it when delivered.
Our new container has proved very helpful in giving a space for Ben Bendall to work on the 1/3rd scale model showing the construction of a barge that is the centre feature of our new Window Museum Display. Over the winter we will plan exactly how we will insulate it and fit it out for storage. When that is done it is our intention to separate items accessioned to IMT Museum Collection from the various fittings and props that we have for making the Window Museum Displays. We would be pleased to receive more donations of items that relate to Ipswich’s Maritime heritage as we will have space to care for them properly.
Des Pawson
Panorama of the Wet Dock circa 1960 displayed in the Ipswich Haven Marina Office
When planning the previous Window Museum display featuring the Edward Caley panoramas, it was thought to be a good idea to create a 2015 panorama to match. Lawrence Woolston from the UCS photographic department with the help of Stuart Grimwade did just that. This required taking multiple photos from various pontoons in the Haven Marina. As a gesture of thanks, a copy of David Kindred’s panorama from 1965 complete with the IMT logo was given to Linda Pipe the Marina manager, who has now mounted it in the Marina office where it can be seen by all visitors.
to a wage-based economy with a special mention being made of the East Anglian herring trade.
Sailmakers at Sailmakers
We were contacted by the PR Company responsible for promoting the changes at Tower Ramparts Shopping Centre, turning it to “Sailmakers”, requesting whether we could put on a display on in one of their empty shop units. After much to-ing and fro-ing Ben Bendall and I created a display using the wonderful collection of sailmaking items donated by Mrs Vera Whitmore, to which we
added a list of known Ipswich sailmakers.
Des Pawson, Museum Window Committee chairman, handing over the Panorama to Linda Pipe, Marina Manger.
UCS – The IMT Award
Ipswich Maritime Trust is pleased to be involved in encourage the UCS’s history students in the study of maritime matters with an annual history essay prize. This year the prize went to Karen Toye with her essay ‘How significantly did women’s roles in fishing families and communities change over the long nineteenth century?’
The essay covers the often overlooked role women played in the fishing industry. Women being an essential part both in the finding and baiting of line, and the processing & selling of the catch. The essay discusses how these roles changed over the 19th century from a domestic
Whilst it was there for a couple of months, unfortunately with all the works going on in the centre, the window did not get as much exposure as we had expected, and the day it featured in the local papers was the day it had to be removed as the shop unit had a last minute tenant. Still we hope a few people saw it and the publicity in the Newspapers was good for IMT.
Des Pawson
Future Events
Spring 2016 talks
We have another series of interesting and varied talks on this spring, starting on Wednesday 3rd February. The titles of the talks are below with more details on page 11 of the newsletter. Reminders of all the March and April talks will be sent out closer to the events, but please make a note of the dates in your diary.
Bar and catering arrangements for the talks
At the time of putting this newsletter together there is uncertainty over whether we shall be able to continue offering supper and a bar for our talks in the UCS building. The arrangement we had for the Autumn talks has ended and ourselves, Val Bint of Taylor Maid Catering, and the UCS are in discussions as to future arrangements. If a new arrangement is made in time for the February talk we will email or mail you all, as appropriate.
Wednesday February 3rd at 8pm ‘Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network (CITiZAN)’ by Lara Brand
Wednesday March 2nd at 8pm ‘Ipswich Wet Dock – Riches to Rags and Back Again’
by John Field
Wednesday April 6th, at 8.30pm approximately (following the AGM at 8pm)
‘East Anglian Sailing Trust’
by Ian Jewry
and
and ‘The rebuilding of sb Melissa’ by Jonathan Webb
Thames barge trips on sb Victor
Our occasional day cruises on the Orwell and Stour on sb Victor has again proved very successful, as has our afternoon cruise to the accompaniment of the Gipping Valley Stompers. We have therefore booked three more dates this year:
First All Day Barge Trip - Thursday 16th June 2016 Afternoon Jazz Trip - Thursday 14th July 2016 Second All Day Barge Trip - Thursday 18th August 2016 Booking details can found at the end of this newsletter.
Past Events
Ipswich Maritime Festival August 15th & 16th
For the first time IMT shared the Old Custom House with ABP for the Maritime Festival in August. Our theme was the ‘Port of Ipswich at War’ which worked with the theme of the entire festival. Local Girl Emma Collingridge, Miss Teen Great Britain, helped out for a couple of hours on the first day of a very busy weekend which saw over 3,000 visitors passing through our exhibition, the busiest we have ever had. Thanks to the great number of people who helped set up, man, and then take down the exhibition over the weekend.
Local Girl Emma Collingridge ‘Miss Teen Great Britain’ with part of the exhibition
Page 6
Heritage Open Weekend September 12th & 13th
Once again IMT opened up the Old Custom House for Heritage Open Weekend. Our theme was ‘Cranfield Mills’ and we worked with the artist Valerie Irwin who put on a magnificent display of her drawings of the building of Cranfield Tower that had never been publicly displayed before. We complemented her drawings with photos and objects associated with Cranfields Mills.
We had a grand total of 939 visitors, about 250 more than last year due in part to the press coverage of Valerie Irwins’s exhibition of drawings.
Valerie Irwin with part of her display of drawings
Autumn 2015 talks
Wednesday October 7th at 8pm ‘The Sutton Hoo Longship
Reconstruction Project’
by Paul Constantine
The first talk in our Autumn series, on 7 October, saw a full house of almost 100 members and guests fascinated by Paul Constantine’s description of the proposed reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo Mound 1 ship.
Paul began by outlining the redevelopment of the Whisstocks boatyard site on the quayside at Woodbridge. The scheme includes residential flats over shops. a restaurant, a museum/gallery with interconnected boatshed, and a good-sized open
area. It is in the boatshed that the ship reconstruction is to take place.
The Sutton Hoo ship dates from about 625 AD. It is typical of the ships of that time, and happily a similar ship, the Nydam, was sunk in what became a bog in 345 and so was well preserved. The reconstruction of that ship has just been completed, and much of the work was featured in Paul’s presentation.
The Sutton Hoo ship is some 27m long, with a beam of 4.5m. There are now Colin Mudie drawings from 1973/4, and of course there is the half-sized Sae Wylfing built by Edwin Gifford partly to test the craft’s sailing ability.
In an undertaking of this nature, there are inevitably questions as to the degree of authenticity to be incorporated. We know a lot about the tools used, as examples were found with the Nydam. We know the timber used was green oak; we know details of the fixings. The cost of building an exact replica would be prohibitive; for some parts of the job, the use of modern tools can cost just 5% of the ‘original’ cost.
Whisstocks is currently a cleared site, so that work on the ship is a little way off. We will follow progress with great interest.
Geoffrey Dyball
Wednesday November 4th at 8pm ‘The Royal Navy in World War One’ by Mark Mitchels
Mark Mitchels, the well-known local author and speaker, gave the second of the autumn talks on the Royal Navy in the First World War.The popular impression is that the war was fought and won wholly on land. Mark showed this not to be the case.
From the outset of war, the navy was to blockade German ports to stop imports of food and war materials. On any view, this was ultimately successful, but not universally popular. The British public were hoping for crushing Nelsonian victories; there were none. The nature of war at sea had changed beyond recognition.
In August 1914, the Royal Navy ambushed a German fleet at Heligoland Bight, and sank three cruisers and a destroyer. The next month, a German U-boat sank three British cruisers, with the loss of some 1500 lives. In October, HMS Audacious was sunk by a German mine.
The German Admiral von Spee took a fleet into the Pacific. He was challenged by a much older and poorly-equipped British fleet and comfortably defeated them.The battle cruisers Inflexible and Invincible were dispatched, and caught up with von Spee at the Falklands. The Gneisenau was sunk, together with three cruisers ; from that time, there were no cruisers outside German home waters.
The land war had reached stalemate. Churchill’s Dardanelles adventure was a failure. Back in Europe, each side was trying to starve the other into submission. The U-boats were successful until the introduction of the convoy system.
The major sea battle was Jutland, in May 1916. Beatty’s battle cruisers met the Germans; but the German High Seas fleet was just behind. Beatty turned so as to draw the Germans on to the firepower of Jellicoe’s Grand Fleet. Under cover of darkness, the Germans returned to port.
There were losses on both sides, but the battle was inconclusive. British communications let them down badly; the Admiralty were able to decode German messages, but then failed to pass on the information to the ships. Generally, German armour was superior, as was their gunnery. The British ships had sacrificed armour for speed and accuracy for speed of firing. Modern naval warfare had lessons for both sides. But the Royal Navy was at sea the next day; the German navy was never seen again. The Royal Navy had effectively won.
The armistice saw the German capital ships taken to Scapa Flow, where they were scuttled by their crews. The U-boats, however, were brought to Harwich;176 in all, to be scrapped.
The talk was enjoyed by about 100 members and guests. Warm thanks to Mark for a very good evening.
Geoffrey Dyball
Wednesday December 2nd at 8pm ‘The Boatyard at Waldringfield’ by Mike Nunn, and Mike opened the evening with a history of the Boatyard at Waldringfield.
Harry Nunn was apprenticed to Eversons of Woodbridge. Coming back from the Great War, he was able to rent a site from Eversons, next door to Masons cement works on the quay. The boat building business was established. Masons then moved their cement works to Claydon. Harry, joined by brother Ernie, moved on to the site, and that is still the yard’s base.
The first boats were forerunners of the National 12 class, later developed by Uffa Fox. A Waldringfield boat won the first Class Championship. Other classes followed. Dragonflys are still sailed at Waldringfield. Nunns built most of the seventy or so Lapwings, and a number of Loch Longs, now sailed locally at Aldeburgh. Dragons were built, designed in 1929 and still going strong. The largest craft built was the 42 foot Fortuna, to Lloyds specification.
Harry died in 1976, and the yard sold in 1978. Geoffrey Dyball
‘Arthur Ransome’s Honeymoon Cruise’ by Brian Hammett
Brian Hammett has had a keen interest in all things Arthur Ransome since reading Swallows and Amazons as a child. Some four years ago he decided to retrace the route of Ransome’s 1924 honeymoon trip. Evgenia was Ransome’s second wife, and at the time was Trotsky’s secretary. The boat was the ketch Racundra, and this was her third cruise.
The route was inland from Riga, close to the Latvian coast, to what was then Mitau, now Jelgava. Brian flew into Riga with his wife and some friends, and boarded a 100-year old river boat, the Darling.
Ransome’s cruise took six months, but each day comprised at most two hours’ sailing; he was also carrying on his duties as a foreign correspondent for, among others, the (then) Manchester Guardian. The trip was not entirely harmonious; the weather was occasionally foul, and Evgenia left the boat for a couple of days after finding a mouse.
Latvia is still coming out from the USSR years, but there are contrasts. What was a flourishing paper mill in Ransome’s time is now derelict; what was the castle at Mitau is now a restored Agricultural Institute. The Latvians are keen to rebuild their history, so Brian was accompanied by a TV crew.
Ransome’s cruise ended in September. Shortly after he sold Racundra, and the couple moved to the Lake District.
Geoffrey Dyball
Thames Barge Trips on sb Victor
Two more trips were organised in 2015; an afternoon trip on the 11th July, accompanied by the Gipping Valley Stompers, and a full-day trip on the 20th August.
Both proved very popular and were sold out and three more trips are being organised for this year. Full details can be found on the booking forms attached/enclosed.
IMT Membership (2) New members
A warm welcome to the new members who have joined since July 2015 (with apologies for missing off names of joint memberships where it has not been supplied) –
Graeme & Moira Hammond,
Maggie Talmer,
Herbert Golding,
John Clements,
Mike Fordham,
John & Mavis Winders,
Patrick York,
Kenneth Benson,
Gary and Vikki Curtis,
Richard Walsh
The Trust ended the year with just over 300 members and we are very pleased to have gradually increased our numbers year on year. Fraser Yates
From the IMT Image Archive
Ipswich may not flood often these days, but some may remember the effects of heavy rain spells on parts of Ipswich, as shown in these photographs from 1938 of St Peters Dock and St Peters St.
Images courtesy of Michael Atkinson
Page 10
IMT 2016 Spring talks Wednesday February 3rd at 8pm
‘Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network (CITiZAN)’ by Lara Brand
The Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network (CITiZAN) is a three year HLF funded project to record and monitor archaeological sites along the coastline before they are lost to the waves forever. Lara Band from the South East team will share details of progress so far, including work at Maldon, Essex and and Harkstead, Suffolk.
Among other roles Lara has worked extensively as a field archaeologist in the UK and Finland and as a curator at Åland Maritime Museum. She has an MA in Historical Archaeology from the University of Leicester and is an Affiliate of the Chartered institute for Field Archaeologists.
Wednesday March 2nd at 8pm
‘Ipswich Wet Dock – Riches to Rags and Back Again’ by John Field
The talk will cover the story of the Dock in its heyday, ringed by industry, through the years of decline, and then to the residential redevelopment of the last thirty years. It will look in particular at the planning and architectural thinking behind recent developments, and will look at future schemes such as the proposed bridges at the end of the Island site.
John Field is an urban planner who has worked in Ipswich for a considerable number of years. He is also an honorary life member of IMT.
Wednesday April 6th, at 8.30pm approximately (following the AGM at 8pm) ‘East Anglian Sailing Trust’ by Ian Jewry
EAST was founded in 1996, and is based at Levington. The charity originally provided sailing opportunities to visually impaired adults and children; the work now extends to the disabled. The trust presently has twelve keelboats and two support boats.
Ian Jewry will give a hands-on account of EAST’s work.
and ‘The rebuilding of sb Melissa’ by Jonathan Webb
Melissa is a steel barge, built 1899 in Southampton by Fays. She traded under sail until 1944, when her sailing gear was removed and she was converted to a motor barge. In the 1970’s she was found in a scrap yard at Rowhedge and brought back into use. Fred Webb bought Melissa in 1994 and began restoration work at Pin Mill, helped by his sons Jonathan and Richard. Fred died in 1996, but the work continued. She was relaunched in 2005, and by 2008 was fully rigged. In July 2009 Melissa won her first ever barge match.
This is Jonathan’s story.
All are welcome to our lectures at the Waterfront Building, University Campus Suffolk, where free parking is available in the UCS car park. The cost for attending a talk is £3.50 for members and £4.50 for guests.
Page 11