Issue 38 Jan 2020
Newsletter January 2020
Newsletter No. 38
Ipswich – A Hanseatic Port
During the 13th – 15th centuries east coast ports such as Ipswich, King’s Lynn and Boston traded alongside merchants of the Hanseatic League in the North Sea and the Baltic. In that period, at the height of the wool and cloth trade with Europe, Ipswich was one of the most important and prosperous ports in the country and of course continues to be a considerable trading port to this day. However, as a result of constant development and re-building, very little physical evidence from the Hanseatic period seems to remain, in comparison with Boston and King’s Lynn.
A new Hanseatic League (www.hanse.org) was founded in 1980, with headquarters in Lubeck, and IMT encouraged an application for membership by Ipswich Borough Council, which was accepted in 2018.
To support our membership, it was felt that more information about this significant period in Ipswich’s history needed to be available, and so we have produced a booklet for the general public, and which I
hope will interest visitors and tourists too. The booklet is available (price £2) at the Tourist Information Centre, at Ipswich Museum and at Christchurch Mansion.
We’re grateful for financial support for the publication from IBC and from Associated British Ports, which is proud of the former Hanse connections of their ports including Hull and King’s Lynn. We are already making connections with such partner ports and hope that Ipswich can develop relations with other Hanse cities, such as Bruges, Hamburg and Bergen.
Stuart and I have been invited to give a presentation to the King’s Lynn Hanse group, led by Dr. Paul Richards. We shall look forward to this opportunity to promote “the Suffolk connection”!
Ipswich – A Hanseatic Port will also be on sale at the next IMT meeting on 5th February. Pat Grimwade
‘sb Cambria’ appeal
We recently received an email from Chris Snelling of the Cambria Trust, as below. If there are any of our members who are interested in helping with the Cambria please get in touch with Chris at chris.snelling1@btinternet.com or on 01462 673179 or 07971 445281
Chris Snelling writes -
I have been involved with Cambria for 25 years from the days when she was a hulk at Dolphin Yard in Sittingbourne. Since then she has undergone a complete restoration and has successfully sailed around the Suffolk, Essex and Kent coasts. As you will know, Cambria is currently spending the winter at Pin Mill, as she did last year.
We are a very small group of volunteers and we are looking to get 
more people involved either as 'workers' to help with winter painting
and maintenance etc. or as 'management' to help operate the barge
and run the Trust. I am writing to enquire whether you know of anyone
who would be interested in joining our team. They would be helping to
keep alive a unique part of our maritime heritage: Cambria was the
last Thames Barge to trade solely under sail and she still sails without
an engine. She is also a 'local' barge as Bob Roberts, her last skipper,
lived at Pin Mill.
Window Museum News
The 20th Window Museum display
Yes, that is right! The Window Wizards are busy pulling together what will be the 20th display in our special Museum Case down on the waterfront. For this display we will be focusing on the development of the Wet Dock, from just quay on the bend in the River Orwell to, at the time, the largest enclosed dock of its type in the UK. There will be a number of interesting plans showing proposals that never came to fruition, perhaps giving an insight to the thinking of some of our forbearers and give rise to the thought of just what might have been if they had been carried out. As always there will be some interesting photographs as well.
If things run to plan, we hope to take out the current exhibition on ‘Ipswich and The Grain Races’ and put the next one in during week commencing 20th of April. If by chance you have not had a chance to see window number 19 try and get to see it before we take it out.
Des Pawson, for the Window Wizards
Leonard Woolf - a tribute
Image courtesy of David Meldrum
Leonard grew up on the South Coast, in Hastings 1934, in Bournemouth by 1939. It was not until the early 1940s that he moved to Ipswich, to the Rushmere Post Office with father George, Postmaster; mother Amy, Postmistress; and younger sister Eileen.
From 1944-1950 Leonard attended Ipswich School, and much later in life that he made friends with Old Ipswichians; The Rev. John Pretyman Waller (OI. 1952-1959), and Stuart Grimwade (OI. 1950r-1962). And, it was only 2018 that he visited the school on an honorary tour with archivist Melissa Joralemon, adding much to the school’s history with his musings of the day.
At the age of 16 years Leonard left the classroom and took up a position in the workplace. As a herdsman he cycled each day from the Post Office to Bealings, carrying a sandwich and can of milk (1½ pints) for his lunch, and worked for two years on the farm until his “call up” for National Service.
Leonard proudly served in the RAF from 1952-1954, with a posting to Hull, to work on Radar. By and large his conduct was good, but at times his rather unkempt appearance got him into a spot of bother, disciplinary action, and punishment in the cook-house, which some might consider quite privileged.
Back home, and back on the land, Leonard joined up with the Young Farmers. As Secretary of Rushmere Juniors, and Seniors, a little later becoming Ipswich YF, he helped the faltering Felixstowe bunch to get back on their feet and welcomed them into the fold. Around that time the YF was affectionately known as more of a country dating agency, and the story of Leonard taking out one of the young ladies for a pub meal still raises a hoot, for the supposed two-for-one offer anticipated had ended the previous week. He did not do that again.
Nonetheless it did not deter Leonard’s enthusiasm for and dedication to the YF over the years. In his early days he planned proficiency tests for them, one year growing a field of sugar beet and working it by hand; a root hoeing test, 90 plants to the chain. Yet another year, he helped build a Viking ship out of an old van from Shank’s bakery for the annual pageant for the Suffolk Agricultural Association, and grew a beard just because. In all his ventures with YF, Leonard’s ethos remained, to further the organization, introduce to young people, and to raise funds for charity.
Meanwhile a day to day living for Leonard in the 1950s was as a commercial grower, bolstered now and again in the 1960s with part-time work as a rent collector for the Borough Council, and a delivery driver for Norman Finch. When working for Mr. Finch an opportunity arose for Leonard to buy and sell cheese. So, he bought huge blocks of cheddar, cut them into smaller portions, and, when on his rounds, sold them onto the customer at competitive prices.
In another of Leonard’s endeavours he grew flowers on Tuddenham Road that he took to Covent Garden to sell. He also sold to a local greengrocer, Mr. Robertson of St. Helen’s Street, who fondly recalls meeting “Len” over fifty years ago with dahlias for sale at one shilling and three pence a bunch which were sold on for one shilling and nine pence. It was every day that Leonard worked his land tending and planting, and even on Christmas Day when he kept the tradition of putting his bean poles in place.
Leonard experienced good health until the 1990s when his heart became a problem. Following extensive surgery, he was advised to walk every day to aid his recovery. Fed up with walking around the block he decided to walk a little further to the Old Cemetery and there he began to study and research any historic or notable headstones he found, making notes of inscriptions, taking photographs, and archiving his findings. In fact, some of these photographs are now quite important historical records as many of the stones’ inscriptions have become almost illegible over the years due to time and decay.
Such was Leonard’s passion for history that he pieced together many a collection of photos, postcards, maps, documents and such like pertaining to Suffolk, Ipswich, and to Rushmere. And, on meeting Bob Pawsey from Ipswich Maritime Trust began his support for the organization attending all the Winter and Spring lectures, and generously donating the use of his impressive collection of postcards and ephemera of the Ipswich Wet Dock, which took Stuart Grimwade four years to scan and insert into the IMT archives.
Alongside the Trust, Leonard joined the Master Mariner’s Club, an organization of retired sea captains, seafaring men with a master’s ticket, or those from a seafaring background. Their main purpose, to support as many sea related institutions by charitable donations from subscriptions, and profits from the lunches held once a month in the Felixstowe Ferry Club. This is where Leonard met the Rev. John Waller, sitting at his same table each time. John was the Club’s resident priest, and every month would sail his motorboat “Jesus” from his home in Waldringfield to Felixstowe. It was an honour to be invited to sail on “Jesus” to the meetings in the summer months, but it did involve the wearing of “wellies” and “oilies” and changing back into the Club blazer and tie on arrival. A close friend of John was Sam Leeder, the Catholic priest at St. Pancras. John Waller, Sam Leeder and Leonard were particularly close friends and got into all kinds of scrapes on the River Deben over the years, then when John died Sam Leeder became the Club’s resident priest.
Leonard was also a long-time member of The Ipswich Society, where John Norman remembers him fondly. As a regular attender at the Ipswich Society talks, Leonard contributed greatly to the question and answer sessions that followed the speaker. As an Ipswich Historian, John quotes, “Len” was full of knowledge about the County as well as the town, a resource for historical photographs and the story behind most of them. The Ipswich Society is indebted to Leonard for the numerous wonderful photographs which he donated. There is a Leonard Woolf album on the Ipswich Society online Image Archive.
In addition to the Society talks Leonard also attended the lectures open to the public at the University of Suffolk. With subjects wide-ranging about all sorts of world affairs Leonard often interacted at the question and answer time, and over the years became known to Professor Harvey Osborne of the History Department, who recently gave much guidance to Leonard’s Rushmere History Project.
Over the years Leonard has given his all to environmental and conservation issues, be it to save or protect, the Jewish Cemetery, the Felaw Maltings, the Wet Dock, or Rushmere. His charity, Stepping Stones for biodiversity was set up to secure and protect small spaces to benefit wildlife and enhance the countryside for the local community for the generations to come. He was also passionate about saving the Northern Fringe and campaigned with supporters, Save Our Countryside Spaces, to protect the prime grade 2 farming land. With his work to Save Our Rushmere Rural Identity he sought to enhance the historic village of Rushmere St. Andrew, to benefit the community by promoting a place for peaceful enjoyment and wildlife, and in maintaining land left by one of the residents, in 2006 he won the Green Hero Award for his efforts.
There’s many an accolade we can attribute to Leonard, and there’s many a someone who could add to his story, but there’s little that can be said without a laugh or a smile. He exuded great character, his wit never-ending, his generosity immeasurable, a true gent. Leonard was a good man.
Author: Georgina Gartlan
Contributors: Linda Chambers, Gary Hubert, Bob Pawsey, Neville Robertson, Barbara Robinson
The scanned postcards and images donated by Leonard Woolf can be seen in the Image Archive on the IMT website under the albums bearing his name.
The Pleasures and Rewards of Bath-time Reading
An update for the latest Old Ipswichian Journal of Stuart Grimwade’s 2017 Article on the Value of Old Photographs.
In a previous article I described how the Trust, of which I’ve now been a director for more retirement years than I care to recall, has amassed and digitally restored over 3000 historic images of the Ipswich River and its dock for our Image Archive. With over half the Archive now available to view on our website www.ipswichmaritimetrust.org.uk it is perhaps not so surprising that more images continue to be offered to us, and that there is growing use of the archive from all over the world. My article ended with a plea for OI’s (Old Ipswichians) to become involved. I’m pleased to report a good response!
One such person was Nigel Farthing O.I. who contacted me, he claims, after reading the Journal article one day in his bath - surely one of the pleasures of receiving a traditional paper version of the Journal rather than reading it electronically?! Nigel described how, as a senior partner of Birketts, he had responsibility for sourcing artwork for Birketts new offices, then under construction in Princes Street. Birketts was founded in 1863, and had occupied its Museum Street offices since 1873, and Nigel considered that the extraordinarily long and successful maritime history of the town would make an ideal theme for his purposes.
This serendipity led to a number of fruitful discussions between us to find the right images to fit the right hanging spaces available in the new offices. He was particularly struck by an image of the Ipswich Custom House dated 1846, one of the earliest surviving photographs in the world, captured by an ancestor of another OI Nick Wiggin. Seeing this image of the Custom House prompted thought about how the town has changed since Victorian times, and whether this could be captured using both historic and contemporary photographs. Local photographer Roger Barcham, of BMSimaging Ltd, was commissioned to provide the contemporary images taken from the same vantage points, and the outcome is that the old and new are now displayed in a conference suite in Birketts’ new offices.
The Trust is delighted to have had this opportunity to present this important aspect of the commercial life of the town, trading from the same waterfront and street pattern since the seventh century – no other town in England, or indeed Europe, can claim such a continuous history. For his part, Nigel considers that the project has been a great success and has prompted much interest.
The conference room images may be seen in this recent picture taken just before the official opening of the new Offices, together with two views of the waterfront taken from exactly the same point in front of today’s University of Suffolk looking west along Neptune Quay in 1895 and 2018 respectively.
Yet another call on the Archive came from the Short-sea Director of Associated British Ports (ABP to you and me), Andrew Harston who requested some images to go in a time capsule that he was intending to bury at the top of the newly refurbished Old Custom House tower. We duly responded with the early image of the building that I described in my previous article that has found fame as a direct print from one of the most important surviving photographic wax paper negatives. Along with that we included what is thought to be the earliest known image of the river at Pin Mill. This in turn recently led to another time capsule burial under the new Hold building currently nearing completion beside the University of Suffolk on the Waterfront. This new building will not only be home to the County’s Archive, but also to the John Blatchly Memorial Library.
In my previous article I talked of John’s love of explaining the town’s unique history through his talks, his books, and other published writing. Were he still with us today, John would no doubt be reminding us of the remarkable gift that Wolsey himself probably arranged whereby Henry VIII granted ownership of the bed of the River Orwell to the townspeople of Ipswich exactly 500 years ago in March 1519. Legal challenges have since shown that this unique arrangement still stands, and is surely something to celebrate, as all other similar British waterways remain in the ownership of the Crown. John was quick to realise and appreciate the value of our Image Archive as a means of presenting the town’s Victorian heritage, and it is most rewarding to see how this has given us growing publicity. The BBC became sufficiently interested to use the Archive to show the unique work of our Victorian entrepreneurs in the building of our Wet Dock. Explaining all on camera to Michael Portillo for one of his series of ‘Great Railway Journey’ programmes recently was a daunting but most rewarding experience. For this filming, I was most grateful to Fraser Yates OI who kindly provided the services of his historic vessel ‘Fenland’, the oldest fully operational diesel tug that he keeps in the dock.
The apparent world-wide audience for the Portillo programme has in turn resulted in emails coming in from almost every continent offering me dusty old images recently found in attics, perhaps taken as mementos of their home town by ancestors emigrating to far-flung countries in the heady days of Empire. Out of the blue I also received a most welcome email from my old sixth form geography master John Weeks from 1961-2. Amazingly after almost 60 years, he’d still recognised me on TV, and we exchanged a series of messages enabling me to tell him of my fond memories of his fresh new teaching style as a young Cambridge graduate that involved him dispensing with our surnames, and abandoning the Sherwood Block classrooms in favour of coffee and informal chat in his room at the top of the tower, housing I recall the largest collection of one inch to the mile OS Maps I’d ever seen! As a result, my life as a sixth-former was transformed into a time I shall always enjoy recalling. I gathered from John, however, that there were those in the staff room at the time who found such informal teaching methods very far from ‘proper’. The times they were ‘a-changing’!
I must finish on a sad but grateful note, recalling the huge contribution of Leonard Woolf OI, who died in 2018 having willed to the Trust his life’s huge collection of postcard images of the dock and the Ipswich River. A priceless and unique collection that still forms the basis of our Archive.
Carters outside Thomas Mortimer’s Warehouses on Neptune Quay photographed by Harry Walters in 1895. Today the same curved quay remains a busy public thoroughfare, now fronted by residential apartments, facing yachts and motor cruisers moored on the Neptune Marina pontoons.
Future Events - Talks
Wednesday 5th February 7.30pm
Mayflower - 400
by Cathy Shelbourne
Wednesday 4th March 7.30pm
The ‘London’ wreck
by Steven Ellis
Wednesday 1st April at 8pm approx. (after AGM at 7.30pm) Flatford, Constable and the River Stour Navigation
by John Morris
Full details are on page 13 of this newsletter. Reminders for the talks will be sent out closer to the time, but please make a note of the dates in your diary.
We will be providing tea, coffee and biscuits after the talks; this has proved very popular and has provided the opportunity for members to meet and chat amongst themselves and with some IMT Council members.
Future Events - Barge Trips
Thames Spritsail Barge Trips 2020
IMT Thames Barge trips
We have organised 6 trips this year - three full-day sailing trips and 
three ‘Visit Historic Harwich trips’. Due to their popularity some have
already been pre-booked by the Ipswich Society and the Ipswich &
Suffolk Club, but any available spaces will be offered to IMT members.
The dates of the trips which can be booked now are:
Full-day sailing
Thursday 9th July and Thursday 10th September
Visit Historic Harwich trip
Thursday 11th June
There is more information on the form at the end of the newsletter; please contact John Warren at jbwarren5@gmail.com, or via post if you wish to make a booking,; details on the booking form.
Past Events - Autumn 2019 talks
We had yet another series of interesting and varied talks in the Autumn last year.
Wednesday 2nd October
The Mary Rose
by Dr Philip Roberts 
More than 90 members and guests enjoyed the first of our autumn talks on 2 October. Dr Philip Roberts spoke on Henry VIII’s favourite ship, the Mary Rose.
In 1509 Henry, although practically bankrupt, decided to improve his ‘army of the sea’ by the construction of the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate. Initially used as a transport, Mary Rose carried 91 cannon and a crew of some 500. Among the crew were two Ipswich men, Griggs and Oram; they were noted for accidentally boarding a Portuguese vessel after a drunken night out in Deptford.
The Battle of the Solent took place over the 18th to the 22nd of July 1545, against the French. The English fleet was commanded by Sir George Carew, from his flagship The Great Harry. The first day was windless, but the fleets engaged the following day. Mary Rose fired one broadside, and turned for a second. Water is believed to have poured in through the lower gun ports, and she capsized and sank in a depth of some 30 feet. Almost all her crew were drowned, many trapped in the anti-boarding netting over the superstructure.
Efforts were made at the time to raise her, including the use of Venetian lifting crews, but to no avail. A coloured free diver was also employed, perhaps an indication that the population was more diverse than previously thought.
The Deane brothers were looking for the wreck of the Royal George in 1836. They instead found Mary Rose, largely buried in the silt which helped preserve her. Some cannon were retrieved, but the main wreck was left undisturbed. So it remained until Alexander McKee, helped by sonar, was able to produce a drawing of what remained. His work lead directly to the formation of the Mary Rose Trust in 1979. With funding, the remaining structure was lifted in a technically difficult operation which fascinated millions of television viewers. There were also recovered some 1900 artefacts. These included the ships bell and 500 longbows, and the tools of both the carpenter and the barber-surgeon.
The recovered timbers were preserved in polyethylene glycol and are on display in a purpose-built structure, opened in 2013. The bulk of the artefacts are also on display, making this a truly first-class museum. Look at www.maryrose.org.
Wednesday 6th November 7.30pm
The Loss of the Truculent: the Lack of a Seaman’s Eye? by John Johnson-Allen
The November talk was given by John Johnson-Allen on the sinking of the submarine Truculent. A tragic event, resulting in the loss of 64 lives.
Truculent was built in 1942 in Barrow. She had a mixed war, towing 
midget submarines to Norway as part of the campaign against the Tirpitz, and then going to the Far East. In 1944 she came upon a Japanese convoy.
Her target was sunk with four torpedoes; only later was it found that the
target was full of prisoners of war. In 1949 Truculent went into dock for a
refit and modifications.
In January 1950 the submarine sailed from Chatham on exercises. Returning, when off the Oaze Bank near Southend, her commander Lt. Charles Bowers, saw confusing lights ahead. The lights were on the Divina, a Swedish tanker laden with kerosene en route from Purfleet to Ipswich. The lights were interpreted as meaning ‘not under command’, i.e. moored. This was not the case. Under a 4-knot ebb tide, Divina was bearing down on Truculent at something like 15 knots. The collision caused Truculent to heel through 45 degrees; she then sank.
The submarine’s officers thinking that there would be help on the surface, organised an orderly escape, through the DSEA escape tube. But there was very little help. The Almdijk, going upriver under Pilot, lowered a boat, and some of Truculent’s crew were saved. Most were swept away by the strong tide; bodies were recovered many miles distant. All bar 10 died.
The Admiralty report into the sinking concluded that Truculent should have correctly identified the (albeit wrong) lights on the Divina, and should have stopped or turned to avoid the collision. The inevitable Court Martial found Lt. Bowers guilty of hazarding his ship. The wreck was lifted and was sold for scrap from Sheerness.
John Johnson-Allen’s latest book is ‘They Were Just Skulls; the Naval Career of Fred Henley, Last Survivor of the Loss of HMS Truculent’. Fred is now 96 and lives in Clacton.
Over 80 members and guests were present for this sombre talk.
Wednesday 4th December 7.30pm
Shipbuilding in Ipswich
by Chris Turland
Probably the earliest recorded ship built in Ipswich was the 
1294 galley, one of a type built for the King in each of twenty
six towns. She was some 100 feet in length, with a width of
some 50 feet. She carried 120 oars, mounted a square sail,
and was of clinker construction. At the time there were
recorded three main quays; Common, Bigods and Harneys.
The ship is likely to have been built at Harneys.
Later vessels were variations of the cog, having a stern rudder as in the Ipswich Town Seal; similar, indeed, to the seals of many of the Northern European Hanse towns. Ipswich catts were built mainly for the coal trade. The upper sides of these were of carvel construction, giving a much cleaner appearance (and using less timber).
Ogilvie’s town map of 1675 shows shipyards on both sides of the river, but mainly the north (town) side. The most important shipbuilder of that time was John Barnard; his father and grandfather were also Ipswich shipbuilders. His yard is shown in Clevely’s prospect of Ipswich. A painting of his ship the Bideford shows her ready to be launched in 1749. Her construction had been overseen by an Admiralty surveyor from Harwich, Thomas Slade. As was then the custom, she would have gone down to Harwich for the masts to have been stepped. Another Clevely painting showed the Bideford being towed down to Harwich.
Pennington’s 1774 map shows Barnard having one yard and half of another – and also an orchard. Later, the name of Bailey comes to the fore. First noted at the St Peter’s yard, the Baileys had to relocate downriver to build their larger vessels. At the Nova Scotia yard, there were built 400-ton sixth rate men of war. Jabez Bailey’s Halifax yard saw 41 ships built up to 1817. Both these yards were lost long before the arrival of the West Bank Terminal.
Corruption and incompetence in the then port authority saw the establishment of the River Commissioners, a coming together of ship owners, ship builders and business men. This led directly to the construction of the Wet Dock, at the time a huge piece of civil engineering, and the largest enclosed area of water in the UK, opened in 1842.
Chris took us through Hoare-Gower’s unsinkable lifeboat, the first paddle-boat, and Bailey’s steam dredger. The ‘alternative’ uses for Paul’s tugs, for securing salvage rights and then the yard run by Orvis. His last barge was the Ardwina, still sailing. Chris closed with some photos of the spectacularly beautiful Spirit craft.
Geoffrey Dyball
Past Events – Exhibitions
Most importantly, we must thank all the IMT volunteers who turned out to assist with set-up/break down and manning the exhibitions. Without the volunteers the exhibitions would not have been possible.
Thank you!
Ipswich Maritime Festival – 17th and 18th August
The exhibition featured a display including images taken by Harry Walters in the 1890s which were merged with modern photographs taken by his grandson, Ian Cutting. Some of the images featured in our 2020 calendar.
Outside on the quayside there was the opportunity for people to participate in the making of baggywrinkle, and the opportunity for children to dress up as a pirate and be photographed alongside our own ‘Ben the Pirate’.
Heritage Open Weekend - 14th and 15th September
The exhibition was based around the dozens 
of fantastic models which Ben Bendall, one of
the ‘Window Wizards’, has made over the
years and of which many have featured in
various Window Museum displays.
The variety, accuracy and incredible detail in
the models are testament to the dedication,
skill and time which Ben has put into their
making.
River Gipping Trust
The Ipswich Maritime Trust has an affiliation with another 
local charity, the River Gipping Trust (RGT), who do so much
good work preserving the historic heritage of the
Stowmarket Navigation by restoring the structures that
enabled navigation of the River Gipping.
They have an excellent website and produce a regular
newsletter the ‘Gipping Gossip’. You can find the latest copy
on-line here https://rivergippingtrust.org.uk/gipping-gossip .
If you are not on-line and would like to find out more about the RGT and their work, please contact their Secretary on 033 033 08531
IMT Membership news
2020 Subscriptions
The start of the year and the low-cost subscription for 2020 is now due (same cost as when introduced in 2005). Approximately 70% of our members pay by Standing Order or bank transfer and this is very much appreciated. This very considerably reduces the time and cost overhead of sending reminders each year. If you pay by Standing Order or transfer – thank you. If you don’t, can we persuade you to either set up a standing order or set up a reminder to yourself to pay by bank transfer on 2nd January each year?
If there is a renewal form with the email or posted version of the newsletter then it means that the 2020 subscription is due. If there is no renewal form, then our records show that you normally pay by standing order.
IMT members
Our membership ended 2019 at an all-time high of 346 members – thank you all for helping to support the Trust and its aims.
If you are still receiving our communications by post and would like to change to email, please either send me an email to membership@ipswichmaritimetrust.org.uk , or call 07531 083576 and leave a message and I will call you back.
It really does help if we can communicate by email with our members.
Fraser Yates
New Members
John & Vivien Hartill Michael & Judy Scott
Norman Haines Keith & Nicola Halton
Steve Bishop David & Anne Dodds
Tim & Dot Granville B & C Western
Ray Walters Simon Cooper
Bernard & Anne Giles Georgina Gartlan
Terry Shemming Andrew Brown
Claire & Katherine Scott Adam Rae
THE LAUNCHING OF THE ORWELL East-Indiaman AT
HALIFAX SHP-YARD, IPSWICH, th
On Thursday the 28 of August, 1817:
A NEW SONG
To the Tune of “Come sweep up the planchers, and fill up your Gotch”
Good PEOPLE OF SUFFOLK come, pray ye draw near,
And I’ll presently tell you what happened here;
Of August it was on the twenty-eighth Day,
When such numbers from all parts came flocking this way.
Oh! how they were running and hast’ning along,
And squeezing themselves in the thick of the throng;
For the men were now busy in splitting the blocks,
To launch the brave ORWELL from off all her stocks.
A vessel so large, so majestic, and grand,
Old Ipswich before never saw on her strand:
Guess then how astonished she must be this at,
When she’d ne’er seen one larger than e’en “A Black Cat.”
TEAGUE, BARNARD, and GOODAY, and CLEMENTS of old,
Those Builders,-- whose skill was so great we are told ,--
In science surpass’d now must e’en quit the field,
And to BAYLEY§ the palm in Ship-building all yield.
Lo, see now how gaily she glides off the stocks,
How finely she moves now, and quits all the blocks!
How boldly she enters the full-swelling tide—
Huzza! see the ORWELL in safety now ride !
With huzza and shouting, the wide welkin rings,
The Fair waves her ‘kerchief, the Boy his hat flings;
While the ORWELL, as ‘long-side Hog-Island she steers,
Saves her bacon outright, and thus quiets all fears.
Printed and sold by J.RAW, in the Butter-Market and all Booksellers
1817
Does anyone know the tune?
IMT 2019 Autumn talks
Wednesday 5th February at 7.30pm
Mayflower 400
by Cathy Shelbourne
Four hundred years ago, The Mayflower sailed to the New World. The
‘Pilgrim Fathers’ – many of them from East Anglia - established a
settlement that is now regarded as the foundation of modern America.
IMT member and cruise ship speaker Cathy Shelbourne has just written a guide to Harwich, home of the master of The Mayflower (free copies
available on the night).
In this presentation, Cathy will be looking back at The Mayflower’s origins (was she really built in Harwich?), and forward to the Mayflower 400 celebrations in 2020.
Wednesday 4th March at 7.30pm
The London Wreck
by Steven Ellis
The 'London' shipwreck is a Cromwellian built warship that sank in the
Thames Estuary over 350 years ago. It is on Historic England's high-risk
register and, sitting right on the edge of the main shipping channel, every passing vessel has a detrimental effect on it.
Steven Ellis is a volunteer licensed diver and with his team formed a Trust to support the recovery of artefacts and remains so that they are not lost forever. They are working alongside the Nautical Archaeological Society looking for funding to "Save the London 1665".
https://thelondonshipwrecktrust.co.uk/
Wednesday 1st April at 8pm (approx.) after AGM at 7.30pm Flatford, Constable and the River Stour Navigation
by John Morris
John Morris of the National Trust on Flatford, Constable and the River
Stour Navigation. ‘Flatford is a wonderful place to visit. Knowing more
about John Constable’s paintings of the area, many illustrating the
industry based on the Stour, just enhances the experience.
As well as volunteering for the National Trust at Flatford, John has been
involved with inland waterways restoration, governing schools, and in the local community as a town councillor and charity trustee. He has been paid as a bus conductor, school teacher, college lecturer, trainer, product manager, and, for over 40 years, as a part time tutor for the Open University.
All are welcome to our lectures at the Waterfront Building, University of Suffolk. The cost for attending a talk is £3.50 for members and £4.50 for guests. Free tea and coffee provided after the talk and the chance to chat with the speaker and other members and guests.
Sailing trips on ‘Victor’
Join IMT on a full day trip on the rivers Orwell and Stour
Thursday 25th June 2020 at 9am (rsvd. Ipswich and Suffolk Club) Thursday 9th July 2020 at 9am
Thursday 10th September 2020 at 9am
A great chance to get the best views of the rivers Orwell, Stour, and
the Walton backwaters depending on the weather, and to help with
the sailing of an iconic boat.
Victor was built in 1895 by Shrubsalls at Ipswich for Owen Parry of
Colchester, mainly for use in the linseed oil trade. In 1947 she was the
last sailing barge to be decommissioned. She was converted to a
motor barge in the 1950s, but restored in 1974 and refurbished in
2005/7.
Leave from her usual berth in front of the Old Custom House about 9am.
- Bacon roll and coffee breakfast
- Mid-morning coffee and biscuits,
- Two course lunch with wine, and
- Afternoon cream tea.
Return about 5pm, depending on wind and tide.
Parking available on the Island site by prior arrangement, courtesy of ABP.
The cost is £65 per head. Book through John Warren at jbwarren5@gmail.com or by post; payment can be made by bank transfer to IMT sort code 20-44-51 ac.no. 8048 6485 or by cash, or complete the form and send with cheque to the address shown below.
Booking Form
Barge Trip on Victor – 25th June/9th July/10th September** ** delete as appropriate
Please reserve .…… places at £65 per head, cheque made payable to ‘IMT’, enclosed for £…………. Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………………
Address: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Phone number and/or email address for confirmation of reservation, and in case of need to contact:
Phone number: …………………………………………………………..
Email address: ……………………………………………………………………………………
Is a car parking space is required on the Island Site - NO/YES (please write car Reg No on reverse) Please return form and cheque to J Warren, 78 Christchurch St, Ipswich, IP4 2DE
Visit ‘Historic Harwich’ all day trips
Thursday 11th June 2020 at 9am
Thursday 30th July 2020 at 9am (rsvd. Ipswich & Suffolk Club) Thursday 13th August 2020 at 9am (rsvd. Ipswich Society)
Leaving from outside the Old Custom House, Ipswich at 09.00 and returning approximately 17.00, ‘Victor’ will motor/sail to Harwich Ha’penny pier. Passengers will leave the Victor at approx. 10.45/11.00 for a conducted tour of Historic Harwich Town by two guides from the Harwich Society. The tour will last approx. 90 minutes and the passengers will return to the Victor at 12.30 for drinks and lunch at 13.00 (two-course meal with wine). Victor will then leave Harwich as soon as possible to sail/motor back to the Old Custom House with a tea on the way.
Victor was built in 1895 by Shrubsalls at Ipswich for Owen Parry of Colchester, mainly for use in the linseed oil trade. In 1947 she was the last sailing barge to be decommissioned. She was converted to a motor barge in the 1950s, but restored in 1974 and refurbished in 2005/7.
Parking available on the Island site by prior arrangement, courtesy of ABP.
The cost is £65 per head, including £5 donation to Harwich Society. Book through John Warren at jbwarren5@gmail.com or by post; payment can be made by bank transfer to IMT sort code 20-44-51 ac.no. 8048 6485 or by cash or cheque, or complete the form and send with cheque to the address shown below.
Booking Form
Harwich Trip on Victor – 11th June/30th July/13th August ** ** (delete as appropriate)
Please reserve .……. places at £65 per head, cheque made payable to ‘IMT’, enclosed for £…………. Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………………
Address: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Phone number and/or email address for confirmation of reservation, and in case of need to contact:
Phone number: …………………………………………………………..
Email address: ……………………………………………………………………………………
Is a car parking space is required on the Island Site - NO/YES (please write car Reg No on reverse)
Please return form and cheque to J Warren, 78 Christchurch St, Ipswich, IP4 2DE
Vehicle Registration Number if parking is required on Island Site
…………………………………………………………………………………………
A parking permit will be posted to the address you have given on the form approximately 7 days before the trip.
Directions to the Island Car Park will be sent with the permit.
It is recommended that passengers keep a photocopy of the booking form for their information on the day.
Vehicle Registration Number if parking is required on Island Site
…………………………………………………………………………………………
A parking permit will be posted to the address you have given on the form approximately 7 days before the trip.
Directions to the Island Car Park will be sent with the permit.
It is recommended that passengers keep a photocopy of the booking form for their information on the day.