NEWS

Our latest Ipswich Maritime Trust Window Museum exhibition celebrates how local students are exploring Ipswich’s rich maritime past – from the historic Wet Dock to life aboard a sailing barge. This Schools Edition is part of the Ipswich Heritage Harbour Project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This summer Ipswich Maritime Trust have taken over 600 young people onto the water using both Thames sailing barge Victor and Orwell Lady, to give local young people a c

Ipswich Maritime Trust (IMT) will be attempting a first for Ipswich’s Heritage Harbour: a flash mob of shanty groups on Sunday 14 th September at 12 noon prompt. Spot the singers and drummers as they break into song on the ships and steps along the Waterfront! The flash mob is led by local group The Orwellermen, singing a selection of call and response shanties from around the maritime world, chosen so that the audience can join in too. Over the weekend of Saturday and Sunda

During 2025, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Ipswich Maritime Trust are working in partnership with Thames sailing barge Victor. Working with local schools we are aiming to strengthen young people’s connection to maritime heritage, and build pride in place. We have already engaged with over 1000 young people who have been learning about the maritime heritage of Ipswich via school assemblies, classroom visits, primary school visits to the wet dock and to

Ipswich Maritime Trust has appointed Judy Harrison to head up the Ipswich Heritage Harbour Project Ipswich Maritime Trust (IMT) has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) grant to launch the Ipswich Heritage Harbour Project, to celebrate and enhance Ipswich’s status as a Heritage Harbour. “Ipswich is the oldest continuously occupied port in the country. Even today, it is the UK’s leading agricultural export port, and, with some 2,000 yachts on the Orwell, is at the

Ipswich Maritime Trust (IMT) is seeking an experienced heritage project manager to lead the implementation of the Ipswich Heritage Harbour Project. The right candidate will be well-organised, with good people and communication skills, and a self-starter, in addition to having the qualifications outlined below. About IMT: IMT’s mission is to promote and preserve the extraordinary maritime heritage of Ipswich, and to give local young people the chance to engage in that heritage

Boat Building was placed on the Red List of Endangered Crafts in 2023. But is the tide beginning to turn for this threatened industry? Our speaker at the Ipswich Maritime Trust meeting on Wednesday 2nd April 2025 is BELINDA JOSLIN, founder of Women in Boatbuilding (far right in photo), who will be talking about the Community Interest Company (CIC) she set up, and the effect it’s having on encouraging women to enter the industry, as well as providing a community to support the

Spring has sprung …. and so has our Spring 2025 magazine. In this issue, we look forward to some maritime anniversaries and a related talk on the Shipping Forecast, and back to notable seafarers, and naval seamen’s women. Our Image Archivist maintains that he did mean to go to sea, in the wake of Arthur Ransome; and our Chairman explains what’s going on with Victor. And we publish the winning entries in the Maritime Writing Competition organised by the Suffolk Writers’ Group.

The First Wednesday of the Month meeting – on Wednesday 5th March 2025 – features the story of the restoration of the famous mast at HMS Ganges, as told by Jim Dines and Jasmin Klimcke from the Heritage Marine Foundation. The mast was re-installed in 2023 (see IMT’s Magazine, Summer 2023, page 13 for an account of a visit by Stuart and Mark Grimwade beforehand) – as anyone who sails or walks along the river Orwell will have realised! Jim and Jasmin’s talk will be supplemented

Congratulations to the winners of the Suffolk Writers Group’s Maritime Competition. Organiser Mai Black gave entrants the choice of writing about one of three evocative black and white photos from IMT’s huge Image Archive, www.ipswichmaritimetrust.org.uk/image-archive  – each including, unusually, an animal. The judges were Ben Good, IMT chairman; and Julia Jones, author and publisher at www.golden-duck.co.uk They enjoyed reading the range of responses to the photos, and we

In our first Wednesday of the month meeting, on 6th November, we are very excited to be hosting a screening of Oyster Land by East Anglian filmmaker Matthew Harrison. “Oyster Land is a documentary about the oyster farmers of Mersea Island, Essex. Some of these oyster farmers are ninth generation, some are just starting out. This film aims to capture the winter atmosphere of working on the waters of the River Blackwater and Colne. “In making this film, I wanted to explore the