Tales of the past

You might have heard of "The Hold", near Ipswich waterfront. Predominantly funded by a £10.3m National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, when fully open it will house the majority of Suffolk Archive's collections, as well as providing facilities for the University of Suffolk, which contributed to the project, and other public spaces including a café, shop and exhibition gallery. The Hold will replace Suffolk Archives Ipswich branch on Gatacre Road in west Ipswich. 

As the University website says:- 

"The Hold is the flagship new heritage facility for Suffolk located on the University of Suffolk Ipswich campus. With more than 900 years of the county's rich and diverse history to discover, this exciting new building will allow people of all ages and backgrounds to step inside and discover more about where they live and their own heritage. The Hold will be open to everyone, offering not only archives specific services in the searchroom, library, and education room, but also state-of-the-art public facilities and teaching spaces for staff and students from the University of Suffolk. An exhibition gallery, café, shop and garden will complete the visitor experience. "

The Hold is the home of the Suffolk Archives, Ipswich branch and is also where our very own Bridget Hanley works! Suffolk Archives have some lockdown activity suggestions for young and old here. One particularly interesting suggestion is recording life in lockdown. We have such a good understanding of the recent past because there is a wealth of information available to study. The further you go back in time, the more challenging it is to research and gain a real "feel" for past times. Recording our struggles in lockdown today is literally creating History - your account will contribute to future generations understanding of the pandemic and how it affected ordinary people.

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

History at St Mary le Tower

Here at the Tower we had a lady make contact with us last month, regarding a framed picture she had bought at a jumble sale near Birmingham, Alabama, USA. The picture was of a brass from a church, and the label on the back of the frame said it was of a lawyer, 1475, from St Mary le Tower in Ipswich. It turned out this was a brass of a Robert Wimbell, a "notary public". He commissioned the memorial brass with a prayer to the Trinity across his breast. It is in our chancel, currently underneath the chancel carpet. How bizarre that the picture should end up on the other side of the Atlantic!