Bourne Park / Bourne Bridge

These contributions come from Mike O'Donovan, summer 2010, with his own emailed commentary.  Bourne Park lies away from the town centre with main entrances at the end of Wherstead Road and on Stoke Park Drive.

The War Memorial
"Here is a set of photos showing the memorial at Bourne Park. It has three sides and the photos show one side and the inscriptions on that side.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 1 (Photographs courtesy Mike O'Donovan)
The inscription at the bottom (below the crest) reads:
'THIS TABLET IS ADDED TO THE MEMORIAL AS
A TOKEN FROM THEIR FELLOW WORKERS.'
The main text of the memorial is shown next to the photograph of the weather-worn plate:
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 2-Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 3

Here are some more from the same memorial, side 2.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 6
Again the weathered metal plate and the full text beside it:
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 5   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 8a
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 7
The metal plaque at the bottom reads as follows:
'CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
MRS ANTHONY                    S. CORNISH
C.F. CRIPPS                             H.L. JUDD
 E. QUINTON                           H. ROBERTS
P.N SHARPE                           O. MAYES
       F. WHITING                            W.W. SEARLEY'

Kirby Cottage
As a matter of interest one of those listed in the first World War list is Pte. Nathaniel Kirby, 4th Battalion Suffolk Regiment. The reason I mention that is because there is a building at the bottom of Belstead Road with a wooden plaque and the words 'Kirby Cottage' on it and around the corner it's got a listed house sign. [Toiling up Belstead Road hill away from Stoke Bridge, cast a glance at Kirby Cottage and it's from a different generation from the surrounding houses and sits differently in relation to the roadway; compare with the house called 'Chimneys' on the same side near the top of the hill.]Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 10
[UPDATE 14.12.2012: a long shot of Kirby Cottage (which for some reason is listed as 'Lonsdale Cottage' with its listed building crest.]
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Kirby Cottage   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Kirby Cottage 32012 images
Listing text for 'Lonsdale Cottage: "A red brick building with late C18 or early C19 external features, possibly with an earlier core. It stands at right angles to the road and is gabled and plastered on the road frontage. The east front, to the garden, has double-hung sash windows in flush cased frames with segmental heads. The south end has 1 window range of C20 casements. Roof tiled, with 2 gabled half dormers and 2 chimney stacks, each with 3 diagonally set shafts." Kirby Cottage runs at right angles away from Belstead Road an is parallel  and close to the stables building and vaults of the long-demolished Stoke Hall, which are also listed.

These are the last from the monument [the statement carved into the stone]:
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 9
"THESE MEMORIALS WERE REMOVED
FROM THE FORMER
RANSOMES & RAPIER
WATERSIDE WORKS CANTEEN UPON
THE CLOSURE OF THE COMPANIES [sic]
MANUFACTURING FACILITY IN 1988"
Surprising really that there is such a lot of history involved which is practically unknown to many people. Sadly, the name of the individual mentioned on the plaque has been removed as you can see from the statement at the bottom. However, the person mentioned is Richard Stokes (1897 - 1957). His mother's family was involved in the engineering firm Ransomes & Rapier and he was a Labour MP. The metal plaque reads as follows:
'CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR
OF
RANSOMES & RAPIER LIMITED
1927 - 1957
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR IPSWICH
1938 - 1957
HIS MAJESTY'S MINISTER OF WORKS
1950 - 1951
PRIVY COUNCILLOR
1950 - 1957
LORD PRIVY SEAL & MINISTER OF MATERIALS
1951'

The park gates
The last two images relating to Bourne Park. These are on the gates at the entrance to the Park.
'BOURNE PARK...
THE GIFT OF ALDERMAN W.F. PAUL'
'BOURNE PARK...
OPENED BY H.R.H. PRINCE HENRY OCTOBER 7TH 1927'
The Prince Henry mentioned was one of the sons of King George V and was born in 1900 and died in 1974. He was one of the present queen's uncles. As a matter of interest he and his wife appear on a 1945 Australian postage stamp. By the way the Ipswich Lettering site keeps getting better. It's a marvellous record of the town." See our page on More almshouses for more about W.F. Paul.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne Park 4
Grateful thanks to Mike O'Donovan for these examples and the background detail. An anecdotal addition: the garish yellow of the cast iron gate memorials above seem to sum up the current state of Bourne Park: a bit run down. In cycling down the whole length of Constitution Avenue, as we discover it's called, from Stoke Park Drive (see Note below) to the Wherstead Road entrance, one finds a pleasant public park - with good children's play area - bordered by housing, scrubland, Belstead Brook, a main road and a railway line. A bit depressing, those boarded-up wrecks of buildings at the Wherstead Road entrance. They ought to get someone to live in the corner one with the clock (get it to tell the right time...) and sell ice creams and teas from the smaller one. Anyway, down to Arch Cottage and the gentleman who lives there was very forthcoming. His cottage was built in the 1700s, long before the nearby embanked railway (initially the Eastern Union Railway in 1846, terminating in Station Street near Croft Street until the station moved to its present site in 1860) and had two acres of land including the current caravan site. While this gentleman was in the RAF, his father sold the adjacent front lawn to his brother who built a house on the site: Meadow Bank Cottage. He was obviously born and bred there as he remembers the steam trains going by. He loves trains: 'You can set your watch by them'.  The impressive arch which allows public access to the park through the embankment (and, of course, the two cottages) is worth a look, but what was Arch Cottage called during the many years before the railway – and the arch – arrived?

See more details on the railway and Stoke Tunnel on our EUR, Croft Street page.

Stoke Park
[N.B.: "Stoke Park" can be confusing: in the early 1900s it was a large estate and the home of Lord Gwydyr, a County Magistrate (formerly Peter Burrell: see our Street name derivations entry for Burrell Road).
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Stoke Park periodPostcard of Stoke Park, 1914
An 1885 directory describes Stoke Park – not to be confused with Stoke Hall mentioned above) as a handsome mansion in a well-wooded park of 500 acres, commanding beautiful views of the river. It was the private house of Lord Gwydyr, but was a favourite place (presumably the parkland?) for Sunday School treats and children's outings. It was demolished in 1930 but some of the mature trees apparently still stand on the Stoke Park housing estate around the Bourne Park area to the west of the Orwell.]

Bourne Bridge
Close to the Bourne Park entrance is the original Bourne Bridge, now by-passed and only open to pedestrian traffic. Mike O'Donovan writes (3 April 2011): "You may find the attached photo of interest. It's of a plaque on Bourne Bridge. The words are now very weather worn, and it's another interesting item of Ipswich history. The inscription reads:
BOROUGH                                                                COUNTY
OF                                                                               OF
IPSWICH                                                                   SUFFOLK

BRIDGE  WIDENED 1891
BY THE COUNTY AND BOROUGH AND BY
PRIVATE SUBSCRIPTION
OPENED OCT 29 BY
ALDERMAN NATHANIEL CATCHPOLE
ALDERMAN OF JOINT COMMITTEE"
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Bourne BridgePhoto courtesy: Mike O'Donovan

The Ostrich public house
Bourne bridge marks the boundary of Wherstead parish.  Near the bridge, on the Wherstead side, stands the Ostrich Inn, as it stood at the time of the New England migration.  In those days, however, oysters were still found in Orwell waters, and the name 'Oyster Ridge' had not been corrupted to the name of the exotic bird whose effigy for many years adorned the swinging signboard of the roadside tavern. It's instructive that when this pub was bought and greatly extended in the nineteen nineties it was renamed 'The Oyster Reach'.
Another source suggests:
"Ipswich, the county Town of Suffolk, and the Port itself, is spread out with the Ostrich public house by Bourne Bridge marking the boundary. The Ostrich is four centuries old and  named after part of the crest of the Earls of Leicester who once owned the land on which is stands.  It is also said the name ~Ostrich~ was a mistake caused by a drunken landlord whose slurred speech resulted in the sign writer mis-understanding his orders for the sign to be painted ~The Oyster Reach."
The oldest part of the pub (adjacent to Bourne Hill) dates from the 16th or 17th century, though it has been much altered and added to. According to Alfred Hedges' book, "Inns and Inn Signs of Norfolk and Suffolk", the inn has been in existence since 1612. 'The Ostrich' is Listed Grade II, despite some heavy modern additions and alterations.

More park lettering: Alexandra Park, Christchurch Park (and Mansion) and Chantry Park.
Home

Please email any comments and contributions by clicking here.

©2004 Copyright throughout the Ipswich Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
No reproduction of text or images without express written permission