Ransomes (Electric
lorry garage)
One
of the greatest names in engineering
and a company at the heart of the industrial expansion of Ipswich until
the late twentieth century, Ransomes has all but disappeared from
modern Ipswich (apart from the industrial estate on the site of their
Nacton works: 'Ransomes Europark'). However, the shadows of old
lettering were noticed high
up on the building which used to be called Island House in Wykes Bishop
Street*** off Duke Street.
Once the home of Five Castles Press and, until the 1980s, boasting a
tiny docklands pub on the opposite corner of the block: The Happy
Returns (it can still be seen amongst the new dockside regeneration
flats and houses as an empty shell). Now part of the building is the
Premier Pool Club
staging occasional concerts by local rock bands in part of a building
used by Ransomes as garaging for their electric lorries. [See
UPDATES below.]
-
Just
below the central circular window,
which one assumes was left as an open vent in earlier times, the grime
which surrounded the 'RANSOMES' letters still
clings to the brickwork
undimmed by the green and black staining from above. Is there a date
('1819'?) just below it? This doesn't seem right as Ransomes' St
Margaret's Ditches Works Manager William Worby wasn't asked to find a
new overspill site for the company until 1837; the move started in 1841
and was completed eight years later. (see Reading
List for C. & M. Weaver's history of Ransomes). The 'ghost'
date needs more investigation; perhaps '1910'
is more likely.
Ransomes' Orwell Works on the east side of the Wet Dock around 1865 (engraving above). The viewpoint is from an imaginary helium balloon which hovers over End Quay or Tovell's Wharf on the 'island'. A steam engine pulls trucks along the dockside tramway while several ships are tied up at the quay. This a large site of, in some cases, substantial buildings now all swept away (apart from our example in Duke Street, of course, which would have been further to the right of this image). We assume that Bishop's Hill can be seen rising away from the river basin at the top right; not sure where the windmill would have stood, though (visible on the left horizon).
Ploughs and tillage machinery, steam engines, grass-cutting equipment, trolleybuses, threshers, tractors, combines, electric trucks and more – the range of products made by Ransomes of Ipswich is perhaps the widest of any similar British manufacturer. From Robert Ransome's small workshop in 1789, the company grew to employ 3,000 people and to export all over the world. Having the large Orwell works between Wherstead Road and New Cut West, then extending to the Nacton Road site on the edge of town, this faded lettering is all that is left of this massive enterprise on the riverside. A note about Robert Ransome's original foundry in Old Foundry Road accompanies the 'Lectures' lettering behind the County Library.
[UPDATE 7.12.2011: "Wet Dock 1936 recollections. I worked at RSJ Orwell Works as office boy at the quayside spares Forwarding Department managed by white haired Spencer Hazell.The quayside entrance featured a large grey painted gate where a weigh-bridge accomodated the railway track. Behind the weigh-bridge was the Engine Turnery.
The forwarding department's windows looked across to the wet dock to the Public Warehouse. Next along the quayside was the spares warehouse with Charlie Sergeant in charge then lastly the foundry then the GasWorks with its cranes and heaps of coke. Hope this will fill a little gap. Yours sincerely, Tony Adams." Many thanks, Tony.]
[Additional UPDATE 8.12.11 from Tony Adams: "The building with the red door [in the top image above] garaged the Ransomes made electric lorries. Upstairs was a canteen where workers could eat their packed lunches and buy a cup of tea for one old penny which means 240 cups for one pound."]
[***Wykes Bishop Street, tiny though it is has an interesting derivation. The Bishop's Wick, or Wicks Episcopi as it was sometimes called, was one of the four hamlets into which the town was once divided. It is the area to the south of Felixstowe Road which now includes Bishop's Hill, extending to the river and including Holywells Park where the residence of the Bishop of Norwich stood within the extensive moat (fed by the local springs) which is still to be seen. The site would have given the Bishop a splendid view of the town and port. Wykes Bishop continued in the hands of successive bishops from 1235 until the properties of the diocese were exchanged for those of St Benet's Abbey by Henry VIII. Source: Robert Malster's 'A-Z', see Reading List.] Fascinating that all this history is commemorated in the name of this tiny road.
Ransomes' Orwell Works on the east side of the Wet Dock around 1865 (engraving above). The viewpoint is from an imaginary helium balloon which hovers over End Quay or Tovell's Wharf on the 'island'. A steam engine pulls trucks along the dockside tramway while several ships are tied up at the quay. This a large site of, in some cases, substantial buildings now all swept away (apart from our example in Duke Street, of course, which would have been further to the right of this image). We assume that Bishop's Hill can be seen rising away from the river basin at the top right; not sure where the windmill would have stood, though (visible on the left horizon).
Ploughs and tillage machinery, steam engines, grass-cutting equipment, trolleybuses, threshers, tractors, combines, electric trucks and more – the range of products made by Ransomes of Ipswich is perhaps the widest of any similar British manufacturer. From Robert Ransome's small workshop in 1789, the company grew to employ 3,000 people and to export all over the world. Having the large Orwell works between Wherstead Road and New Cut West, then extending to the Nacton Road site on the edge of town, this faded lettering is all that is left of this massive enterprise on the riverside. A note about Robert Ransome's original foundry in Old Foundry Road accompanies the 'Lectures' lettering behind the County Library.
[UPDATE 7.12.2011: "Wet Dock 1936 recollections. I worked at RSJ Orwell Works as office boy at the quayside spares Forwarding Department managed by white haired Spencer Hazell.The quayside entrance featured a large grey painted gate where a weigh-bridge accomodated the railway track. Behind the weigh-bridge was the Engine Turnery.
The forwarding department's windows looked across to the wet dock to the Public Warehouse. Next along the quayside was the spares warehouse with Charlie Sergeant in charge then lastly the foundry then the GasWorks with its cranes and heaps of coke. Hope this will fill a little gap. Yours sincerely, Tony Adams." Many thanks, Tony.]
[Additional UPDATE 8.12.11 from Tony Adams: "The building with the red door [in the top image above] garaged the Ransomes made electric lorries. Upstairs was a canteen where workers could eat their packed lunches and buy a cup of tea for one old penny which means 240 cups for one pound."]
[***Wykes Bishop Street, tiny though it is has an interesting derivation. The Bishop's Wick, or Wicks Episcopi as it was sometimes called, was one of the four hamlets into which the town was once divided. It is the area to the south of Felixstowe Road which now includes Bishop's Hill, extending to the river and including Holywells Park where the residence of the Bishop of Norwich stood within the extensive moat (fed by the local springs) which is still to be seen. The site would have given the Bishop a splendid view of the town and port. Wykes Bishop continued in the hands of successive bishops from 1235 until the properties of the diocese were exchanged for those of St Benet's Abbey by Henry VIII. Source: Robert Malster's 'A-Z', see Reading List.] Fascinating that all this history is commemorated in the name of this tiny road.