Gallery
Days Gone By: A time when there was a lot less traffic in Ipswich
A line up of vehicles at the Felix Hotel, Felixstowe, in 1904. This was the first year of vehicle registration. DX was the Ipswich registration and RT was East Suffolk. On the left is DX 2 a Royal Enfield quadricycle belonging to Edward Sayer of Warrington Road, Ipswich. DX 11 (fifth from the left) is a De Dion registered to William and Ernest Botwood and Justin Egerton motor traders of Ipswich. Mr Botwood and Mr Egerton were importers of French and German made cars. Also included is DX5 a Primus owned by George Ching also of Warrington Road, Ipswich Picture: CHARLES EMENY
Our roads now are full of all sorts of vehicles. Most homes have a car, some have several.
Until the 1960s few could afford to run a family car and it was easy to park outside your home or at a town centre shop with few restrictions.
Now our side streets, built before motor vehicles were around, are packed with traffic and parked cars.
Before 1903 there were no registration plates.
In the first year there were 109 motor vehicles registered in Ipswich, 53 cars and the rest motorcycles.
Gone are the days when children would sit by the roadside and collect car numbers, or watch in awe when the first person in their street owned a car.
Town centres that evolved over centuries, with little more than a passing horse and wagon in mind, are now often choked with traffic.
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In today’s Days Gone By I feature photographs of life both in the main thoroughfares and the side streets, when there were very few, if any, cars around.
Do you have memories you would like to share with readers? To submit a letter, write to David Kindred, Days Gone By, Ipswich Star/EADT, Portman House, 120
Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1RS or e-mail info@kindred-spirit.co.uk