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Days Gone By: A time when there was a lot less traffic in Ipswich

David Kindred

Published: 5:37 PM July 9, 2018 Updated: 8:55 PM October 11, 2020

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.

Vehicle registrations for Ipswich (DX) and East Suffolk (RT) were in the thousands when this photograph was taken in Paper Mill Lane, Bramford, around 1928. The two riders were Bert Pryke (left) and Bill Driver, who both lived in the lane Picture: THE TITSHALL BROTHERS

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.

TOne of the first cars in Ipswich, and the first to be registered, belonged to Colonel William Pretty, a wealthy local businessman who was part of the local clothes manufacturing empire. This 20 horse power Mercedes was registered DX1 on January 1, 1904. Registration documents show that the car was green and black with red wheels. The registration was cancelled in March 1913. Mr Pretty was photographed with his family, and maybe his chauffeur, sitting in the back seat Picture: ADOLPHUS TEAR

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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.

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

The owner of DX135, first registered in 1905, was William Churchman of Kesteven Road, Ipswich. Mr Churchman was a partner in W A and A C Churchman tobacco, cigar and cigarette manufacturers of Ipswich. The chauffeur at the wheel was Albert Emsden Picture: HARRY WALTERS

Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1RS or e-mail info@kindred-spirit.co.uk

Barrack Corner, Ipswich, in the early years of the twentieth century. The huge volume of traffic passing through here every minute would make it impossible to linger in the road. Norwich Road is on the right Picture: DAVID KINDRED ARCHIVE

Broomhill Road, Ipswich, has cars both sides for most of the time now. When this photograph was taken a little over a century ago there was just two horse drawn carts and a cycle in view Picture: DAVID KINDRED ARCHIVE

Christchurch Street, Ipswich, around 1920 and not a car in sight Picture: DAVID KINDRED ARCHIVE

An empty Nacton Road, Ipswich, in the early 1930s. The Racecourse public house at the corner of Benacre Road, is centre left. This is now the site of a supermarket Picture: FREDERICK GILLSON

Spring Road, Ipswich, at the junction with Bartholomew Street around 1910. This is one of the busiest roads in Ipswich now Picture: DAVID KINDRED ARCHIVE