Days Gone By: The changes of Fore Hamlet and the Waterfront

Tye Road, Ipswich, is now where Albion Street, Ipswich was. Picture: DAVID KINDRED (Image: Copyright 2012)

Until the end of the 1930s the area had streets of poor housing, built during the period in the 1800s when hundreds of agricultural workers moved to Ipswich to find work at nearby companies, like the nearby Ransomes Sims and Jefferies and the gas works.

Most of the houses of Albion Street and Wykes Bishop Street had been demolished by the end of the 1930s.

The Fountain Inn was at the junction of Myrtle Road and Holywells Road, Ipswich, it closed in 1955. The inn stood where the Duke Street/Holywells Road roundabout is now. Picture: Fred Bantick (Image: Dave Kindred)

Only small sections of Wykes Bishop Street and John Street remain now, Albion Street has gone from the map.

Houses in Trinity Street and Unity Street, survived until the 60s. This area is now mostly occupied by small industrial units.

Work to install mains sewage to the houses in the area took place while residents remained in their homes. Buildings were protected from collapse with huge timbers. The houses were built with a single cold water tap, and a toilet, often shared, at the bottom of a small garden. The houses probably were never connected to electric supply. This undated photograph is thought to be from the 1920s. Picture: David Kindreds archive (Image: Dave Kindred)

Children from the area attended Trinity Street and Cavendish Street schools. Most of them transferred to Cliff Lane School, when it opened in the 1930s as part of the Rivers Estate development.

Did your family come from this part of Ipswich? 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.

Pupils at Cavendish Street School, Ipswich, in the 1920s. The school was built in 1877 and after extension had space for 374 pupils. Picture: David Kindreds archive (Image: Dave Kindred)

A reader from Leicester is asking for information of Gainsborough School, Morland Road, Ipswich.

Beryl Betts (nee Hart) from Leicester wrote: “I attended Gainsborough Junior School, Ipswich, 1939-45, when the school was new. When visiting an art gallery in Wales recently I saw a picture of “All Things Bright and Beautiful” the identical picture used to hang in the school hall. I contacted the present head teacher, a delightful lady, of what is now the Morland Road Church of England School, explaining that I would like to know what happened to the picture or any memories of my head teacher, Miss Rose Batley. She was unable to help. I wonder if any readers know more?”

A class at Trinity Street School, Ipswich, around 1928. Picture: David Kindreds archive (Image: Dave Kindred)

Pupils at Trinity Street School, Ipswich, in the early years of the twentieth century. Picture: David Kindreds archive (Image: Dave Kindred)

Ransomes Sims and Jefferies established a training school at the former Trinity Street School in October 1940. It was part of Womans Industrial National Service Scheme. Picture: David Kindreds archive (Image: Dave Kindred)

Albion Street from Fore Hamlet, Ipswich, in March 1935. Tye Road is now close to where Albion Street was. Picture: Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service (Image: Dave Kindred)

Wykes Bishops Street, Ipswich, from Fore Hamlet, in the mid 1930s. The gas holders at the gas works near the dock are in the background. Only a small section of the street off Duke Street remains today. Hope Court and Isham Place are now close to where most of where this street was. Did your family live in this now mostly demolished Ipswich Street? Picture: Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service (Image: Dave Kindred)

Isham Place and Hope Court are now close to where the houses of Wykes Bishops Street were until the late 1930s. Picture: David Kindred (Image: Copyright 2012)

The Happy Return public house in October 1948. Changes in road layout have seen this building listed under several different addresses including, Duke Street, Holywells Road, Albion Street, John Street, Orwell Works Road and Wykes Bishop Street. The earliest reference to a public house of this name here is 1823. This Cobbold pub was popular with workers from the nearby gas works and Ransomes Sims and Jefferies. It closed as a pub in 1984. Picture: Fred Bantick (Image: FRED BANTICK)

The former Happy Return is now used as offices. Picture: David Kindred (Image: Copyright 2012)

What memories do you have of Doris Wells little shop at 6 Trinity Street. This photograph was taken in the early 1960s. Photo: Suffolk Record Office. (Image: SRO)

Unity Street in the early 1960s with the gas works at the dock in the background. Trinity Street ran across this view. The site on the right is where the schools stood. The area is now mostly cleared of housing and small industrial units stand on this site. Do you have and photographs of the schools? Picture: Suffolk Record Office (Image: SRO)

Trinity Street housing in the early 1960s. Did you live here? Picture: Suffolk Record Office (Image: SRO)