Entries from July 2009 ↓

St Mary Stoke was defined by the fact that until the Reformation it was owned by Ely Abbey, unlike the riff-raff over the river.  I’m rereading Robert Malster’s “A History of Ipswich” and it says on page 10 that it was likely that the whole of Ipswich was owned by Ely Abbey.  Then the Vikings came along and disrupted everything.

When the dust settled and the kings of East Anglia were finally persuaded to give the abbey its’ lands back, however he only gave the best bits back to the monks and the King kept the scraps on the other side of the river – which would later become the borough of Ipswich.

So rather than Stoke being a part of Ipswich, we should really say that the borough of Ipswich is an outgrowth of the more ancient and venerable parish of St Mary Stoke.

Politics is supposed to be a serious business, but it does pay to have a sense of humour.

One of my leaflets came back to me.  A handwritten envelope came through my door, I eagerly opened it and saw one of my leaflets popping out.  Eager to find out whether we knew about this supporter in the Hayes (I saw the address first) I looked to see what I could do to help:

Please stop putting this rubbish through my door.

I’m not clear, Sir, can we count you as a supporter?

You may remember the man getting arrested on Stoke Bridge, well there’s

a man getting arrested by armed police on Stoke Bridge.  Well there’s more to this.  The man, Mariusz Lipinski, is the primary suspect for the murder of his wife, Gosia Lipinska, who lived in Duke Street.  All quite squalid and nasty so far.

However the Evening Star is reporting that he was bailed at the time of his arrest, had made threats to kill his wife and had been arrested for carrying a knife while on bail.  It’s odd how Chris Mole had made an entirely fatuous call for an automatic sentence for those who carried a knife, while still supporting a government that seems to find £400 a day for a “national lead peer for Labour at the Improvement and Development Agency” while not being able to fund enough places so that knife carrying wife threatening bail violators are off our streets.

I am being currently comment-spammed (people are trying to fill up my comments with irrelevant advertising) which is part of the problem of being a blog, I suppose.  You the reader won’t see any of this as moderation is on for new commentors.

However what’s really puzzling is that these comment spammers are in cyrrilic script.  Why are Russians so keen on selling to Bridge ward?

Something’s gone wrong with the blog and it’s not letting people on to sub pages.  I’m looking into this and will hopefully have normal service resumed soon.

Update: It’s all sorted now.  It looks like adding on redirects are not a good thing.

Another photo of Bridge, this time it’s the Stoke Green Baptist church, where Maidenhall Hall approach  meets Halifax Road:

One thing that is fascinating about this congregation is that they are one of the oldest non-conformist cogregations in Ipswich, but unlike the Unitarians in St Nicholas street it doesn’t get on the tourist trail.

If the Reformation had never happened this would be my parish church.  However it is still a handsome building.  I give you Saint Mary Stoke church:

In my opinion this church looks good in any season and at any time of the day:

Night time shot:

(Taken from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/18512733)

Also see Simon Knott’s entry on Saint Mary Stoke

I’d like to thank the Ipswich Unemployed Action blog for linking here,  If you have come from there and think that you are hearing the cement ship shriek then please contact me on james@bridgeward.org.uk

I’ve been officially informed by one of the councillors that the Council have postponed rather than cancelled a meeting with Southern Cement.  It was all an unfortunate (very unfortunate) turn of phrase and they are instead awaiting developments.

The ludicrously easy to meet request from the group for a direct meeting with Southern Cement is also going to be backed by all both the Conservative and Labour councillors. 

Yet Southern Cement still won’t meet with us.  The Noise Action Group does not want a single job to go with Southern Cement, but there’s one exception.  Their Public Relations consultant is clearly not up to the job.

The electricity cut that caught those of us in Rectory Road (as well as Wherstead Road, Station Street and who knows where else) did not come on in our house until 1.30 pm because they had somehow managed to trip our power switch and we had to call out an electrician.  Luckily we did not open the fridge or freezer or we could have been throwing away almost a weeks worth of food. 

These cuts have been very frequent in the last six months, even if not as long lasting.