Entries Tagged 'local history' ↓

This website covers the whole of Ipswich but is based on Old Stoke:

http://www.ipswich2006.com/

It has done an immense job of putting old photographs from the Stoke Park area.  It is definately worth browsing, but be warned, it is addictive.

Bridge Ward doesn’t have a patron saint, but if we did it would be Saint Ethelreda or as Æthelthryth, whose feast day is today.  A royal princess, protege of the superstar Saxon bishop Saint Wilfrid and founder of the abbey at Ely (which became Ely Cathedral), her link to our side of Ipswich stems from the fact that from Saxon time Old Stoke belonged to and was built up by the Abbey at Ely.  St. Mary Stoke, or at least the bit that wasn’t built in the Nineteenth Century, was built by the same abbey.

The church that stood in Wherstead Road was dedicated to Saint Ethelreda, and Saint Mary at Stoke still displays a banner for her.

So happy Saint’s day one and all.

There is a fantastic piece about the history of the Old Stoke area on, of all things, the BBC website.  It features the Over Stoke history group which has been run by Jill Freeman, who has also co-ordinated a fantastic display in St Peter’s church of the history of the area.  If you haven’t seen it, I would really recommend it.