Cheers,
Wednesday we made a final, very quick trip to London. Randal had ordered a book from UK Amazon that arrived at SKD after we’d left. Rick and Mary had to go to London to catch a train for Gatwick Airport for their flight home to Turkey. We were in London long enough to walk from Liverpool Station to the Watney Market Hardware Store for some light bulbs seeming only available there at a really good price; then to the Turks Head for lunch and to say a proper “good-bye” rather than the post card I’d sent to Leila; and then to SKD for the book. From there Mary and Rick took the Tower Hill tube to Victoria to catch the Gatwick train and Randal and I took the tube back to Liverpool Station for the train back to Ipswich. As it is half-term, again, the trains were full but luckily we were on at early stations so had seats both ways. We and about a billion teens!
Rick and Mary will return May 1st to join us for our European Rivers journey. They have taken this trip once before so know the ropes which will make everything much easier for Randal and me. We expect to leave England by May 3rd for the Netherlands. Once Randal has written up our itinerary I’ll pass it along.
This email is about the lovely Christchurch Park in Ipswich. I will write about the Christchurch Mansion tour next email.
Ru
DoraMac
Turks Head Café friends!
Christchurch Mansion Ipswich
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Christchurch Mansion and Park Mary and Rick took me on a tour around the park one afternoon; another day Mary and I went on the Friends tour of the Home. This email is about the grounds of Christchurch Mansion Park. |
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Just across the wall is the very imposing looking St Margaret’s Church http://www.stmargaretsipswich.org.uk/ “The oldest part of St. Margaret’s Church dates back to the end of the 13th century, and was built by the Priors of Holy Trinity Priory to house the growing town population which could not longer be accommodated in the nave of the Priory Church. The nave arcades, doorways and the windows in the north aisle are all that is left of that first church.”
A lovely drawing of the church |
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The Mansion exterior “Documentary evidence shows that the first people to live here were monks. In the Domesday Book, “Alnulfus the priest has a church, Holy Trinity, to which belongs twenty-six acres in alms”. The church was to the west of Thingstede Way (Bolton Lane) and the parish boundaries were probably similar to St. Margaret’s. Around 1177 the Augustinian Priory of Holy Trinity (also known as Christchurch) was established with 260 hectares of farmland and fishponds. The sole present day reminders of Holy Trinity within the Park are the Round Pond, Wilderness Pond and a section of its 16th-century enclosure wall. The ponds are thought to have served as fishponds that helped feed the monks. Research has suggested that the Park’s springs supplied the town with water. They were a source for some of the streams which formerly ran through the town from the Holy Trinity wash-house, and were later utilised for part of the town’s elaborate medieval water system. In 1536 Cardinal Wolsey was looking for money to build his New College at Ipswich (now Ipswich School) and he decided to close Christchurch Priory and use its money for the College. It is said that this project gave Henry VIII the idea of closing down all the monasteries in England and using their lands and wealth for the Crown. In 1546 the Christchurch Estate was sold for £2,000 to a prominent London merchant, Paul Withypoll and his son Edmund. Edmund pulled down the Priory and used much of the stone to build Christchurch Mansion. He also remodelled the ponds and turned part of the estate into a deer park. Queen Elizabeth the First visited the Park in 1561 and 1579. |
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The rear of the mansion |
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http://www.focp.org.uk/ shows a great map of the park. It also tells about the park’s trees and birds. |
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Entrance from Soane Street |
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One of the ponds and the central path of the park |
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The Martyrs Memorial tells the tragic history of religious conflict in the area. “This ‘ Protestant Martyrs ‘ Memorial’ was erected in 1903 to commemorate the nine Ipswich martyrs who were burnt at the stake for their Protestant beliefs, under the reign of Mary I. The Memorial was funded by private subscription opened in November 1902, after attention had been drawn to the story of the martyrs in a series of newspaper articles in the East Anglian Daily Times between 1898 and 1900. One Inscription at the front of the memorial states that ‘This Monument is erected to the memory of nine Ipswich Martyrs who for their constancy to the Protestant faith suffered death by burning’. Read official list description.” http://www.heritage-explorer.co.uk/web/he/searchdetail.aspx?id=6565&crit=stake |
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The “rougher” pond which seemed to home to lots of ducks : Mary walking across the wood bridge. |
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Some amazing phantasmagoric trees; the one on the right could be an elephant! The Reg Driver center in the park has lots of info and I need to make a visit there. (By the way, Reg Driver is the man’s name. It’s not short for registered driver as I must admit to thinking.” “Ipswich is extremely privileged in having some of Suffolk’s largest and most majestic veteran/ancient trees in Christchurch Park within easy walking distance of the town. These living landmarks are of irreplaceable historical and biological value and reveal a visual link with the former land use of the Park. The oldest tree in the Park is the ancient Yew by the Cenotaph. Archeological digging nearby has established that this tree is at least 600 years old. Other veteran trees in the Park, including the pollarded Sweet Chestnuts and Oaks that stand alongside the central avenue, are 300 to 400 years old. These trees are clearly identifiable in Burrows’ wonderful 1860 photos of the Park which can be seen at the Visitor Centre. “ http://www.focp.org.uk/trees.html |
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The Westerfield Road is the one Mary and I walked in the previous email. |
