Busking Showcase - Ipswich

Those hoping to follow in the footsteps of Ed Sheeran may be in luck as Ipswich Council hopes to encourage busking in Ipswich. They have developed a new guide to highlight the town as a destination for street musicians. This news came just ahead of a busking showcase event on March 23 which gave performers a chance to show off their talents. This was the event that I photographed a small fraction of, and some of my images are listed below. Great fun and I would think that it was a very successful day.

Eko the Sea Giant, a giant 13-feet puppet, performing as part of Autin Dance Theatre’s sensational outdoor show Out of the Deep Blue on the Cornhill.

Through puppeteering, dance and movement, Out of the Deep Blue explores the themes of the climate emergency and transports audiences to a different world. Although I watched for some time, I missed the point I am afraid! I should have picked up a leaflet I suppose. They did have a big audiance all the time we were in Ipswich.

Burgess Music is run by husband and wife team Tim and Zoe based on the Shotley Peninsula in Suffolk, who are musicians and educators. Burgess Music aims to support the learning of music in a fun and relaxed way alongside being able to offer engaging and personalised performances. This young lady on the left I guess was a daughter, handing out leaflets and dancing to mum and dad.

Swervy World musicians have been collectively honing their skills as a traditional jazz band since 1996. Originally the band was created from individual street performers who used street music as a way to earn a living while travelling from town to town.

Meeting each other at annual street fairs 'Winchester Hat Fair' and 'Stroud Folk Festival', this loose and often raggle taggle collective of street musicians would get together increasingly more regularly to share knowledge of new (old) tunes and take an occasional booking while using the street as a great place to hone skills and try out new arrangements. The band 'Swervy World' slowly morphed itself over the years into the set line up you see today. Some original crusty members of the early era are still with the band.

Suffolk Soul Singers - (Part of the Group) - "Suffolk Soul Singers is a dynamic community choir, now in its 13th year, led by vocalist and musician, Andi Hopgood.

We are a unique group of singers - not part of a local or national franchise - with a membership of around 35 women & men of varying ages. Together, we enjoy learning and performing soul & gospel classics, along with other, contemporary songs that are given a soulful twist.

Our performances range from simple busking gigs to major concerts in venues like The New Wolsey Theatre, The Apex & St. Peter's by the Waterfront. You can find out about our current planned performances by looking on our Gigs page.

Suffolk Soul Singers is a registered charity and profits from our performances are used to support outreach activities within the local area & further afield in Suffolk. If you know of a community group that might benefit from the well-being that singing together can bring,

Suffolk Soul Singers is a dynamic community choir, now in its 13th year, led by vocalist and musician, Andi Hopgood."

Two single artists whose names I couldn`t locate.

BareFootSoul - "A World-Class Vocalist, Acoustic Guitarist & Showman BearFootSoul is Matt White, a singer-songwriter and performer with 25+ years live music performance and entertainment industry experience, specialising in solo appearances for weddings and parties. Whether playing unplugged and organic or live looping over layered pro backing tracks - Matt unabashedly bares his BearFootSoul with a One man, One guitar show, giving One hell of a performance to remember! Your favourite classic tracks are shared in a riveting, captivating and engagingly spellbinding solo act. The BearFootSoul show is scaleable from campfire to large scale venues and events."

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Private Aaron McClure

The story of AARON MCCLURE came to my attention when a newspaper article mentioning the mural that had been created in his memory. It was commissioned by the school in Ipswich, which he attended, and is on the wall in the front of the school. A brief history, as part of his funeral, is below the picture.

On the wall of the school where Aaron attended - Westbourne Academy in Ipswich

`Private Aaron McClure, who died on 23 August 2007 in a so-called “friendly fire” incident that also killed two other UK soldiers, was serving in Afghanistan with 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.

Despite his young age – he was 19 at the time of his death - Private McClure was a veteran of more than forty conflict operations.

The two other soldiers who died were Private John Thrumble and Private Robert Foster

Colleagues described Private McClure as a highly capable, motivated soldier with great ambition and potential, but his talent was hidden by a modest, unassuming personality and a quiet confidence in his abilities.

He was regarded by colleagues as “incredibly focused” on his career and as tough mentally as he was physically.

Private Aaron James McClure, affectionately known as ‘Troy’, was from Ipswich. He joined the Army in March 2006 and completed rifleman training at the Infantry Training Centre Catterick.

In October 2006, Private McClure joined the 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, participating in exercises in the UK and Kenya.

He was deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan the following March to serve as a rifleman in 7 Platoon B (Suffolk) Company. It was his first operational tour and he was involved in many close-range engagements with the Taliban.

On 23 August 2007, PrivateMcClure’s platoon was on patrol near Kajaki, northern Helmand Province, when they came under attack by Taliban forces. Air support was requested from two American F15 aircraft and it appears that a bomb dropped by one of the planes hit the compound where Private McClure and his colleagues were located.`

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Three Churches - Shottisham, Alderton & Bawdsey

Having made several journeys along this route, this was my day to visit the three churches that I have passed by each time. Starting with Shottisham. This is a rather pretty village which I had not visited before although I have driven past it. Having parked the car, I was warned, twice, by an elderly gentleman (older than me!) to take care climbing the steps to the church and to hang on to the railing. Bless him.

My first view of the church was this - once I had navigated the steps:

The church is dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, a rather unusual dedication I thought, and was built in 1313 by the monks of Butley Abbey. There are signs that there was an earlier church building.

In 1969 Margaret’s feast day, formerly July 20, was eliminated in the revised calendar of the Roman Catholic Church because it is doubtful whether she ever existed. Nevertheless, during the medieval period she ranked among the most famous saints; her voice was among those attested to have been heard by St. Joan of Arc.

The East, Chancel end, of the church showing the North Aisle added in 1867 when the church was enlarged.

Another external view of the North Aisle

I think this may have been the Priest`s door.

The south porch

I was rather taken by the interior which I thought was rather lovely. I think the lights really set off the building. Note on the right the Rood Stair which would originally have led to the Rood Screen. Probably, like most screens, a casuallty of the Puritans in the 1600s. The East windows are Victorian.

Alderton and the church of St Andrew

Then onto Alderton just a few minutes away, and the first thing you see is - no tower! The tower, once a seamark, collapsed under its own weight during the 17/18th century and fell further in 1821. I thought it must have been in more modern time, but not so. This is another of the many `Victorianised `churches in Suffolk - they really `went to town` here!

Alderton Church of St Andrew.

The Church bell now hangs just outside the tower.

Love this door. Think it was on the South side.

The original Medieval font has not survived and this one was carved in the 1860`s

The rather plain interior.

Unusually, just a small harmonium instead of the grand affairs often found.

They may have no tower but the interior ceiling looks recently replaced, although it may be a lot older than I think.

Finally onto Bawdsey and the church of St Mary

This building is very much a miss-match of earlier buildings! The remains of the medieval church are set in the 17th century walls. The arcades were filled in with flint and brick, and the clerestorey broken down and replaced by a brick course. The church was a grand perpendicular affair, in the manner of Blythburgh, Covehithe or Southwold. However, like Covehithe, it was allowed to become derelict after the Reformation, and a new, smaller church built in the ruins, probably in the late 17th century. Remarkably, the former arcades were infilled for the walls, and you can still see them in the outside walls in the above image. The tower was in danger of collapse, and in the 1820s, the tiles of the church roof were replaced by thatch, to stop bits of stone breaking the tiles (it is hard to think of this as anything other than a short term measure.) Unfortunately, when a group of youths set off fireworks from the top of the tower on Guy Fawkes Night 1841, the thatch caught fire, and the church was completely gutted. The rebuilt church is basically a Victorian chapel with 17th century walls, a truncated tower (about two thirds was removed)

Bawdsey's story pivots around a man called William Cuthbert Quilter, whose family had amassed a fortune. They rented Hintlesham Hall in Suffolk for ten years in the 1880s, and then bought, at auction, the manordom of Bawdsey. As Lord, he built Bawdsey Manor between 1886 and 1910. Sir Cuthbert (as he now was) had been MP for Ipswich since the 1880s. He was, apparently, a man obsessed by real ale, and the only time he stood up in the house to speak it was on the subject of the purity of beer. He built up a number of independent Suffolk breweries, which, in the 1950s, were conveniently bought up lock, stock and barrel by the Cobbolds, who not unnaturally closed them all down.

Sir Cuthbert had such a high opinion of himself and his family that he built this grand mausoleum in Bawdsey churchyard. You step out of the west door of the church, and climb some steps to a vast chest tomb, with family names on it. Beyond that, more steps rise to an urn. His family's names are inscribed on it. This is interesting, because one of his sons grew up to be the composer Roger Quilter, one of the finest songwriters of the early 20th century, and along with Peter Warlock, was part of that English generation before Benjamin Britten. But Roger Quilter wasn't born in Suffolk, and he never lived in Bawdsey.

Unsurprisingly, the church has a special place in its heart for the RAF, who were based at Bawdsey manor during the Second World War and for a number of years afterwards. The Union flag and RAF banner in the chancel.

The church contains another memory of an even more famous person, who not only wasn't born in Suffolk and never lived here, she isn't buried here either. This is Nurse Edith Cavell, shot in Belgium in 1916. The memorial to her great-uncle and great-aunt remembers her as well, with a framed account of her story hanging below their simple wall plaque.

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Norton - All Saints

A visit today to Norton Church of St Andrew, tucked away down a long lane. The church has remnants indicating a 13th century origin, and the tower 14th, although this was not finished until somewhat later. It has a rather plain interior but with one or two interesting features. Most of these old churches usuall have something!

A general view of the church from the south side.

One of the internal doors - North side?

View from the Chancel looking West - plain and simple. However, on the right, at the back of the church is a very curious monument. The name has now gone, but Mortlock tells us that it remembers Daniel Bales who died in 1625. He left a dole of bread for the poor, and the arched recess with the skeleton at the back was the place where the bread was placed.

Also at the back is this wonderful 15C font, regarded as one of the church`s outstanding treasures. Speculation is that it`s supurb condition is because it was well plastered over in the puritan times and nothing was protruding to be knocked off by them in their frenzy! Later, of course, the plaster was removed to reveal it in its pristine condition.

A wonderful old document chest

But what makes Norton a really special place to visit is the collection of 14th century stalls with misericord seats. They are some of the finest in Suffolk, eclipsed only by those at Stowlangtoft. This is, of course, interesting, why should two neighbouring churches have some of the best stalls in East Anglia?  It is speculated that they may have come from a priory church like nearby Thetford, but they might also have come from Bury Abbey, which had a connection with this church.

Misericord seat, one of three in the Church.

A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a partially standing position during long periods of prayer. These ones really are in great condition.

Two of the many bench ends. I believe here are many more at the nearby church of Stowlangtoft.

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Flatford - floods and frost

Two visits to Flatford in different weather conditions. The first series of photgraphs are taken on the 9th January, after the torrential rains that poured over large parts of the country.The second set are taken (10 days later) in the same area, now largely covered in frost although a fair amount of water remains in the fields. So first the rain.

This the start of our normal walk toward Dedham - `not today` we thought!

Bridge Cottage, where you can see the `normal edge` to the path under water.

Flatford Mill with torrents of water where there is normally a placid flow!

The dry dock - somewhere under here.

Days later the area is covered in frost!

Bridge Cottage and tea rooms looking rather splendid in the frost morning light.

Woodfarm Barns at Flatford

Frost along the riverside paths

Willie Lott`s cottage through the frosty grass.

The riverside as you join the footpath leading across the fields.

Altogether a period of dramatic weather which was well worth capturing.

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