Suffolk Local History Council - river Gipping report

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Bringing Records to Life - River Gipping - Autumn 2006

2006 - Report and photo by Jonathan Abson

The second ‘Bringing Records to Life’ day with John Fairclough leading the examination of the paper records in the morning and the exploration of the solid substance in the afternoon seemed to suggest that Suffolk Local History Council has a good formula for showing that records are not as dry as dust. Those present also learned a great deal about the changes in the course and use of the River Gipping in Ipswich over the last several hundred years.

The old course of the River Gipping – just behind Civic Drive, Ipswich

We started at the Suffolk Record Office in Gatacre Road with maps, monks and mills and manuscripts; looking at the evidence for the Gipping’s changes of course. There were surprisingly early maps, and water mills and bridge repairs implied rivers, even if they did not always mention them.

We learned that the Gipping used to flow in a great curve from the Yarmouth Road to Stoke Bridge and must have passed the castle (somewhere near today’s underground car park) close by on its way. The photograph is taken from immediately behind the Axa Insurance building on Civic Drive and was typical of the peaceful rural retreat in the middle of Ipswich that so few of us knew about.

The afternoon of ‘Bringing Records to Life’ is devoted to looking at the morning’s theoretical subject. In the afternoon John took us for a walk from Yarmouth Road to Civic Drive without once having to cross a road or walk on a tarmac path. From there on the old river had been culverted, but, as he pointed out, it was still possible to pick out its course if you knew what to look for. The old river emerged from its culvert at Stoke Bridge and from there we followed the new course of the river and canal along West End and Commercial roads arriving back at the Record Office hot but happy.