Susan Gardiner – författare

In 1960, Ipswich Town FC under manager Alf Ramsey started their season in the Second Division. At the end of the 1960–61 season Ipswich were promoted as champions immediately and went on to win the First Division in their first year in the top division. Ipswich Town had embarked on the most extraordinary two decades in its history. Alf Ramsey left soon after to become England manager and after a few years in the doldrums, the appointment of Bobby Robson as manager in 1969 inaugurated another period of greatness for the club. In 1973–74, Ipswich finished fourth in the League. Over the next eight years Town went on to win the FA Cup, only finished below sixth in the League once, and won the UEFA Cup. Throughout this era the club were guided by the local Cobbold family’s chairmanship. In 1982, Bobby Robson departed to become England manager and although the club has had some successes since then, nothing at Portman Road has rivalled the glory days of Ipswich Town from 1960 to 1982, an era fondly remembered by fans of the club.

Ipswich grew around its port, established during Anglo-Saxon times for trade with northwestern continental Europe. It became an important religious centre in the Middle Ages, in one of the most populated and wealthy areas of the country. Alongside the docks and the two rivers, the Orwell and Gipping, industries grew up to support the local agricultural economy and the population migrated from surrounding areas as well as from further afield and abroad. The mix has given Ipswich a lively cultural history that remains to the present day and alongside the working dock area much of the waterfront has been redeveloped for leisure and housing, but as with all large towns, particularly ports, Ipswich’s history also encompasses how it had to deal with justice, crime and punishment.Illustrated throughout, this accessible historical portrait of the transformation that Ipswich has undergone through the ages will be of great interest to residents, visitors and all those with links to the town.

Ipswich is a brewery town. The administrative centre of the agricultural county of Suffolk, world famous for its barley and brewing, Ipswich was for decades the home of the Cobbold (later Tolly Cobbold) brewery, which was not only a prominent local employer but influenced the development of the town, through the Cobbold family’s interest in and patronage of sport, the arts, and politics.Ipswich is also a town of pubs. From the Middle Ages, when its taverns were filled with pilgrims to its famous shrine and many religious houses, through to the twentieth century when local brewers provided refreshment to factory workers and visitors to the busy port.This book is a record of that history – Ipswich’s breweries, public houses, taverns and inns, many of which no longer exist. It uses historical records and local sources to bring them back to life as an intrinsic part of the town’s history and culture, bringing it right up to date with a look at its thriving present-day pub scene, illustrated by a large number of old and new photographs.