Suffolk Soul Singers

It’s hard to keep up with the news in Suffolk but we’re trying hard. Only four days late with this posting!

Our good friend Sally is a member of Suffolk Soul Singers, a truly uplifting group of people singing truly uplifting songs. We finally made the time to go and see them on Sunday at the Steamboat Tavern Ipswich.

A varied set included an all time favourite – Harvest For The World – by the Isley brothers, not to mention a huge number of other stirring soul hits. Stunning solos and duets, and a great backing band, just enhanced the appeal of the main attraction, the chorus itself, and we’d defy you not to start foot tapping and handclapping once your early inhibitions are overcome.

To find out more, link to the   Suffolk Soul Singers site on Facebook.

Apologies to all for the quality of today’ photo – there was so much rhythm and soul going on that it was difficult to focus on the shot!

Beck Row

My second day out with the Rural Coffee Caravan – see Suffolk Online Rural Coffee Caravan – took me to Beck Row. Lovely people, an excellent turnout and talks from the council agencies that help with insulation, water butts and the like, made it yet again a fascinating trip.

Beck Row has lived hand in hand with the military for many years. There were plans for an airfield here as long ago as 1922 and though it didn’t open until 1933 the design of many of the buildings has a 1920s feel. During the Second World War it was an RAF bomber station but in 1948 it became the gateway for US forces in the UK and now covers around 100 acres. Unfortunately, post 9/11, the base has been less accessible for villagers who used to join in many of the social activities there.

The village itself however seems to have a strong sense of community of its own, and a lovely church, and we were fortunate enough to get a low down on local history from our hosts who directed us to the churchyard where there are a number of military graves.

Reading the detailed history of St John’s Church, in a booklet we were given when we left, we see that the “war graveyard consists of 76 graves of airmen from the air forces of the Commonwealth – 51 from the UK, 14 from Canada, 5 from Australia and 6 from New Zealand….Among the graves is that of Pilot Officer Rawdon Hume Middleton of the Royal Australian Air Force who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery. During a bombing raid over Turin, in November 1942, Middleton sacrificed his own life, to enable his fellow crew-members a better chance of survival, by staying at the controls of a stricken Stirling bomber whilst they bailed out.” Middleton’s grave is in the picture with the wooden cross in front of it.

We suggest you visit Beck Row to get hold of a copy of the booklet on the history of St John’s Church as there is just too much interesting information to repeat here. However here are a few more snippets:

1. The church’s oldest possession is a fine Jacobean pulpit, formally housed in the the mother church of St Mary in Mildenhall.

2. The church proudly displays the Colour Standard of Number XV Squadron, Royal Air Force. The standard is unique, in itself, for bearing its number in Roman Numerals rather than Arabic numerals. Special permission was granted for this as the Roman numerals were significant to the squadron’s history.

3, The church also has an impressive propeller memorial  to the crew of a Stirling bomber. The memorial is a blade from the propeller of “Y” Yorker of Number 90 Quadron, Royal Air Force whose nine crew died in a training exercise nearby in 1943.

Try the following links for more information and many thanks to our hosts and the Rural Coffee Caravan Project for the chance to learn more about Beck Row:

Number XV Squadron Royal Air Force

Beck Row

Ipswich Waterfront

Suffolk’s County Town of Ipswich seems yet to receive the true attention it deserves. As a newcomer to Suffolk, Suffolk Online’s editor is already passionate about Suffolk but the county town centre took a little bit of getting to know before it unveiled its true charm. Not so the waterfront, redeveloped in considerable style with the old Corn Exchange still retaining its proper place as a focal point, along with many other historic buildings. It’s not a huge area but here you will find upmarket and casual restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, a marina and new apartment blocks all blending together to provide a vibrant place to chill out. We’ll be discovering the highlights in detail at a later date  but suffice to say that a quick first visit provided a very pleasant surprise.

Suffolk Sandlings

In due course we’ll be telling you more about what made us decide to make our UK base in Suffolk.  For the moment, sufficient to say that we have explored Suffolk's Sandlings in a considerable amount of depth in devising our Secrets Around Shottisham Trail around them. On Saturday we revisited the Trail with a friend and, even on the sunniest day of the year, the highlights of this Trail are still undiscovered.

We started in Melton, walked around Shingle Street with its rich war time history and Martello Tower, and stopped at Ramsholt for lunch. Here you will find the Ramsholt Arms (Trip Advisor link) providing a reasonably priced lunch with a perfect view of the estuary. We’ve read mixed reports about the food but our lunch was great (crab salad at around £12 and mackerel salad at around £10), and it came out pretty quickly,  despite the relative crowds, and the fact that a group of bikers had chosen it for a private and very well behaved party. However it’s the view that makes this place special, and the fact that it’s at the end of an otherwise deserted country road. While you linger over your lunch, the kids play in the sand, the boats sail up and down and everyone wonders whether they should keep the secret to themselves!

After lunch it was Bawdsey and Bawdsey Quay but that too, is the subject for another posting.

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Today’s photo is of the Ramsholt Arms. If you have time to spare, take a look at Ramsholt’s church too, also featured on our Trail.

Suffolk – A New Style Of Government?

Michael Lord, Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, retired in June and Dr Daniel Poulter took his place and won the Central Suffolk and North Ipswich seat in the recent General Election. We’ve been lucky enough to meet both of them at yet another great local initiative, The Kesgrave and District Business Forum, and feel that we have been and will be well served by both. Certainly Dr Daniel Poulter seems very clear about what he stands for and fortunately also appears to have boundless energy, necessary to meet all his varying commitments and also cover the seat of a neighbouring MP who is recovering from illness.

Dr Poulter told us, amongst other things, that he is for nuclear energy and the new reactors at Sizewell, and that Suffolk needs a more cohesive approach to tourism that may currently be fragmented under a number of different bodies. For more information, link to Dr Daniel Poulter.

Suffolk’s Rural Coffee Caravan

A couple of week’s ago we had the good fortune to go out with Suffolk’s Rural Coffee Caravan to the lovely Suffolk village of St James. This is a great initiative to try and bridge the occasional isolation and lack of communication experienced by residents of the more remote villages, especially those who have lost their pubs and/or post offices. The Rural Coffee Caravan, at the invitation of the local residents, visits these areas and sets up an informal coffee and information centre designed to provide a place for villagers to meet each other and catch up on the latest news of services, etc available. For more information on the project, click here.