Thursday 25th January 2024, 7pm AGM of the Friends of Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House . The formal business of the meeting was followed by a short organ recital by Meeting House organist, Robert Waller, which offered a taster for the celebration in March of Robert’s 50 years as the Meeting House organist.
Saturday 2 December, 7:00 PM Thank you very much to Bob Allen for a magical evening of readings. In the wonderful candlelit atmosphere of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House, we were transported back to Victorian times with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Pickwick Papers and Great Expectations, and heard of Christmas visits in Killerts Diary. The mince pies were tasty and the mulled wine made the Meeting House even smell of Christmas! A lovely start to the festive season for Friends and visitors.
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After the success of last year’s reading of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, Bob Allen is rejoining us at the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House for another candlelit evening of readings, on Saturday, 2 December 2023, at 7pm.
Bob is an English teacher, teaching a range of arts subjects including history and arts history, has worked with the Open University since it began, and is still working as an OU Arts Foundation lecturer. Previously he was the Head of English at Deben High School in Felixstowe, was then Vice Principal at Tendring Technology College in Frinton-on-Sea, and is currently doing consultancy work with Ipswich High School. Recently he was in conversation with IUMH Friend and committee member, Rachel Sloane:
R: What brought you to Suffolk?
B: I was originally from Sheffield but came to Suffolk in 1969 when I finished at Cambridge
University and had trained as a teacher. I was looking at adverts for my first job and at the
school I was doing teaching practise in, was Jack Roberts who had previously worked at
Northgate Grammar School for Boys in Ipswich, in the English Department. They were
advertising a post and he told me it would be a wonderful job and I should apply. To be
honest, I wasn’t terribly sure where Ipswich was! I have been in the Ipswich area ever since.
R: How did you get involved in so many different local organisations?
B: I met Peter Underwood, a geography teacher at Northgate, who was, at that time, the
Chairman of Ipswich Society and he introduced me to the world of conservation in Ipswich
and I became fully involved in that. I eventually took over from him as Chairman of the
Executive Committee. At that time, we were very supportive of the creation of the
Buildings Preservation Trust and the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust and I still have a foot in each of those. That links into my interest in art history, architecture, and the built
environment.
R: How did your passion for Charles Dickens come about?
B: Well, it’s part of my general interest in literature. I’m teaching A Christmas Carol for the
OU at the moment, as it is one of the set texts on the foundation course, and of course I’ve
known about the story for years. I think it is one of the finest things Dickens did. It speaks
very directly and powerfully to me.
The sort of things you find in the text I still find hugely moving. In all kinds of ways, it has
become part of our folklore and part of the mythology of Christmas. A Christmas Carol
exists in all kinds of different versions … cartoons, films… but the idea of somebody locked
into his own negative world and the notion that you can somehow open that up and enable him to reflect upon his past and see moments when things might have been different … and the insights that you get from that, are hugely powerful, I think. When it was first published it was hugely popular and many people wrote to Dickens and testified on the way it had made an enormous difference to their lives.
I like to think that a little bit of A Christmas Carol is a very good way of stretching your
moral compass for the next year. It enables us to think about fellow human beings as
valuable people. The way Scrooge dismissed people who he sees as being of ‘no value… the poor and needy’ has, in all sorts of ways, crept into political discourse today, in ways I find offensive and appalling. The story is very powerful in confronting that. It’s about how you relate to other people and what you have done to make the world a better place , or other people happier than they might have been.
R: I wonder what Charles Dickens would think that, all these years later, the story is still
popular?
B: It’s lasted in a most extraordinary way, but that’s because the characters are splendid and
have a real grip on you and, right from the word go, the sequence of events is so powerful.
‘The Hidden Secrets of the Medieval Churches of Ipswich’ was a talk given by John Field, previous Town Planner and Town Centre Manager for Ipswich.
Organised by the Friends of Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House, on Friday 8th September.
The Ipswich Society organised a talk on Ipswich Dissenters in the Meeting House on Thursday 14th September
Ipswich Dissenters: Henry VIII’s excommunication in 1538 allowed him some independence from European neighbours, as well as other options in his search for a male heir. For subsequent Tudors, the consequences were a serious threat to both the nation and the rulers’ survival. Catholics, backed by European powers, struggled with protestant nationalists until a definition of a Church of England slowly evolved. This all had a profound effect on Ipswich, (including migration to the New World), before, during and after the bloodbath of the Civil War. How the Unitarians fit into this history is discussed.
The speaker is John Warren, the Treasurer of the Friends of Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House who was a hospital doctor who lived in Central London for 50 years. He retired to Ipswich to sail and garden. He is chair of the River Gipping Trust and on the committee of the Ipswich Maritime Trust.
The Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House is in Friars Street, Ipswich IP1 1TD (next to the black glass Willis building)
From May to September, the Meeting House welcomes visitors on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm. We hope to see you there.
The Unitarian Meeting House is in Friars Street, Ipswich IP1 1TD (next to the black glass Willis building)
Thursday 12th January 2023 at 7pm, with light refreshments. All are welcome. Free admission.
John Warren will sketch a brief history of the upheavals in Suffolk religions and the power of the state in the period from the Dissolution to the founding of the Unitarian Meeting House. John Field will give a history of the town’s 12 medieval churches.
This talk is preceded by the first Annual General Meeting of the Friends of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House.
We would be especially interested in hearing from anyone who loves our wonderful building, and/or Ipswich’s history and would be willing to share their skills, even if they prefer not to be on the Committee. We are a very friendly group of volunteers but need some more help!
Please contact Acting Chair, Tessa Forsdike via tessa@tessajordan.co.uk
A lovely evening was enjoyed by all…. please put the date of next years Christmas Carol Service in your diary… Saturday 16th December.
Carols by Candlelight – the annual carol service, with a difference, will be held at at the Unitarian Meeting House, Friars Street, Ipswich IP1 1TD – on Saturday 17th December at 6pm.
Music, poems, readings and carols to sing – all by the light of our 17th century huge Dutch brass chandelier.
All are welcome to join us for this special evening… followed by light refreshments.
Stuck for an unusual gift idea? Why not enrol your relative/friend/colleague as a Friend of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House?
(Cost: Individual – £12. Family – £20. Student/Unemployed £5.)
As a Friend of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House, the lucky recipient will receive:
To buy a ‘Friend’ gift voucher please email iumhfriends@gmail.com
Pay the fee:
Individual – £12. Family – £20. Student/Unemployed £5. Corporate £50
Bank transfer to Friends of Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House;
Co-Op: sort code – 08 92 99; a/c 67234534 – PLEASE GIVE YOUR NAME AS THE REFERENCE.
Or
Cheque payable to
Friends of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House
PLEASE GIVE US AT LEAST TWO WEEKS NOTICE.
We will email you a gift voucher to email or print and post.
(NB: We will email them and you when the end of the twelve months approaches, to see if the membership should be continued.)
Thank you to Bob Allen. The Meeting House looked lovely and everyone attending enjoyed your Dickens! (On 19th November 2022)
The ghost stories of Charles Dickens are as much a part of Christmas as turkey and tinsel. In the atmospheric Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House, opened in 1700 and still with its boxed pews, gallery and huge candelabra, a Dickens storytelling evening, by candlelight, will start the Christmas season in style.
Read by Bob Allen, in Dickensian costume, on Saturday 19th November 2022 at 7.30pm, the evening has been organised by the Friends of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House, and will include mulled wine and mince pies. The readings will include A Christmas Carol and extracts from other Charles Dickens books.
Bob has a keen interest in history and conservation. He is an Open University lecturer and teacher of English, and is involved with the Ipswich Society, the Historic Churches Trust a trustee of the Ipswich Building Preservation Trust and has presented poetry readings and lectures to the Suffolk Poetry Society in the past.
Suitable for all ages, tickets are available for £12 (£10 for ‘Friends’ when booked in advance) from Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dickens-by-candlelight-19-november-tickets-430910112747
The Grade One Listed Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House is next to the Willis building in Friars Street Ipswich IP1 1TD. Some parking is available and there are also public carparks nearby.
Friends of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House