Ipswich Historic Lettering: Hope House

'THIS MEMORIAL STONE
WAS LAID BY
J.J. COLMAN ESQ. MP
OF NORWICH
ON THE ? OF MAY 1892.
-
[unreadable small text: probably builder's name]'

Jeremiah James Colman (14 June 1830–1898) was an English mustard manufacturer and the third member of the family in charge of the eponymous company Colman's. He was a popular philanthropist in his home town of Norwich and a Liberal politician who represented the city in parliament. In 1866 Jeremiah James Colman was appointed mustard maker both to Queen Victoria and to Napoleon III of France. He became Mayor of Norwich and championed nonconformity, and persistently urged religious freedom.

'THIS MEMORIAL STONE
WAS LAID BY
HARRIET ISHAM GRIMWADE
DAUGHTER OF EDWARD GRIMWADE
MANAGER OF THE ORPHANAGE FROM ???
UNTIL ???
DEDICATION TO THE ???'

Harriett Isham Grimwade, part of the Ipswich Grimwade clothier dynasty, never married. Instead she devoted most of her energies trying to help others. She was a founding member of Hope House which opened in 1883. Such ladies of “the educated middle classes” where encouraged to do good works – and around 15% did so. The home was intended to take in orphaned girls or girls from families where the mother had died (probably during childbirth) to bring them up to be trained to become domestic servants. Hope House did such a good job that girls from the Home were in demand locally to work in the homes of the better-off. If girls were deemed to be physically or mentally deficient, they were passed on to St John’s Children’s Home on the Corner of Bloomfield Street and Freehold Road. It was thought that only a girl who was mentally and physically strong could cope with the long hours and tiring regime of work as a domestic servant.
The Hope House Home was financially self-supporting, money being raised locally – some of the girls who had lived there, often from infancy, until aged about 16, voluntarily paid a small amount to the home once they had moved on to employment. Harriett and other sympathetic ladies from around the Town had their own Committee to oversee the financial welfare of the home. Harriet died of cancer in 1883 – she was such a loved lady that she had her own memorial alongside the Grimwade tomb at Ipswich Cemetery. Children from the home sang “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” at the Cemetery Gates as Harriett’s cortege passed by, wearing mourning clothes they had made themselves. The last girls were taken in by Hope House just before World War II.

The fact that a small road in the new development around Pownall Road, off Duke Street, is called Isham Place prompts some additional research. We learn from the Ipswich women in history website (see Links) that Harriet Isham Grimwade (1843-1893) was Ipswich’s first publicly elected woman. She began charitable work in her mid-20s at the Tanners Lane Mission, a centre for poor working-class families (coincidentally the street lost during the Civic Drive development which was also the home of C. Mills foundry documented in relation to drain castings on the Island site). In 1871 she became secretary of the new Ipswich Women’s Suffrage Society. Later she founded the East Suffolk Girls’ Home at 14 Church St (this no longer exists, but was near St Clement’s Church) which expanded in 1883 to accommodate 50 girls at Hope House. Elected onto the School Board in 1880, she served for six years during which time she was responsible for cookery classes. She took an active role in the 1885 Great Liberal Demonstration when Liberal candidates spoke before the General Election. Given the possible association on this web page alone to the Tollemache family, perhaps her middle name links to the Isham baronetcy of Northampton. If anyone knows, please contact us.