The Byles
fountain was restored in 2011 with help from lottery funding; a
grant secured by The Friends of
Alexandra Park. It stands near to the Grove Lane
entrance to the park skirted by limes and other deciduous trees. The works included removal of the surrounding pavement area,
installation of wooden benches and picnic table.
'IN
REMEMBRANCE
OF THE
BYLES FAMILY
TO WHOM
THIS PARK BELONGED FOR
MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED YEARS
THIS DRINKING FOUNTAIN
WAS ERECTED IN 1905, BY
CHARLES HENRY COWELL
ALDERMAN OF
THE BOROUGH
AND
TWICE MAYOR OF IPSWICH
WHOSE MOTHER WAS
MARIANNE BYLES
BORN AT THE
HILL HOUSE IN 1801.'
One cannot help
remarking upon the
'snugness' of the fourth line of text within the corner pillars. The
whole is set out in condensed large and small-sans serif caps with
variations in spacing (e.g. the inter-character gaps in 'BYLES FAMILY'
in large caps) and size. The clean lines of the pale grey granite(?)
are balanced by the worn, softer stone steps on all four sides (which have their own poignancy),
which enabled young children to reach the water basins. For whatever
reason – health and safety or fear of vandalism, perhaps –
the fountain cannot perform its original function as there is no water
supply. The brass fittings are still in place for taps and (beneath the
word 'Alderman' on the lettered side) the loops to which, at a guess, a brass cup on a chain
was attached. There are one or two photographs on
the interweb of the sorry state of
the monument before cleaning.
EDWARD BYLES COWELL (1826–1903),
scholar and man of letters, born at Ipswich on 23 January 1826, was
eldest son (in a family of three sons and one daughter) of Charles
Cowell, who had inherited a successful business of merchant and
maltster, and as a cultured liberal was active in local affairs. His
mother was Marianne, elder daughter of Nathaniel Byles Byles* of the
Hill House, Ipswich, also a successful merchant of the town. Byles
Cowell was a noted translator of Persian poetry, friend and teacher of
Edward FitzGerald (translator of The
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1859) and the first professor of
Sanskrit at Cambridge University. There are memorials to Nathaniel
Byles Byles, and Mary Ann Byles in Holy
Trinity Church in Back Hamlet. [*This repetition of the surname
comes from the entry for Edward Byles Cowell on the online Dictionary of National Biography
and is not an example of Typographical Tourette's Syndrome.]
Hill House Road which runs off Back Hamlet and whose
gardens back on to the park is the site of the original Hill House. It
appears that some of the commercial premises there are in outbuildings
from the big house, but we have no confirmation of this. In
1903 the Ipswich Corporation purchased one of six packages of land
which was formerly part of the Hill House Estate and home of the Byles
family who owned the park for more than 100
years. Charles Cowell
donated the land to the town and it became Byles
Park. In 1905 Alderman
Charles Henry Cowell (Mayor of Ipswich 1877 and 1892) presented a drinking fountain to the town to
be erected in Byles Park as a memorial to
his
mother, Marianne Byles Cowell. Charles Henry Cowell is said to
have been the founder of the famous Ipswich printing firm W.S. Cowell. The land became
parkland and was named
Alexandra Park after the
wife of Edward VII. In June 1904 the park was officially opened to the
public. In recent years, Alexandra Park has been host to the May Day
Festival
in Ipswich, usually held on the closest Sunday to May 1, also the One
Big Multicultural Day, both featuring stalls, amusements and music. The
park has a
natural slope from Grove Lane down to Kings Avenue and the escarpment
above some of The University of Suffolk buildings (the area was
excavated for the
clay used by the 'Brick & Tile Works'
where the art block now
stands) provide views
of the surrounding areas. 1921
image
Above: an aerial view of, in the foreground, Alexandra Park only about 15 years after the public park
opened. Grove Lane runs along the bottom of the photograph from right
to left with Back Hamlet and Hill House Road on the left; Kings Avenue
and Oxford Road to the right. On the dockside from left are the
gasworks with the giant timber-clad gasometer 'Jumbo'; Ransomes Sims
& Jefferies Orwell Works; the densely-packed housing of The
Potteries; the northern quays. Three churches are almost in a line
(from left): Holy Trinity, St Clement Congregational, the Church of St Clement. On the other side of
the Island site, Stoke Quay and New Cut West
can be
seen as a broad curve. Over
Stoke is remarkably compact in 1921 with agricultural fields stretching
in the distance as far as the eye can see: the locations of today's
Maidenhall and Chantry housing developments.
For an aerial view from the opposite direction of the same date, see
our page 132-4 Fore Street: '1620'.
[UPDATE June 2016: This wooded
'cliff' to the west of Alexandra Park has been adopted as a woodland
garden. The therapeutic potential of the project means that 'Brickmakers
Wood' can involve people with learning disabilities and
mental health problems, youngsters from Pupil Referral Units and many
others who find purpose and pleasure in planting and picking
vegetables, helping with paths, seats and other creative structures
which make Brickmakers Wood a unique place in the town and wider
region. Children from local schools enjoy the nature study and art and
craft sessions in the wood, too. It is an ongoing project, always
welcoming donations and volunteers to develop the overgrown and
much-abused site. See Links under Brickmakers
Wood.] The Hill House parkland 1902
See also our Cavendish
Street page for a large map detail from 1867. At this date the
easternmost building is labelled 'Upper
Hill House' and Trinity Lodge is labelled 'Lower Hill House'.
Comparative maps of the park 'cliff' and Potteries area
are shown on our Brickyards page, also
a modern aerial view of Alexandra Park and Brickmakers Wood.
In preparing this page we came across yet another specialist
preservation website (see Links): the
Fountains Society which lists the above restoration.
Compare this fountain with the Brett and Burton fountains in Christchurch Park. Also Bourne Park and Chantry
Park lettering.
Facing the park entrance on Back Hamlet, we find the only local
terraced house
with a name: 'Park View'.
A footnote to the big houses here on the high
ground
overlooking what was, in the 19th century, the poorest part of Ipswich:
St Clement's parish:-
"Overlooking the densely populated dockside area though hidden from
view, were the houses of some important townsmen. Most notably, at the
top of Bishop's Hill stood Holywells, the residence and park of the
Cobbolds, the dominant ground landlord of the district below, the owner
of the Cliff Brewery and a considerable employer of labour. Also at the
top of the hill there were a number of new houses of men of some
substance in the town's affairs including a mechanical engineer,
Biddell, at Upland Gate [the big house partly visible from the
present-day Rosehill Crescent], Thomas Mortimer, a merchant and Rev.
Francis Maude, the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church. At the top of Back
Hamlet was Hill House and its grounds, the residence of the Byles
family, malsters and merchants, and just below was Trinity Lodge, where
the vicar of St Lawrence lived. Such residences away from and literally
above the masses in the streets below and unlike those of their fellows
who still lived in Fore Street and Church Street [later Grimwade
Street], were part of that process of spatial distancing that was
taking place in Ipswich as in most large towns as in nineteenth-century
class society became more clearly differentiated. This separation of
the classes is also apparent within the area as well: behind the mainly
middle and lower middle class thoroughfares of Fore Street, Church
Street and Borough Road lay the warren of poor housing where the mass
of the labouring poor lived." Extract from Rags and Bones by Frank Grace see Reading List.
Queen Alexandra
Alexandra is commemorated by the name of this park,
formerly the
gardens of Hill House, and the name of the residential road which runs
from the Spring Road allotments entrance to Warwick Road.
Once widowed, Queen Victoria effectively withdrew from public life.
Shortly after Prince Albert's death, she arranged for Edward to embark
on an extensive tour of the Middle East, visiting Egypt, Jerusalem,
Damascus, Beirut and Constantinople. In part political, the British
Government wanted Edward to secure the friendship of Egypt's ruler,
Said Pasha, to prevent French control of the Suez Canal if the Ottoman
Empire collapsed. It was the first Royal Tour on which an official
photographer, Francis Bedford, was in attendance. As soon as Edward
returned to Britain, preparations were made for his engagement, which
was sealed at Laeken in Belgium on 9 September 1862. Edward married
Princess Alexandra of Denmark at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on
10 March 1863. He was 21; she was 18.
Edward and his wife established Marlborough House as
their London
residence and Sandringham House in Norfolk as their country retreat.
They entertained on a lavish scale. Their marriage met with disapproval
in certain circles because most of Queen Victoria's relations were
German, and Denmark was at loggerheads with Germany over the
territories of Schleswig and Holstein. When Alexandra's father
inherited the throne of Denmark in November 1863, the German
Confederation took the opportunity to invade and annex
Schleswig-Holstein. Queen Victoria was of two minds whether it was a
suitable match given the political climate. After the couple's
marriage, she expressed anxiety about their socialite lifestyle and
attempted to dictate to them on various matters, including the names of
their children.
Edward had mistresses throughout his married life. He socialised with
actress Lillie Langtry; Lady Randolph Churchill (born Jennie Jerome,
she was the mother of Winston Churchill); Daisy Greville, Countess of
Warwick; actress Sarah Bernhardt; noblewoman Lady Susan Vane-Tempest;
singer Hortense Schneider; prostitute Giulia Beneni (known as "La
Barucci"); wealthy humanitarian Agnes Keyser; and Alice Keppel. At
least fifty-five liaisons are conjectured. How far these relationships
went is not always clear. Edward always strove to be discreet, but this
did not prevent society gossip or press speculation. One of Alice
Keppel's great-granddaughters, Camilla Parker Bowles, became the
mistress and subsequently wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, one of
Edward's great-great-grandsons. It was rumoured that Camilla's
grandmother, Sonia Keppel (born in May 1900), was the illegitimate
daughter of Edward, but she was "almost certainly" the daughter of
George Keppel, whom she resembled. Edward never acknowledged any
illegitimate children. Alexandra is believed to have been aware of many
of his affairs and to have accepted them.
In 1869, Sir Charles Mordaunt, a British Member of Parliament,
threatened to name Edward as co-respondent in his divorce suit.
Ultimately, he did not do so but Edward was called as a witness in the
case in early 1870. It was shown that Edward had visited the Mordaunts'
house while Sir Charles was away sitting in the House of Commons.
Although nothing further was proven and Edward denied he had committed
adultery, the suggestion of impropriety was damaging.
Alexandra did not attend her son, George’s coronation in 1911 since it
was not customary for a crowned queen to attend the coronation of
another king or queen, but otherwise continued the public side of her
life, devoting time to her charitable causes. One such cause included
Alexandra Rose Day, where artificial roses made by the disabled were
sold in aid of hospitals by women volunteers. During the First World
War, the custom of hanging the banners of foreign princes invested with
Britain's highest order of knighthood, the Order of the Garter, in St
George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, came under criticism, as the German
members of the Order were fighting against Britain. Alexandra joined
calls to "have down those hateful German banners". Driven by public
opinion, but against his own wishes, the King had the banners removed
but to Alexandra's dismay he had down not only "those vile Prussian
banners" but also those of her Hessian relations who were, in her
opinion, "simply soldiers or vassals under that brutal German Emperor's
orders". On 17 September 1916, she was at Sandringham during a Zeppelin
air raid, but far worse was to befall other members of her family. In
Russia, her nephew Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and he, his wife and
children were killed by revolutionaries. Her sister the Dowager Empress
was rescued from Russia in 1919 by HMS Marlborough and brought to
England, where she lived for some time with Alexandra.
Alexandra retained a youthful appearance into her senior years, but
during the war her age caught up with her. She took to wearing
elaborate veils and heavy makeup, which was described by gossips as
having her face "enamelled". She made no more trips abroad, and
suffered increasing ill-health. In 1920, a blood vessel in her eye
burst, leaving her with temporary partial blindness. Towards the end of
her life, her memory and speech became impaired. She died on 20
November 1925 at Sandringham after suffering a heart attack, and was
buried in an elaborate tomb next to her husband in St George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle.
The Queen Alexandra Memorial by Alfred Gilbert was unveiled on
Alexandra Rose Day 8 June 1932 at Marlborough Gate, London. An ode in
her memory, "So many true princesses who have gone", composed by the
then Master of the King's Musick Sir Edward Elgar to words by the Poet
Laureate John Masefield, was sung at the unveiling and conducted by the
composer.
Alexandra was highly popular with the British public. After she married
the Prince of Wales in 1863, a new park and "People's Palace", a public
exhibition and arts centre under construction in north London, were
renamed the Alexandra Palace and park to commemorate her. Unlike her
husband and mother-in-law, she was not castigated by the press. Funds
that she helped to collect were used to buy a river launch, called
Alexandra, to ferry the wounded during the Sudan campaign,[81] and to
fit out a hospital ship, named The Princess of Wales, to bring back
wounded from the Boer War. During the Boer War, Queen Alexandra's
Imperial Military Nursing Service, later renamed Queen Alexandra's
Royal Army Nursing Corps, was founded under Royal Warrant.
Alexandra had little understanding of money. The management of her
finances was left in the hands of her loyal comptroller, Sir Dighton
Probyn VC, who undertook a similar role for her husband. In the words
of her grandson, Edward VIII (later the Duke of Windsor), "Her
generosity was a source of embarrassment to her financial advisers.
Whenever she received a letter soliciting money, a cheque would be sent
by the next post, regardless of the authenticity of the mendicant and
without having the case investigated." Though she was not always
extravagant (she had her old stockings darned for re-use and her old
dresses were recycled as furniture covers), she would dismiss protests
about her heavy spending with a wave of a hand or by claiming that she
had not heard.
She hid a small scar on her neck, which was probably the result of a
childhood operation, by wearing choker necklaces and high necklines,
setting fashions which were adopted for fifty years. Alexandra's effect
on fashion was so profound that society ladies even copied her limping
gait, after her serious illness in 1867 left her with a stiff leg. This
came to be known as the "Alexandra limp". She used predominantly the
London fashion houses; her favourite was Redfern's, but she shopped
occasionally at Doucet and Fromont of Paris.
Kings Avenue
Running between Grove Lane and Milner Street, Kings Avenue is built
only on the north side with an unusual terrace of houses which overlook
the lower part of Alexandra Park. 2021 images
Projecting ground floor bays surround each pair of front door porches,
forming balconies at first floor level. Views across the park, rather
than of housing opposite, make these houses desirable. In the above
photograph, between the first and second houses from the left (which
stand opposite the park entrance), a house nmae plaque can be seen – it
is the stained one in the close-ups below:
The plaques can be seen walking from the Milner Street end towards
Grove Lane.
The raking January sun and satellite dish make the top example (3 to 5
Kings Avenue) hard to
decipher – here we show an enhanced image:
'BYLES TERRACE
FLS 1910'
The second plaque (19 to 21 Kings Avenue) has suffered
water damage and
staining:
'ALEXANDRA
TERRACE
FLS 1903'
Between nos. 39 (the only house
named on the lintel above the window: 'LUCERNE') and 41 is the
easiest plaque to read:
'PARK TERRACE
FLS 1908'
The Ipswich &
Suffolk Freehold Land Society (FLS) was responsible for the three
lengths of terraced housing over a seven year period – starting at the
centre of the road, then the Grove Lane end, then the Milner Street
end. The names were
drawn from the park opposite, notably the Byles Family which used to
reside in Hill House (see the memorial drinking fountain above).
Lower gates to Alexandra Park
2021 images
‘UP TO £50 REWARD FOR MEMBERS
OF THE PUBLIC GIVING
INFORMATION LEADING TO PROSECUTION FOR A CRIMINAL
OFFENCE (INCLUDING VANDALISM) IN THIS PARK.
THE NEAREST TELEPHONE IS LOCATED AT
GROVE LANE
TELEPHONE POLICE 55811
GENERAL ENQUIRIES OR INFORMATION TO CIVIC CENTRE’
The small plastic sign, shown
above, is
fixed to the palings to the right of the gate. See our Chantry Park page for a similar sign.
Needless to say, in 2021 there is no telephone box in Grove Lane, The
police number would be for Elm Street police station and it, and Civic
Centre, are long gone.
The wrought iron gates and cast iron gateposts (perhaps made in
Ipswich) appear to date from the opening of the land as a public park
in 1904. In the photograph above right, the Kings Avenue houses can be
seen in the background.
2012
images
1921
image
The Hill House parkland 1902
2021 images
2021 images
