Alston Road

Ipswich Historic Lettering: Alston Rd 12015 images
Winterbourne Cottages carry the name of Winterbourne House which is documented in 1895 as the original home of the branch library for Rosehill (see our Rosehill Library case study)
. A branch library of the Victoria Free Library (at the Museum, High Street) 'comprising 450 books was started at Winterbourne House, Alston Road, through the kindness of Mr R.E. Adams, who besides lending the room, has undertaken to act as honorary librarian'. It is difficult to imagine one of the four cottages seen below providing a room for a public library, albeit with limited opening hours (Mon. evening, Friday evening, Wednesday afternoon), so was there a larger 'Winterbourne House' in the road which offered the infant library a home? Eventually funds were raised to build the branch in Tomline Road, which opened in 1905.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Alston Rd 2
Above: Winterbourne Cottages from the Rosehill Road end.
'WINTERBOURNE
COTTAGES
1879'
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Alston Rd 2a
Above:
Winterbourne Cottages from Felixstowe Road end, note modern in-fill house with integral garage between them and numbers 49/51. Modern detached house beyond them at number 63, built in the rear garden of the corner house (128 Rosehill Road) – see the 1883 map shown below.
The Suffolk Record Office (Ref. HE402/1/1905/22) lists records as follows: "Twenty seven houses in Ipswich: 55 Alston Road known as Winterbourne House, 59 & 61 Alston Road known as Winterbourne Cottages; 32, 34 & 36 Alan Road known as Crowland Buildings; 2 - 12 (even) White Elm Street; 1 & 3 Waterworks Street; 10 - 20 (even) Gower Street; 117, 119 & 121 Rectory Road, known as Britannia Place; 123, 125 & 127 Rectory Road and 74 Station Street Vendor: trustee of the will of Mr Thomas Adams, deceased. Annotated. [dated 29 June 1905]"
One assumes that Mr Thomas Adams is related to Mr R.E. Adams who ran the Rosehill branch library from a room in 'Winterbourne House' (no. 55) from 1895 to 1905.

Alston Road house names (numbers/names in italics appear on the 1883 map below)
5: Alston House [later build, double-fronted house; no plaque, name in stained glass above front door]
17-23: Woolpit Cottages 1879 [plaque above nos. 19-21]
25-31: Gestingthorpe Cottages 1896 [plaque above nos. 27-29]
33-39: Ebenezer Cottages [partially obscured plaque above nos. 35-37]
41-45: Olive Villas [plaque above no. 43]
55-61: Winterbourne Cottages 1879 [plaque above nos. 57-59]
34-54: East End Terrace 1875/8? [plaque above nos. 44-46]
30-36: Aberdeen Cottages 1876 [plaque above nos. 32-34]
14-20: Alston Cottages [plaque above nos. 16-18]

Ipswich Historic Lettering: Alston Rd plaques
Below: comparison of Alston Road (see Street name derivations) on the 1883 map compared to today's view (note that a modern house has since been built in the gap at no. 12). 21st century numbering has been transferred across to the 1883 map for identification of buildings with name plaques. Winterbourne Cottages can be seen at nos. 55 to 61.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Alston Rd comparisonComparison: 1883 map and 2013

Related pages:
House name plaque examples: Bramford Road; Broom Hill Road; Burlington Road; Cauldwell Hall Road; Cavendish Street; Marlborough Road; Rosehill area;
Rosehill Library case study; Rosehill churches;
Margaret Hancock's research on the history of the Rosehill area;
Ipswich & Suffolk Freehold Land Society (F.L.S.); California;

Street index; Origins of street names in Ipswich; Streets named after slavery abolitionists;
Dated buildings list; Dated buildings examples;
Named buildings listNamed (& sometimes dated) buildings examples
;
Street nameplate examples; Brickyards.


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