Benezet
Street,
A.A. Gibbons
2014 image
This is a view of the Bramford Road end of Benezet Street (see our slavery abolitionists
page for
the name derivation) with the white buildings next to The Rose and Crown
in the background. (We include a similar photographic comparison on our
Introduction page.)
2012
images
The
building in the foreground (compare with the 1920s
picture below) is a more recent
replacement. See also the UPDATE at the bottom of the page with a
1960s/70s image.
These
period photographs show not only the attractive
frontages on Benezet Street but the industrial block behind them
(resembling the silos which stood around the Wet Dock) which
many Ipswich residents will remember. Above
left: you can see the edge of
the block to the upper left of the
1920s photograph. Above right:
the 1950s view up the hill of Bramford Road towards the Norwich Road
junction shows the mill building with its triangular top and the tower
looming above the houses and shops.
The left
photograph shows the use of bolt-on and
painted signs by a
flourishing business, Provender Mills and West End Mills
owned by A.A. Gibbons which clearly used horse, steam lorry and
internal combustion engine lorry transport. Alfred Alexander Gibbons
set up his corn
business in Benezet Street in the 1880s. The far building with its
angled
Paladian frontage is adorned with three sets of painted lettering:
'A.A.
GIBBONS
TO ORDER
OFFICE ... BENEZET STREET'
the smaller 'To Order Office' directing customers down the road.
Although a fairly narrow street, the proprietor clearly saw the need to
stamp his name clearly on the far building which would have been
partially visible by those passing on Bramford Road. The next building
along carries the sign:
"'WEST
END' FLOUR MILLS"
Nearest to the camera, the building with the cart
entrance carries what
looks like a cast iron sign with the name of the mills in an arc:
'PROVENDER MILLS
A.A. GIBBONS'
and to the far left
above the door with the smartly suited and hatted man:
'TO ORDER
OFFICE'
Standing
accross the road and looking past the
frontages, one gets an impression of the size of the
mill complex.
2012
images
Sadly, all
the signs and letters on this large,
'hidden' mill no longer exist, but it might be instructive to include
some views of the building complex, even though the brutalist block has
been demolished and modern residential units extend the housing
provided in the original buildings. These three images are
taken
from Wilberforce Street:
UPDATE: 12.2.2013: We
are grateful to The Ipswich Society Flickr collection (see Links) for this excellent
photograph of the mills in 1960s to 1970s(?). This view is taken from
Norwich Road, looking across the triangular car park in front of the
Rose & Crown (the edge of the 'Tolly Cobbold' lettering can be seen
at the right).
Photograph courtesy The Ipswich Society
These close-ups reveal the company name: 'A.A. GIBBONS LTD'
on the Bramford Road facade, opposite the Rose
& Crown Brewery lettering. Also, on Benezet Street, the
painted-over 'A.A. Gibbons', 'TO ORDER OFFICE' and 'Benezet Street'
signs (some of the characters showing through) with the over-painted:
CO-OPERATIVE
FURNITURE
DEPOSITORY'
The 'BRAMFORD ROAD' street nameplate (below) seen today on the
corner shop
fronting Bramford Road is probably the same one which appears in the
period photograph above. There is a street nameplate in even worse
condition attached to the Rose & Crown.
Further
down Benezet Street is The Primitive
Methodist
Chapel.
See our Slavery abolitionist
page for a map of the area dated 1867.
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Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
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