'Edme'
Bakery, Topall Tea, Kays Ways
Pays and W.B.
Kerridge
6 Dogs Head Street
2014 images
These two examples of
traders lettering are a few
hundred yards apart. Above, at 6 Dogs Head Street:
'EDME'
BAKERY
more or less follows the slope of
the
lower roof of the adjoining property. This is above a kebab takeaway
in Dog's Head Street, opposite Sainsbury's. The
trade name within the
single
inverted commas brings to mind the Edme Brewery (it's lettered on a
large
brick built industrial chimney) at Mistley near Manningtree on the
River
Stour – a company now known for its homebrew kits containing hopped
wort extract. The English Diastatic* Malt Extract Company, formed in
1884, later became known as 'Edme'. Today the main production at the
Edme factory is a range of flours and flakes used in the bakery and
food industry internationally. This could have been the reason for the
'Edme Bakery' sign in Ipswich however, having contacted the Edme
company in October 2019, they have no record of owning the bakery, nor
sponsoring it in
terms of the sign. Perhaps the malted bread
baked there used Edme products, but there is no evidence for this.
[*As all grains sprout, natural enzymes within the grain break down the
starch within the grain into simpler sugars which taste sweet and are
easier for yeast to use as growth food. Malt with active enzymes is
called 'Diastatic malt'. Malt with inactive enzymes is called
'Nondiastatic malt'. The enzymes are deactivated by heating the malt.]
This photograph
from our Coat of Arms page shows, just
visible, extra 'Edme Bakery' lettering on the east facing side wall of
the building.
Many of the buses arriving from Felixstowe and Woodbridge areas would
drive through the garage (at the right of the photograph) in order to
gain entry to the Old Cattle Market bus station. The building beside
the garage was Eastern Counties booking and information office. This
was previously the Ipswich Arms public house. The town crest can be
seen in the small brick gable. All of these buildings associated with
Eastern Counties have since been demolished, but the coat of arms was
clearly rescued (or another version made) and resited as we see it
today.
[UPDATE
June
2008: The photograph of the Old Cattle
Market from around 1908 - below - shows not only the long demolished
buildings to the left of Dogs Head Street and no. 46 (clearly numbered
on the right and which stands where the country bus station now
operates), but very recognisably the Plough public house and behind it
the 'Edme' Bakery lettering which survives to this day.]
c.1908 image
'EDME'
BAKERY in the trade directories
(selected detail in some
years)
White’s Directory 1844
Dogs Head Lane [south side]
BAKERS & FLOUR DEALERS, Bruce
Westhorp C.
J. G. Harrod Directory of Suffolk
& Cambridgeshire 1873
Dogs Head Lane
Brown Charles, baker
Stevens Directory 1885 – Dogs
Head Lane [south side from east, no numbering]:
'Here is Upper and Lower Brook Street
Cook Maurice, Ipswich Arms
Bumstead Chas Henry, baker,
confectioner and refreshment rooms
[leading up to]
Here is Kings Court
Plough Inn yard and stables'
Stevens Directory 1881
Dogs Head Lane: Brown Chas. baker,
confectioner and refreshment rooms
Stevens Directory 1884
Dogs Head Lane: Brewster Walt. Henry,
confr
Kelly’s Directory 1906
Dogs Head Street [south side from west, no numbering, summary]:
Plough Inn
Jarrett William, ironmonger
Raymer James, baker
coal merchant
Ipswich Parcel & Goods Express Carriers
ironmonger
corn & seed merchant
Kelly’s Directory 1909
Dogs Head Street [south side from west, no numbering]:
Raymer James, baker & corn dealer
Kelly’s Directory 1934
'Dogs Head Street [south side from west]
Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. Ltd (regd. office) [now Old Cattle Market
Bus Station]
2. Plough Inn, Jas. Crabtree
2. Initial Towel Supply Co. (depot)
4. Phillips J. café
Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. Ltd (traffic and booking office)'
Kelly’s Directory 1935
'Dogs Head Street [south side from west]
2. Plough Inn
4. Copsey, Cyril, café
Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. Ltd (traffic and booking office)'
The pattern of these entries is repeated, virtually without alteration
until at least 1966.
From the earliest entry (1844), the description of the ‘Edme’ business
varies from baker to café in more recent years. The combination of the
two is first seen as early as 1885. From 1935 to at least the 1960s,
the café was run by Cyril Copsey. Sadly, at no point do we see the name
‘Edme’ applied to the bakery business. It is possible that the
sign-writing at each end of the building was commissioned by James
Raymer, the baker listed in 1906 (but who could have been the
proprietor from around 1884, as we have no directories for the
intervening years). At some date before 1934, the 'Ipswich Parcel & Goods Express Carriers' became 'Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. Ltd (traffic and booking
office)' and the bus entrance was cut through – as shown in the
monochrome photograph above – with the booking office near the corner
with Lower Brook Street.
8-10 Eagle
Street
Below is the ghost of a painted advertisment on
the end wall of
the
building at 8-10 Eagle
Street (is it 'Topaz'... 'Topak'...?):
'DRINK
TOPALL
TEA'
sits on a cream background. There are larger
letters
'A. R' under the 'first part of 'Drink': presumably an earlier sign.
This is a challenge for those who like to spend their time trying to
decipher old signs: the slogan comes and goes as you stare at it. You
have to ensure that you're reading darker characters against light
background to make out 'Topall'.
2012 images
The photograph above left shows to the right the end of
the Spread Eagle public house which has
Eagle Street and Fore Street street nameplates.
[UPDATE 28.5.2014: After
torrential rain, which may have been a factor, the sign changes and the
shop's proprietor and business appears more dominant:
'A. ROE[speculative]
CLOTHIER'
with the
word 'Clothier' in small caps running across the word 'Topal'.]
8 Orwell Place
[UPDATE February 2007: This
solved the Topaz/Topak (sic) Tea brand name mystery on the building in
Eagle Street. Browsing through the book of
David
Kindred's
'Suffolk from the Archive' period photographs, we found a shot of
Orwell Place (formerly Stepples Street) looking away from the town
centre towards Eagle Street - you can recognise the timbering and
fenestration of the Spread Eagle public house at the left in the image
below. It is the painted advertisement on the side wall of the building
on the right which catches the eye:
'(cropped word at top), IMPORTED
DRINK TOPALL
TEA
SOLD...
400...'
Having examined the side wall of the building
today, there is clear evidence of a reddish brick paint over the whole
surface, which suggests that the lettering is still hiding beneath it.]
See our Turret Lane
page for a 1902 map of the area.
The side wall of 8 Orwell Place also appears in this 1980s
photograph from the Ipswich Society Image Archive (see Links). The panel reads: 'KAYS
WAYS PAYS' and presumably refers to the business once carried
out at the premises of H.F. Williams. The close-up shows the traces of
the earlier, curving 'DRINK TOPALL' lettering between 'KAYS' and
'WAYS'. 'Kays Ways Pays' was the motto, or advertising slogan, used by
the mail-order company Kays of Worcester in the 1950s and 1960s.
The slogan
was used to encourage
both existing and new agents to sell the company's products and
services, that were on offer in the catalogue, to their customers.
Here, however, it was aimed directly at the public. At the left of the
photograph is the famous Martin &
Newby shop and The Spread Eagle
public house; at this date the Indian restaurant at the right was named
The Rajasthan.
1980s image courtesy The Ipswich Society
10 Eagle Street
And on the other side of the Topall Tea advertisement:
it's
The Leaning Tower
of
Eagle Street with a blank cartouche high up which once carried
an
advert.
Below: the sign, still indecipherable in 2015, photographed from
the junction with Waterworks Street.
2015 images
Just round the corner from the 'Drink Topall Tea'
sign is 'Palmer's Door Mats &c.'
as a comparison.
119 Bramford Road
On a much larger scale:
'W.B. KERRIDGE.
TAILOR.
W.B.KERRIDGE.
THE
PEOPLE'S
CASH
TAILOR'
remains proudly on the end wall of the chemist, J.R.
Barbour at 119 Bramford
Road, close to the Suffolk Record Office and the two lettering examples
of Bramford Road School. In this
photograph
from 2001, the lettering is partially obscured by a container
and
a discolouration on the wall. In pristine state it must have been an
eye-catching
advertisement of affordable tailoring for the people for those
travelling
from the Bramford direction. The retouched image (below) gives an
impression.
This must be one of the biggest examples of trade
lettering in Ipswich,
rivalling in its scale (if not its quality and elaboration) the example
in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe: 'E.F.
Andrews'.
2012 images
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