Southwold

East Suffolk County Council bridge
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Southwold ESCC 1Bridge photographs courtesy Mike Bardell
Mike Bardell sent these photographs: '[There are] two different plates on Might's Bridge at Southwold; overlooked by a rare WWI pillbox':
'E.S.C.C.
1926' and
'ES'
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Southwold ESCC 2   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Southwold ESCC 3
The bridge plates date to a period pre-1974, when East and West Suffolk and Ipswich County Borough merged.

'Mights Bridge, Southwold (site of former drawbridge) crossing River Blyth, shown on Hodksinson's 1783, Bowen's 1755, Saxton's 1575 and Speede's 1610 maps Construction date unknown but bridges have been recorded here in 1227, 1588, 1783, 1898 and 1926.  June 2000: Monitoring found structural element of earlier bridge, WWI pill box and two WW2 concrete cubes.' Suffolk Heritage Explorer.
The bridge carries the A1095, labelled Might's Road on some maps, which actually goes over Buss Creek (a tributory of the River Blyth).
See also the ESCC plates on bridges at Needham Market and Mendham. The headquarters of ESCC was County Hall in Ipswich.

Adnams brewery
-

'ADNAMS & COY. LTD.'
What can we say about Adnams Brewery which hasn't already been said? That they're rather Coy? A fine, well painted cast iron sign with fleur-de-lis flourishes bears that curious superior 'oy' after the capital 'C'. Interesting character style, too: the crossbar of the 'A' almost disappears. Beneath it the coloured and gilded Southwold Jack waits to strike his bell. We think this one is silent, unlike the Jack in the nearby church of St Edmund which still rings out when the cord below it is pulled.
Brewing in Southwold goes back as far as 1345, but the two brothers George and Ernest Adnams bought what was to become the Sole Bay Brewery in 1872.

Family Grocer, Chester Road
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Southwold grocer

Ipswich Signs: Southwold: 197c.jpg-Ipswich Signs: Southwold: 197ci.jpg
Strolling from the wonderfully refurbished Southwold Pier up the cliff and North Parade towards the Sole Bay Inn and the lightouse, we find the above wall, a deep return behind a large building on Chester Road. Once a trader's advertisement, this long (now grey) cartouche contains two generations of lettering [the earlier in square brackets]; the picture on the right shows an enhanced version:
'--------
&
SON [STORES]
FAMILY GROCER
PROVISION
MERCHANTS
--------'
Stradbroke Road is visible in the left background of the photograph. It would be interesting to find out who ran this grocery emporium in decades past, in order to decode the company name. Any ideas?

TownHall
Ipswich Signs: Southwold Town Council-Ipswich Signs: Southwold: 197d.jpg
'TOWN HALL'
in large and small caps, picked out in black against a white panel set into the Suffolk white brickwork of the Town Hall's frontage in the Market Place. The sign sits over the Town Council's information cabinet which is topped by clocks indicating high and low tides; a small board advertises lighthouse tours indicating Southwold's role as a major tourist attraction and seaside resort in the area. The asymmetrical frontage of this attractive building (shown above left) includes a flagpole to right of centre of the roof, red pillar box, rooms extending over the coaching entrance and the town's crest*** in the centre of the balcony (from which the town's Christmas lights are switched on each year). The balcony is clearly a later addition and the four supporting brackets below it are necessary to support its weight, plus any people standing thereon. One can imagine the quandry faced by the 'mayor and corporation' when the builder told them that there was no room for the third bracket, unless it obscured the 'A' of Hall. The fenestration gives no wiggle-room, so the proud sign had to be obstructed.

(***lettered: "Defend They Right"  The motto of the ancient Borough of the Town of Southwold.)

Corn Store
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Southwold Corn Store
And here's another subtly hidden piece of Southwold lettering incised high up in a, now, residential building wall:
'CORN STORE'

Electric Picture Palace, Blackmill Road, Southwold
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Southwold Cinema
Once a cart shed and hayloft, the Electric Picture Palace was converted to a 68 seat, 1912 theatrical style cinema in 2002. It follows the style (and name) of Southwold's original cinema, first opened in 1912 in York Street. It has traditional  cinema seats, a box office, kiosk, circle, mini-organ and air-conditioning ( I am sure there was no such thing in 1912!) It real fits in with the character and feel of Southwold.It is owned and run by Southwold Film Society; being Southwold, Saturday film nights are conducted in the correct fashion with the dinner-jacketed Manager introducing the main picture and ushers and usherettes selling ice creams during the interval. (More pictures will follow soon.)
For other vintage cinemas see Harwich and Beccles.


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