Cardinal Wolsey's college in Ipswich
The Thomas Wolsey public house, Who was Thomas Wolsey?

A major strand in the history of the town concerns its most famous (some might say notorious) son, Thomas Wolsey (c.1475-1530). There are a few features within today's Ipswich to remind us of the man who was to rise to  become the second most powerful man in the kingdom of the mercurial Henry VIII.

The plaque on Curson Lodge in St Nicholas Street reminds us of his origins. Wolsey's Gate, albeit worn away by pollution, weather and time, still stands in College Street, close to the docks. This watergate to the college is the only physical remnant of Wolsey's great scheme to establish a school linked to his own Cardinal College in Oxford; a school to rival Eton or Winchester. However, there are one or two clues in the street names of Ipswich.

Turret House
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Rosemary Lane map1778 map
The map detail above from Pennington's map of Ipswich 1778 clearly labels a house at lower centre-left: 'Turret'. The north-south street, which today we know as Turret Lane, is here labelled St Stephens Lane and was one of the ancient ways from the dock to the heart of the town.

Ipswich Historic Lettering: Turret HouseTurret Lane is named after the Turret (Garden) House which was demolished in 1843. It is a later name for what must have been the Dean's House to the north of the college site and which formed the main entrance to Wolsey's College. The plan illustrated here, dated 1724, shows the house at the top, with turrets echoing those which are decribed as adorning the college buildings. The positioning of this house and its gardens is indicated on the sketch map of the whole college site as it was in 1528. The red outline shape fits onto the upper part of Ogilby's 1674 map almost exactly (down as far as Rose Lane).
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Turret House 2Ipswich Historic Lettering: Wolsey College map1674 map
Notes on the map of Wolsey's College
1. The red outline indicates the probable extent of Wolsey's College with the area later known as 'Mr Sparrow's Garden' (with Turret House at the top) to the north of the site. More recent street names are indicated in blue.
2. Lord Curson's House at the upper left of the site is shown in more detail below. Wolsey intended to requisition this property as his own retirement home, adjoining his much-vaunted College. Curson could hardly refuse but, having asked for three years grace, he kept his head down and was saved by the fall of Wolsey, the College was lost and so he retained his home.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Curson House plan
Above: a traced copy of the Tudor plan of Curson House (with extra captions in larger font from those on the original) taken from Sir Robert, Lord Curson, soldier, courtier and spy, and his Ipswich mansion by John Blatchly and Bill Haward, Ipswich Institute of Archaeology and History research paper.
3. Rose Lane is shown as the southern limit of Lord Curson's House, here labelled 'Curson Lane otherwise Rose Lane').
3. Foundation Street was home to an early incarnation of Ipswich Grammar School ('The Ipswich School'). Merchant and politician, Richard Felaw, left his house in the street (then called St Edmund Pountney Lane) as a home for the school, endowing it with the income from lands at Whitton so that children of needy parents could attend without paying fees. One of the earliest beneficiaries was a young Thomas Wolsey, later Cardinal Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England. See also our Lower Brook Street page for more about Rosemary Lane and St Edmund de Pountenay chapel
.
4. Wolsey's likeness is 'celebrated' on a plaque on the side entrance to the Wolsey Gallery (and Wolsey Garden) behind Christchurch Mansion.
5. Lady Lane is the remainder of the site of Gracechurch, the shrine of Ipswich (as documented by Lord Curson himself). Wolsey intended to capitalise on the fame and success of the shrine by linking it to his College.
6. Cardinal Street, New
Cardinal Street and Wolsey Street near Greyfriars are obvious nods to the man, as are Wolsey Court, Wolsey Gardens and Cardinal's Court.

Ipswich Historic Lettering: Cardinal Wolsey bust2020 image
Above: this larger than life-size bust of Wolsey sits upstairs in the Town Hall; the sculpture was made specifically for that building by local sculptor James Williams in 1871. We have recently heard about another likeness by Robert Mellamphy in plaster-of-paris which resided for around twenty years in St Peter on the Waterfront and was moved to the vestry of St Clement Church and may, we had hoped, be made into a 'proper' bronze. However, an opening of St Clement in May 2014 reveals that it has quite a high level of dampness in the air and we hear from Dr John Blatchly that the maquette in chicken wire and plaster had begun to collapse. Apparently Robert Mellamphy's family have returned it to his studio, but it is perhaps unlikely that it will be cast. We wonder if anyone ever photographed it? These likenesses are joined by the somewhat controversial, 21st century Wolsey statue in St Peter's Street, outside the site of Curson House. There is a public house called, since September 2011, The Thomas Wolsey in St Peters Street (see below).

Ipswich Historic Lettering: Cardinal Wolsey portrait
Cardinal Wolsey
(1610) by Sampson Strong with Christ Church in the background; the painting is kept at Christ Church College, Oxford.

Although it would be difficult to find a better example of abuses in the Church than the Cardinal himself, Wolsey appeared to make some steps towards reform. In 1524 and 1527 he used his powers as papal legate to dissolve thirty decayed monasteries where corruption had run rife, including abbeys in Ipswich and Oxford. However, he then used the income to found a grammar school in Ipswich (The King's School, Ipswich, later Ipswich School) and Cardinal College in Oxford. The college in Oxford was renamed King's College after Wolsey's fall. Today, it is known as Christ Church. Wolsey died five years before Henry's dissolution of the monasteries en masse began.

A chronology of Wolsey's college
(based on Dr John Blatchly’s excellent book A famous antient seed-plot of learning, see Reading list)
1526
6 May. Papal bull for the establishment of the Ipswich College sent from Rome to Wolsey by Bishop Worcester, auditor of your Apostolic Chamber there.

1527
November. Thomas Cromwell, friend and follower of Wolsey, visits Ipswich about the building of the college.

1528
March. The Duke of Norfolk writes to tell Wolsey that he has visited the site and ordered a plan of St Peter and St Paul Priory. He can advise the Cardinal how to ‘save large monie in buildyng there’, presumably by using some of the priory buildings, particularly by modifying the Church of St Peter as the chapel.

14 May. Pope Clement VII issues a bull authorising the suppression of five small priories including Felixstowe and Blythburgh (the latter the subject of a Time Team programme on Channel 4, which can be viewed on the web).

26 May. King Henry VIII ratifies a bull for the suppression of the Augustinian priory of St Peter and St Paul in Ipswich

31 May. The king ratifies the bull for the transfer from Wolsey’s Oxford College of five priories including Snape and Dodnash.

15 June. The foundation stone of the college is laid by John Holte, titular bishop of Lydda and a suffragan of London. In the 18th century the stone was found built into wall in Friars Road (which ran between Friars Street and Wolsey Street: it no longer exists) and was presented to Christ Church, Oxford by the Rev. Richard Canning, where it is kept in the chapter house.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Wolsey College foundation stoneWolsey's College foundation stone Ipswich Historic Lettering: Wolsey College foundation stone 2 Facsimile in St Peter's
'AN . CHRISTI . M
DXXVIII . ET
REGNI . HENRICI
OCTAVI . REGIS
ANGLIĘ XX . MENSIS
VERO . IUNII . XV
POSITUM
p . IOHEM . EPN . LIDEM'
The translation is: 'This year of our Lord 1528 and the 20th year of the Reign of King Henry VIII of England and the 15th of June [this stone] laid by John [Holt], Bishop of Lydda'.

21 June
. Building work is begun by thirty-seven freemasons working under local master masons, John Barbour and Richard Lee, using Caen stone. Mr Daundy, Wolsey’s cousin, has imported a 121 tons and promises 1,000 more before the following Easter.

26 June. The king grants the rectory of St Matthew’s, Ipswich to the college, a living held at the time by Wolsey’s natural son, Thomas Winter.

29 June. The King's letters patent for the foundation of the college are issued. It could be built in St Matthew’s parish (‘where the said Cardinal was born’) or elsewhere.

30 June. Cromwell to Thomas Arundel: he must delay erection of the college at Ipswich until 21 July as the offices of Chancery will not expire till then.

3 July. Wolsey commissions six eminent clerics including Stephen Gardiner, later Bishop of Winchester, to prepare statutes for the college.

28 July. Wolsey executes his foundation deed, based on the king’s letters patent, converting St Peter and St Paul Priory to ‘Saint Mary, Cardynall College of Ipswich’. William Capon STP, master of Jesus College, Cambridge is appointed dean of the college, presiding over twelve priest fellows, eight clerks, eight children (choristers), a grammar-school master and usher, fifty grammar scholars and ’12 poure men to pray dayly to God for the good astate of our Graces King & the said Cardinall, ther friends souls and all christen soulls’. Later Thomas Cromwell makes draft lists of stipends (the dean and master both have £13 6 shillings and eightpence) and adds a second usher, who is ‘keeper of the scholehouse’.

7 August. Wolsey, from his mansion Hampton Court, instructs Dean Capon to assemble the parishioners of St Peter's and offer them the choice of St Nicholas or St Mary-At-The-Quay for their future worship. In her will, Dame Elizabeth Gelget leaves money for the purchase of a roof from Capon should the churchwardens of St Mary-At-The-Quay choose to cover the chancel there with it. The congregation there, about to be swelled by about half the parishioners of St Peter’s, would need a church in good order. St Mary-At-The-Quay chancel roof shows every sign of being roughly reassembled probably from St Peter’s.
Wolsey wanted his chapel to resemble those of Eton and King’s: squarer than the traditional long cruciform shape and better for grand ceremonial. The Tournai marble font basin, lacking its large central pillar and four slender ones at the corners, is given an incongruous Tudor base. The west doorway of St Peter's was embellished with heads, shields and fleurons (flower shaped ornaments) in the jambs and two large vaulted canopied niches to north and south, probably for statues of St Peter and St Paul. This is Tudor rather than medieval work.

10 August. Dean Capon publishes the acquisition of many smaller properties given by Wolsey with the king's approval. The deed is dated from ‘the chapel of our said college’, that is, the refurbished St Peter’s.

20 August. The king inspects and confirms a papal bull dated 12 June exempting the college from all ecclesiastical jurisdiction but that of the pope, that two archbishops being guardians of its liberties.

1 September. The college in session under William Goldwin, master. Wolsey sends his Rudimenta Grammatices, ‘dedicated not only to Ipswich School, most happily founded by the most reverend Lord Thomas, Cardinal of York, back to all other schools in England’.

8 September. Feast of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Capon writes at length describing to Wolsey – who could not be present –  the first annual celebration of the foundation. After solemn mass the planned procession to Gracechurch in Lady Lane is interrupted by rain, but a lavish feast is enjoyed nevertheless.
See our Wolsey 450 page for a contemporary map of the procession route.

Wednesday after Christmas. The Great Court grants the colour college the interest in all the property, in Ipswich and at Whitton, with which Richard Felaw endowed the grammar school. Against ‘Concessio’ [granted] in the margin is written ‘Vacat' [void], showing that the corporation managed to reverse the grant after the fall of the college.

1529
10 January. William Goldwin writes to Wolsey reporting progress and, presumably by the same messenger, the bailiffs reply to Wolsey’s request that they grant the college the former endowments of the grammar school.

12 April. Capon writes to Cromwell: they have begun to set the freestone; there are troubles with the choir. But the school is so well attended that it must be enlarged; schoolmaster and usher take great pains.

30 April. Sir Robert Curson (Lord Curson) agrees to Wolsey’s request that he, Curson, give his own house on St Peters Street, adjoining the college, as his ‘provost’s residence’ in the manner of the provosts of Eton and Winchester. Robert Curson cannily asks for three year’s grace to move out thus avoiding the need ever to do so, due the imminent fall of both Wolsey and his college at Ipswich.

July. Thomas Cromwell’s agent Brabazon reports that the college is going on prosperously ‘and much of it above ground, which is very curious work’. Working day and night, more has been done in the last three weeks then for some time before.

July to September. Gifts, plate, investments, books and other furnishings for the chapel arrived from many sources including Wolsey’s York Place in London [see below].

8 August. Bailiffs and portman write to thank Wolsey for setting up the college to the honour and use of the town.

8 September. It is not known whether the second Lady Day procession was held.

13 November. Royal commissioners visit to make an inventory of all valuables and building materials. They estimate that the college had £10,000 worth of Wolsey’s ‘treasure’ and take away with them the best plate and vestments.

1 December. Wolsey is impeached.

1530
9 July and 20 July. Dean Capon writes twice to Wolsey, in his first expressing pessimism about the future, the second telling him that the king was resolved to dissolve the college by Michaelmas.

19 September. Commissioners sitting at Woodbridge rule that all the college lands are forfeit to the king.

4 October. Capon tells Wolsey that the Duke of Norfolk has ordered the dissolution of the college, retaining only the dean, sub-dean, schoolmaster, usher and six grammar children pending the king’s pleasure. The king orders the demolition of the college and the materials to be shipped to Galye Quay in London where they are to be used to enlarge what was formerly Wolsey’s York Place to become the royal palace of Whitehall. Only Wolsey’s Gate, the waterside entrance to the Ipswich college next to the (St Peter) chapel, remains today on the suitably named College Street.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Wolsey Gate 1   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Wolsey Gate 32014 images
From the Cornhill and the Buttermarket visitors passed under an impressive tower and walked through a long formal garden. The Turret House [see the top of this page], as it was latterly called, was pulled down in 1843. It was probably a remnant of the Dean's house, well situated, at some remove from the boys, for entertaining guests.

29 November. Wolsey dies at Leicester Abbey on his way to London.
Wolsey’s remains were interred somewhere within the abbey’s church, possibly in the Lady Chapel, where they are thought to remain; however the exact location of his burial is unknown. A more recent memorial slab can be found in Abbey Park, Leicester, all that remains of the Augustinian Abbey of St Mary de Pratis which was 'dissolved' in 1538. The slab bears Wolsey's coat of arms.

Early 1531
Ipswich college property bringing in an income of £2,234 a year was assigned to the Oxford college (now to be known as King's College of Christ Church), St George’s Windsor, the king and various other persons. Thomas Alvard (stepson of Sir Thomas Rush), agent of Thomas Cromwell, is given the college site.
Rush and Alvard were canny political survivors and they certainly had an eye to business. When the fallen Wolsey’s college was closed down and the fabric dismantled and stockpiled on the site, it was appropriated by the king. Rush and Alvard won the contract to transport most of it to Westminster (to be used on the building of Whitehall Palace?) and no doubt made a decent percentage on the value. Some idea of the scale of the college campus can be guaged from the fact that the Exchequer accounts of 1531 record 1,300 tons of Caen stone (initially imported from Normandy – Ipswich doesn’t have local supplies of stone) and 600 tons of flints (initially brought to Ipswich from the cliffs in Harwich).
(For more about Rush and Alvard see our Old Cattle Market page under 'Sir Thomas Rush and the Church of St Stephen'.)

Most importantly, the ‘college or school’ of Ipswich was assigned £60 a year – in another document only £43 – to cover the stipends of master and usher and to be paid out of the profits of crown lands in the county, but Felaw’s bequests were not mentioned as probably already recovered by the corporation. Thomas Cromwell is still credited with ensuring that the school was not forgotten in the dissolution of the short-lived college.
See also our Christ's Hospital School page for more on the story of The Grammar School, today Ipswich School.

York Place / White Hall
By the 13th century, the Palace of Westminster had become the centre of government in England, and had been the main London residence of the king since 1049. The surrounding area became a very popular and expensive location. The archbishop of York, Walter de Grey, bought a property in the area as his London residence soon after 1240, calling it York Place.

Edward I of England stayed at the property on several occasions while work was carried out at Westminster, and enlarged the building to accommodate his entourage. York Place was rebuilt during the 15th century and expanded so much by Cardinal Wolsey that it was rivalled by only Lambeth Palace as the greatest house in London – the king's London palaces included. Consequently, when King Henry VIII removed the Wolsey from power in 1530, he acquired York Place to replace Westminster as his main London residence. He inspected its treasures in the company of Anne Boleyn. The phrase Whitehall or White Hall is first recorded in 1532; it had its origins in the white stone used for the buildings.

The Palace of Whitehall (or Palace of White Hall) was the main residence of the English monarchs in London from 1530 until 1698 when all except Inigo Jones's 1622 Banqueting House was destroyed by fire. Before the fire it had grown to be the largest palace in Europe, with over 1,500 rooms, overtaking the Vatican and Versailles. The palace gives its name, Whitehall, to the road on which many of the current administrative buildings of the United Kingdom government are situated, and hence to the central government itself.


The Thomas Wolsey public house, 9 St Peters St
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thomas Wolsey pub 1960s1960s image courtesy The Ipswich Society Image Archive
Today's Thomas Wolsey public house with timbering in the three gables; the Rose Inn/Rose Hotel comprises the three gables to the left.
Now that we have this web page in place we, at last, have a place to show Tudor mouldings from an interior ceiling in the Thomas Wolsey public house in St Peters Street, once a fine merchant's house and yard.
It stands next door to the Rose Hotel with its vestigial 'Cobbolds' lettering. Interestingly, Chris Sedlak states that: 'The former inn is on the corner, as you know, and to its south is a slightly older building (late 1500s / very early 1600s vs. early-to-mid 1600s for the inn structure), the Rose House, which was a succession of pubs in the 20th and now 21st centuries... My guess is that the Rose Inn (namesake of the lane) was named after the slightly older and adjacent Rose House.' [Update taken from our page on the Rose Hotel.]
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 3   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 6
This building is Listed Grade II and dates from the 17th century. It was converted into a large single ground floor bar with upstairs rooms and a narrow staircase leading to the Tudor parlour. It was renamed The Thomas Wolsey public house in September 2011. There is a seated drinking area in the courtyard and beneath the carriage entrance, which has one of the public rooms above.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 1   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 4
The Thomas Wolsey was previously called Rapps in early 1980s, The Black Adder in the early 1990s when ex-footballer Alan Brazil owned the pub for several years. A friend of this website, Linda Wilde, made the excellent snakish engraved glass sheets which hung in the front windows of the Black Adder – we wonder where they ended up? Before it was called The Thomas Wolsey it was called 'bar IV'.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 2   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 5
Flying pigs are a favoured motif, emblem of the Bacon family who once lived here. Pink Floyd and Gerald Scarfe were obviously taking note [contemprary cultural reference from the 1970s...] Also Tudor roses, grotesque horned men (perhaps green men, as seen on the Tolly Cobbold brewery?) and other animals.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 8   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 7
The room also has a fine fireplace with carved wood overmantle.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 9   Ipswich Historic Lettering: Thos Wolsey pub 10
The Listing text is shown below (British Listed buildings, see Links):-
"A C17 timber-framed and plastered house, similar in design to Nos 3 and 5, with 3 jettied gables on paired brackets. Altered in the C19. The gables have C19 cut and shaped ornamental bargeboards and sham exposed timber-framing. 3 window range, early C19 bay windows on the 1st storey, double-hung sashes with vertical glazing bars. The attics are lit by windows in the gables. The ground storey has C19 shop windows and a carriage way to a small courtyard at the rear. A continuous fascia with an unusual modillion cornice unites the ground storey. At the rear 2 wings extend to the east. On the north side there is a 2 storey wing with a range of casement windows with lattice leaded lights and a single storey extension at the east end. On the south side there is a jettied upper storey with exposed joists and a range of casement windows similar to those on the south side. The ground storey has brick nogging and a boarded door with a Tudor arched head. The window above the carriage entrance is an oriel bay with leaded lattice lights and a moulded sill. The wings at the rear have been restored. Roofs tiled.
Nos 5 to 13 (odd), No 13A, Nos 15 to 33 (odd), No 33A and Nos 35 to 39 (odd) form a group."


Wolsey... who he?
2022 marks 550 years (ish) since the birth of the most famous son of Ipswich. Thomas Wolsey (c.1472-5 to 1530 – his date of birth is uncertain). His birthplace was probably a house in St Nicholas Street (or St Nicholas Church Lane), long since demolished, at the corner of a passage into the churchyard; another candidate is the site of today's Black Horse public house in Black Horse Lane. Uncertainties about the details of Wolsey's life are an odd feature of one of the most powerful men in English history. He became a priest and statesman from relatively humble beginnings in Ipswich§, who was blessed with academic brilliance, rapacious ambition and, until the end of his life, good fortune. It’s a matter of opinion which of Wolsey's characteristics was more responsible for his rise to become first minister of Henry VIII, and chief political confidant, but once he had got to the top, he had a lot to offer.

He was perhaps the finest ministerial mind England had ever had until at least the 19th century. He was obsessional in his micro-management of affairs of state and refusal to delegate – his overwork was to take its toll on his health over a long period. In many ways, Wolsey led a charmed life. The young Wolsey benefitted greatly from the patronage of the rich and powerful who recognised his gifts and potential. He secured the scholarship to Ipswich Grammar School, a bequest of Tudor merchant, Richard Felaw, later studying theology at Magdalen College, Oxford – his education promoted by his uncle, Edmund Daundy. As his power increased he collected ecclesiastical titles and properties like stamps and enjoyed the finest luxuries. His greed accounts for his later corpulence and poor health.

He went from being a royal chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln, then became Archbishop of York and finally Lord Chancellor of England. He also became Cardinal Wolsey, Papal Legate whose authority from the Pope in some respects went beyond that of King Henry VIII himself. Wolsey began building Hampton Court Palace in 1514, and carried on making improvements throughout the 1520s. Descriptions record rich tapestry-lined apartments; a visitor had to traverse eight rooms before finding his audience chamber. He always embraced the trappings and rituals which people expected of a man of power, they also satisfied his vanity.

His passion for education influenced his foundation of and endowments to ‘Cardinal’s College’, today’s Christ Church College in Oxford. He then turned his attention and wealth to the establishment of a college dedicated to St Mary The Virgin in his home town to act as a feeder college to Oxford. He seized the Church of St Peter to be used as the college chapel, which was eventually only returned to the parish through the good offices of Wolsey’s right-hand man and successor, Thomas Cromwell. The College was almost completed to high standards of building and materials, but within two years was forfeit to the King, as was Hampton Court and all of Wolsey’s estate. The only trace we have of the College is the much-eroded
Wolsey’s Gate, the Watergate, still to be seen on today’s College Street where the quayside would have been.

Cardinal Wolsey was accused, after his death, of imagining himself the equal of sovereigns, and his fall from power was seen as a natural consequence of arrogance and overarching ambition. Much of this can be seen as black propaganda spread by his enemies, now that Wolsey was out of the way of their own ambitions. Yet Wolsey was also a diligent statesman, who worked hard to translate Henry VIII’s own dreams and mercurial ambitions into effective domestic and foreign policy. When he failed to do so, most notably when Henry’s plans to divorce Katherine of Aragon were thwarted by Katherine herself and the Pope, his fall from favour was swift and final. Thomas Wolsey died on his way to a possible last and fatal meeting with royal wrath, at Leicester Abbey in 1530.

Over the fourteen years of his chancellorship, Cardinal Wolsey had more power than any other Crown servant in English history. As long as he was in the king’s favour, Wolsey had a large amount of freedom within the domestic sphere, and had his hand in nearly every aspect of its ruling. For much of the time, Henry VIII had complete confidence in him and, as Henry's interests inclined more towards foreign policy, he was willing to give Wolsey a free hand in reforming the management of domestic affairs, for which Wolsey had grand plans in the fields of taxation, justice and church reforms.

The man who was a unique cocktail of merits and failings – perhaps this lay at the very heart of his extraordinary success. Was he likeable? Would we have admired or feared him? How is he remembered today? I recently read an excellent biography of the man – and there are a number of such books available – John Matusiak’s Wolsey: the life of King Henry VIII's cardinal (see Reading list) which reads like a novel and is most enlightening. Copies are available from Suffolk Libraries. Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, later dramatised for television shows us a Wolsey towards the end of his power (and life). The only known painting of Wolsey by Sampson Strong was made at least sixty years after his death – it may have been a copy of a contemporary portrait. It now hangs in Christ Church College, Oxford. All subsequent images of the cardinal are based on this unflattering profile. We don’t really know what he looked like; in fact, he called himself ‘Wulcy’... An enigma.

[§His father was either a dodgy Ipswich butcher or ‘a prosperous Ipswich merchant’– or something in between.]
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Wolsey Street sign
Above: one of the Ipswich street nameplates which commemorate the Cardinal (see Street name derivations).
See the Historical Portraits Picture Archive for an excellent short biography of the Thomas Wolsey. Also the statue of Wolsey on Curson Plain.
[UPDATE 21.4.2021: And just to prove that the shadow of Thomas Wolsey is long enough to reach twentieth century marketing, Syvia Patsalides writes: 'I read the article about the Silburys, lockdown and Cardinal Wolsey [Ipswich Society Newsletter: Issue 225] and attach a photograph of my Wolsey Chocolates tin produced by E & S CWS Ltd of Luton. I believe that the factory in Luton used to do all the chocolate related stuff, but will admit to have so far done little research. What chocolates were contained within I wonder?']
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Cardinal Chocolate tin2021 image courtesy Syvia Patsalides
'Cardinal
Chocolates

MANUFACTURED
BY THE
E & S. Jt.,C.W.S.LT.D.
LUTON'
Reading: Matusiak, John: Wolsey : the life of King Henry VIII's cardinal (see Reading list).

See also our Old Cattle Market page for Wolsey's friend and contemporary at Court, Sir Thomas Rush, his mansion in Upper Brook Street and his memorial chapel in St Stephen Church.

For more on the ancient charity schools of Ipswich, see our Christ's Hospital School page.

Related pages:
The Question Mark
Christie's warehouse
Bridge Street
Burton Son & Sanders / Paul's

College Street
Coprolite Street
Cranfield's Flour Mill

Custom House
Trinity House buoy
Edward Fison Ltd
Ground-level dockside furniture on: 'The island', the northern quays and Ransome's Orwell Works
Ipswich Whaling Station?
Isaac Lord

Neptune Inn clock, garden and interior
Isaac Lord 2
The Island
John Good and Sons
Merchant seamen's memorial
The Mill

Nova Scotia House
New Cut East
Quay nameplates
R&W Paul malting company
Ransomes
Steam Packet Hotel

Stoke Bridge(s)
Waterfront Regeneration Scheme
A chance to compare
Wet Dock 1970s with 2004
Wet Dock maps

Davy's illustration of the laying of the Wet Dock lock foundation stone, 1839
Outside the Wet Dock

Maritime Ipswich '82 festival

See also:
Wolsey 450 page with a PDF download; includes an article on the College procession.
Grand Ipswich timeline for two thousand years of the town's history;
Ipswich invasions timeline to see all the raiders and invaders who attacked Ipswich throughout its history;
Christchurch/Holy Trinity Priory timeline;
Historic Maps page for a note about the Ipswich claim to be the earliest continuously settled town in England.
Kings and Queens timelines (which includes architectural styles).



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