Needham Market
For a small market town
which has been
by passed by the A14 - and perhaps because of that very fact - Needham
Market possesses a variety of historic lettering examples. The centre
of the town remains largely unspoilt; it includes an handsome railway
station, too. On the road leading to Needham Lake is the picturesquely
named Rampant Horse Inn, still bearing two of the relief lettering
brewery signs which survive on the front of The
Emperor
public house in Ipswich (as well as the house further up the main
street - see below). Off
licences
in Ipswich also carry the name. To the right is 'TOLLY COBBOLD', to the
left 'TOLLY COBBOLD ALES & SPIRITS' (see insets). Between them
the
splendid arc of 'RAMPANT HORSE' encloses a window and the word 'INN'
below, all picked out in black paint.
Nearby, on the old Ipswich to Stowmarket road is a bus shelter with a Victorian wall post-box bearing the 'V' and 'R' of Victoria Regina either side of a regal crown. It is a plain cast iron design with 'POST OFFICE' in capitals on the projecting rain cover. All are readable still despite many coats of red paint. To the left, under the bus shelter itself is a rather grand stone tablet in the shape of a shield with curved pediment. It is set into the same red brick wall and reads in small and large caps:
'VR
This tablet was erected in commemoration of the Queen's long reign.
1897.' (The lead of the figure one in the date has dropped out and three holes remain.)
Up the busy road on the same side, a modest terrace of shops (Needham Market still supports butchery, bakery and other small businesses which have disappeared in much of nearby Ipswich) whose frontages belie their age, if the '1716' date (see inset) is to be believed. Further along the initials 'JB' are fixed in large wrought iron decorative characters, painted white and positioned between the first and second storeys (again, see inset). We wonder whose initials they are.
-
Accross the street an entrance in white Suffolk brick with a large green painted plaque above, bearing the white lettering:
'The Alms House
for eight poor widows or widowers belonging to this place was originally built and endowed by some benevolent individual whose name is now unknown.
Further endowed by the late Saml. Alexander Esq. repaired and in part rebuilt by public subscription
A.D. 1856 [?]'
-
Towards Stowmarket is a remarkable frontage bearing a circle with masonic dividers above the initials 'SM' and the date '1718'. Directly accross the street is the former public house on the corner of Bridge Street which again bears 'TOLLY COBBOLD' in relief lettering on two faces. The decorative gable end lettering is picked out in black, but that on the long side is painted the same colour as the cement rendering, although (see enlargement) the fluorescent lighting fitment is still above it.
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Nearby, on the old Ipswich to Stowmarket road is a bus shelter with a Victorian wall post-box bearing the 'V' and 'R' of Victoria Regina either side of a regal crown. It is a plain cast iron design with 'POST OFFICE' in capitals on the projecting rain cover. All are readable still despite many coats of red paint. To the left, under the bus shelter itself is a rather grand stone tablet in the shape of a shield with curved pediment. It is set into the same red brick wall and reads in small and large caps:
'VR
This tablet was erected in commemoration of the Queen's long reign.
1897.' (The lead of the figure one in the date has dropped out and three holes remain.)
Up the busy road on the same side, a modest terrace of shops (Needham Market still supports butchery, bakery and other small businesses which have disappeared in much of nearby Ipswich) whose frontages belie their age, if the '1716' date (see inset) is to be believed. Further along the initials 'JB' are fixed in large wrought iron decorative characters, painted white and positioned between the first and second storeys (again, see inset). We wonder whose initials they are.
-Accross the street an entrance in white Suffolk brick with a large green painted plaque above, bearing the white lettering:
'The Alms House
for eight poor widows or widowers belonging to this place was originally built and endowed by some benevolent individual whose name is now unknown.
Further endowed by the late Saml. Alexander Esq. repaired and in part rebuilt by public subscription
A.D. 1856 [?]'
-Towards Stowmarket is a remarkable frontage bearing a circle with masonic dividers above the initials 'SM' and the date '1718'. Directly accross the street is the former public house on the corner of Bridge Street which again bears 'TOLLY COBBOLD' in relief lettering on two faces. The decorative gable end lettering is picked out in black, but that on the long side is painted the same colour as the cement rendering, although (see enlargement) the fluorescent lighting fitment is still above it.
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