Ipswich

Introduction

Port, borough and county town of Suffolk, Ipswich is by far the largest settlement in the county and historically was built around the lowest crossing point of the tidal river Orwell (known as the river Gipping to west of Stoke bridge). The modern town has expanded far beyond the fortified medieval port and today many large modern urban and industrial estates surround the older central shopping, administrative and decayed port areas which are slowly being redeveloped.

It's often claimed that "Ipswich once had a pub for every day of the year". However this claim (which is probably made for many similar-sized towns) doesn't stand up. Borough police records show that the town's drinking estate peaked in about 1870, when there were a total of about 313 taverns and beerhouses. As police records did not differentiate between beerhouses with either on- or off-licenses, so the maximum number of actual drinking premises was probably between ten to twenty fewer than that.

BREWING IN TOWN…

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Street-by-street pub list

History

Before 1860

Brewing during the medieval era was mostly a household duty. However in larger local settlements such as Ipswich some commercial ale brewing was established by the 1450s or earlier. By about 1500 there was increasing concern about the recent migrant Dutch settlers into the town who were brewing beer [with hops] rather than local ale [without] and selling it cheaper to the local population than was expected. At that time the town council set prices for various basic food and drink products…

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