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Ipswich Defiance
Ipswich Defiance
South, 52.05101,1.15304
closed 1996
22 or 24 Stoke St
grid reference TM 162 438
The pub can be seen on this OS town plan from about 1880 (larger map).
The pub was converted for residential use after closure but for most of the 21st century the building has been boarded up and semi-derelict.
Gallery
Historical interest
Mr John Henry Webb, landlord of the Defiance, Ipswich, was found guilty of having kept a quantity of tobacco in a non entered room. Mr John Morson, an excise officer, had entered the house under the authority of a search warrant and found an earthenware jar containing 2lbs 6oz of tobacco secreted under the mattress of a bed. Mrs Webb admitted moving the jar from the bar and hiding it as she was worried it contained too much tobacco. In his defence the landlord told the court he was unaware of his wife’s actions, he was also new to the trade having spent most of his life involved in the South Sea Fisheries…
Landlords
Footnote
The name could be a reference to a ship or mail-coach. As the pub backs onto the start of the river Gipping its name may be more nautically related. At least 12 ships and 2 shore establishments of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Defiance. One HMS Defiance (built 1861) was the last wooden line-of-battle ship to be launched for the Royal Navy with 91-guns on 3 decks. However, she never saw service as a battle ship. By 1884 she had become a Devonport based torpedo & mining schoolship; a role that lasted until 1931 when she was broken up.
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)
(** historic newspaper information from Stuart Ansell)
(*** historical details supplied by Neil Langridge)
Old OS map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.