Ips Misc - Miscellaneous References to Ipswich from Around the World - part 4
- Luke Pantelidou
- Jul 4
- 34 min read
Order of contents on this page: (Click on the links below)
Fauna:
Flora:
Aircraft:
Almost Ipswich - Places with Names Similar to Ipswich:
Odds & Ends:
The Ipswich Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis princeps)
First identified in 1868, the name comes from the fact that the discoverer, C J Ma ynard, shot one on the beach at Ipswich, Massachusetts. Initially misidentified as Baird's Sparrow, Maynard later (1872) recognised it as a new species & gave it the latin name Passerculus princeps, although it also seems to have been known by some as Ammodramus princeps maynard (see Jonathan Dwight's The Ipswich Sparrow & it's summer home 1895)
Initially thought of as a separate species, modern DNA testing now shows that the Ipswich Sparrow is in fact a subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis). The two subspecies do sometimes interbreed. The Ipswich Sparrow now has the scientific name Passerculus sandwichensis princeps.
The Ipswich Sparrow is paler & larger than the Savannah Sparrow, with light grey plumage, grey-brown back & narrow pale brown streaks on a white breast. In spring & summer they develop a yellow stripe above the eye. Males & females are similar in appearance.
Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, is the Ipswich Sparrow's main breeding ground, with an estimated population of around six thousand. Nesting on heaths or beach dunes, some birds remain on Sable Island during the winter, while others migrate south down the Atlantic seaboard.
Due to erosion of their habitat & human disturbance, the status of the Ipswich Sparrow is classified as vulnerable.
Flora - Introductory Note
In the horticultural world a “variety” is a naturally occurring plant which is different from others within a species, and a “cultivar” is the same, except that it has been ‘man made’. However, it is common for gardening outlets to refer to them all as “varieties”, and we have adopted this practice, although all of the following, except the first two (Ipswich Daisy and Ipswich Wonga Wonga Vine), are actually cultivars. Where we have been unable to find an image of the actual plant, we have used an image of a similar variety.
Ipswich Daisy (Olearia nernstii)
Olearia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Asteraceae (commo nly referred to as the aster, daisy, or sunflower family). There are about 130 different species within the genus found mostly in Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. The genus includes herbaceous plants and evergreen shrubs with large daisylike flowers.
Olearia nernstii, which is better known by its common name of the “Ipswich Daisy”, is a shrub two metres high found in forest or open woodland, and is widespread in the eastern coastal areas of Queensland and New South Wales from Sydney to Brisbane. It has alternate toothed or prickly leaves which has given rise to its other common name in the Sydney area of “Jagged Daisy-bush” (see left).
The name Ipswich Daisy was given to this plant by 1853 because it reminded the people around Ipswich, Queensland, of the daisies that they were familiar with back in Britain. At that time it was noted by the German botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, and he brought it to the notice of the scientific world in 1865 when he gave it the scientific name of Olearia nernstii. Ferdinand von Mueller (1825-1896) was born in Rostock and emigrated to Australia in 1847, where he was appointed government botanist for the colony of Victoria. He discovered and named many Australian plants. The English botanist George Bentham described the plant properly for valid acceptance by the scientific community in his “Flora australiensis” (1867).
The name Olearia was applied to this genus in 1802 by the German botanist Christia Moench, when plants from Australasia were becoming known to Europe. He named the genus after Johann Gottfried Ölschläger, a 17th century Lutheran theologian and horticulturalist, whose Latinised name was “Olearius”, as all scientific work was then written in Latin. The species name of “nernstii” was given by von Mueller in recognition of his compatriot botanist J. Nernst, the discoverer of the Mount Blackwood Holly, who lived in Ipswich, Queensland.
Ipswich Wonga Wonga Vine (Pandorea floribunda)
The “Ipswich Wonga Wonga Vine” and the “Yellow-flowered Wonga Wonga Vine” are names commonly given to the Pandorea floribunda plant. (The second “Wonga” is often omitted, but in the aboriginal language the word is repeated.) “Wonga” is a common aboriginal word with several meanings, one of which is simply “vine”.
The Ipswich Wonga Wonga Vine is a fast-growing Australian native woody, climbing plant. It can be found in Australia from north-eastern New South Wales to south-eastern Queensland growing vigorously over tall tr ees. It is a large and vigorous vine growing right to the top of the tree canopy. Their height is only limited by the height of the supporting host tree. The stems of these large vines can measure up to 20 cm in diameter. It has pale yellow, tubular flowers growing in clusters from 4 to 40 cm long on the ends of the stems. The vine has a profusion of flowers in early spring, and is a dense evergreen creeper all year round. It has a brief flowering time for two to three weeks in spring (between early August and October depending on its location). It grows on the margins of the rainforest, but is also widespread outside the rainforest and can be found in bushland areas.
Allan Cunningham (1791–1839), the English botanist and explorer, collected the first specimen in 1828 when he was exploring the Moreton Bay, Brisbane and Bremer rivers area, where Ipswich is now located. The Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle published a description of the plant and gave it the scientific name of Tecoma floribunda in 1838. It was recognised as a Wonga Wonga Vine, but it was not known if it was a separate species. This was because it is very difficult to differentiate between this species and others from the appearance of the stem, and although the leaves are very different they were difficult to see in the tops of the trees. The above scientific name was thus just considered another synonym given to the Wonga Wonga Vine. The latter had first been described by the English botanist Henry Charles Andrews in 1800 as Bignonia pandorana in the family Bignoniaceae. It was also named Tecoma australis by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown in 1810. Eventually all these names were ruled invalid and the current scientific name of Pandorea pandorana was finally decided upon in 1927 when the Dutch botanist Cornelis van Steenis coined the name.
In 1987 the Australian botanist Keith Williams in the 3rd Volume of his “Native Plants of Queensland” referred to the Wonga Wonga Vine in the Ipswich area as “Pandorea sp. (Ipswich)”. This is what is known as a cytoform – an entity of which the exact nature is still undetermined. To emphasise that it is not yet regarded as a separate species, the cytoform name is not italicised and the first letter is capitalised. This gave rise to its common name of the “Ipswich Wonga Wonga Vine” as it was now accepted as something different from the others. (See also Ipswich as a Scientific Name page)
In the scientific literature it remained “an undescribed species that is very similar to Pandorea pandorana”, until 2008 when Dr Gordon Guymer, today the Director of the Queensland Herbarium, was able to show that it was a separate species (Austrobaileya 18 Dec 2008). It was given the scientific name Pandorea floribunda. The genus name Pandorea is derived from Greek mythology, because the tightly packed seed pod of this vine genus recalls the myth of “Pandora’s box”. (She was the first woman on Earth, and was given a gift of a beautiful jar by the gods, with instructions not to open it under any circumstances. Impelled by her curiosity, Pandora opened it and all evil contained therein escaped and spread over the earth.) Floribunda means “profusely flowering” and, as is customary in scientific circles, this species suffix is taken from the name given to it by the first person to describe it scientifically in 1838.
Ipswich Pink, Ipswich Crimson & Ipswich Mulberry – Varieties of Dianthus plumarius
Dianthus is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, native mainly to Europe and Asia. Common names include carnation (D. caryophyllus), pinks (D. plumarius) and sweet william (D. barbatus). The name Dianthus was cited by the Greek botanist Theophrastus in the 4th century BC; it takes its name from the Greek words dios (‘god’) and anthos (‘flower’). The first recorded modern use of this scientific name was in 1849. The earliest common name for the various plants of the gen us Dianthus was “pinks”. This was not because of the colour of the petals but because of their jagged edge (see photograph). In the 13th century, “to pink” a piece of cloth or leather was to cut or punch a hole in a zigzag manner along the edge. Although the word is now archaic, this meaning is still preserved today in “pinking shears” which are scissors with a serrated blade, used to cut a zigzag edge in fabric. “Pinks” as a flower is in the written record from 1566. The colour pink is actually named after the flower since, as a colour, it is not recorded before 1669.
Dianthus species have been extensively bred and hybridised to produce many thousands of cultivars for garden use, in all shades of white, pink, yellow and red, with a huge variety of flower shapes and markings. D. plumarius, the parent of all pinks, has been cultivated in Britain since 1560. ‘Plumarius’ means ‘feathery’ pertaining to the shape of the petals. Its variability of colour led to the introduction of a seed-raised strain which were called ‘Ipswich Pinks’ in the first half of the twentieth century by Jose ph Sangster, breeder and proprietor from 1913 to 1952 of the Ipswich, England, based seed and plant merchants Thompson & Morgan.
Dianthus ‘Ipswich Pinks’ are considered to be the traditional English-style “pinks”. They are evergreen hardy perennials and grow to a height of around 9 inches and can spread over an area of up to 30 inches. Tightly knit masses of single, fragrant flowers cover the foliage mound in spring until late summer in a mixture of colours ranging from red to pink to white. The fragrant one-inch blooms often have a dark rose-red centre, or dark stripes or markings on the petals. The flowers are rotate shaped with scalloped edges and have a pleasant clove scented smell. It has a green stem and leaves. They are ideal for borders, rockeries and containers.
Thompson & Morgan were established in 1855. It began with a baker’s son, William Thompson, who maintained a small garden behind the bakery in Tavern Street, Ipswich. From the back garden he moved to a nursery at the edge of Ipswich. William Thompson produced his first seed catalogue in 1855. He entered into partnership with John Morgan, a businessman who was able to offer capital resources that enabled the expansion of the business into three nurseries. Thompson specialised in growing rare and unusual plants, seeds of which were sent to him from many overseas countries. His efforts made him one of the most distinguished plantsmen of his day and he was honoured by the Royal Horticultural Society with the Victorian Medal of Honour in 1896. He died in 1903 at the age of 80 but he had lived to see Thompson & Morgan become one of the country’s largest seed firms with a reputation for introducing more species and varieties to the gardening public than any other seed company. Joseph Sangster succeeded William Thompson as the leading plantsman at Thompson & Morgan, and in 1913 he became a partner in the business, and took over the company completely when, in 1921, John Morgan died. Today Thompson & Morgan has become one of the UK’s largest mail order Seed and Plant companies, and also exports a round the world.
In 1929 another variety named Dianthus ‘Ipswich Crimson’ was also being advertised in Thompson & Morgan’s catalogue. It is described as a “grand new variety” with “deep crimson flowers”. The only reference to this variety still being in existence today comes from the Sussex Country Gardener website, which lists the Dianthus ‘Ipswich Crimson’ as a herbaceous perennial with red double flowers and pale serrated foliage, which thrives on well drained chalk soils.
Dianthus ‘Ipswich Mulberry’ is yet another cultivar listed, but no further details are given.
Gem of Ipswich & Pride of Ipswich – Varieties of Fuchsia
The first Fuchsia (Fuchsia triphylla) discovered by a European was on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in about 1696-1697 by the French botanist Charles Plumier. He named the new genus after the renowned German botanist Leonhart Fuchs, and gave the first description of the plant in 1703. It was introduced to Britain in 1788. The first attempts to raise hybrids began in 1825, but it was not until 1832 that English growers were really able to raise new varieties of this plant.
All but one Fuchsia are shrubs; they belong to the family Onagraceae which is characterised by flowers with usually four sepals and petals. Fuchsia flowers are very decorative and they have a pendulous “teardrop” shape. They have four long, slender sepals and four shorter, broader petals; in many species the sepals and petals are in bright contrasting colours that attract the hummingbirds which pollinate them, but the colours can vary and hybrids have been raised in various combinations. There are currently almost 110 recognised species of Fuchsia. The vast majority are native to South America, but with a few occurring north through Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The number of varieties that have been raised is in excess of 11,000.
The Fuchsia ‘Gem of Ipswich’ was bred by F. Stokes in 1847 in Great Britain. We can find no record of this breeder, but presume he must have been located in the vicinity of Ipswich, Suffolk. The flower catalogues of the day describe it as “dark coral red tubes and sepals, purple coloured corolla”. Its seeds were still being offered for sale in 1881 (John Saul’s Catalogue of Plants, February 1881 USA).
The Fuchsia ‘Pride of Ipswich’ is an upright variety that has dark pink sepals and a lavender corolla (the central petals). It was bred by Edwin Goulding in 2000, and was na med after the Ipswich in Suffolk, England, near to his home. Edwin Goulding is a nurseryman and fuchsia hybridist, and has been, at various times, show manager and editor for the British Fuchsia Society and president of the East Anglian Fuchsia Fellowship. He has written extensively for magazines and lives in East Anglia, England. The Fuchsia ‘Pride of Ipswich’ has been on the Royal Horticultural Society database since 2005.
The same name ‘Pride of Ipswich’ has been applied to a hybrid cultivar of the genus Neoregelia, but the name here refers to the Ipswich in Queensland, Australia (see below)
Ipswich Beauty – A Variety of both Dalhia & Gaillardia
The name ‘Ipswich Beauty’ (also named as the ‘Beauty of Ipswich’) was first used in 1835 for a variety of dahlia, a genus of the Compositae (Asteraceae) family. It was described as “white with rosy pink edge” by the ‘Floricultural Cabinet and Florist’s Magazine’ (London, 1835), and was grown by John Harris of Upwey in Dorset who advertised it in the ‘Annual Dahlia Register, 1836’. It was exhibited at shows over the next few years, but then seems to have lost popularity. It is no longer bred.
The largest family of flowering plants, the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprises about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species. The second plant bearing the name ‘Ipswich Beauty’ also belongs to this family, and is a member of the Gaillardia genus. This is an annual and perennial wildflower, native to northern and western North America, where it grows in many habitats. It is drought-tolerant and will grow under very harsh and dry conditions, forming mounds 8 to 18 inches high. The single or double flowers resemble daisies and grow singly on wiry stems. They are 2 to 3 inches across. It is commonly called the blanket flower in reference to the resemblance of its rich and warm flower colours to the blankets woven by Native Americans. The genus Gaillardia was recorded in 1788 by French botanist Auguste de Bondaroy and was named after Antoine René Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th century French magistrate and patron of botany. This plant was introduced into Britain in 1812 after it became better known to the English-speaking world from descriptions and collections made by Lewis and Clark during their famous expedition across North America from 1804 to 1806.
All garden varieties originate from Gaillardia aristata, a beautiful daisy like flower with an orange-red centre and petals that comprise a great range of colour from pale primrose, bright yellow to orange, and various shades of crimson-red to burgundy, all flowering from June to October. Gaillardia x grandiflora is the accepted name of a hybrid species in the genus Gaillardia that was bred in 1857 by Louis van Houtte (1810-1876), the notable Belgian horticulturist, at his nurseries in Ghent. Gaillardia aristata with Gaillardia pulchella is the parent of Gaillardia x grandiflora from which several cultivars have been created. One of these is ‘Ipswich Beauty’. This variety grows up to 3 feet and has large crimson with deep yellow edged petals. It is recognised as an “old English variety” that was well established before the turn of the 19th century. It is not known whether its name is related to that of the dahlia variety mentioned beforehand, nor what relationship either flower had to the town of Ipswich.
Ipswich Gem – A Variety of both Rosa & Kniphofia
The name ‘Ipswich Gem’ was first used for a rose bred by Robert Ward who lived at Ipswich, England. It was advertised in ‘Curtis’s Botanical Magazine’ in 1867; this is the longest running botanical magazine dating from 1787. It is described as a hybrid perpetual with a large double bloom: “brilliant rosy carmine; large and very double petals, smooth and beautifully disposed, with a fine outline; very distinct in growth and foliage”. It was advertised widely for a few years, but the lineage has subsequently been lost.
Kniphofia ‘Ipswich Gem’ was bred in 1934 by Frances Perry of Perry’s Hardy Plant Farm, Enfield, England. It is described as between 32 to 36 ins. tall, “a pretty shade of rich canary-yellow with bold spikes”. Frances Mary Perry MBE VMH (1907–93) was a botanist, writer and broadcaster, born Frances Everett in Enfield, Middlesex, where she lived most of her life at Bulls Cross. Her interest in plants took her to Swanley Horticultural College (now Wye College, part of the University of London), and in 1927 she was employed by Amos Perry, a local plant nurseryman. She married Perry’s son Gerald (d.1964) an expert on ferns and water plants. Frances Perry soon became a recognised expert on hardy perennials and is known for her writings about them.
Kniphofia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae. There are 70 species of Kniphofia that are native to Africa of which 47 are found in the eastern areas of South Africa. They are grown in temperate conditions around the world. All plants produce dense, erect spikes of upright, brightly coloured flowers well above the foliage. Kniphofia are commonly called red-hot pokers, in reference to their upright silhouette and reddish colouring, which gets more intense towards the tip. However, the small, tubular flowers are produced in shades that range from red, orange, yellow to lime green and cream, and are often bicoloured, depending on the species; numerous cultivars and hybrids have been developed from species originating in South Africa.
The Kniphofia genus was named in 1794 by botanist Conrad Moench (1745–1805) after Johann Hieronymus Kniphof (d.1763), another German botanist. In 1804, when introduced to Britain, it was known as Tritoma (from the seed capsule splitting into three valves), and it was not until 1854 that ‘Curtis’s Botanical Magazine’ used the name Kniphofia. It was also mistakenly thought to be a member of the Liliaceae or lily family, hence another alternative name for this plant is that of the torch lily.
Ipswich Town – Variety of Pelargonium
‘Ipswich Town’ is a variety of the Pelargonium genus, better known as geraniums. It was bred as a miniature geranium by the late Ray Bidwell of Suffolk in 1976 who named many of his introductions after Suffolk villages; this one seems to have been named after his favourite football team. (A miniature geranium is one that is very unlikely to exceed 13cm (5in) in height; their leaves may be tiny, but their flowers can be quite large and striking.)
Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants which includes about 200 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly known as geraniums (in the United States better known as storksbills because the seed head looks like a stork’s beak). Pelargonium species are evergreen perennials indigenous to Southern Africa, and are drought and heat tolerant, but can survive only minor frosts. They are extremely popular garden plants, grown as bedding plants in temperate regions. The first species of Pelargonium known was a native of South Africa. It was probably brought to the Netherlands before 1600 on ships which stopped at the Cap e of Good Hope. In 1631 the plant was introduced to England. It was named Pelargonium by Johannes Burman in 1738 from the Greek word for “stork”.
Confusingly, Geranium is the correct botanical name of a separate genus of related plants often called cranesbills or hardy geraniums. Both genera belong to the family Geraniaceae. The hardy geranium is found throughout the temperate regions of the world, but mostly in the eastern part of the Mediterranean hence the name is derived from the Greek word which means “crane” because it bears a fruit similar in shape to the bill of a crane.
Ipswich Gold, Pride of Ipswich & Little Ipswich - Neoregelia Hybrids
‘Ipswich Gold’, ‘Pride of Ipswich’ and ‘Little Ipswich’ are three hybrid cultivars of the genus Neoregelia, created in 2000 and 2001 by Alan Freeman, Queensland, and named after his home town. The late Alan Freeman started hybridising and naming his plants in 1982. He is said to have created over 10,000 hybrids. It was not until he came to an arrangement with Keith Golinski of Palmwoods in Queensland that these became commercially available. After some few years of pricking out the seedlings, Keith Golinski was eventually ready to release them under the name of ‘Alan Freeman’ from his company, the Bromeliads of Australia, better known as the “Bromagic Nursery”. This is at Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast, 90 km (55 miles) north of Brisbane and Ipswich, Queensland.
Neoregelia is a genus of the family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Bromelioideae. The genus is named after Eduard August von Regel (1815-1892), who was director of St. Petersburg Botanic Gardens in Russia. There are 112 species of Neoregelia, with more than 5,000 registered cultivars (a variety of a plant that has been created intentionally through cultivation). Most species have broad, flat leaves, many of which are brightly coloured, & some show striping or banding.
The Bromeliaceae, commonly known as the bromeliads, is a family of flowering plants native mainly to the tropics & sub-tropics of the Americas. There are around 3,170 species. The bromeliads include such diverse species as Spanish moss, pineapple, & a large number of desert dwelling succulents.
Little Ipswich Ipswich Gold Pride of Ipswich
Ipswich Centenary – Variety of Hibiscus
Launched in 2004, to commemorate the centenary of Ipswich, Queensland becoming a city, the Ipswich Centenary is a hybrid variety of hibiscus. Grown & hybridized by Alfred T Westerman, & registered with the Australian Hibiscus Society Inc. in January 2007, the Ipswich Centenary is a dense bush that grows to a height of three to four feet, with a large flat orange/apricot flower, around eight inches in diameter, of the bloom type known as a ‘single cartwheel’. It is a hybrid of the Tarentella & Tamibon varieties.
There are around 300 species of hibiscus, which is a genus in the malvaceae or mallow family of flowering plants. They are native to warm-temperate, subtropical & tropical regions of the world. The genus includes both annual & perennial herbaceous plants, as well as woody shrubs & small trees.
Ipswich – Variety of Hemerocallis
Hemerocallis ‘Ipswich’ was registered by the Russell Gardens Nursery, Pennsylvania, in 1949. It grows to a height of 36 ins (91 cm) and is a dark red flower with a violet centre.
Daylily is the common name of a plant in the genus Hemerocallis. The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words (hemera = day) and (kalos = beautiful). The scientific and common name both allude to the fact that the flowers typically last no more than 24 hours. The flowers of most species open in early morning and wither during the following night, possibly replaced by another one on the same stalk the next day.
Hemerocallis is now placed in the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae, when formerly it was part of the Liliaceae family which includes true lilies.
Originally from the orient, daylilies have been cultivated for over 4,000 years. They were originally introduced to Europe not as an ornamental plant but as a culinary and medicinal herb. The flowers and buds of old-fashioned varieties are still used today to make a tasty and colourful addition to salads. These bright, exotic flow ers are produced in such profusion that it is not a drawback that the flower only lasts a day since another plant will be in bloom. It means the plants always retain a freshness, as the flowers never hang fading and waning on the plant. They range in colour from white through yellows and orange to the deepest, richest reds. They flower for such a long period of the summer that they remain a constant feature while other flowers appear and disappear around them.
Daylily cultivar flowers are highly diverse in colour and form, as a result of hybridization efforts of gardening enthusiasts and professional horticulturalists. There are now over 60,000 registered cultivars. Daylily breeding has been a specialty in the United States, where daylily heat- and drought-resistance has made them garden standbys since the 1950s.
Ipswich – Variety of Dahlia
The background to the Dahlia genus is given in the Fauna & Flora section on the Suffolk Misc. page of www.planetsuffolk.com.
The Dahlia ‘Ipswich’ is recorded in the World Directory of Dahlias as being introduced by 1961. It is noted as a medium cactus dahlia type, 6 to 8ins. in diameter, pink in colour. No other information is provided.
City of Ipswich – F-111C Tactical Strike Aircraft
Pictured left is the F-111C tactical strike jet named City of Ipswich (ADF serial number A8-144), which was stationed at RAAF Base Amberley in Ipswich, Queensland from 1973 until 2010. (see also Amberley in the Ipswich Suburbs & Localities section of the Ipswich, Queensland page)
The F-111 was a twin-engine swing-wing aircraft, which could take off and land at relatively low speeds with the wings swept forward, then fly at more than twice the speed of sound with its wings tucked back. It could fly close to the ground at supersonic speeds, as well as being capable of reaching altitudes of over 60,000 ft. It was capable of carrying nuclear, as well as conventional weapons.
Developed in the 1960s by the US defence contractor General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the United States Air Force. In 1973 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) ordered the F-111C, which was an export version for Australia, combining the initially produced F-111A with longer F-111B wings and strengthened FB-111A landing gear. They were operated by No. 6 Squadron based at RAAF Amberley for nearly four decades until 2010, when they were replaced by the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet on an interim basis, pending delivery of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, initially scheduled for 2012 but since delayed due to problems with the F-35 program.
In December 2010, the RAAF decommissioned its F-111s, 23 of which had their fuselages buried at Swanbank landfill site near Ipswich in November 2011, including A8-144 City of Ipswich.
City of Ipswich – Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet Aircraft
The Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet is a twin-engine, carrier-based, multirole fighter aircraft. The tandem seat F/A-18F, together with its single seat variant, the F/A-18E, are larger & more advanced versions of the F/A-18 Hornet. The Super Hornet is equipped with General Electric F414 afterburning turbofan engines, has an internal 20 mm gun & can carry both air-to-air & air-to-surface missiles. Additional fuel can be carried in external tanks & the aircraft can be equipped with an aerial refueling system for the refueling of other aircraft.
Designed and initially produced by McDonnell Douglas, the Super Hornet first flew in 1995, with full production commencing in September 1997 after the merger of McDonnell Douglas & Boeing. The Super Hornet entered service with the US Navy in 1999, replacing the Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
In 2007 the Australian government signed a contract for twenty four F/A-18Fs, as an interim replacement for their aging F-111s. On 26th March 2010, the RAAF’s first five Super Hornets arrived at their home base, RAAF Amberley in Ipswich, Queensland. The first plane to touch down on Australian soil has been named City of Ipswich (A44-202), in honour of the relationship between the base & the city.
The first RAAF Super Hornets squadron became operational in December 2010. Australia is the only nation apart from the United States to operate the Super Hornet.
The Ipewik River, Alaska, USA
We list this one because an alternative name sometimes given is the Ipswik River, (no doubt because of the similarity of spelling with Ipswich), and since the first ever descent of this river was made in the summer of 2013, some people may well associate it with “Ipswich”.
The Ipewik River is located at 68° 21’ N 165° 44’ W in the county of North Slope, Alaska. It is considered to be North America’s most northwestern river. It is a major tributary flowing from the north into the Kukpuk River. The latter flows into the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Siberia at the Marryat Inlet, where the settlement of Point Hope is situated. These two rivers drain the Lisburne Peninsula, a little known area of Alaska.
In the summer of 2013 an expedition was launched to descend the 135 mile long Ipewik River to collect data on the effects of climate change, and collate information on the wildlife and flora of the region. The two canoeists, Tyler Williams and John Govi, were supported by a back-up team of two, and completed the journey in 10½ days over July and August 2013. The total mileage travelled was 220 of which 185 were river miles, including tributaries of the Ipewik (see photograph). Although there was plenty of evidence to indicate that indigenous peoples had used the river for hunting forays, this expedition was probably the first to travel from source to mouth. Further photographs of the expedition can be seen on the expedition leader’s website: “The Lisburne Traverse”. Sponsors were Kokatat, Osprey, Werner and Sazzi (drysuits, kayak and cold weather gear).
The name is first recorded in 1890 as Ippewik. This is derived from the Inuit word “ipivik” meaning “drowning-place” from “ipi” = to drown, and “vik” = place. It is just coincidence that this place-name ending in both Inuit and Norse is similar, since “wic” as found in Ipswich also means “place”.
The Ipewik Formation, Alaska, USA
The Ipewik River has also given its name to a stratigraphical unit found in the western part of the Brooks Range that runs west to east across northern Alaska. It consists of about 100 metres of poorly exposed soft, dark, maroon and grey clay shale, mudstone, organic shale, coquinoid limestone and local elements of resistant fine-to medium-grained quartzose sandstone. This Formation is made distinctive by the 2 metre thick reddish weathered “limestone coquinas containing highly compressed Buchia pelecypods”. Coquinas are sedimentary rocks composed either wholly or almost entirely of the transported, abraded, and sorted fragments of the shells of molluscs, trilobites, brachiopods, or other invertebrates, and the “Buchia pelecypods” are a genus of bivalve molluscs such as oysters, clams, mussels and scallops. The Ipewik Formation is believed to have been deposited on a fairly inactive, shoaling marine shelf or lagoon in the Lower Cretaceous period, between 145 to 130 million years ago. (“Ipewik Formation” article in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 1976 by R. C. Crane & V. D. Wiggins).
Gipsvika, Svalbard, Norway
As you are probably aware, Gippeswick, or any one of its variant spellings, is the ancient name from which Ipswich is derived. As this section is devoted to places with names similar to Ipswich, we felt that a mention had to be made of Gipsvika, although the similarity of the names is nothing more than coincidence. The name translates as “gypsum bay” from Norwegian “gips” = gypsum and “vik” = bay or inlet.
Gipsvika is a bay in Svalbard, the group of islands that make up the northernmost part of Norway within the Arctic Circle. Located at 78° 25’ 38.4” N 16° 32’ 20.5” E, Gipsvika is situated on the northern side of Sassenfjorden. To the north, the river Gipsdalselva fl ows down the 14 mile (22 km) long Gipsdalen (gypsum valley) & empties into Gipsvika. The bay is approximately 20 miles (30 km) from Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard.
Gypsum was first mined in this valley in 1909, & sporadically since then, hence the names given to the area in 1927 by the Svalbard commissioner, Kristian Sindballe. Gipsvika was the only entrance into the valley & the place where the ships moored offshore.
Gipsvika is included in the Sassen-Bünsow Land National Park, opened in 2003. Relics from the early mining industry at the site have now been defined as a cultural heritage, and the valley has now become a tourist attraction.
I Put Some Water In Charlie's Hat
I Put Some Water In Charlie's Hat: This mnemonic was used to teach children (& adults) how to spell Ipswich.
I
Put (or Poured)
Some
Water
In
Charlie’s
Hat
Does anyone know who invented this & when it was first used? Is this a British thing, or is it used in Australia & America too? Are there other acronyms or mnemonics that you know of that are used to spell Ipswich? If anyone knows anything, please let me know by emailing info@planetipswich.com
Gyppeswick Historic House, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
This is located at 1040 Rock Street, Rockland, Victoria, which also comprises the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Rockland is an historic neighbourhood in Victoria, located on an escarpment overlooking Juan de Fuca Strait and the Olympic Mountains. The first Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island received 1000 acres of land at Rockland known as the “Governor’s Reserve” and this was added to in later years. The first subdivision plan for Rockland was registered in 1865, and lots were large, from five to seven acre estates. Designed to be a prestigious neighbourhood, the Rockland area was developed in the early 1880s from a 500-acre estate called Fairfield Farm, and it became the home of wealthy entrepreneurs, bankers, and politicians.
The Gyppeswick House complex includes the Italianate home built in 1889 and designed by William Ridgway Wilson for A. A. Green, a wealthy local banker. It was named Gyppeswick for Mrs. Green’s ancestral home, Ipswich, in England. It had gardens, tennis courts, coach house and a stable. The Greens abandoned it in 1894 when their bank, Garesche and Green, failed.
It acted as a temporary Government House from 1899 to 1903, following a fire at the official residence. David Spencer, owner of David Spencer’s Department Stores, bought it in 1903 and renamed it “Lan Dderwen”, Welsh for ‘under the oaks’. His daughter, Sara Spencer, donated it to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in 1951, when the house reverted to its original name.
The grounds house one of Canada’s finest art galleries with over 15,000 pieces in its collection, drawn from Asia, Europe and North America, although the primary emphasis is on Canada and Japan. A Shinto shrine from the Meiji era (1886-1912) is located in the garden, and is the only Shinto shrine outside Japan. It was found abandoned in Japan and brought to the gallery in 1987. Once a year the gallery organises The Moss Street Paint-In where artists line the street and people can watch them at work.
Ipswich Soil
The Ipswich series of soils are very deep, level, poorly drained non-sticky peat that occurs typically in the north eastern United States. They are found in salt grass tidal marshes close to the Atlantic Ocean, extending inland along some rivers. Ipswich Soils are usually dark greyish-brown, getting darker with depth, & can range from strongly acid to slightly alkaline. They can extend downwards from the surface to a depth of up to 65 inches. Some common vegetation found growing in Ipswich Soil includes marsh hay, cordgrass, saltgrass, sea-lavender, glasswort & sea-blite. Ipswich Soil is found in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey & Maryland.
Ipswich Time
Before the coming of the railways, travellers would adjust their timepieces slightly as they journeyed eastwards or westwards from the Greenwich meridian. Most major towns in Britain, therefore, had their own local times, & Ipswich was no exception. From at least the late eighteenth century onwards, & probably much earlier, “Ipswich Time” was calculated as five minutes faster than Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
In 1840, Great Western Railways began the process of standardising their timetables by using only Greenwich Mean Time, or “London Time”, throughout the country, although it would be another forty years before the passing of the Statutes (Definition of Time) Bill in 1880, when Britain finally had a standard time imposed across the land; thus signalling the end of “Ipswich Time”. In the intervening years, however, the issue caused much debate.
A few months prior to the opening of Ipswich’s new Town Hall in January 1868, local people had petitioned Ipswich Corporation to ask that the new building should have two clocks; one set at GMT, the other at Ipswich Time. On the day that the Town Hall was officially opened, one of the items on the agenda of a special meeting of the Corporation was that the new clock should show Greenwich Mean Time. This was proposed by Deputy Mayor R C Ransome, but met with opposition from a Mr E Grimwade, who felt that the people of the town would be better served if the clock was to show the local time. The matter was referred to the Estates Committee, which eventually found in favour of the more standard time.
Ipswich House, Rangiora, New Zealand (Hunnibell Building)
It is little known fact that one of the oldest buildings in New Zealand was known as “Ipswich House” for the first 30 years of its existence. This building is located in Rangiora, a rural town in South Island, 25 km (16 miles) to the north of Christchurch.
Luke Hunnibell, with his wife Sarah and two young sons, arrived in New Zealand in 1864 on board the Bellissima. They came from Ipswich in Suffolk, England. Luke was born in 1838 at the village of Haughley, and Sarah Wenham in 1839 at the nearby market town of Stowmarket. They were married at Ipswich in 1860 and in 1861 they were living at Foundry Road, St Margarets, in Ipswich. His occupation was that of a shoemaker.
In New Zealand they made their way to Rangiora and Luke became the first bootmaker in the town, setting himself up in a little cottage where they lived at the corner of Direct Road (now Victoria Street) and Brook Street (now Northbrook Road). The Hunnibells soon had a slate-roofed house built in King Street which they called “Ipswich House”. This no longer exists. In June 1870 Luke purchased a one acre piece of land for £140 on the corner of the Oxford and Rangiora Road (now High Street), and in about 1872 he built a two storey colonial style bootmaking shop and dwelling there with a brick chimney and cellar. It was designed with five bedrooms upstairs to accommodate the apprentice bootmakers for the business. Local newspapers of the time refer to it as the “Ipswich House Boot & Shoe Shop”, so it was evidently also given the name of the family’s home town in England.
Luke was an enthusiastic cricketer, often turning out for the local tradesmen’s side. He was also captain of the No. 2 engine room when the Rangiora Fire Brigade was formed. Luke died in November 1913. On his retirement in 1903, his youngest son, Alfred (Alf), took over the business. He inscribed the name ‘A Hunnibell’ in wooden letters on the front of the building, and that was when it became known as the “Hunnibell Building”. The Hunnibell family was very musical and took a large part in that aspect of life in the town. Rangiora cinema-goers in the early 1900s would break into applause when local boot maker Alf Hunnibell arrived at the theatre with his candle tucked inside a boot box. This was the era of silent movies, and the arrival of Alf, a talented pianist, would herald the start of the movie. He would light his candle and play the piano by ear, matching the mood of the music to the action on screen.
Alf and his wife Ethel lived behind the boot shop and workroom. During the Second World War, the front portion of the shop was used to pack and despatch food parcels to New Zealand soldiers on the front lines and prisoner of war camps. Alf ran Hunnibell’s Bootmakers until he died, aged 70, in 1951. Ethel remained in the High Street house for many years afterwards, renting the shop out to tenants. After she died at the age of 90 in 1976, the building’s association with the Hunnibell family from Ipswich came to an end and it was finally sold. Its large, often admired garden was also subdivided and sold off.
Several businesses have since occupied the building including the ANZ bank, an accountant, hairdresser, second-hand store and cycle shop. Capone’s Restaurant was operating out of the building (257 High Street) for about 14 years. It has also had a few colourful tenants upstairs that led to police raids, with tenants jumping out onto the fire escape and stashing their drugs in the guttering. And there is the mystery of the loaded Colt pistol found a few years ago when the cellar was being cleaned. One assumes that this had nothing to do with the restaurant’s name!
In December 2012 a ceremony was held when the Hunnibell Building, as the oldest commercial building in the High Street, was given the New Zealand Landmarks Status (Historic Places Trust Category II registration); the plaque was unveiled by two of Luke Hunnibell’s great grandchildren.
In 2023 it is the Nom Nom Kitchen, a restaurant and take-away, which has been operating from the building since 2017, specialising in South-East Asian cuisine, mainly Thai and Vietnamese.
Ipswich Touch Test
Before this test was developed, diabetic patients when they were first being examined by junior doctors or nurses did not have their feet checked to see if there was a danger of possible heel ulceration. Diabetes can lead to damage of the foot in up to 40% of patients. The complications include damage to the peripheral nerves and to the large blood vessels that serve the limbs and, if undetected, can result in amputations.
A simple method to screen patients with diabetes is officially known world-wide as the Ipswich Touch Test (IpTT). Dr Gerry Rayman MD, FRCP, Head of Service at the Diabetes Centre and diabetes consultant with his team at the Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, England, designed this test. Hence its name.
It is a test for neuropathy (malfunction of one or more peripheral nerves typically causing numbness or weakness) to detect the sensitivity in the toes of diabetic patients. With clearly written instructions, this simple test can be used by non-professionals to accurately assess for loss of protective sensation. The test involves lightly touching the tips of the first, third and fifth toes of both feet with the index finger to detect a loss in sensation. The patient, who is not looking, just indicates when they can feel something.
The IpTT proved as reliable as tests using other screening methods involving sophisticated medical equipment to evaluate reflexes and feeling. At the Ipswich Hospital, the use of this test resulted in the development of severe heel ulcers dropping by 62% in two years. A less experienced clinician could now quickly assess a patient on first admission, and this procedure was soon rolled out across the UK, and is now used world-wide.
A seemingly unintentional rendition of the ‘Ipswich’ name. This is the e-mail address of Integrated Plastics Solutions (IPS) based at El Dorado, near Wichita, Kansas, USA.
This is a plastics recycling company begun in August 2008 by two brothers Brian J and Sean M Riley. The company calls itself a full-service recycler specialising in all types of plastics, X-ray film and non-ferrous metals, as well as asset disposal of equipment specifically related to the plastics industry. The company is presently (in 2015-16) experiencing difficulties with the law enforcement authorities. In a plea bargaining decision, the company admitted that from 2009 to 2013, it knowingly stored hazardous waste without a permit at its facility in El Dorado. The waste included paints and solvents, many of which were highly flammable and subject to flash fire or explosion if not properly stored. Integrated Plastics Solutions LLC has been ordered to pay $97,612 in restitution along with a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to a charge of unlawful storage of a hazardous waste, and the owners were ordered to each pay restitution of $118,807 in the case. Sean Riley was sentenced to 18 months of probation and Brian Riley was sentenced to three years of probation. As at 2016 the county commissioners are requesting suitable clean-up and fencing requirements to their property before allowing the continuance of their permit of use. It is reported that the company was dissolved on 15 July 2021.
Ipswich Street in a Californian Ghost Town
Palisades del Rey was a 1921 neighborhood land development by Dickinson & Gillespie who purchased a three-mile stretch of prime property along the seashore on the outskirts of Los Angeles in California. The location later became called Playa del Rey (Spanish for “Beach of the King”). All of the houses in this area were beachfront properties, custom built for Hollywood actors and producers, among them Cecil B. DeMille, with panoramic views over the sand dunes to the Pacific Ocean. It was developed in the 1930s as “an isolated playground for the wealthy”.
A small airfield was opened to the east of the development in 1928. This was at first an added attraction as it became a popular location for residents to see air shows. The city purchased it to be the municipal airfield in 1937. It became the Los Angeles International Airport in 1949. The development lay immediately west of the perimeter of what was to become one of the busiest airports in the world. Many residents learned to co-exist with the noise from propeller planes from the growing number of commercial flights into Los Angeles following World War II. However, jet engines were impossible to ignore when they began using the airport in the late 1950s.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the area was condemned and acquired by the City of Los Angeles in a series of “eminent domain purchases” (in the UK known as “compulsory purchases”) to facilitate airport expansion and to address concerns about noise from jet aeroplanes. Home owners were forced to sell their property to the city. Several homeowners sued the city and remained in their houses for several years after the majority of houses were vacated. Eventually all 800 houses were either moved or demolished.
Today one can see only barbed-wire fences protecting vacant land and old streets where houses once sat. Ipswich Street is the third one up from the bottom edge of the photograph, right (the other street names all seem to have had a French flavour to them, so how the name Ipswich came to be used is a bit of a mystery). This clearly shows the complete abandonment and dereliction of the of the former luxury estate as it looks today. Weeds are thriving through the cracks, streets are still lined with their palm trees (see below). What’s left of demolished property can be found hidden behind thick bushes and disconnected power lines lie in the sun, but no-one is allowed there.
The reason why the area remains desolate is because it is an 80-acre habitat for the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly. It was found that there were only three colonies of this tiny butterfly still in existence. The largest of these is in the grounds of the former development. Ultimately, concerns about the butterfly superseded all other options for the property. In 1976 the butterfly became a federally designated endangered species and the El Segundo Blue Butterfly Habitat Preserve now exists behind barbed wire to protect the species. From the insects’ point of view, this story has a happy ending. From fewer than 500 butterflies in 1976, it is now numbered in tens of thousands.
The Ipswichian Interglacial Period
The Ipswichian Interglacial is the name used in Britain for the second to latest interglacial period of the last ice age. Although different sources disagree on the approximate dates, the most commonly held belief is that the Ipswichian started between 135,000 & 130,000, & finished about 110,000 years ago. (Other sources give a start date as far back as 150,000, or an end as recent as 73,000 years ago).
The Ipswichian Interglacial falls within the Pleistocene geological epoch of the Quaternary period & is so named in Britain because some of the first deposits were found in 1953 during excavation work in the Bobbits Lane area of southwest Ipswich, England. The period is also known as the Eemian in Northern Europe, the Riss-Würm in the Alps, the Mikulino in Eastern Europe & Russia, the Valdivia in Chile & the Sangamonian Stage in North America. It is thought that the period was on average 2-3 degrees centigrade warmer than today, with sea levels up to 20 ft higher. These warmer interludes that occurred during the ice age are thought to be due to changes in the Earth’s orbital parameters around the sun (known as Milankovitch cycles) which produce greater obliquity and orbital eccentricity.
At the start of the Ipswichian Interglacial, birch & pine forests predominated, with oak, maple, hazel & elm later becoming common. Later in the period, hornbeam became dominant, before the deciduous forests gave way to pine & birch as the climate once again became colder.
Animals that occurred during the Ipswichian include hippopotamus, woolly mammoth, straight-tusked elephant, Merck’s rhinoceros, narrow-nosed rhinoceros, brown bear, steppe bison, lion, spotted hyaena & auroch, together with some species still with us today such as horse, red deer & fallow deer.
Archaeologically, the Ipswichian Interglacial corresponds with the later part of the Middle Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age, a period during which various stone tools have been discovered at various sites throughout Europe, North Africa & the Near East. Referred to by archaeologists as Mousterian (after Le Moustier, a rock shelter in the Dordogne region of France), these artifacts are associated primarily with Neanderthal man (Homo neanderthalensis), a now extinct species in the genus Homo, closely related to modern humans. These finds include axes, knives & scraping tools, some of which show evidence of what is known as the Levallois technique; a distinctive type of stone knapping involving the striking of flakes from a prepared core.
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