Factory Sessions Round Up

When talking about The Work Furnace the first thing we need to say this month is thank you. From 30th January - 20th February, we welcomed over 100 former industry workers to the Eastern Angles Centre for weekly Factory Sessions. These reminiscence meet ups were a chance for old colleagues to reunite and share their memories of Ipswich in the latter half of the 20th century. It was wonderful to bring so many people together at these sessions, we met friendship groups that had survived decades as well as happy reunions of those who had spent years apart. Many people also brought in old photos, newspaper clippings, sketches, documents and other workplace mementos that they had kept. To everyone that attended and share their stories with us, thank you.

Throughout the month we welcomed people from a wide range of industries, including:

Coksedge; Ransome & Rapier; Crane Ltd; Reavells; Ransomes Sims & Jeffries; Celestion; Fisons; Manganese Bronze; Betabake; William Browns; Tooks; Jubys; British Steel Piling; Ipswich TUC; British Sugar; Burtons; Pauls Ltd; Trident Cars; Churchmans; Britton & Bannister; Phillips & Pipers; William Pretty; Jaeger; Ipswich Steam Navigation Company; Cliff Quay Power Station.

We also had some local media attention with BBC Look East and ITV Anglia featuring the sessions on local news, and the East Anglian Daily Times also attending one week. It's been wonderful to see the industrial heritage of Ipswich stand so tall in this way, and for the stories of the people who are a part of it be celebrated so brightly. 

Next up we've got workshops to hold with local primary schools, a street theatre parade to plan and an exhibition to create. The stories, photographs, sketches, documents and memorabilia shared by everyone at the Factory Sessions will be used to co-create these. If you can volunteer your time and skills to The Work Furnace please get in touch with our Project Officer Hannah: email hannah@easternangles.co.uk or phone 01473 218202.