There's an expanse of land on the east side of town that has, at various times, played host to:

• burnings,
• barracks,
• and birdies.

To get there, head out of Ipswich on the A1214 towards Woodbridge, a matter of metres past the "Welcome To Ipswich" brown sign, and look right. And the object that catches your eye, that edifice standing proudly in the middle distance, is Rushmere Water Tower.

By the way, one route to the base of the tower is to find the Golf pub/hotel on Foxhall Road, then head down Bixley Drive opposite. Follow the road as it dips and curves, and then take a left into Sandling Crescent. Head past The Fairways and Sapling Place to the end of the crescent and you'll find a narrow lane that leads on to the heath. You really can't miss the Tower.

While we're here, I should note that houses are still springing up off Bixley Drive, including some in the very shadow of the tower; see that NHBC flag in the photo below.

The Tower (we'll go with the capital T) is situated on Rushmere Heath and acts as a handy point of reference if you're out for a stroll on the many paths that criss-cross the heath. Up close it's none too pretty, clad in squares of gun metal grey concrete; in fact you might think it ugly, or brutal, or at best functional.

Around 1930 a company by the name of L.G. Mouchel and Partners created the Mouchel Design Book, illustrating 99 possible layouts for the construction of a water tower. Much later, possibly in the early 1970s, Rushmere Water Tower was built from a Mouchel design:

"...flat vertical panels [replace] conventional columns, as on Mouchel's tower at Rushmere Heath, Ipswich. Here, panels with different widths and heights produce a varying profile."
— Gould & Cleland, Development Of Design Form Of Reinforced Concrete Water Towers, Feb 2001

Proud of the tower

View from A1214

OK, so it's not in the same league as the House In The Clouds, that much more well known water tower up at Thorpeness, but the good folk of Rushmere St Andrew still liked it enough to include it on the village sign.

Rushmere Heath has to be best known locally today for its golf course (birdies!), being from 1895 the original home of Ipswich Golf Club who'd leased the land from the Commoners Committee. After 30 years the club up-ed sticks to Purdis Heath, and Rushmere Golf Club was formed shortly thereafter; the club is still very much there.

Official name

Dispensing box for poop bags

Flowers, type unknown

A century before the men in silly trousers were strutting their stuff, you'd have found men in uniform astride their horses on the heath. Thousands of troops were stationed there (barracks!) in the latter part of the 1700s, and there's a report of Colonel George Tomline, who built the observatory at Orwell Park, being driven to the heath to watch the Suffolk Hussars training.

NHBC flag flying high

What have they got in there?

And the burnings? Go back a little earlier and there are some grisly historical footnotes concerning this part of town, namely that Rushmere Heath witnessed assorted executions. In addition to more orthodox events such as hangings for men found guilty of burglary, there was the little matter of witchcraft in the 1600s.

Having been pronounced guilty — live at the witch trials! — an unfortunate female could be brought to the heath. Hanging? No, too easy. Instead she'd be strangled and then burned. Very, very unpleasant.

Enjoy your walk!

Rushmere:
› Commoners of Rushmere
› IBC Greenways Project
› Rushmere Heath walk

Water towers generally:
› How water towers work

Golf:
› Ipswich Golf Club

Executions:
› Burnt until you be dead

Location:
› See it on multimap

Other mentions on the web:
› Search Google