Category: features

For those who are not able to see it, some account of the Trust’s new display is appropriate. It is a static display which will remain in position for about 2 years and is located in the visitor centre in Christchurch Park in Ipswich. Check before visiting but at this time of year the centre is open 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Two events prompt me to write about three Cobbold homes. Firstly, this year is the 75th anniversary of the opening of Holywells Park to the public in 1936. (In Victorian times the property was known as Holy Wells but today the single word spelling is widely adopted). Secondly, I received a letter pointing out that some writers had been confused as to the order in which these three homes were occupied and to my personal dismay, I realised it was not clear to me either.

During Christmas 1805, as John and Elizabeth Cobbold surveyed their large family at Cliff House, they will have reflected that all 22 children would need good careers or suitable husbands.

The town of Haileybury (named after the eponymous public school) in Ontario, Canada was founded by Charles Cobbold Farr (1851-1914) in 1904. As a young man he suffered many struggles and privations in Canada’s cold wild country, some of them while working for the Hudson Bay Co., before settling on the western shore of Lake Temiskaming. It is a big story, too long to tell here, which includes all the drama of both achievement and tragedy.

The sixth John Cobbold (who kept the nickname “Ivan” all his life, allegedly because he was a terrible baby,) followed his father to Eton. Much was expected of him as his father, John Dupuis was a Rackets Champion having won both the singles and doubles competitions and gone on to win for Eton the Public Schools Challenge Cup.

Brief biographical paragraphs on two of the most loved and most highly regarded people of the early 20th Century have been added to the family tree part of this website very recently.

The Cobbold Family History Trust was privileged to take part in the Collingwood Battalion Memorial Service on 4th June, 95 years to the day since the Battalion was wiped out at Gallipoli in 1915. The Battalion was part of the Royal Naval Division, made up of naval personnel trained to carry out the tasks of infantry soldiers.

When you visit the family tree on this website it opens on John Cobbold (1745-1835). He is Big John because he was exactly that. Big in physique (some have called it portly!) big in procreation (hands up any reader who has fathered more than 22 children) and big in business because his brewery prospered for another 6 generations.

The Trust is a member of The Ipswich Society which runs the Blue Plaque Scheme and was consulted over the plaque for Felix Thornley Cobbold.

One of the first Cobbold’s books purchased soon after the Trust’s foundation in 2004 was a copy of “The National Service Sailor” (1993) by Peter M Cobbold.