Congratulations to Ipswich Borough Council on winning £2.8million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund for the restoration of Holywells Park.
Holy Wells (as it was then spelled) was built by John Cobbold (1745-1835) and he and his second wife, Elizabeth (1764-1824) moved in with their large family just before Christmas 1814. Next year’s celebrations of the completion of the restoration of the park will therefore take place on the 200th anniversary of the Cobbolds’ occupation and coincidentally the 250th anniversary of Elizabeth’s birth. In modern parlance (with which the writer is not very familiar!) how cool is that?
The mansion stayed in the family until 1930 when, following the death of John Dupuis Cobbold it was sold to Lord Woodbridge who gave it to the Borough. The park was opened to the public in 1936 but the main house was pulled down in 1962. The remaining stable block and orangery will be restored as part of the project.
To mark the start of the restoration there is to be a Heritage Day at Holywells on August 14th 2013 at which the Trust will be displaying the Elizabeth Cobbold scissor-cut Valentines (these are not often shown) alongside a demonstration of paper cutting by Lois Cordelia (scalpel) and Erica (scherenschnitte – scissors) Bülow Osborne, both well-known Suffolk artists.
Our three illustrations show the gardens, the clock tower and the orangery as they were in 1985.
Anthony Cobbold
