Heath Fire!

In Ipswich we are thoroughly spoilt to have not just one but two areas of recreational space that must be some of the best in the country.

First is our glorious town centre Christchurch Park and secondly is the vast area of open space between east Ipswich and Kesgrave - Rushmere Heath.

Before running estate agents offices in Ipswich, I grew up living next to the heath. And, from as early as I can remember myself and a large group of friends of similar age spent every second of our evenings, weekends and school holidays on the heath.  We played cricket, football, golf, tennis, frisbee, making dens, cycling, running – just about everything.  I just don’t know what we would have done without the heath and it certainly kept us out of mischief (and, on some occasions, got us into mischief!)

By far the most exciting occurrence to take place on the heath on a regular basis for us youngsters, however, was the most spectacular of phenomenon – a heath fire.

I can still remember vividly the first ever heath fire I saw.  I can only have been about four or five when my brother took me over to see it which was on the steep bank that leads up to Woodbridge Road East from the sandpit in front of the ladies 18^th tee.  I was completely mesmerised by the whole thing.  The noise, heat and crackle of the flames and the sheer height of them;  the sounds of the fire engines, the size of the crowd that had come from all over east Ipswich, Kesgrave and Rushmere-St-Andrew to watch, but above all, the massive plumes of thick, black smoke that rose into the air and could be seen for miles around.  I remember once having a day out in Debenham and being able to see the smoke from a heath fire on Rushmere Heath.

The smoke was the first tell tale sign.  In the days of the late 60s and early 70s a World War II air raid siren would go off at fire station HQ at Colchester Road to signal a fire call and was easily audible from the Australian Estate where I lived.  On hearing the siren I would always rush to the first floor bedroom front windows to see if I could see any black smoke coming from the direction of the heath.  If there was, I was off like a rabbit!

Funnily enough I was playing golf only this week on the heath and we happened to be talking about the fact that there had only been one heath fire this year, which is very unusual, despite how hot and dry it had been.

On one exciting occasion (probably now stopped through health and safety reasons) the firemen even allowed us to dampen down the fire afterwards with the hoses and we knew all the firemen by their first names.

Two huge fires stick out in my memory more than ever.  One was on Sunday, 22^nd June 1980 – yes, I kept a diary and log of every fire that had ever taken place on the heath including the day, time, location, the number of fire engines and how long it took to put out – I really was that into it!

This particular fire ran the whole length of the left hand side of the 16^th fairway, raged for over two hours, closing the then A12 (now Woodbridge Road East).

Another one was one that ran the whole length of the right hand side of the 18^th fairway going up towards the club house.  In this fire, a fireman spectacularly lost control of his hose at full pressure, soaking everyone within about 15 yards who were standing watching, including me, and taking several firemen to get the hose back under control.

Pictured is a fire from September 1984 which was to the left of the first fairway near the first green – note how dry and brown the grass is.

As equally amazing as the fire itself is the fact that the gorse always comes back, however fierce the fire was.  Within a few months, the first green shoots of recovery start to spring up and wildlife starts to return.  The second photo, taken from exactly the same spot shows the scene only three years later.

Young, knee high gorse is the most prickly thing known to man.  Every golfer who has ever played golf on Rushmere Heath will testify there is nothing sharper when looking for a golf ball than gorse.

The World War II sirens sound no more, the Colchester Road fire station is now gone to make way for a new housing development, and the two tone sounds of the fire engines from the 60s and 70s have changed.

However, the sight of a fire engine racing with blue lights flashing to a heath fire still brings back those exciting memories.

Jonathan Waters is the sole Managing Director of Jonathan Waters Estate Agents which has four estate agents offices in the Ipswich area.   Jonathan has lived in the Ipswich area for most of his life and continues to take a keen interest in the local area. He has a particular fascination for the ever changing landscape the area has to offer.

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