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 18th
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, 22nd 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 16th
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 18th
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.
