Ipswich Corporation Tramways: 100 Years Since Closure

26th July 1926 saw the closure of Ipswich Corporation Tramways, which was one of the earliest abandonments of a municipal tramway system. The ancient East Anglian town was initially served by a 4.25-mile company-owned horse-drawn tramway. This opened its first short line on 13th October 1880 with a small fleet of two single-deck and one open top double deck Starbuck tramcars. As the system extended, three more single deck and two open top double deck cars were added to the fleet during the 1880s, though two of the later single deck cars were rebuilt as double-deckers in the 1890s. By this stage, however, the company was facing competition from a horse-drawn omnibus service offering cheaper fares. In November 1901 it was compulsorily purchased by Ipswich Corporation, which had recently constructed its own electricity generating station, after lengthy negotiations over its value broke down. After operating the loss-making horse-drawn tramway for 16 months, the Corporation closed the undertaking on 6th June 1903 for nearly six months in order to complete its reconstruction. The first electric overhead tramway services commenced on 23rd November 1903. The narrow 3’ 6” gauge tramway was a necessary concession to Ipswich’s narrow streets and sharp curves. In addition, the 36-strong fleet of Brush-built open top electric cars were themselves unusually narrow at 5’ 9”. The 10.82-mile network was mostly single track and radiated out from main square at the Cornhill – the town’s focal point – to reach most parts by the middle of 1904. The first decade of operations was relatively uneventful but, like most of the country’s tramways, Ipswich emerged from the Great War in a parlous state. It had suffered from a loss of staff, severe damage to the trackwork inflicted by heavy war-time traffic and an inability to invest in new infrastructure, vehicles or even spare parts. After much debate during the early 1920s, the Corporation commissioned and evaluated an experimental trolleybus service, commencing on 23rd September 1923, that ran between Ipswich railway station and Cornhill. In the light of this experience, an offer by a local bus operator to provide a replacement bus service was declined and the decision was taken to replace the town’s trams with trolleybuses instead. A replacement fleet of 30 trolleybuses was ordered, half of which were built by Ransomes and the other half by Garrett, all of which were single deck. As Ipswich itself was expanding, however, the corporation’s transport department extended its remit from the 11-mile tramway route length to a trolleybus route length of 18 miles, which led to the acquisition of several additional double-deck vehicles. In doing so, Ipswich became one of only two former municipal tramways in the country (the other being Darlington) to extend its original tramway network by relying exclusively on trolleybuses as opposed to motorbuses. It was not until the post-war nationalisation of the electricity industry in 1947 and the resulting increase in the price the corporation had to pay for its electricity that motorbuses were first introduced in 1950, which made Ipswich the last major urban operator in the country to do so. For such a relatively small municipal transport undertaking, a surprisingly large number of Ipswich vehicles survived into preservation. They include a 1904 Brush tramcar – number 33 – that was bought to augment the original fleet of 26 double-deck cars supplied by Brush in the previous year. When the tram was withdrawn in 1926, the body was converted into a summer house in the nearby village of Claydon before being turned into an apple store. This was rescued by Ipswich Transport Museum in 1976 and restored to its 1920s condition with the aid of a Brill truck imported from Lisbon. No fewer than four of its trolleybuses have also survived, including one of the original ‘trackless trams’ dating back to 1923. This was converted into living accommodation in 1934 and bought by the museum in 1977. One of the single deck Ransomes trolleybuses – no. 44 – which ran in Ipswich between 1930 and 1954 is currently being restored to 1939 condition. The first of Ipswich’s double-deck trolleybuses – no. 46, built by Ransomes, Sims & Jeffries – has also been rescued after spending two decades as a residential caravan at Needham Market. Finally, the last trolleybus built for Ipswich Corporation Transport – no. 126, a Sunbeam – is also in the final stages of restoration. The only missing category, perhaps unsurprisingly, relates to Ipswich’s horse tram era. This is also represented in surrogate form at the Ipswich Transport Museum by a restored horse tram with a very chequered history that included a brief period of operation in nearby Cambridge. The tramcar was originally manufactured in single-deck form by Starbucks in 1880 and operated briefly in Bath before a sale to Bradford in 1884 saw it converted for use as a double-deck steam tram trailer. Ten years later it was acquired by Cambridge Street Tramways, where it operated until the system permanently closed without being converted to electric traction. It then spent the best part of 90 years as a workshop extension attached to a bungalow, before being rescued by the museum in 2003 and restored to its Cambridge operating form. With thanks to Museum Volunteer Jim Dignan for producing this article. Image references: 1 – 6: National Tramway Museum collection. 7: Photo by Nowell87 taken on 30th September 2013 and licensed for publication under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Image 8: https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/