AudaTours Ipswich Audio Tour: Hands That Built the Port
Ipswich Cornhill, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 1BT
Walk Ipswich at your own pace with headphones, following the route in the app through 12 stops from the Cornhill to the waterfront and factory yards beyond.
The tour begins at the Cornhill and takes in the Ancient House, Tooley’s and Smart’s Almshouses, Wolsey’s Gate, Stoke Bridge, the Old Custom House, Wet Dock Lock Gates, St Peter’s by the Waterfront, Isaacs on the Quay, the former Orwell Works site, St Margaret’s Church and the Corn Exchange. It runs for about 1 hour of audio and around 2 hours in total including walking.
What makes this Ipswich tour different is its focus on the working lives that kept the port moving: butchers in the market, woad-dyers, dockbuilders, ploughmakers, maltsters, mariners, merchants, coopers and ironworkers. You hear how trade, manufacture and waterfront labour shaped the town from Anglo-Saxon Gippeswic through to the age of the Wet Dock and the Ransomes works. Along the way, the route links named places with named workers — from initials carved into a church ceiling to the one ironworker Robert Ransome employed when he arrived in town — so the port’s history is told through the people who actually made it work.
Timings
Available anytime
Location & directions
Ipswich Cornhill, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 1BT
- Directions:
- Starts at Cornhill, Ipswich, visits 12 stops, and finishes at Corn Exchange, Cornhill, Ipswich.
Booking information
- Pre-booking requirement:
- Book on day
- Booking conditions:
- Visit the booking link and click the "Get Tour" button to receive a redemption code. Follow the link to download the AudaTours app, enter your redemption code, and you're ready to go.
- Booking email:
- [email protected]
- Booking website:
- https://audatours.com/tour/united-kingdom/ipswich/p-2136-working-lives-of-ipswich
Accessibility details
This is an outdoor, self-guided audio walking tour. The route follows public streets and pavements and does not include access to the interior of any of the sites — they are to be admired from the outside. Please wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather.
Additional information
You can start the tour whenever suits you during the festival and pause, resume or revisit it at any point — the route plays at your own pace from your phone. Once redeemed, the tour stays in your AudaTours library so you can come back to it any time. Headphones (or one earbud if walking with a companion) are recommended, and the tour works best in daylight hours.
- Estimated duration:
- 2 hour(s)
