Former Ipswich Tower Ramparts pupils hold 50th reunion

Students of Tower Ramparts Secondary Modern School in 1974 gathered for the event held at Ipswich Social Club in Silent Street on Saturday, September 14.

Sharon Freeman and Steven Fowkes. (Image: Sharon Adams) Eli Gutherie, Sharon Freeman and Marie Horne helped organise the event with Karon Cotton decorating the hall and Barbara Lions organizing the buffet.

At least one person travelled from the United States for the event.

A toast was also raised to those members of the cohort who had passed away.

As shoppers stroll through the Sailmakers shopping centre in Ipswich many of them are likely to be unaware that for 80 years the site was used as a school to educate generations of Ipswich children. 

Mohamed Mia (Image: Sharon Adams) It opened in September 1899 as the Higher Elementary Secondary School for Boys before becoming the Ipswich Municipal Secondary School then Ipswich Central School in the 1930s before its final incarnation as Tower Ramparts Secondary Modern School. 

In 1979 the school building was demolished and was rebuilt as Tower Ramparts shopping centre which opened in November 1986.

The centre was rebranded as Sailmakers in November 2015.

Stoke High School in Maidenhall became the successor school to Tower Ramparts. 

Linda Gibson (L), Suzanne Sizer (C) and Barbara Bellamy (R). (Image: Sharon Adams)

According to Vera Atkinson-Padmore who attended the reunion, the class of 1974 were in a way of cohort of change in several ways.

Due to the raising of the school leaving age from 15 to 16 they were required to stay at school for an extra year.

Subsequently many of the women have been affected by the raising of the female pension age from 60 to 65 and many of the cohort will be affected by the recent scrapping of the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners.

She said " We've got this again. We were the first year who had to stay on then over pensions, but it was more the winter fuel, I think. For the first time we would have been eligible."

Tower Ramparts school in the 1970s taken close to the site where Crown Pools is today. (Image: Dave Kindred)

Vera recalls that she along with other children went on strike during their time at the school.

Photos from this paper's archives show Tower Ramparts pupils did hold a protest against caning and school uniform outside the Town Hall in May 1972. 

She said: "We were saying 'do you remember why we went on strike?' and no one could remember, but it must have been on the front page of The Evening Star.

"I remember our headmaster pleading with them not to do it."

Tower Ramparts School, Ipswich pupils protesting about school uniforms on the steps of the Town Hall in May 1972. (Image: Dave Kindred)

Tower Ramparts had a reputation for boisterous behaviour with teachers frequently clamping down with the use of corporal punishment such as caning.

 However, although Vera admits that she is not sure that locals in the town centre "liked all the children marching around" she points out that Tower Ramparts in the early to mid-70s was a racially diverse but also a very tolerant place.