Morpeth House

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Morpeth is a large house in the centre of Ipswich. It is Situated on Lacey Street near the old Odean. The grounds are about 3/4 of a acre and have many old trees and interesting features

Contents

[edit] Stamp Room

The Stamp Room is a room in the house that was covered in stamps by the builder and original owner of the house Whitfield King. The stamps where arranged in exciting and interesting shaped over the walls. All that survives now is over the mantle piece; a decorative 1864 is written in stamps with a more decorative stamps around it

[edit] Billiard Room

The Billiard room is an octagonal room that used to house the full size snooker table that the Whitfield Kings owned. Unfortunately the roof fell down in a violent storm and was too expensive to replace therefore the room was turned into a secret Garden and many concerts have been performed on the stage from local bands

[edit] Time line of owners

1864 - 1923 = Whitfield King family (several Generations)
1923 - 1940 = Museum of Agriculture + home of Jenkins Family(Reginald Jenkins owner of the museum
1940 - 1946 = used as headquarters of the bomb disposal unit of Ipswich
1946 - 1979 = Dance School (Billiard room used as dance hall and stamp room as dressing room
1979 - 2004 = Home of the Capey Family (7 Children)
2004 - now = Home of the Gwinnutt family (Martin, Emma, James and Becky)

[edit] Whitfield King

Whitfield King built the house and the building opposite to be used as the centre of his stamp business. He was a very successful businessman and sold millions of stamps from Ipswich. He employed 17 people in the building including sorters of stamps, addressers, cleaners and an engineer to keep the building in tip top condition. Then the house was surrounded in fields and woodland and Lacey street only had 3 houses on it but now there are almost 50.

[edit] Bomb Disposal

This section of the Ipswich Division of the Home Guard didn't have much to do as Ipswich wasn't extensively bombed although they did training situations in the garden from bomb diffusing to casevac (Casualty evacuation) and first aid. Commander Horace Middleton was the leader of this section and lived in the top 2 floors of the house while the ground floor was used for offices and dressing areas.