Breeze Ride - Historical Rivers of Ipswich

A route enjoying the new cosmopolitan Ipswich docks with resuarants pubs and marina. Rembering that the orwell and the Gipping were very much working rivers . The Stowmarket Navigation, often referred to as the Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation, was constructed by making the River Gipping navigable between the two towns. At the port of Ipswich, the river mysteriously changes its name to the tidal River Orwell giving access to the combined estuary with the River Stour where the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich are located. The town was the largest exporter of malt in the country and many of the bulidings are the malt buildings. The navigation was completed in 1793 and three barges loaded with coal made the 17 mile trip from Ipswich to Stowmarket on September 14th, rising 90 feet through 15 locks of broad construction each 55ft by 14ft, the draught being 3.3ft. The return trip took sixteen hours. The navigation flourished; however in 1844 the Eastern Union Railway proposed an extension from Ipswich to Stowmarket along side the navigation. This now forms part of the London to Norwich InterCity route.