Tuesday 10th September 2024 marks 550 days since the launch of the Thomas Wolsey 550 project on Friday 10th March 2023 at an event held in Ipswich Town Hall attended by more than 100 representatives of organisations and businesses across the town.
The Thomas Wolsey 550 project was initiated and developed by Ipswich Central who provided seed funding and then sought the support of Founding Partners, Ipswich Borough Council, Suffolk County Council, Birketts, ABP, and the University of Suffolk. The concept for the project centred on the 550th anniversary of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530), which the team at Ipswich Central recognised as a strategic opportunity for Ipswich in terms of profile and public engagement. Their initial investment unlocked significant funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and further sponsorship from local businesses.
Thanks to investment and input from a range of partners, the project has reached many thousands of people through its ground-breaking education programme at primary and secondary school level, its dynamic youth-led Wolsey 550 Place-Changers scheme; eleven Community Grants projects, the ‘Wolsey’s Ipswich’ exhibition and touring trailer display presented by The Hold, and a busy series of events, which included talks, walks, and ‘Wolsey’s Big Huzzah!’ a grand Tudor-themed parade along The Saints to the Cornhill, on 4th July.
Two of the aims of the project from the outset were to increase social mobility and improve the sense of pride in our town. Given these aims, children and young people were the key target audience for some elements of the project, including the schools programme and the Wolsey 550 place changers scheme. Project organisers decided early on to focus on Wolsey’s own story to engage young people.
Project director Kath Cockshaw said: “Wolsey started life in Ipswich, just like the children we are working with. He was a confident go-getter, and his astronomical career path was unprecedented. The basic premise of the first phase of the education programme was to raise children’s confidence levels at primary level through creative, interactive work led by expert practitioners at Gecko Theatre, and to broaden their horizons at secondary level by showcasing the range of jobs and careers that are out there.
This has involved taking 12–13-year-old students into workplaces for employee-led immersive workshops – before they begin to make the subject choices which will affect the course of their lives.”
The Wolsey 550 team is elated to announce that the education programme has won further funding from the Ipswich PDP Investment fund, administered by Suffolk County Council, to continue to deliver its services until the end of March 2025.
Hannah Houghton, Education & Opportunities Lead for Wolsey 550. Said: “Feedback from the schools and children involved in the programme has been incredible. We have really begun to change young lives with the work we’ve been doing in educational settings right across Ipswich, and this additional funding ensures that work will be taken in to every school in Ipswich Borough, reaching as many children and young people as possible.”
Alongside the education programme, the Wolsey 550 Community Grants Scheme was another key component of the project. Launched in summer 2023 the scheme enabled small Ipswich-based organisations to apply for up to £3000 to deliver a project taking place within the Borough boundary. The scheme received double the number of applications it could fund and the independent panel had the incredibly tough decision of whittling it down.
The successful grant awards spread from Castle Hill, with the Windrush Quilting Project, to Gainsborough with the Voices for Gainsborough Library’s stained glass window project; the grants covered all ages starting from 0-5s with Make Play’s Wolsey’s Garden, Ipswich Children’s Book Group’s Red Hat Book Festival, and the CHIp Youth Council for 14-25s right the way through to Music in Our Bones which welcomes adult members.
The grants also enabled creation of new work and performance opportunities through Black and White Productions play: Thomas Wolsey the Rise and Fall and Ipswich Choral Society commissioned three new pieces of Wolsey themed choral music which premiered at a free concert in Christchurch Park in June.
Further grants enabled creative workshops with Rock Paper Scissors to take place in the Jobcentre; they provided funds to Together for Ipswich to support refugees with shared meals and tickets to local performances and supported the Saints Community Interest Company to provide a heritage market last September complete with Tudor crafts, Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII and all six wives!
This project would not have been possible without the dedication of its many volunteers who have helped produce and deliver events right across its 18-month programme. Volunteer, author and re-enactor, Phil Roberts, has been with the project since the start, taking a starring role as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, dressed in his full crimson red regalia, at events of all kinds.
He said: ““It has been such a privilege to represent the Cardinal himself throughout this programme, and to represent Ipswich’s history. I think the project has really brought home for many that Thomas Wolsey was a patron of the arts, and of education, and way ahead of his time in these respects.”
To celebrate the achievements of this momentous project on both the local and national stage, a special ‘New Mass for Thomas Wolsey’, written by renowned Ipswich born composer Ben Parry, will be performed at St Mary le Tower on 13th October, where the Minster’s choir will be joined by the choir of Hampton Court – which of course had been the Cardinal’s seat before it was relinquished to Henry VIII following Wolsey’s death.
Project Chair Terry Hunt said: “I’ve really loved working on this project, which has achieved so much for Ipswich – and I’m thrilled further funding has been secured for our education work. We look forward to unveiling further plans as soon as we can. Meanwhile, the Wolsey 550 team are still working to evaluate the project and are making a film to celebrate its highlights and achievements which we look forward to sharing after the end of October.”
