The Thomas Wolsey 550 project is delighted to partner with Packaged Living, Sizewell Creative, The Ipswich Society and The Historic Towns Trust on the new Ipswich Trail Makers project.
Ipswich Trail Makers introduces primary pupils to individuals commemorated through The Ipswich Society’s ‘Blue Plaques scheme’. Through place-based historical enquiry and creative digital interpretation, pupils explore how these lives connect to Ipswich’s development and the wider story of their town.
The project is the brainchild of Hannah Houghton (Education and Opportunities Lead for Wolsey 550) and James Lee Burgess of Urban Tech Creative, building on the recent ‘Dock Stories’ app launched with the Stoke Bridge Wharf project.
Piloted with Ranelagh Primary and Broke Hall Primary School, the work will refine a structured classroom learning pack for a further six Ipswich primary schools. The resources are designed to be made available to all local schools.
Wolsey 550 has already shown the potential of curriculum-linked local history resources through its ‘Thomas Wolsey and Tudor Ipswich programme’ for Key Stages 2 and 3, now embedded within the curriculum of thirteen local schools.
A New Learning Model
The Ipswich Trail Makers teacher-friendly learning pack aligns with the Key Stage 2 history curriculum and builds pupils’ understanding of historical enquiry and significance.
The pack includes teacher notes, slides, archive material, historic maps and interactive activities introducing pupils to Ipswich Blue Plaque recipients. Using archival photos and mapping, pupils explore how Ipswich has changed over time and how notable lives connect to places across the town.
Using archive material and guided enquiry, pupils investigate a chosen figure before scripting, designing and producing a digital character. A guided digital platform supports them to safely use AI tools to generate imagery and first-person narratives, with safeguarding built into the design.
In an initial workshop, pupils selected the young engineer Edward Caley, who designed Ipswich’s Wet Dock at the age of 21, and placed their digital character in an imagined dockside scene before the Wet Dock was built.
Pupils are also introduced to the Blue Plaque nomination process and encouraged to consider who in their community might deserve recognition in future.
Public Heritage Trail
The project will culminate during Heritage Open Days in September with the launch of a new digital heritage trail open to all.
The trail will feature eight digitally animated historical characters, each researched and created by pupils. Visitors will access them via QR codes near existing Blue Plaques, encountering these figures through the voices and interpretations of young people.
The trail will be developed in partnership with Historic Towns Trust, whose detailed 1904 map of Ipswich provides a key visual reference for the project’s exploration of the town in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Eleanor Fiennes, Director of Operations at Packaged Living, said:
“As the developer and operator of the rental community at Merchant’s Yard, Packaged Living has a long-term commitment to Ipswich. Our involvement in Ipswich Trail Makers reflects our belief that successful neighbourhoods are built on strong connections to place, heritage and education. This project gives young people the opportunity to explore those connections in an innovative and inspiring way.”
Graham Lambert, Chair of The Ipswich Society, said:
“The Ipswich Society has commemorated thirty Ipswich residents through its blue plaque scheme, whose lives or work have helped to shape our town’s intellectual, cultural and/or social landscape. Some of our celebrated Ipswichians have made a significant, lasting impact in their specialist area, achieving national recognition. In recognising their lives with a blue plaque on a building or at a place relevant to them, they are not forgotten, and later generations including the Ipswich Trail Makers are inspired by their achievements. The Ipswich Society is pleased to be working with the Thomas Wolsey 550 project to inspire Ipswich primary schoolchildren.”
Rosalind Parker at Sizewell Creative said:
‘Our commitment to audiences, engaging community and young people with and through professional practitioners across the region, has a special interest in projects which encourage ownership, belonging and identity, and New Trail Makers brings innovation and invention right into the fabric of our townscape. The local is something to be newly and continuously re-found and celebrated, in our changing climate, and this collaboration highlights a strand of our work around creative heritage and living archive – which we look forward to exploring further at a symposium event at Suffolk Archives next year.’
The Ipswich Society events feature here:
The Ipswich Society
The Ipswich Society was founded in 1960 and is a community of people who care about the appearance, character and well-being of the town, its past and its future.
Events with The Ipswich Society
- Sun 9th Aug 2026
- Wed 16th Sep 2026
- Wed 21st Oct 2026
- Wed 16th Dec 2026
- Wed 20th Jan 2027
Who wrote this about Ipswich?
Sam Sherman
Sam is a Co-Founder of Ipswich.love. Passionate about Ipswich, Sam looks to see how we might jointly reverse some of the recent negativity and bring some deserved positivity back to our beloved Town.
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