Your Vintage House

Caring for your vintage house – the Trust’s new mini-site

The Ipswich Building Preservation Trust initiative Caring for your vintage house promotes conversations, sharing information and building a resource relating to the wealth of Victorian and Edwardian housing in Ipswich, Suffolk. The Freehold Land Society (forerunner of Suffolk Building Society) was responsible for over 700 houses being built in Ipswich between 1866 and 1920. Private developers also built many houses during this time.

Why are so many of these vintage houses still in use? Because they are decently built, attractive and, if looked after, make excellent homes. The Trust wants to engage with owners and occupiers of such houses to encourage sympathetic repair/preservation and energy efficiency to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Our Facebook page (launched Thursday 27 October, 2022) is our main means of communicating information and questions about all sorts of issues relating to these older 1866-1920 houses. As the subjects of green energy, home insulation and zero carbon targets reach the national headlines we aim to share useful information. Note: Ipswich Building Preservation Trust isn’t able to give direct advice, but aims to start a conversation, inform people of current ideas with arguments for and against. 

It’s easy to get lost in all the issues involved in looking after your vintage house: the different choices open to you, potential costs and benefits. Many things are relatively easy to answer, but some issues can be more involved, creating discussion and argument between companies, institutions, researchers, experts and government.

Facebook posts will link back to main articles on the IBPT’s Your vintage house web-pages. There will be useful links to other websites for further information. Features we hope to include:

heritage/historical matters

human interest

the more technical side of repair and preservation

the built environment

family photograph outside a house

period wallpaper imagery

and much more.

This website will provide a more structured resource than social media, so that all can consult and follow links if they wish.