Ipswich Transport Museum

The Ipswich Transport Museum has the largest collection of transport items in Britain devoted to just one town. Everything was either made or used in and around Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk. Railways reached Ipswich back in 1846 and provided vital links from the area to London. This provided links from the port of Ipswich, enabling goods to arrive from overseas and be moved to other parts of the country, instead of just using the local rivers - the Orwell, Deben and the Gipping. Ipswich itself has been through the full spread of local public transport changes throughout the years. Starting off with a horse tram system in 1880, with competition being provided by a rivalhorse bus operation. An electric tram system replaced the horse tram system, and was in turn replaced by a trolleybus system in the 1920s, which led on to a motorbus system. This has evolved into Ipswich buses, one of the few bus companies left in the country still owned by the council. Eastern Counties, now a First Bus owned company, provided rural bus services which can trace their history back to the Eastern Counties Roadcar Company, which was established back in 1919. The area also has a strong connection with aviation, being host to a large number of military bases over the years, and more recently Ipswich Airport, which closed in 1996 to make way for a housing estate, which is currently being built.