Handyman Ipswich

Ipswich is one of the oldest continuously settled towns in England. By the seventh century there was already a thriving Anglo-Saxon trading settlement — known as Gippeswic — exporting wool and importing pottery and wine from the Rhineland. It is generally regarded as one of the earliest urban centres in the post-Roman country. The town received its first charter from King John in 1200 and grew steadily through the medieval and Tudor periods on the back of cloth, leather and, later, agricultural exports. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was born here in around 1473, the son of an Ipswich butcher.

The historic centre still has twelve medieval churches, far more than any town of its size needs, as well as the remarkable Ancient House on the Buttermarket with its riotous pargeted front. Christchurch Mansion in the park is a magnificent Tudor house full of paintings by Constable and Gainsborough, both Suffolk men. The Wet Dock, opened in 1842 and once the largest enclosed dock in Europe, has been transformed in the last twenty years into a smart waterfront of restaurants, apartments and the buildings of the University of Suffolk. The town has a population of around 140,000, a busy football club at Portman Road and a knot of Victorian and Edwardian terraces fanning out from the centre. As you'd expect, those terraces and the post-war suburbs around them keep me busy with everything from sash repairs to bathroom refits.