Ipswich Town Football Club

The Ipswich Town Football Club badge is one of the most recognisable in English football. Friends from Manchester to London have told me they followed Ipswich weekly as kids, drawn by its shield and horse, evoking images of medieval knights and chivalry. They’re not entirely wrong.

The club originally used variations of the town’s crest, featuring three ships—believed to reference a Viking ship-building industry known for its unique stern designs. However, today’s badge was designed in the 1960s by John Gammage, the Supporters’ Association treasurer, who won a club design competition.

At the heart of the badge is the Suffolk Punch, a powerful and durable horse traditionally bred for heavy agricultural work. The horse was effectively a “medieval tractor” and went beyond farming—its strength also supported England’s military, pulling supply wagons for the army. Kings like Richard I and Henry VIII even established stud farms to ensure the Punch’s availability, recognising its role in supporting English soldiers. No Punch, no power.

When not serving the military, the Suffolk Punch led agricultural production in East Anglia. Suffolk was the heart of England’s wool trade for centuries, exporting prized wool through its ports to the continent, where it was seen as a luxury. Before the industrial era, Suffolk’s fields and wool exports contributed significantly to Britain’s economy.

Ipswich was a “medieval Chicago,” channelling produce from the region through roads, coastal shipping, and rivers like the Gipping and Orwell to larger ships bound for Europe. The wavy lines on the badge’s base symbolise this maritime history. Ipswich was also an essential member of the Hanseatic League, a medieval trading network around the North Sea, with Ipswich still marked on medieval maps across the Baltics and Germany.

Historically, the title of Duke of Suffolk has been one of the most important a King could bestow. The fortress-like crenellations at the badge’s top evoke Ipswich’s medieval buildings, notably Thomas Wolsey’s Wolsey Gate—although no “Ipswich Castle” ever existed. Medieval Ipswich did have town walls, which today lend their names to places like “Northgate” and “Sidegate.” The fortress motif even appears on Ed Sheeran’s recent pink third strip, where Wolsey Gate merges into Framlingham Castle.

Wolsey Gate symbolises Ipswich’s moment of near-global recognition through Thomas Wolsey’s planned “Cardinal’s College.” Wolsey, a butcher’s son, rose to become both Chancellor to Henry VIII and Archbishop of York. He began building a grand college in Ipswich akin to those founding Oxford, but it was left unfinished after his sudden fall from power, later becoming Ipswich School.

Shakespeare immortalised Wolsey’s Ipswich vision in Henry VIII, writing:

“Those twins of learning that he rais'd in you, Ipswich and Oxford!

One of which fell with him,

Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;

The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous.”

Had Wolsey remained in favour, Ipswich might have rivalled Oxford as a university town. Instead, it carries the badge of one of the world’s greatest football teams—we will have to make do with that.