A new window display in Ipswich is celebrating Ipswich’s role in one of the fastest shop races across the oceans.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ipswich Maritime Trust's 19th Window Museum display features the Great Grain Races from Australia. Picture: STUART GRIMWADEIpswich Maritime Trust's 19th Window Museum display features the Great Grain Races from Australia. Picture: STUART GRIMWADE (Image: Ipswich Maritime Trust Archive)

The latest Ipswich Maritime Trust window museum celebrates the port's role in the Last Great Grain Race, in which the fastest sailing ships of their era brought the new harvest to England from Australia.

Although it wasn't officially a race, there was great pride in being first to deliver the harvest to UK ports - including Ipswich.

It was, at its peak in the pre-war years of the 1930s, delivering a precious cargo for industry.

The port of Ipswich is today the UK's largest handler of agricultural products which is centred on the huge grain terminal at Cliff Quay.

The window museum display celebrates the great sailing ships of the era, when international trade looked very different to the way it does today - and sail was supreme.