Suffolk
Suffolk is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement.
The county has an area of and had an estimated population of in. Ipswich is located in the south, and the county's other principal towns include Lowestoft in the north-east, Haverhill in the south-west, and Bury St Edmunds in the west. For local government purposes Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county with five districts.
The Suffolk coastline, which includes parts of the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape, is a complex habitat, formed by London Clay and crag underlain by chalk and therefore susceptible to erosion. It contains several deep estuaries, including those of the rivers Blyth, Deben, Orwell, Stour, and Alde/Ore; the latter is long and separated from the North Sea by Orford Ness, a large spit. Large parts of the coast are backed by heath and wetland habitats, such as Sandlings. The northeast of the county contains part of the Broads, a network of rivers and lakes which is a national park. Inland, the landscape is flat and gently undulating, and contains part of Thetford Forest on the Norfolk border and Dedham Vale National Landscape on the Essex border.
It is also known for its extensive farming and has largely arable land. Newmarket is known for horse racing, and Felixstowe is one of the largest container ports in Europe.
History
Artefacts dating to around 700,000 years ago found at Pakefield and Beeches Pit are among the earliest evidence of human activity in northern Europe. In the Neolithic period and Bronze Age burial mounds, hillforts and causewayed enclosures were built reflecting Suffolk's role in prehistoric trade and agriculture.At the start of the Roman period most of Suffolk was, along with Norfolk inhabited by the Iceni tribe. The Trinobantes inhabited parts of southern Suffolk, as well as Essex. The Iceni unsuccessfully revolted under Boudica in AD 60–61. Although Suffolk remained predominantly rural in the Roman period there were villas, small towns and pottery kilns. By the late 4th century, however, archaeological evidence suggests significant depopulation in parts of East Anglia possibly linked to coastal raiding.
Anglian settlement followed in the 5th and 6th centuries with a distinctive Germanic material culture largely replacing a Romano-British one. Soon the area was firmly within the Kingdom of East Anglia with Suffolk's most celebrated Anglo-Saxon site of Sutton Hoo being an elaborate royal ship burial – probably that of King Rædwald, whose son Sigeberht Christianised East Anglia.
In the medieval period Suffolk was shaped by successive waves of conquest. It became part of the Danelaw following Viking incursions, and was reorganised under Norman feudalism after 1066, with castles at Framlingham, Clare, and Eye. The abbey at Bury St Edmunds became one of the wealthiest and most powerful religious institutions in medieval England.
Later centuries saw Suffolk prosper from the cloth and wool trade, with towns such as Lavenham and Hadleigh flourishing in the 15th and 16th centuries. The county was also a site of Puritan and parliamentary strength during the English Civil War.
In modern times Suffolk's economy evolved with agriculture, fishing, and maritime trade, while the 19th century saw the development of industry at Ipswich and Lowestoft. Coastal erosion and the decline of traditional industries changed the county's fortunes, but its historic sites, churches, and coastal landscapes continue to shape its identity.
Archaeology
A survey in 2020 named Suffolk the third best place in the UK for aspiring archaeologists, and showed that the area was especially rich in finds from the Roman period, with over 1500 objects found in the preceding year.A formative episode in English archeology was in 1797 when John Frere found flint hand axes, now known to date back 400,000 years in the Hoxne Brick Pit, in a deposit twelve feet deep, and commented that "the situation in which these weapons were found may tempt us to refer them to a very remote period indeed; even beyond that of the present world". This is the earliest recognition that hand axes were made by early humans, and was over sixty years before the antiquity of humanity was widely appreciated. One of Frere's hand axes, which was probably a general cutting tool, is held in the British Museum. The site also provides the type deposits of the Hoxnian Stage, an interglacial between around 474,000 and 374,000 years ago, which is named after the site.
West Suffolk, like nearby East Cambridgeshire, is renowned for archaeological finds from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the area between Mildenhall and West Row, in Eriswell and in Lakenheath.
In the east of the county is Sutton Hoo, the site of one of England's most significant Anglo-Saxon archaeological finds, a ship burial containing a collection of treasures including a sword of state, helmet, gold and silver bowls, jewellery and a lyre.
The Hoxne Hoard, to date the largest assembly of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, was found near the village of Hoxne in 1992.
While carrying out surveys before installing a pipeline in 2014, archaeologists for Anglian Water discovered nine skeletons and four cremation pits, at Bardwell, Barnham, Pakenham and Rougham, all near Bury St Edmunds. Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Medieval items were also unearthed, along with the nine skeletons believed to be of the late or Post-Roman Britain. Experts said the five-month project had recovered enough artefacts to fill half a shipping container, and that the discoveries had shed new light on their understanding of the development of small rural communities.
In 2019 an excavation of a 4th-century Roman burial in Great Whelnetham uncovered unusual burial practices. Of 52 skeletons found, a large number had been decapitated, which archaeologists claimed gave new insight into Roman traditions. The burial ground includes the remains of men, women and children who likely lived in a nearby settlement. The fact that up to 40% of the bodies were decapitated represents "quite a rare find".
In July 2020, metal detectorist Luke Mahoney found 1,061 silver hammered coins, estimated to be worth £100,000, in Ipswich. The coins dated back to the 15th–17th century, according to experts.
In 2020, archaeologists discovered a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery with 17 cremations and 191 burials in Oulton, near Lowestoft. The graves contained the remains of men, women and children, as well as artefacts including small iron knives, silver pennies, wrist clasps, strings of amber and glass beads. According to Andrew Peachey, who carried out the excavations, the skeletons had mostly vanished because of the highly acidic soil. They were preserved as brittle shapes and "sand silhouettes".
Administration
Suffolk was divided into four separate Quarter Sessions divisions, which met at Beccles, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Woodbridge. In 1860, the number of divisions was reduced to two, when the Beccles, Ipswich and Woodbridge divisions merged into an East Suffolk division, administered from Ipswich, and the old Bury St Edmunds division became the West Suffolk division. Under the Local Government Act 1888, the two divisions were made the separate administrative counties of East Suffolk and West Suffolk;On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, East Suffolk, West Suffolk and Ipswich were merged to form the unified county of Suffolk. The county was divided into several local government districts: Babergh, Forest Heath, Borough of Ipswich, Mid Suffolk, Borough of St Edmundsbury, Suffolk Coastal, and Waveney. This act also transferred some land near Great Yarmouth to Norfolk. As introduced in Parliament, the Local Government Act would have transferred Newmarket and Haverhill to Cambridgeshire and Colchester from Essex; such changes were not included when the act was passed into law.
In 2019, Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury merged to form West Suffolk district, while Waveney and Suffolk Coastal formed East Suffolk district.
Suffolk Pink
Villages and towns in Suffolk are renowned for historic, pink-washed halls and cottages, which has become known far and wide as "Suffolk Pink". Decorative paint colours found in the county can range from a pale shell shade, to a deep blush brick colour.According to research, Suffolk Pink dates back to the 14th century, when these shades were developed by local dyers by adding natural substances to a traditional limewash mix. Additives used in this process include pig or ox blood with buttermilk, elderberries and sloe juice.
Locals and historians often state that a true Suffolk Pink should be a "deep dusky terracotta shade", rather than the more popular pastel hue of modern times. This has caused controversy in the past when home and business-owners alike have been reprimanded for using colours deemed incorrect, with some being forced to repaint to an acceptable shade. In 2013, famous chef Marco Pierre White had his 15th-century hotel, The Angel, in Lavenham, decorated a shade of pink that was not traditional Suffolk Pink. He was required by local authorities to repaint.
In another example of Suffolk taking its colours seriously, a homeowner in Lavenham was obligated to paint their Grade I listed cottage Suffolk Pink, to make it match a neighbouring property. The local council said it wanted all of the cottages on that particular part of the road to be the same colour, because they were a single building historically.
The historic Suffolk Pink colour has also inspired the name of a British apple.
Geography
Suffolk is also home to nature reserves, such as the RSPB site at Minsmere, and Trimley Marshes, a wetland under the protection of Suffolk Wildlife Trust. The clay plateau inland, deeply intercut by rivers, is often referred to as 'High Suffolk'.The west of the county lies on more resistant Cretaceous chalk. This chalk is responsible for a sweeping tract of largely downland landscapes that stretches from Dorset in the south west to Dover in the south east and north through East Anglia to the Yorkshire Wolds. The chalk is less easily eroded so forms the only significant hills in the county. The highest point in the county is Great Wood Hill, with an elevation of.
The county flower is the oxlip.