Lowestoft

Part P Electricians Lowestoft Suffolk

Approximate Population: 57,746

Lowestoft is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England, lying between the eastern edge of The Broads National Park at Oulton Broad and the North Sea within the parliamentary constituency of Waveney. It is home to Lowestoft Ness, the most easterly point of the United Kingdom.

Lowestoft is Suffolk’s second largest town and is divided in two by Lake Lothing, home of its port, divided into an inner- and outer- harbour by a bascule bridge carrying the A12 through the town. Both north and south sides of the town contain a variety of business and residential areas, with the main shopping centre lying just to the north and the award-winning Blue Flag beaches to the south.

The town has two piers, situated on the south beach. The southerly pier, called the Claremont Pier, originally served as a port of call for steamers travelling to and from London. The pier structure itself has been closed for many years, now in a state of disrepair and not open to the public, though the building at the land end still hosts an arcade, bar, club and fish restaurant. Just over half a mile (1 km) to the north of that is the South Pier (so called because it is placed on the south side of the outer harbour).

Lowestoft railway station is centrally placed within the town, as well as also being within walking distance of the beach, providing services to Norwich along the Wherry Line and Ipswich on the East Suffolk Line. Some services also continue on through to London Liverpool Street along the main line from Ipswich. All services are operated by National Express East Anglia.

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Haverhill

Part P Electricians Haverhill Suffolk

Approximate Population: 22,010

Haverhill is an industrial market town in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies approximately fourteen miles southeast of Cambridge and sixty miles north of London. Haverhill is the second town of the borough of St Edmundsbury, and has a population of around 22,000. The name of the town is pronounced ‘Hay-ver-hill’.

The town centre lies at the base of a gentle dip in the chalk hills of the Newmarket Ridge; running through the town is the Stour Brook, which goes on to join the River Stour just outside the town. Rapid expansion of the town over the last two decades means that the western edge of Haverhill now includes the hamlet of Hanchet End. The surrounding countryside largely consists of arable land.

Haverhill dates back to at least Saxon times, and the town’s market is recorded in the Domesday book (1086). Whilst most of its historical buildings were lost to the great fire on June 14, 1667, it does however retain one notable Tudor house (reportedly given to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce from Henry VIII, and thus titled Anne of Cleves House) and many interesting Victorian buildings.

Following a planning review in 1956, Haverhill was targeted for expansion. This was primarily to resettle communities from London which had been devastated during World War II. As part of this plan, new housing settlements and new factories were built. A later review in 1962 planned for a threefold increase in population from the then population of 5,446. This influx of people changed many aspects of life in Haverhill. One noticeable change is the that the local Suffolk accent (still spoken by the towns older residents) has largely been replaced by a London/South-east England accent that is characterised as Estuary English.[citation needed]

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Stowmarket

Part P Electricians Stowmarket Suffolk

Approximate Population: 15,059

Stowmarket is a small market town situated in Suffolk, England, on the busy A14 trunk road between Bury St Edmunds to the West and Ipswich to the South-East. The town is on the main rail line between London and Norwich, and has an approximate population of 19,000. It is the largest town in the Mid Suffolk district and is represented in parliament by the MP for Bury St Edmunds, currently David Ruffley.

Stowmarket lies on the River Gipping, which is joined by its tributary, the River Rat, to the South of the town. In the 18th century the Gipping was made navigable between Stowmarket and Ipswich by a series of locks. The newly created canal was known as the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation.

The town takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘Stow’ meaning ‘principal place’, and was granted a market charter in 1347 by Edward III. A bi-weekly market is still held there today on Thursday and Saturday.

The church of St Peter and St Mary is in the ‘Decorated’ style and dates to the 14th century. The 16th century vicarage has associations with the poet John Milton through his tutor, Dr Thomas Young who became vicar of Stowmarket in 1628. Milton made regular visits to the town, and ‘Milton’s Tree’ in the grounds of a former vicarage is believed to be an offshoot of one of the many trees he planted there.

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Beccles

Part P Electricians Beccles Suffolk

Approximate Population: 9,746

Beccles is a market town and civil parish in the Waveney District of Suffolk, England, within an area known as The Broads. The town is shown on the milestone as 109 miles (175 km) from London via the A145 Blythburgh and A12 road, 98 miles (158 km) northeast of London as the crow flies, 16 miles (26 km) southeast of Norwich, and 33 miles (53 km) north northeast of the county town of Ipswich. Nearby towns include Lowestoft to the east and Great Yarmouth to the northeast.

It had a population at the 2001 census of 9,746. Worlingham is a suburb of Beccles. The combined population of Beccles and Worlingham in 2005 was estimated at 13,580. Beccles is twinned with Petit-Couronne in France.

Once a flourishing Saxon riverport, it lies in the Waveney valley and is a popular boating centre. The town was granted its Charter in 1584 by Elizabeth I.

Sir John Leman (died 1632) was a tradesman from Beccles who became Lord Mayor of London.

Long associated with Beccles (including recent mayors) is the Peck family. Among those Pecks who have made a place in history is the Rev. Robert Peck, described by Blomfield in his history of Norfolk as a man with a ‘violent schismatic spirit’ who led a movement within the church of St Andrews in nearby Hingham, Norfolk, in opposition to the established Anglicanism of the day. The Puritan Peck was eventually forced to flee to Hingham, Massachusetts, founded by many members of his parish, where he resided for several years, until King Charles I had been executed and Oliver Cromwell had taken the reins of government. Robert Peck then elected to return to Hingham, Norfolk, and resumed as rector of St Andrews Church. He died in Hingham but left descendants in America, including his brother Joseph Peck, who settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.

Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 the borough was reformed, Beccles retaining municipal borough status until the reorganisation of local government in 1974, when it was merged with surrounding authorities to become Waveney District. The successor civil parish has adopted town status.

The townscape is dominated by the detached sixteenth-century bell tower (known as the Beccles bell tower) of St Michael’s church. Like the main body of the church, the tower is Perpendicular Gothic in style and is 97 ft tall. The interior of the church was badly damaged by fire in 1586. It has a 13th-century font.

The tower is not attached to the church and at the wrong end of the church as the correct end would be too close to a large cliff.

It was at this church in 1749 that the mother of Horatio Nelson, Catherine Suckling, married the Reverend Edmund Nelson (a former curate of Beccles). The Suffolk poet George Crabbe married Sarah Elmy at Beccles church in the 18th century.

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Newmarket

Part P Electricians Newmarket Suffolk

Approximate Population: 14,995

Newmarket is a market town in the English county of Suffolk, approximately 65 miles (105 kilometres) north of London, which has become famous because of its connection with race horses and thoroughbred horse racing at Newmarket Racecourse. It is the largest racehorse training centre in Britain, and home to several horseracing institutions. Nine of the UK’s 32 Group 1 flat races are held at Newmarket, the same number as at Ascot Racecourse.

Racing at Newmarket has been dated as far back as 1174, making it the earliest known racing venue of post-classical times. King James I (reigned 1603 – 1625) greatly increased the popularity of horse racing there, and King Charles I followed this by inaugurating the first cup race in 1634. The Jockey Club’s clubhouse is in Newmarket, though its administration is based in London. In 1967 Queen Elizabeth II opened The National Stud, a breeding centre for thoroughbred horses. The town is also home to Tattersalls, the famous bloodstock auctioneers whose sales are attended by big names in the racing business. The town is home to the National Horseracing Museum and an Equine Centre for horse health.

Newmarket railway station is on the Cambridge – Bury St. Edmunds – Ipswich rail line, formerly belonging to the Great Eastern Railway (later part of the LNER). Newmarket’s first railway was a line built by the Newmarket and Chesterford Railway and opened in 1848 (known as the “Newmarket Railway”). It branched off the London – Cambridge main line at Great Chesterford and ran about 15 miles (24 km) north eastwards. There was an attractive terminus in Newmarket, with intermediate stations at Bourne Bridge, Balsham Road and Six Mile Bottom.

The area of Suffolk containing Newmarket is nearly an exclave, with only a narrow strip of territory linking it to the rest of the county. Historically the town was split with one parish – St Mary – in Suffolk, and the other – All Saints – in Cambridgeshire. The Local Government Act 1888 made the entirety of Newmarket urban sanitary district part of the administrative county of West Suffolk.

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Ipswich

Part P Electricians Ipswich Suffolk

Approximate Population: 121,000

Ipswich is a non-metropolitan district and the county town of Suffolk, England on the estuary of the River Orwell. Nearby towns are Felixstowe in Suffolk, Harwich in Essex and Colchester also in Essex. The town of the same name overspills the borough boundaries significantly, with only 85% of the town’s population living within the borough at the time of the 2001 Census, when it was the third-largest settlement in the United Kingdom’s East of England region, and the 38th largest urban area in England.

Under the Roman empire, the area around Ipswich formed an important route inland to rural towns and settlements via the Orwell and Gipping. A large Roman fort, part of the coast defences of Britain, stood at Felixstowe (13 miles, 21 km), and the largest villa in Suffolk stood at Castle Hill (north-west Ipswich).

Ipswich is one of England’s oldest towns, and took shape in Anglo-Saxon times as the main centre between York and London for North Sea trade to Scandinavia and the Rhine. It served the Kingdom of East Anglia, and began developing in the time of King Rædwald, supreme ruler of the English (616-624). The famous ship-burial and treasure at Sutton Hoo nearby (9 miles, 14.5 km) is probably his grave. The Ipswich Museum houses replicas of the Roman Mildenhall Treasure and the Sutton Hoo treasure. A gallery devoted to the town’s origins includes Anglo-Saxon weapons, jewellery and other artefacts.

Ipswich is set to be the main hub for University Campus Suffolk, which will give Suffolk its first university, though it is essentially a collaborative project between Suffolk College and two other regional universities. It is hoped that within a decade, a University of Suffolk in its own right will become established out of UCS.

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Woodbridge

Part P Electricians Woodbridge Suffolk

Approximate Population: 10,956

Woodbridge is a town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. It is in the East of England, not far from the coast. It lies along the River Deben and the town is served by Woodbridge railway station on the Ipswich Lowestoft East Suffolk Line. Woodbridge is twinned with Mussidan in France.

Sutton Hoo, a group of low grassy mounds famous for turning up Anglo-Saxon treasure of one of the earliest English kings, Rædwald, overlooks Woodbridge from the Eastern Bank of the Deben.

There is a museum devoted to the Suffolk Punch, a breed of heavy working horse, in the Shire Hall on the Market Hill. Local folklore has it that the route from the river to the top of Drybridge Hill (via Church Street, the Market Hill and Seckford Street) is the hill which was marched up by the Grand Old Duke of York in the popular Nursery Rhyme. Woodbridge is also the location of two prisons: HMP Hollesley Bay is an open prison for adult males, while HMP Warren Hill holds male juveniles.

The so-called Rendlesham Forest Incident took place in nearby Rendlesham Forest in 1980. Unexplained lights were seen in the sky close to RAF Woodbridge, a United States Airforce base, and there were claims that a UFO had landed in the forest. The incident continues to interest ufologists and vigorous debates take place between those who believe that an alien spacecraft landed there and the sceptics who offer alternative explanations. Local folklore has it that the route from the river to the top of Drybridge Hill (via Church Street, the Market Hill and Seckford Street) is the hill which was marched up by the Grand Old Duke of York in the popular Nursery Rhyme.

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Felixstowe

Part P Electricians Felixstowe Suffolk

Approximate Population: 29,349

Felixstowe is a seaside town on the North Sea coast of Suffolk, England. The town gives its name to the nearby Port of Felixstowe, which is the largest container port in the United Kingdom and is owned by Hutchinson Ports UK. The town is situated across the estuary of the River Orwell and River Stour from Harwich in Essex.

A village has stood on the site since long before the Norman conquest.   The early history of Felixstowe, including its Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Medieval defences, is told under the name of Walton, because the name Felixstowe was given retrospectively, during the 13th century, to a place which had already been important for well over a thousand years.

It continued as a linchpin in England’s defence, as proved when in 1667 Dutch soldiers landed and failed to capture Landguard Ford.   The town only became a major port in 1886.   In addition to shipping, tourism increased, and a pier was constructed in 1905 but is soon to be demolished.

Indeed, during the late Victorian period (after circa 1880) it became a fashionable resort, a trend initiated by the opening of Felixstowe railway station, the pier, (see above) and a visit by the then German imperial family.   It remained so until the late 1930s.   In 1953, 38 died in the town in the North Sea flood.

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Bury St Edmunds

Part P Electricians Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

Approximate Population: 35,015

Bury St Edmunds is a historic market town in the county of Suffolk, England and formerly the county town of West Suffolk. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and known for the ruined abbey near the town centre.

During the Second World War, the USAAF operated an airfield outside the town.

On 3 March 1974 a Turkish Airlines DC10 jet Flight 981 crashed near Paris killing all 346 people on board. Among the victims were 17 members of Bury St Edmunds rugby club, returning from France. The town council election on 3 May 2007 was won by the “Abolish Bury Town Council” party. The party lost its majority following a by-election in June 2007 and, to date, the Town Council is still in existence.

Near the gardens stands Britain’s first internally illuminated street sign, the pillar of salt. When built, it needed permission because it did not conform to regulations. Bury St Edmunds is terminus of the A1101, Great Britain’s lowest road.

There is a network of tunnels which are evidence of chalk-workings, though there is no evidence of an extensive tunnels under the town centre. Some buildings have inter-communicating cellars. Due to their unsafe nature the chalk-workings are not open to the public, although viewing has been granted to individuals. Some have caused subsidence in living history.

Among noteworthy buildings is St Mary’s Church, where Mary Tudor, Queen of France and sister of Tudor king Henry VIII, was re-buried, six years after her death, having been moved from the Abbey after her brother’s dissolution of the Church. Queen Victoria had a stained glass window fitted into the church to commemorate Mary’s interment.

In the centre of Bury St Edmunds lie the remains of an abbey, surrounded by the Abbey Gardens, a park. The abbey is a shrine to Saint Edmund, the Saxon King of the East Angles. The abbey was largely destroyed during the 16th century with the Dissolution of the Monasteries but Bury remained prosperous throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, falling into relative decline with the Industrial Revolution.

Part P Electricians Bury St Edmunds Suffolk