Ipswich, Suffolk, England

Ipswich shown within Suffolk

Ipswich is the county town of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, on the estuary of the River Orwell.

It was successively a Stone age, Iron age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement known as "Gippeswic".

King John granted it its first charter in 1200, and in the next four centuries it made a living trading Suffolk cloth with the Continent.

Ipswich is still a flourishing port today, handling several million tons of cargo each year.

The Ipswich Museum houses replicas of the Mildenhall treasure and the Sutton Hoo treasure, as well as Saxon weapons and jewellery.

Tolly Cobbold Brewery, built in the 19th century and rebuilt 1894-1896, is one of the finest Victorian breweries in Britain. There has been a Cobbold Brewery in the town since 1746. Felix Thornley Cobbold presented Christchurch Mansion to the town in 1896

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the son of a butcher, was born in Ipswich in about 1475. He founded a college in the town in 1528.

In 1555, the Ipswich Martyrs were burnt at the stake for their Protestant beliefs.

From 1611 to 1634 Ipswich was a major centre for emigration to New England. This was organised by the Town Lecturer, Samual Ward. His brother Nathaniel Ward was first minister of Ipswich, Massachusetts.

The painters John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough lived and worked in Ipswich. In 1835, Charles Dickens stayed in Ipswich and used it as a setting for scenes in his novel The Pickwick Papers. In ca. 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer satirised the merchants of Ipswich in the Canterbury Tales.

The world's first lawnmower was produced in Ipswich in 1832.

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