Ipswich is one of England's
oldest towns, and the largest
Roman villa in Suffolk (possibly an administrative complex) stood at Castle Hill (north-west Ipswich).
Middle Ages is decorated with a particularly fine example of
pargeting. The modern town took shape in Anglo-Saxon times (7th–8th centuries) around the
Port of Ipswich. As the coastal states of north-western Europe emerged from the collapse of the
Roman Empire, essential
North Sea trade and communication between eastern Britain and the continent (especially to
Scandinavia, and through the
Rhine) passed through the former Roman ports of
London (serving the kingdoms of
Mercia, the
East Saxons,
Kent) and
York (Eoforwic) (serving the
Kingdom of Northumbria).
Gipeswic (also in other spellings such as
Gippeswich) arose as the equivalent to these, serving the
Kingdom of East Anglia, its early imported wares dating to the time of
King Rædwald, ruler of the East Angles (616–624). The famous ship-burial and treasure at
Sutton Hoo nearby () is probably his grave. The
Ipswich Museum houses
replicas of the Roman
Mildenhall and
Sutton Hoo treasures. A gallery devoted to the town's origins includes
Anglo-Saxon weapons,
jewellery and other artefacts. The seventh-century town was centred near the quay. Around 700 AD,
Frisian potters from the
Netherlands area settled in Ipswich and set up the first large-scale potteries in England since Roman times. Their wares were traded far across England, and the industry was unique to Ipswich for 200 years. With growing prosperity, in about 720 AD a large new part of the town was laid out in the Buttermarket area. Ipswich was becoming a place of national and international importance. Parts of the ancient road plan still survive in its modern streets. After the invasion of 869, Ipswich fell under
Viking rule. The earth ramparts circling the town centre were probably raised by Vikings in Ipswich around 900 to prevent its recapture by the English. They were unsuccessful. The town operated a
mint under royal licence from King
Edgar in the 970s, which continued through the
Norman Conquest until the time of
King John, in about 1215. The abbreviation
Gipes appears on the coins. King John granted the town its first
charter in 1200, laying the medieval foundations of its modern civil government. Thenceforth Ipswich strongly maintained its jurisdiction over the Liberty of Ipswich, an administrative area extending over about 35 square kilometres centred on the town. In the next four centuries it made the most of its wealth. Five large religious houses, including two
Augustinian Priories (St Peter and St Paul, and Holy Trinity, both mid-12th century), and those of the
Ipswich Greyfriars (
Franciscans, before 1298),
Ipswich Whitefriars (
Carmelites founded 1278–79) and
Ipswich Blackfriars (
Dominicans, before 1263), stood in medieval Ipswich. The last Carmelite Prior of Ipswich was the celebrated
John Bale, author of the oldest English historical verse-drama (
Kynge Johan, ). There were also several hospitals, including the leper hospital of St Mary Magdalene, founded before 1199. During the Middle Ages the
Marian Shrine of
Our Lady of Grace was a famous
pilgrimage destination, and attracted many pilgrims including
Henry VIII and
Katherine of Aragon. At the Reformation the statue was taken away to London to be burned, though some claim that it survived and is preserved at
Nettuno, Italy. Around 1380,
Geoffrey Chaucer satirised the merchants of Ipswich in
The Canterbury Tales.
Thomas Wolsey, the future
cardinal, was born in Ipswich in 1473 as the son of a wealthy landowner. One of
Henry VIII's closest political allies, he founded a
college in the town in 1528, which was for its brief duration one of the homes of the
Ipswich School. He remains one of the town's most famed figures.
Early-modern era During the 14th to 17th centuries Ipswich was a
kontor for the
Hanseatic League, the port being used for imports and exports to the
Baltic. In the time of
Queen Mary the
Ipswich Martyrs were burnt at the stake on the Cornhill for their
Protestant beliefs. A monument commemorating this event now stands in
Christchurch Park. Ipswich was a printing,
bookseller centre, and an entrepôt for continental books in the 16th century. From 1611 to 1634 Ipswich was a major centre for emigration to
New England. This was encouraged by the Town Lecturer,
Samuel Ward. His brother
Nathaniel Ward was first minister of
Ipswich, Massachusetts, where a promontory was named 'Castle Hill' after the place of that name in north-west Ipswich, UK. Ipswich was also one of the main ports of embarkation for puritans leaving other
East Anglian towns and villages for the
Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1630s and what has become known as the
Great Migration. '' by
Thomas Gainsborough -49 The painter
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. The hotel where he resided first opened in 1518; it was then known as The Tavern and later became known as the
Great White Horse Hotel. Dickens made the hotel famous in chapter XXII of
The Pickwick Papers, vividly describing the hotel's meandering corridors and stairs.
19th and 20th centuries In 1824 Dr
George Birkbeck, with support from several local businessmen, founded one of the first
Mechanics' Institutes, which survives to this day as the independent Ipswich Institute reading room and library. The building is located at 15 Tavern Street. In the mid-19th century
coprolite (fossilised animal dung) was discovered; the material was mined and then dissolved in
acid, the resulting mixture forming the basis of
Fisons fertiliser business. The
Tolly Cobbold brewery, built in the 18th century and rebuilt in 1894–96, is one of the finest
Victorian breweries in the UK. There was a Cobbold brewery in the town from 1746 until 2002 when
Ridley's Breweries took Tolly Cobbold over.
Felix Thornley Cobbold presented
Christchurch Mansion to the town in 1896. Smaller breweries include St Jude's Brewery, situated in an 18th-century
coach-house near the town centre. Ipswich was subject to bombing by German
Zeppelins during
World War I but the greatest damage by far occurred during the German bombing raids of
World War II. The area in and around the docks was especially devastated. Eighty civilians died by enemy action in the Ipswich county borough area during the latter war. The last bombs to fall on Ipswich landed on Seymour Road at 2a.m. on 2 March 1945, killing nine people and destroying six houses. The
Willis Building is a glass-clad building owned by
Willis. Designed by
Norman Foster, the building dates from 1974, when it was known as the Willis Faber & Dumas building. It became the youngest grade I
listed building in Britain in 1991, being at the time one of only two listed buildings to be less than thirty years old. In September 1993, Ipswich and
Arras, Nord Pas-de-Calais, France, became twin towns, and a square in the new Buttermarket development was named Arras Square to mark the relationship. Ipswich formerly had a
municipal airport to the south-east of the town, which was opened in 1929 by the
Ipswich Corporation. The airport was controversially closed in 1996. The site was redeveloped for housing as the Ravenswood estate.
21st century Ipswich has experienced a building boom in the early part of the 21st century. Construction has mainly concentrated around the
former industrial dock which is now known as the
Ipswich Waterfront. Regeneration to the area has made it a hub of culture in Ipswich, the area boasts fine dining restaurants, a boutique hotel, and the new regional university, the
University of Suffolk. The new high rise buildings of the Regatta Quay development has topped the list of the
tallest buildings in Ipswich. The mixed-use high rise building,
The Mill, is currently the tallest building in Suffolk. Ipswich has made several unsuccessful bids for
city status. The town does not have a cathedral, so the
Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is based at
Bury St Edmunds, the former
county town of
West Suffolk. Ipswich is the largest town in Suffolk, followed by
Lowestoft and
Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in
East Anglia, after
Peterborough and
Norwich. It is northeast of
London and in 2011 had a population of 144,957. The
Ipswich built-up area is the fourth-largest in the
East of England and the 42nd-largest in England and Wales. It includes the towns and villages of
Kesgrave,
Woodbridge,
Bramford and
Martlesham Heath. ==Localities==