Suffolk

This article is about the English county. For other uses, see Suffolk (disambiguation).

Suffolk (pronounced 'suffuk') is a large, low-lying county in East Anglia in eastern England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich and other important towns are Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds.

The Suffolk Broads area is part of The Broads National Park. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

From 1889 to 1974, Suffolk was split into two administrative counties, East Suffolk and West Suffolk, with East Suffolk's council based in Ipswich, and West Suffolk's in Bury St Edmunds.

The highest point of the county is Great Wood Hill near the village of Rede which reaches 128m.

Cities, towns and villages

The agreed upon number of established communities in Suffolk varies greatly because of the large number of the all but non-existent hamlets which may consist of just a single farm and a deconsecrated church: remnants of wealthy communities, some dating back to the early days of the Christian era. Suffolk encompasses one of the most ancient regions of the UK: A monastery in Bury St. Edmunds founded in 630AD, plotting of the Magna Carta in 1215; the oldest documented structural element of a still inhabited dwelling in Britain found in Clare.

This comparatively recent evidence is but a coda to the widespread settlement in the region shown by earlier archaeological evidence of Mesolithic man as far back as c.7000BC, (Grimes Graves, Norfolk – a 5000 y/o flint mine) with Roman settlements Lakenheath, Long Melford, later Bronze and Saxon settlements. Sutton Hoo: burial ground of the Anglo-Saxon pagan kings of East Anglia.

See the List of places in Suffolk.

Places of interest

• Aldeburgh Festival
• Breweries: Adnams and Greene King
• Clare Castle
• Dedham Vale
• East Anglia Transport Museum
• Framlingham Castle
• Leiston Abbey
• Mid-Suffolk Light Railway
• Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum
• Orford Ness
• Otter Trust
• RSPB Stour Estuary
• Saxtead Green Post Mill
• Snape Maltings
• Southwold Lighthouse
• Sue Ryder Foundation Museum
• Suffolk Broads
• Suffolk Coast and Heaths Path
• Suffolk Heritage Coast
• Sutton Hoo
• The Broads National Park