Contact

We’re keen to publish your articles on the local history of Suffolk, especially in the following areas:

Agriculture
Churches
Education
Industry
Legal
People
Places
Politcs & Law
Ships and Shipping
Societies
Transport
War (World War I and World War II)

The articles will be made free and available to all public visitors to this website, for reference, research, and recreational interest.

If you’re happy to submit your articles on Suffolk history to the New Suffolk Local History Council, please do email them to:

admin @ suffolklocalhistorycouncil.org.uk

Mediaeval Suffolk

Suffolk was one of the most important regions of England in the middle ages.

Even by 1200 it was wealthy, densely populated, highly commercialised and urbanised; and it survived the impact of three of the most tumultuous events of the last millennium, the Great Famine (1315-22), the Black Death (1349) and the Peasants’ Revolt (1381).

By 1500, Suffolk had become one of the richest and most industrialised regions of England, based on cloth manufacture, fishing and tanning.

Roman Suffolk

The Romans moved in to Suffolk when taking territory won by the defeat of the Iceni, under Boudicca’s revolt.

A settlement at Combretovium (Baylham House) was established, and over time accomodated two Roman army forts of different sizes built at different times on the same site.

A number of Roman roads cross through Suffolk, and the the Roman road which ran from Camulodunum (Colchester) to Venta (Caistor by Norwich) ran through the middle of the smaller fort.

The civilian settlement which developed around the fort covered a huge area and traces of occupation in the Roman period are found for several miles around Baylham House. However, little evidence now remains other than crop markings on the ground.

Interesting sources on Roman Suffolk:

Great Bradley and the Romans
Dig unearths Roman skeleton
New light on Roman East Anglia
Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm

Bury St Edmunds

Of all the urban centres in Suffolk, Bury St Edmunds probably remains the most famous, not least because of the historical context of the Abbey that gives it it’s name.

The abbey was build as a shrine to Saint Edmund, the Saxon King of the East Angles, who was killed by the Danes in 869 AD. The town initially grew around Bury St Edmunds Abbey as a site of pilgrimage

In 1214 the barons of England are believed to have met in the Abbey Church and swore that they would force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties, the document which influenced the creation of the Magna Carta.

Afterwards, Bury St Edmunds developed into a flourishing cloth making town by the 14th century.

The abbey was largely destroyed during the 16th century with the dissolution of the monasteries but Bury remained a prosperous town throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.

Buy St Edmunds is also slightly infamous for its involvement in two Witch trials, the first under the direction of the Witchfinder General, the second used as a reference in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693.