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 Felixstowerailway 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.
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.
Around 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer satirised the merchants of Ipswich in the Canterbury Tales. Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, the son of a wealthy landowner, was born in Ipswich about 1475. 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. 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. 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.
The Tolly Cobbold brewery, built in the 19th century and rebuilt 1894–1896, is one of the finest Victorian breweries in the United Kingdom. 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.
Former stables, reflected in the glass panels of the Willis Building. Owned by Willis Limited, the properly called the Willis Building but still often called the “Willis-Faber building” by locals, as the company Willis Corroon themselves used to be called Willis Faber. Designed by Norman Foster, the building dates from 1974. It became the youngest Grade I listed building in Britain in 1991 and at the time one of only two buildings to be listed and be under 30 years of age. 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.
Chiltern Associates director Nina Robinson, has 35 years of professional experience as a Chartered Surveyor and is a fellow of the Royal Institution of CharteredSurveyors.
From our base near Ipswich in Suffolk, we cover northern areas such as Norwich, Lowestoft, Beccles, & Diss. The western areas including Bury St Edmunds, Sudbury and Hadleigh. In the south we cover Colchester, Clacton, Felixstowe and Harwich.
We are experienced in local house and flat types such as modern houses including executive and Council houses, 1930’s properties, Victorian and Edwardian detached and terraced houses, historic timber framed houses, cobb properties, and both conversion and purpose built flats. So whatever your Building Survey needs, our Surveyors in Ipswich have got it covered.
