Town in Suffolk, England
Felixstowe
A Suffolk seaside town with an Edwardian pier and beach huts also runs Britain's biggest container port, and once launched flying boats against Zeppelins.
Key information
- County
- Suffolk
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Britain's busiest container port, a Victorian seafront and Landguard Fort
- Famous people
- George Tomline, John Cyril Porte
- Football clubs
- Felixstowe & Walton United
About Felixstowe
The seaside town that feeds the shops
Stand on Felixstowe seafront and you can see the oddest double act in Britain: deckchairs and beach huts in the foreground, giant ship-to-shore cranes on the horizon. The Port of Felixstowe is the country's busiest container port, handling more than a third of the UK's containerised trade. The cargo that passes through its gates is the stuff of everyday life: clothes, electronics, toys, food. Plenty of what ends up on British shelves arrives here first. The container age came to the port in the 1960s, and the old dock never looked back. Today the sprawl of stacked boxes on the Orwell estuary at Harwich Harbour is as much a Felixstowe landmark as the pier.
The colonel who built a resort and a dock
Felixstowe owes its modern shape to one stubborn landowner. Colonel George Tomline, an MP and landowner with estates around Orwell Park, saw potential in a sleepy coastal spot and set about proving it. He built a railway to the coast, which opened in 1877, and then a dock, which opened in 1886. A seaside resort sprang up alongside, with grand hotels and promenades for Victorian and Edwardian holidaymakers. Tomline died in 1889, but his two projects, the beach and the port, still define the place. Not many towns can say they were designed to be both a holiday spot and a harbour.
Flying boats versus Zeppelins
Established in 1913, Felixstowe's naval air station became an important flying-boat base during the First World War. Flying boats took off from here to patrol the North Sea, hunt U-boats and tackle German airships. The station's commander, John Cyril Porte, developed the Felixstowe flying boats, whose hull designs shaped seaplane building for years afterwards. On 14 May 1917, a Curtiss H-12 flying boat from Great Yarmouth shot down Zeppelin L22 over the North Sea, part of the wider flying-boat campaign against airships. The seaplane base, later an experimental establishment, kept testing aircraft long after the war ended.
The fort that saw off the Dutch
At the southern tip of the town sits Landguard Fort, guarding the harbour mouth. In 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch forces landed nearby and tried to storm it. The defenders held them off, and the attack failed. The 1667 attack is commonly described as the last opposed seaborne invasion of England, and the fort still stands as proof. Later centuries added more defences along this coast, including Martello towers, the squat round forts built against the threat of Napoleon.
Pier, promenade and ferry across the Deben
The seafront is where the town shows its Victorian and Edwardian side: long shingle beach, colourful huts, formal gardens climbing the cliffs and the Spa Pavilion Theatre. Felixstowe Pier opened in 1905 and was originally much longer. Its surviving seaward deck has been closed to the public since 1999, although visitors can use the shore-end pavilion and boardwalk. Further north lies Felixstowe Ferry, a quieter corner of fishing huts and boats where the Deben meets the sea. A small foot ferry crosses the river to Bawdsey, the peninsula where radar research helped Britain in the Second World War. Golfers know the Ferry end for its links course, one of the oldest in the area.
Football by the sea
Felixstowe & Walton United are the town's football club, playing non-league football with a loyal local following. The town's other sporting habits are more seaside: sailing, beach walks and cycling along the coast. And, of course, ship-spotting. Watching a vast container vessel glide past the beach is a local pastime that never gets old.