County in England
Suffolk
Suffolk's nickname is 'Silly', but this is the county that gave Britain a Anglo-Saxon king's treasure ship, the first radar chain and its biggest container port.
Key information
- County
- Suffolk
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 760,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- about 3,800 square kilometres
- Known for
- Sutton Hoo, Constable Country, Lavenham, Newmarket horse racing, Aldeburgh and Southwold, the Suffolk Punch horse
- What locals are called
- Suffolk folk; the old nickname is Suffolk Dumplings
- Famous people
- Thomas Gainsborough, Benjamin Britten, Cardinal Wolsey, Ed Sheeran
- Football clubs
- Ipswich Town, Lowestoft Town, Bury Town
About Suffolk
Why the county is called 'Silly'
Suffolk's famous nickname, 'Silly Suffolk', is not the insult it sounds. It comes from the Old English word 'selig', meaning blessed or holy, a nod to the county's astonishing number of medieval churches and religious houses. The name stuck long after the meaning faded. Locals are Suffolk folk, and the old teasing name for them is Suffolk Dumplings. Suffolk Day on 21 June gives everyone a chance to fly the county flag. The county's name itself is plain enough: it was the land of the 'South Folk' of East Anglia, with Norfolk to the north.
The ship buried in a field
In 1939 a self-taught archaeologist called Basil Brown, hired by landowner Edith Pretty, dug into a mound at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge. Inside was the impression of a 27-metre ship and a burial chamber packed with gold, garnets and silver, plus a helmet that became one of the most recognisable objects in British archaeology. The burial is widely linked to the Anglo-Saxon king Rædwald of East Anglia. It overturned the idea that the years after Rome were a 'Dark Age' of poverty and ignorance. The finds are in the British Museum, but the mounds themselves can be walked among. Suffolk's wealth in later centuries came from wool. Lavenham grew so rich on cloth in the 1400s that its crooked timber-framed houses and giant church tower still look out of proportion to the village. Film-makers love it, and it doubled as Godric's Hollow in Harry Potter.
Constable, Gainsborough and Britten
Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury in 1727 and his statue stands on the market square. John Constable painted the Stour valley around Flatford Mill, and the area is still called Constable Country. You can stand beside Flatford Mill and see the scene he painted in The Hay Wain, though the painting itself hangs in the National Gallery in London. On the coast, Benjamin Britten, born in Lowestoft, made Aldeburgh his base and founded the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. His opera Peter Grimes is set in a Suffolk fishing town. On the shingle beach stands Maggi Hambling's steel Scallop, a tribute to him that people love to argue about. Ed Sheeran grew up in Framlingham, under the walls of its castle, and wrote about the town in song.
Horses, ports and the Cold War
Newmarket is the home of British horse racing. Racing here goes back to the 1600s, when Charles II made it fashionable, and the town still has hundreds of racehorses on its heaths and gallops. The county also has its own breed of working horse, the Suffolk Punch, a powerful chestnut that is among Britain's oldest heavy horse breeds. Felixstowe is Britain's biggest container port. Bawdsey Manor, meanwhile, was where early radar was developed in the 1930s, and Orford Ness later hosted secret military tests. In 1980 Rendlesham Forest saw lights and strange sightings reported by US airmen, a story that earned the nickname 'Britain's Roswell'. Out at Lowestoft, Ness Point is the most easterly spot in the whole of the UK.
Ghosts, green children and a drowned city
Woolpit tells of two green-skinned children who appeared in a field in the 12th century, speaking no known language. The village sign still shows them. In 1577 a monstrous black dog, Black Shuck, is said to have burst into the churches at Bungay and Blythburgh during a storm, leaving scorch marks on a door. Dunwich was once a major medieval port, but storms and erosion have taken most of it into the North Sea, and there are tales of church bells heard beneath the waves. Bury St Edmunds was a great abbey town, and legend says barons met at its abbey in 1214 and swore to force King John to sign Magna Carta.
Ham, herring and a famous beer
Suffolk is known for black-glazed Suffolk ham, cured with treacle and spices. Lowestoft's smoked herring and fish and chips on the front at Aldeburgh are coastal staples, and the county's pubs serve beer from brewers such as Adnams of Southwold and Greene King of Bury St Edmunds. Southwold, with its pier, lighthouse and beach huts, is one of the east coast's best-loved resorts. In football, Ipswich Town are the county's big club. Under Alf Ramsey they won the league title in 1962, and under Bobby Robson they lifted the FA Cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981.