Suffolk

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For other uses, see Suffolk (disambiguation).

Suffolk

Geography
Status:	Ceremonial & Non-metropolitan county
Region:	East of England
Area: - Total - Admin. council	Ranked 8th 3,801 km² Ranked 7th
Admin HQ:	Ipswich
ISO 3166-2:	GB-SFK
ONS code:	42
NUTS 3:	UKH14
Demographics
Population: - Total (2005 est.) - Density - Admin. Council	Ranked 32nd 692,100 182 / km² Ranked 13th
Ethnicity:	97.2% White
Politics
Suffolk County Council http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/
Executive:	Conservative
Members of Parliament
Bob Blizzard, John Gummer, Michael Lord, Chris Mole, David Ruffley, Richard Spring, Tim Yeo
Districts
Ipswich Suffolk Coastal Waveney Mid Suffolk Babergh St Edmundsbury Forest Heath

Suffolk (pronounced /sʌfək/) is a large historic and modern non-metropolitan county in the East Anglia region of 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, at 52°03′22″N, 1°08′59″E and other important towns include Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds. Felixstowe is one of the largest container ports in Europe.

The county is low-lying with few hills, and is largely wetland habitat and arable land with the wetlands of The Broads in the North, and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

1 History
2 Economy
3 Geology, landscape and ecology
4 Agriculture
5 Demographics
6 Cities, towns and villages
7 Places of interest
8 Notable people from Suffolk
9 Public Schools in Suffolk
10 State Schools in Suffolk
11 External links
12 References

[edit] History

Main article: History of Suffolk

Suffolk was part of the kingdom of East Anglia which was settled by the Angles in the 5th century.

Suffolk was divided into separate Quarter Sessions divisions. These were originally four in number, reduced to two in 1860: the eastern division being administered from Ipswich and the western from Bury St Edmunds. The two divisions were made separate administrative counties as East Suffolk and West Suffolk under the Local Government Act 1888, with Ipswich becoming a county borough.

Under the Local Government Act 1972, East Suffolk, West Suffolk and Ipswich were merged to form a unified county of Suffolk on April 1, 1974. This was divided into several local government districts: Babergh, Forest Heath, Ipswich, Mid Suffolk, St. Edmundsbury, Suffolk Coastal, Waveney. This also saw a further part of land near Great Yarmouth become part of Norfolk. As introduced into Parliament, the Local Government Bill would have included Newmarket and Haverhill into Cambridgeshire, with it being compensated by the inclusion of Colchester from Essex: these proposals were ultimately decided against.

West Suffolk is, like nearby East Cambridgeshire, renowned for archaeological findings from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the area between Mildenhall and West Row, in Eriswell and in Lakenheath^[1]. Many bronze objects, such as swords, spear-heads, arrows, axes, palstaves, knives, daggers, rapiers, armour, decorative equipment (in particular for horses) and fragments of sheet bronze, are entrusted to the Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds. Other finds include traces of cremations and barrows.

[edit] Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Suffolk at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added^[2]	Agriculture^[3]	Industry^[4]	Services^[5]
1995	7,113	391	2,449	4,273
2000	8,096	259	2,589	5,248
2003	9,456	270	2,602	6,583

[edit] Geology, landscape and ecology

Much of Suffolk is low-lying on Eocene sand and clays. These rocks are relatively unresistant and on the coast are eroded rapidly. Coastal defences have been used to protect several towns, but several cliff-top houses have been lost to coastal erosion in the past.

The west of the county lies on more resistant Cretaceous Chalk. This chalk is the north-eastern extreme of the Southern England Chalk Formation that stretches from Dorset in the south west to Dover in the south east. The Chalk is less easily eroded so forms the only significant hills in the county. The highest point of the county is Great Wood Hill, the highest point of the Newmarket Ridge, near the village of Rede which reaches 128 m (420 ft).

[edit] Agriculture

The majority of agriculture in Suffolk is either arable or mixed. Farm sizes vary from anything around 80 acres to over 8,000. Soil types vary from heavy clays through to light sands. Crops grown include winter wheat, winter barley, sugar beet, oil seed rape, winter and spring beans and linseed, although smaller areas of rye and oats can be found in lighter areas along with a variety of vegetables.

[edit] Demographics

The Census 2001 Suffolk recorded a population of 668,548. Between 1981 and 2001 the population of the county grew by 13%, with the district of Mid Suffolk growing fastest at 25%. The population growth is due largely to migration rather than natural increase. There is a very low population between the ages of 15 and 29 as the county has few large towns and institutions of higher education, though the 15-to-29 population in Ipswich is average. There is a larger population over the age of 35, and a larger than average retired population.

Most English counties have nicknames for people from that county, such as a Tyke from Yorkshire and a Yellowbelly from Lincolnshire; the traditional nickname for people from Suffolk is 'Suffolk Fair-Maids', or 'Silly Suffolk', referring respectively to the supposed beauty of its female inhabitants in the Middle Ages, and to the long history of Christianity in the county and its many fine churches (from Anglo-Saxon selige, originally meaning holy).

[edit] 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 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.

For a full list of settlements see the List of places in Suffolk.

[edit] Places of interest

Suffolk Landscape

Aldeburgh
Bridge Cottage, Flatford
Bury St Edmunds
Breweries: Adnams, Bartrams, Brandon Brewery, Cox & Holbrook, Earl Soham, Green Dragon, Green Jack, Greene King, King's Head, Lidstone's, Mauldon's, Old Cannon, Old Chimneys, Oulton Ales, St Peter's.
Clare
Clare Castle
Dedham Vale
East Anglia Transport Museum
Flatford Mill
Great Barton
Hadleigh
Framlingham Castle
Leiston Abbey
Mid-Suffolk Light Railway
Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum
Orford Ness
Otter Trust
Portman Road
RSPB Stour Estuary
Saxtead Green Post Mill
Snape Maltings
Southwold Lighthouse
Sue Ryder Foundation Museum
Suffolk Coast and Heaths Path
Suffolk Heritage Coast
Sutton Hoo
The Broads
The Historic villages of Lavenham and Long Melford
Thorpeness

[edit] Notable people from Suffolk

[edit] Public Schools in Suffolk

[edit] State Schools in Suffolk

Bacton Middle School
Stowupland High School
Bungay High School
Kirkley High School,
Sir John Leman High School
Northgate High School
Copleston High School
Hartismere High School
Thomas Mills High School
Debenham High School
Kesgrave High School

Various primary schools and Suffolk is one of the few counties with a 3-tier school system in places. i.e. middle schools (being reviewed Aug 2006)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

Suffolk County Council

^ Hall, David [1994]. Fenland survey : an essay in landscape and persistence / David Hall and John Coles. London; English Heritage. ISBN 1-850-74477-7., p. 81-88
^ Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
^ includes hunting and forestry
^ includes energy and construction
^ includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

United Kingdom • England • Ceremonial counties of England

Counties of the Lieutenancies Act 1997

United Kingdom • England • Historic counties of England

Counties that originate prior to 1889

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Categories: Archaeological sites in England | Suffolk