Rendlesham, Suffolk

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Rendlesham, near Woodbridge, Suffolk was a royal centre of authority for the king of the East Saxons, of the Wuffinga line; the proximity of the Sutton Hoo ship burial may indicate a connection between Sutton Hoo and the East Saxon royal house. Swithhelm, son of Seaxbald, who reigned from 660 to around 664, was baptised at Rendlesham by Saint Cedd with King Aethelwald of East Anglia acting as his godfather. He died around the time of the great plague of 664 and may have been buried at the palace of Rendlesham.

Its name is recorded in Anglo-Saxon about 730 AD as Rendlæsham, which may mean "Homestead belonging to [a man named] Rendel", or it may come from a theorized Anglo-Saxon word *rendel = "little shore".

More recently Rendlesham was the site of the Rendlesham Forest Incident, a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and objects in the sky in December 1980.