Ipswich is England’s oldest continuously inhabited town, established as “Gyppeswyk” by Anglo-Saxon sailor-settlers. It suffered Viking raids, but became one of Britain’s wealthiest early medieval towns, and was a Head Port of the Hanseatic League. It was also a major ship-building centre, benefiting from plentiful oak woods nearby; at one time a large proportion of England’s warships were built on the Orwell.
Notable Ipswich seafarers include: Thomas Cavendish and Thomas Eldred, who first sailed around the world in the 1580s; Bartholomew Gosnold, a founder of Jamestown, our first American colony, in the early 1600s; and leading 18th and 19th century admirals Broke and Vernon, both of whose fine country houses still stand on the banks of the Orwell estuary. Lord Nelson, despite his better-known links with Norfolk, was High Sheriff of Ipswich when he died at Trafalgar in 1805.
Ipswich flourished during and after the industrial revolution; when the Victorians built the Wet Dock in 1842 it was the largest of its kind in the country, attracting over 30 factories and industries, clustered around its quaysides. Thus, “Maritime Ipswich” is directly responsible for the Victorian prosperity still evident today in the many fine buildings included on the town’s List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest.
