Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury | ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | SUDBURY | |
Postcode district | CO10 | |
Dialling code | 01787 | |
Police | Suffolk | |
Fire | Suffolk | |
Ambulance | East of England | |
UK Parliament | ||
Sudbury (
Sudbury was an
.Today, Sudbury retains its status as a market town with a twice-weekly market in the town centre in front of
It is home to the Gainsborough's House museum, celebrating the work of the artist.
History
Early history
Sudbury's history dates back into the age of the Saxons.[4] The town's earliest mention is in circa 799, when Ælfhun, Bishop of Dunwich, died in the town.[5] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the town as Suðberie ("south-borough"), presumed to distinguish it from Norwich or Bury St Edmunds, to the north,[4] and c. 995 is recorded as Suðbyrig.[6] The town is also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, as a market town where the local people came to barter their goods.[5] The market was established in 1009.[7] During this period the town was surrounded by a defensive ditch and a diverted section of the River Stour.[6]
The Church of All Saints was established in the 12th century before being bought by Adam the Monk, who then passed the church and its lands to the
A community of Dominicans established Sudbury Priory in the mid-13th century and gradually extended the size of their priory, which was one of three Dominican priories in the county of Suffolk.[9] A leper hospital was founded on the outskirts of the town in 1272.[6]
Sudbury was one of the first towns in which
One citizen of Sudbury, Archbishop
From the 16th to 18th century the weaving industry was less consistently profitable and Sudbury experienced periods of varying prosperity.
Sudbury and the surrounding area, like much of
In 1705 the River Stour Navigation Act was passed in Parliament, and work was undertaken to make the river navigable all the way from Manningtree.[6][17]
By the 18th century the fees charged to become a freeman, with voting rights, were exorbitant and the borough of Sudbury, along with 177 other English towns, was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.
During the 18th century Sudbury became famous for its local artists. John Constable painted in the area, especially the River Stour. Painter Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury in 1727, and was educated at Sudbury Grammar School.[18] His birthplace, now named Gainsborough's House, is a museum to his work and is open to the public. It houses many valuable pictures and some of his family possessions. A statue of Gainsborough was unveiled in the town centre outside St Peter's Church on Market Hill in 1913.[5]
Victorian times to 1960s
The
A new workhouse was built in 1836 off Walnut Tree Lane, close to St Gregory's church.[21] From 1946, with the foundation of the National Health Service, it became the local cottage hospital.[22]
Sudbury's Catholic Church, Our Lady Immaculate and St. John the Evangelist, was designed by Leonard Stokes and erected in 1893. The shrine of Our Lady of Sudbury sits within its nave.[23]
During the
The Corn Exchange became the local public library after a successful campaign in the mid-1960s by the Corn Exchange Preservation Association to save it.[25]
Geography
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Governance
Sudbury was a municipal borough in the administrative county of West Suffolk, with its headquarters at Sudbury Town Hall, the district contained the parishes of Sudbury and Ballingdon and until 1935 Sudbury St Bartholomew. In the local government reorganisation of 1974 the district was abolished to form Babergh.[26] in the non-metropolitan county of Suffolk. Sudbury became a successor parish.[27] Being an urban area the parish council and its chair are known as the 'Town Council' and 'Town Mayor' respectively.
From 1559 until 1844 the
Schools
The town's only
Media
Sudbury is served by a daily newspaper, the East Anglian Daily Times, owned by the Archant group. There are also two weekly newspapers, both published on a Thursday. The Sudbury Mercury, again owned by Archant, is delivered free to households, and the Suffolk Free Press, owned by Iliffe Media, is sold in shops around south Suffolk and north Essex.
Sports
The town's main
The Kingfisher Leisure Centre, next to the railway station, has a 25 m swimming pool, sauna, fitness centre and a soft play area for children. It is home to Sudbury Storms Swimming Club.
Sudbury Rowing Club, formerly Sudbury Boat Club, was founded in 1874 and has held a regatta in the town every year since, except during the world wars. It has a boathouse and clubhouse in Quay Lane and rows on a 1500 m stretch of the Stour by Friars Meadow.[34]
Other sporting groups include a canoeing club, a hapkido club, a running club and a boxing club.
Culture
Once a busy and important river port the last industrial building on the riverside in Sudbury has been converted into the town's Quay Theatre. The River Stour Trust, formed in 1968, has its headquarters in Sudbury, and a purpose built visitor centre located at Cornard Lock. The trust operates electric-powered boats from the Granary in Quay Lane, to Great Henny, a few miles downstream. Each September, the 24 mi (39 km) stretch of the River Stour hosts hundreds of canoe and small boat enthusiasts in a weekend event called Sudbury to the Sea, which finishes at Cattawade.
St Peter's Church, Sudbury a former church crowning the top of the Market Hill in the centre of Sudbury is now used as a cultural venue for live music and other performances, art exhibitions, and markets. St Peter's is currently in the delivery phase of a major regeneration project to conserve and refurbish the building, led by The Churches Conservation Trust.
Valley Walk cycle route and footpath, starts at the Sudbury water meadows and continues along the disused railway track, finishing close to Long Melford Country Park, and then connects to Melford Walk.
Commencing in 2006 the town has hosted the charity fundraising pop music festival, Leestock.
Children's author Dodie Smith lived near to Sudbury, and part of her famous novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which inspired the Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, takes place in the town including St Peter's Church.[35]
Just before midnight they came to the market town of Sudbury. Pongo paused as they crossed the bridge over the River Stour. "Here we enter Suffolk" he said, triumphantly. They ran on through the quiet streets of old houses and into the market square. They had hoped they might meet some dog and hear if any news of the puppies had come at the Twilight Barking, but not so much as a cat was stirring. While they were drinking at the fountain, church clocks began to strike midnight.
Transport
By road, Sudbury is served by the
The railway arrived in Sudbury in 1847 when
The town was formerly a
International links
The Canadian city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario (formerly known as Sudbury and still referred to as Sudbury in everyday usage) was named after Sudbury, becoming a settlement in 1883 following the discovery of rich nickel and copper ores there during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.[36] The superintendent of the railway construction project James Worthington was married to Caroline Hitchcock, a woman who had been born in Sudbury, Suffolk, and the name was chosen to honour her.[37]
Sudbury has two namesakes in the New England region of the United States: Sudbury, Massachusetts, and Sudbury, Vermont.
Twin towns
Sudbury is
Notable people
As noted above, the artist Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury[18][39] and fellow painter John Constable[40] worked in and near the town. A 14th-century Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury,[41] was born in the town as was, more recently, author Joel Willans,[42] artists Maggi Hambling[43] and Amanda Ansell,[44] and professional footballer Stuart Slater.[45] Adrian Bell wrote his classic agricultural memoir Corduroy at his parents' rented house in the town.[46] The Bayning family of Nayland, originally cloth merchants, entered the spice trade and were joint founders of the East India Company.[47] Paul Bayning (1588–1629) was knighted in 1611 and created Viscount Bayning of Sudbury in 1628[citation needed] Scottish-born musician Jack Bruce, lead singer and bassist of the rock band Cream, died in Sudbury on 25 October 2014.
References
- Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- ^ "Sudbury Town Council Website". Sudbury Town Council. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
- ^ "SUDBURY TOWN COUNCIL (SUFFOLK)". Robert Young. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ^ a b c d Kelly (1900). "Kelly's Directory of Suffolk". Kelly's Directories, Ltd.: 327. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ a b c "Sudbury's History". sudburysuffolk.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Carenza; Ranson, Catherine (2014). "Archaeological Test Pit Excavations in Sudbury, Suffolk, 2014" (PDF). Access Cambridge Archaeology, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 October 2015.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "'Suffolk', Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516". 2005.
- ^ "History – All Saints Church". allsaints-sudbury.co.uk. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ "'Dominican friaries: Sudbury', A History of the County of Suffolk". 1975. pp. 123–124. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- ^ Clayton, Joseph (1912). "Simon of Sudbury". The Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol XIII. New Advent. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
- ^ "St Gregory, Sudbury". suffolkchurches.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
- ^ "'Hospitals: St Leonard, Sudbury', A History of the County of Suffolk". 1975. pp. 140–141. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- ^ "'Colleges: Sudbury', A History of the County of Suffolk". 1975. pp. 150–152. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- ^ ""Sudbury... very populous and very poor" Daniel Defoe (1722)".""At Sudbury... manufacture... is at present flourishing", Arthur Young (1784)".
- ^ "Records of Archdeaconry of Sudbury".
- ^ Thompson, Roger, Mobility & Migration, East Anglian Founders of New England, 1629–1640, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994, 98–99.
- ^ "River Stour Navigation". waterways.org.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
- ^ a b "Biography". Gainsborough's House. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
- ^ "Sudbury in 1842". Old Towns of England. oldtowns.co.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
- '^ Minority MP 'ought to be commemorated East Anglian Daily Times, 23 November 2007
- ^ "Sudbury, Suffolk". The Workhouse.
- ^ "Walnut Tree Hospital, Sudbury". National Archives.
- ^ "The Parish". sudburywithhadleigh.net.
- ^ Phil Brinkman USAAF Nose Art Research Project
- ^ Grimshaw, Anne. "How Sudbury came close to losing one of its finest buildings". Sudbury Society. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ "Sudbury MB". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ "The Local Government (Successor Parishes) Order 1973". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
- ISBN 9780415059992.
- ^ The Annual register of world events: a review of the year 1834. Vol. 76. BALDWIN AND CRADOCK; JG & F RIVINGTON; LONGMAN, REES, ORME AND CO; JEFFERY AND SON; J.M. RICHARDSON; J BOOTH; J BOOKER; J RODWELL; SHERWOOD, GILBERT AND PIPER; HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO; G LAWFORD; J DOWDING; WHITTAKKER AND CO; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO; T LAYCOCK AND H RENSHAW. 1835. p. 98.
- ^ "History". afcsudbury.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 January 2008. Retrieved 28 October 2008.
- ^ A.F.C. Sudbury at the Football Club History Database
- ^ "AFC Sudbury". Ryman Isthmian Football League. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
- ^ "East Anglian Premier Cricket League". Play-Cricket. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
- ^ Chambers, T. (2003). History. Sudbury Rowing Club. Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Last accessed 29 March 2014.
- ^ "101 Dalmatians and Sudbury". visitchurches.org.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
- ^ Room, Adrian (1989). Dictionary of World Place Names Derived from British Names. p. 170: Taylor & Francis.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "Sudbury, Greater". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 March 2008.
- ^ Eeles, Barbara (16 August 2007). "Sudbury – The joy of getting to know EU". Suffolk Free Press. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2008.
- ^ Rossetti, William Michael (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). pp. 388–389.
- Holmes, Charles John (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). pp. 982–983. .
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 19. .
- ^ assiabi (March 2013). "Spellbound by words". 6d.fi. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
- ^ Bredin, Lucinda (18 May 2002). "The Guardian Profile: Maggi Hambling – A matter of life and death". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 15 August 2010.
- ^ "Ansell, Amanda Louise". Suffolk Artists. 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ^ Stuart Slater at Soccerbase
- ISBN 978-0571043637.
- ^ Robert Brenner Merchants and Revolution (2003)
Further reading
- C. G. Grimwood & S. A. Kay, History of Sudbury, Suffolk (Privately printed, 1952)
- Barry Wall, Sudbury: History & Guide (Tempus, 2004)