Suffolk
Woodbridge, with finds dating back from the Neolithic Age (2500-1700 BC) and under Roman occupation for 300 years following Queen Boudica's failed rebellion in AD 59, is still a thriving town.
After the Romans were called back to Rome in AD 410 the Anglo-Saxon settlement was fully re-established. It was the Angles who gave East Anglia its name. In the early 7th century King Raedwalk of East Anglia was a Bretwald and the most powerful king in England. Dying in approx 624 he is probably the king buried at Sutton Hoo. The burial ship is 89 feet long and was full of treasures when discovered in 1939. These were the richest ever found on British soil and are kept in the British Museum in London. Replicas of some items are in the Woodbridge Museum.
Featured in the Domesday Book of 1086 Woodbridge is described as part of the Lowes Hundred.
The town and port of Woodbridge is steeped in history and is reflected in its architecture. Once owned by the Bigod family who built the famous castle on the Hill in Framlingham, the town is known for its boat,rope and sail making . Sir Frances Drake an English admiral who circumnavigated the globe and helped defeat the Spanish Armada of 1588 had many fighting ships built in Woodbridge, he was the most renowned seaman of the Elizabethan age.
Suffering enormously in the plague of 1349 it regained its position in the world reasonably swiftly and the building of a new church of St Mary's, constructed with limestone from the Wash and decorated by Thetford flint is evidence of this. By 1534 and after a tower and a porch were added, the Prior, Henry Bassingbourne confirmed Henry Vlll's supremacy over the Catholic Church and rejected its incumbent Roman Bishop. Woodbridge Priory was dissolved three years later. Religious un-rest continued in the reign of the Roman Catholic Mary Tudor. Alexander Gooch a weaver of Woodbridge and Alice Drive were burnt for heresy on Rushmere Heath. Alice previously had had her ears cut off for likening queen Mary to Jezebel.
Elizabeth the 1st's reign saw a much more settled environment and helped Woodbridge in its industries such as weaving, sail-cloth manufacture and sail making ensuring further prosperity along with the wool trade. The latter was so lucrative the the port was enlarged and a customs house was established in 1589.
Woodbridge boasts buildings from the Tudor, Georgian, Regency and Victorian eras. With a working tide mill (one of only two in the United Kingdom) with a superb private school 'Woodbridge' and the Seckford Almshouses for the poor , it boasts two windmills Buttrums and Tricker with the first being open to the public. With its pretty unique shopping and picturesque square it is well worth a two day visit.