133-588: Stoke Bridge in Ipswich carries Bridge Street ( A137 ) over the point at which the River Gipping becomes the River Orwell . It carries traffic into Ipswich from the suburb of Over Stoke . The bridge consists of two separate structures and is just upstream from Ipswich dock on a tidal section of the river. There are records of a bridge existing on the site from the late 13th Century. The fact that
266-876: A college in the town in 1528, which was for its brief duration one of the homes of the Ipswich School . He remains one of the town's most famed figures. During the 14th to 17th centuries Ipswich was a kontor for the Hanseatic League , the port being used for imports and exports to the Baltic . In the time of Queen Mary the Ipswich Martyrs were burnt at the stake on the Cornhill for their Protestant beliefs. A monument commemorating this event now stands in Christchurch Park . Ipswich
399-634: A municipal airport to the south-east of the town, which was opened in 1929 by the Ipswich Corporation . The airport was controversially closed in 1996. The site was redeveloped for housing as the Ravenswood estate. Ipswich has experienced a building boom in the early part of the 21st century. Construction has mainly concentrated around the former industrial dock which is now known as the Ipswich Waterfront . Regeneration to
532-602: A cathedral, so the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is based at Bury St Edmunds , the former county town of West Suffolk . Ipswich is the largest town in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds , and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia , after Peterborough and Norwich . It is 50 miles (80 km) northeast of London and in 2011 had a population of 144,957. The Ipswich built-up area
665-615: A condition of planning permission. The town has three museums: Ipswich Museum , the Ipswich Transport Museum and Christchurch Mansion. The New Wolsey Theatre is a 400-seat theatre situated on Civic Drive. Although the Wolsey Theatre was built in 1979, The New Wolsey Company took on the management and running of the Wolsey Theatre in 2000, opening its first production in February 2001. DanceEast, which has
798-535: A conquest remains very influential. In contrast, Gildas did not explain what happened to the Saxons after the initial wars. (Gildas, in discussing the spiritual life of Britain does however mention that because of the partition ( divortium ) of the country caused by barbarians, citizens ( cives ) were prevented from worshipping at the shrines of the martyrs in St Albans and Caerleon . ) He reported instead that Britain
931-417: A continuation in sub-Roman Britain, with control over its own political and military destiny for well over a century, is that of Kenneth Dark, who suggests that the sub-Roman elite survived in culture, politics and military power up to c. 570 . Bede, however, identifies three phases of settlement: an exploration phase, when mercenaries came to protect the resident population; a migration phase, which
1064-753: A defence against an invasion of Picts and Saxons in 429. By about 430 the archaeological record in Britain begins to indicate a relatively rapid melt-down of Roman material culture, and its replacement by Anglo-Saxon material culture. At some time between 445 and 454 Gildas , writing some generations later, reported that the Britons also wrote to the Roman military leader Aëtius in Gaul, begging for assistance, with no success. In desperation, an un-named "proud tyrant" subsequently invited Saxons to Britain to help defend it from
1197-497: A developing and varied programme of events from visual arts, performing arts, literature, film and music, notably a free music day in Christchurch Park . The Ultrazang monthly live music night began in 2009. The Ipswich Jazz Festival is a jazz music and arts festival started in 2015 in partnership with the Ipswich Arts Festival and mixes established jazz talent, rising stars and regional players. Ipswich had
1330-490: A diversity associated with language. Beyond these, in the early Anglo-Saxon period, identity was local: although people would have known their neighbours, it may have been important to indicate tribal loyalty with details of clothing and especially fasteners. It is sometimes hard in thinking about the period to avoid importing anachronistic 19th-century ideas of nationalism: in fact it is unlikely that people would have thought of themselves as Anglo-Saxon – instead they were part of
1463-418: A former airfield), Rose Hill , Rushmere , Springvale , St Margarets , Stoke , Warren Heath , Westbourne , Whitehouse and Whitton . To the east of the town is Trinity Park near Bucklesham the home of the annual Suffolk Show , a typical county show . The 'Trinity' is the name given to the three animals native to the county of Suffolk, namely Red Poll cattle, the powerful Suffolk Punch horse and
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#17327835134441596-496: A framework assuming that many Brittonic-speakers shifted to English, for example over whether at least some Germanic-speaking peasant-class immigrants must have been involved to bring about the language-shift ; what legal or social structures (such as enslavement or apartheid -like customs) might have promoted the high status of English; and precisely how slowly Brittonic (and British Latin) disappeared in different regions. An idiosyncratic view that has won extensive popular attention
1729-410: A glimpse into the relationship between people, land, and the tribes and groups into which they had organised themselves. The individual units in the list developed from the settlement areas of tribal groups, some of which are as little as 300 hides. The names are difficult to locate: places such as East wixna and Sweord ora . What it reveals is that micro-identity of tribe and family is important from
1862-526: A merchant house which features tudor pargeting and the Ipswich window . The former East Suffolk County Hall is just east of the centre of Ipswich. It is listed as a building at risk by the Victorian Society . The Town Hall remains in use as an arts centre and events venue; it dates from 1866 (architects: Bellamy & Hardy of Lincoln). The 18th Century Grade II listed Old Post Office, which
1995-433: A native British chieftain and his war band adopting Anglo-Saxon culture and language. The incidence of British Celtic personal names in the royal genealogies of a number of "Anglo-Saxon" dynasties is very suggestive of the latter process. The Wessex royal line was traditionally founded by a man named Cerdic , an undoubtedly Celtic name identical to Ceretic , the name given to two British kings, and ultimately derived from
2128-468: A new "Anglo-Saxon" culture (one with parallels in northern Germany) had indeed become prominent in Britain by the 430s, well before the 450s as reported by Bede. Historians such as Halsall have also pointed out that a Germanic population may have already been present under Roman rule for many years before 430 without this being obvious in the archaeological record, because of the prestige which Roman material culture still had. In Bede's semi-mythical account
2261-436: A notable punk scene and influential grindcore band Extreme Noise Terror , formed in the town in 1985. It also features art and photography exhibitions, film screenings and workshops held in venues across the town. Ipswich is covered by BBC Look East and ITV News Anglia both broadcast from Norwich . The town has five local radio stations, BBC Radio Suffolk which broadcast from its studios on St Matthews Street in
2394-533: A number of hides to each one. A hide was an amount of land sufficient to support a household. The list of tribes is headed by Mercia and consists almost exclusively of peoples who lived south of the Humber estuary and territories that surrounded the Mercian kingdom, some of which have never been satisfactorily identified by scholars. The document is problematic, but extremely important for historians, as it provides
2527-517: A number of features of the Regnal List and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the fifth and sixth centuries clearly contradict the idea that they constitute a reliable record. Some of the information there may contain a kernel of truth if the obvious fictions are rejected (such as the claim that Portsmouth took its name from an invader, Port, who arrived in 501), such as the sequence of the events associated with Ælle of Sussex (albeit not necessarily
2660-414: A significant number of items now in phases before this historically set date. Archaeological evidence for the emergence of both a native British identity and the appearance of a Germanic culture in Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries must consider first the period at the end of Roman rule. The collapse of Roman material culture some time in the early 5th century left a gap in the archaeological record that
2793-593: A soundscape of immense scale. Eastern Angles Theatre Company is based at the Sir John Mills Theatre in Ipswich, named after the famous actor who lived in Felixstowe as a child. In 2012 it celebrated its 30th anniversary. The group engages in rural tours and seasonal performances. The Ipswich Arts Festival , known as 'Ip-art' has been the town's annual summer arts festival since 2003 and seen
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#17327835134442926-659: A source with the Anglian list). The Regnal List was in turn a source for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , the relevant sections of which were edited into their surviving form in the later ninth century. The Chronicle also includes various more detailed entries for the fifth and sixth centuries that ostensibly constitute historical evidence for a migration, Anglo-Saxon elites, and various significant historical events. However, Barbara Yorke , Patrick Sims-Williams , and David Dumville , among others, have demonstrated how
3059-516: A timber merchant. Other industries have been established to the south of the wet dock. The area was flooded in 2013 during a tidal surge. In February 2019 a flood gate , which protects the "New Cut", was unveiled. The flood barrier, similar in design to the Thames Barrier , cost £67m. The Ipswich Village Development , begun in 2002 around Russell Road, is home to Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council . Holywells Ward, Ipswich
3192-480: A tourist sector, with 3.5 million people reported to have visited the town in 2016. In 2020, Ipswich was ranked as an emerging global tourist destination by TripAdvisor . Ipswich is one of England's oldest towns , and is claimed to be the oldest still continuing town to have been established and developed by the English , with continuous settlement since early Anglo-Saxon times. A large Roman fort , part of
3325-452: A tribe or region, descendants of a patron or followers of a leader. It is this identity that archaeological evidence seeks to understand and determine, considering how it might support separate identity groups, or identities that were inter-connected. Part of a well-furnished pagan-period mixed, inhumation-cremation, cemetery at Alwalton near Peterborough was excavated in 1999. Twenty-eight urned and two unurned cremations dating from between
3458-554: A type issued to late Roman forces, which have been found both in late Roman contexts, such as the Roman cemeteries of Winchester and Colchester , and in purely 'Anglo-Saxon' rural cemeteries like Mucking (Essex), though this was at a settlement used by the Romano-British. The distribution of the earliest Anglo-Saxon sites and place names in close proximity to Roman settlements and roads has been interpreted as showing that initial Anglo-Saxon settlements were being controlled by
3591-481: Is Stephen Oppenheimer 's suggestion that the lack of Celtic influence on English is because the ancestor of English was already widely spoken in Britain by the Belgae before the end of the Roman period. However, Oppenheimer's ideas have not been found helpful in explaining the known facts: there is no evidence for a well established Germanic language in Britain before the fifth century, and Oppenheimer's idea contradicts
3724-570: Is a list of 35 tribes that was compiled in Anglo-Saxon England some time between the seventh and ninth centuries. The inclusion of the ' Elmet -dwellers' suggests to Simon Keynes that the Tribal Hideage was compiled in the early 670s, during the reign of King Wulfhere , since Elmet seems to have reverted thereafter to Northumbrian control. It includes a number of independent kingdoms and other smaller territories and assigns
3857-515: Is a port town and borough in Suffolk , England. It is the county town , and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds , and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia , after Peterborough and Norwich . It is 50 miles (80 km) northeast of London and in 2011 had a population of 144,957. The Ipswich built-up area is the fourth-largest in the East of England and
3990-488: Is a record of two sturdy beggars, who stood on Stoke Bridge on a Sunday morning, insulting any who did not give them money. By 1801 the bridge was made of brick and stone, but no records of its construction have been found in the Corporation Records. On the 12th April 1818, the bridge collapsed after much rain and heavy flooding, such that "the whole valley resembled a huge lake". Three men were standing on it at
4123-453: Is located at 15 Tavern Street. In the mid-19th century coprolite (fossilised animal dung) was discovered; the material was mined and then dissolved in acid , the resulting mixture forming the basis of Fisons fertiliser business. The Tolly Cobbold brewery, built in the 18th century and rebuilt in 1894–96, is one of the finest Victorian breweries in the UK. There was a Cobbold brewery in
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4256-559: Is now England were cleared of prior inhabitants. However, a view that gained support in the late 20th century suggests that the migration involved relatively few individuals, possibly centred on a warrior elite, who popularized a non-Roman identity after the downfall of Roman institutions. This hypothesis suggests a large-scale acculturation of natives to the incoming language and material culture . In support of this, archaeologists have found that, despite evidence of violent disruption, settlement patterns and land use show many continuities with
4389-438: Is now England. The available evidence includes not only the scant written record, which tells of a period of violence, but also the archaeological and genetic information. Furthermore, British Celtic languages had very little impact on Old English vocabulary, and this suggests that a large number of Germanic-speakers became important relatively suddenly. On the basis of such evidence it has even been argued that large parts of what
4522-475: Is seen as Britain's first true historian, in that he cited his references and listed events according to dates rather than regnal lists. Because of this we know that he relied heavily on Gildas for early events. It has been suggested that Bede based his dating of the arrival of Horsa and Hengist upon the report in Gildas that the invitation to the foederati happened after the Britons first implored Aëtius when he
4655-599: Is strikingly different from, for example, post-Roman Gaul, Iberia, or North Africa, where Germanic-speaking invaders gradually switched to local languages. Old English shows little obvious influence from Celtic or spoken Latin: there are for example vanishingly few English words of Brittonic origin . Moreover, except in Cornwall , the vast majority of place-names in England are easily etymologised as Old English (or Old Norse , due to later Viking influence), demonstrating
4788-491: Is that political dominance by a fairly small number of Old English-speakers could have driven large numbers of Britons to adopt Old English while leaving little detectable trace of this language-shift. The collapse of Britain's Roman economy and administrative structures seems to have left Britons living in a technologically similar society to their Anglo-Saxon neighbours, making it unlikely that Anglo-Saxons would need to borrow words for unfamiliar concepts. If Old English became
4921-519: Is the area around Holywells Park , a 67-acre (27-hectare) public park situated near the docks, and the subject of a painting by Thomas Gainsborough . Alexandra Park is the nearest park to the waterfront's northern quay, and situated on Back Hamlet, adjacent to University of Suffolk . Localities outside the town centre include Bixley Farm , Broke Hall , California , Castle Hill , Chantry , The Dales, Gainsborough , Greenwich, Maidenhall , Pinewood , Priory Heath , Racecourse , Ravenswood (built on
5054-405: Is the fourth-largest in the East of England and the 42nd-largest in England and Wales. It includes the towns and villages of Kesgrave , Woodbridge , Bramford and Martlesham Heath . The waterfront is now devoted primarily to leisure use and includes extensive recent development of residential apartment blocks and a university campus. Businesses operated from the dock include luxury boats and
5187-548: Is the signature installation in the Festival Installed at the historic town centre and waterfront in Ipswich, Clarion Call is a sonic intervention calls out to the setting sun in daily incantations, its voices reflecting contemporary Britain while exploring the local history of the World War I , using audio technology originally employed in war and emergencies, and the voices and songs of women and girls, to create
5320-550: Is too easy to consider Anglo-Saxon archaeology solely as a study of ethnology and to fail to consider that identity is "less related to an overall Anglo-Saxon ethnicity and more to membership of family or tribe, Christian or pagan, elite or peasant". "Anglo-Saxons" or "Britons" were no more homogeneous than nationalities are today, and they would have exhibited diverse characteristics: male/female, old/young, rich/poor, farmer/warrior—or even Gildas ' patria (fellow citizens), cives (indigenous people) and hostes (enemies)—as well as
5453-583: The Chronica Gallica of 452 , a chronicle written in Gaul , Britain was ravaged by Saxon invaders in 409 or 410. This was only a few years after Constantine "III" was declared Roman emperor in Britain, and during the period that he was still leading British Roman forces in rebellion on the continent. Although the rebellion was eventually quashed, the Romano-British citizens reportedly expelled their Roman officials during this period, and never again re-joined
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5586-461: The Brittonic *Caraticos. This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became anglicised over time. A number of Cerdic's alleged descendants also possessed Celtic names, including the ' Bretwalda ' Ceawlin . The last occurrence of a British name in this dynasty was that of King Caedwalla , who died as late as 689. The British name Caedbaed is found in the pedigree of
5719-665: The Cornhill . The waterfront, south of the town centre on a meander of the River Orwell, offers a picturesque setting with a marina , luxury yachts, high-rise apartment buildings, and a variety of restaurants and cafes. The waterfront is also home to the University of Suffolk campus. Ipswich is surrounded by two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) : the Suffolk Coast and Heaths and Dedham Vale . The town has
5852-689: The Danes , the " Huns " ( Pannonian Avars in this period, whose influence stretched north to Slavic-speaking areas in central Europe), the "old Saxons" ( antiqui Saxones ), and the " Boructuari " who are presumed to be inhabitants of the old lands of the Bructeri , near the Lippe river. The vision of the Anglo-Saxons exercising extensive political and military power which excluded Britons at such an early date remains contested. The most developed vision of
5985-469: The Domesday Book mentions Saint Mary at Stoke implies that a crossing existed much earlier. The bridge was built close to where there was formerly a ford. Near the ford, at Stoke Quay, archaeological evidence of Saxon occupation has been found. The town records of the reign of Elizabeth I note that 28 loads of timber were transported from Whitton for the building of Stoke Bridge. In 1779, there
6118-545: The Picts and Scots . After a long war, he reported that the Romano-British recovered control. Peace was restored, but Britain was now ruled by tyrants. It had internal conflicts instead of conflicts with foreigners, but because of foreigners it was still difficult for Britons to travel to some parts of England and Wales. He gives no other information about Saxons or other Germanic people before or after this specific conflict. No other local written records survive until much later. By
6251-565: The phonology , morphology , and syntax of Old English (as well as on whether British Latin-speakers influenced the Brittonic languages, perhaps as they fled westwards from Anglo-Saxon domination into highland areas of Britain). These arguments have not yet, however, become consensus views. Thus a 2012 synthesis concludes that 'the evidence for Celtic influence on Old English is somewhat sparse, which only means that it remains elusive, not that it did not exist'. Debate continues within
6384-695: The "War of the Saxon Federates". It ended after the siege at 'Mons Badonicus' . (The price of peace, Higham argues, was a better treaty for the Saxons, giving them the ability to receive tribute from people across the lowlands of Britain. ) Gildas did not report the year of this invitation. Possibly referring to some phase in these same events, the Chronica Gallica of 452 records for the year 441: "The British provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule." However, Bede, writing centuries later, reasoned that these soldiers arrived only in 449, and he named
6517-492: The "proud tyrant" as Vortigern . Bede's understanding of these events has been questioned. For example, he reports St Germanus coming to Britain after this conflict began, although he would have been dead by then. The Historia Brittonum , written in the 9th century, gives two different years, but was apparently based on the idea that it happened in 428, possibly based on the real date of the visit of Germanus in 429. In fact, both textual and archaeological evidence indicates that
6650-541: The 42nd-largest in England and Wales. It includes the towns and villages of Kesgrave , Woodbridge , Bramford and Martlesham Heath . Ipswich was first recorded during the medieval period as Gippeswic , the town has also been recorded as Gyppewicus and Yppswyche . It has been continuously inhabited since the Saxon period, and is believed to be one of the oldest towns in the United Kingdom . The settlement
6783-450: The 5th and 6th centuries, and 34 inhumations, dating from between the late 5th and early 7th centuries, were uncovered. Both cremations and inhumations were provided with pyre or grave goods, and some of the burials were richly furnished. The excavation found evidence for a mixture of practices and symbolic clothing; these reflected local differences that appeared to be associated with tribal or family loyalty. This use of clothing in particular
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#17327835134446916-915: The Christchurch Mansion and Ancient House, Ipswich in the 21st century has some important cultural buildings including the New Wolsey Theatre and the Regent Theatre —the largest theatre venue in East Anglia where, in 1964, the Beatles performed when it was still known as the Gaumont. There is also the Corn Exchange in King Street which was completed in 1882. There are several medieval Ipswich churches but
7049-593: The Picts and Scots. Gildas recounts how these Saxons, initially stationed in the east, claimed that the British were not providing sufficient monthly supplies, and eventually overran the whole country. "After a certain length of time the cruel robbers returned to their home." ( Tempore igitur interveniente aliquanto, cum recessissent domum crudelissimi praedones .) The British then united successfully under Ambrosius Aurelianus , and struck back. Historian Nick Higham calls this
7182-529: The Reformation the statue was taken away to London to be burned, though some claim that it survived and is preserved at Nettuno , Italy. Around 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer satirised the merchants of Ipswich in The Canterbury Tales . Thomas Wolsey , the future cardinal , was born in Ipswich in 1473 as the son of a wealthy landowner. One of Henry VIII 's closest political allies, he founded
7315-483: The Roman administration, possibly already in the fourth century or earlier. In the early fifth century, after the end of Roman rule in Britain and the breakdown of the Roman economy, larger numbers arrived and their impact upon local culture and politics increased. Many questions remain about the scale, timing and nature of the Anglo-Saxon settlements, and also about what happened to the previous residents of what
7448-555: The Roman empire. Writing in the mid-sixth century, Procopius states that after the overthrow of Constantine "III" in 411, "the Romans never succeeded in recovering Britain, but it remained from that time under tyrants". The Romano-Britons nevertheless called upon the empire to help them fend off attacks from not only the Saxons , but also the Picts and Scoti . A hagiography of Saint Germanus of Auxerre claims that he helped command
7581-402: The Romano-British past, despite profound changes in material culture. A major genetic study in 2022 which used DNA samples from different periods and regions demonstrated that there was significant immigration from the area in or near what is now northwestern Germany, and also that these immigrants intermarried with local Britons. These studies indicate that in both the early medieval period and
7714-495: The Romano-British. Catherine Hills suggests it is not necessary to see all the early settlers as federate troops, and that this interpretation has been used rather too readily by some archaeologists. A variety of relationships could have existed between Romano-British and incoming Anglo-Saxons. The broader archaeological picture suggests that no one model will explain all the Anglo-Saxon settlements in Britain and that there
7847-602: The Saxons as invited soldiers in the past and says nothing of migrations, or of any ongoing conflict or even Saxon presence in his time. Instead, for their understanding of Anglo-Saxon settlement historians have often relied upon Bede the English monk, a much later author and scholar (672/673–735), who in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People , tried to compute dates for events in early Anglo-Saxon history. Although primarily writing about church history, Bede
7980-442: The adoption of the language—as well as the material culture and traditions—of an Anglo-Saxon elite, "by large numbers of the local people seeking to improve their status within the social structure, and undertaking for this purpose rigorous acculturation", is the key to understanding the transition from Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon. The progressive nature of this language acquisition, and the 'retrospective reworking' of kinship ties to
8113-415: The ancestors, and John Shephard has extended this interpretation to Anglo-Saxon tumuli. Eva Thäte has emphasised the continental origins of monument reuse in post-Roman England, Howard Williams has suggested that the main purpose of this custom was to give sense to a landscape that the immigrants did not find empty. In the 7th and 8th centuries, monument reuse became so widespread that it strongly suggests
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#17327835134448246-480: The ancient road plan still survive in its modern streets. After the invasion of 869, Ipswich fell under Viking rule. The earth ramparts circling the town centre were probably raised by Vikings in Ipswich around 900 to prevent its recapture by the English. They were unsuccessful. The town operated a mint under royal licence from King Edgar in the 970s, which continued through the Norman Conquest until
8379-530: The area has made it a hub of culture in Ipswich, the area boasts fine dining restaurants, a boutique hotel, and the new regional university, the University of Suffolk . The new high rise buildings of the Regatta Quay development has topped the list of the tallest buildings in Ipswich . The mixed-use high rise building, The Mill , is currently the tallest building in Suffolk. Ipswich has made several unsuccessful bids for city status . The town does not have
8512-435: The areas that they settled. In recent decades, a few specialists have continued to support this interpretation, and Peter Schrijver has said that 'to a large extent, it is linguistics that is responsible for thinking in terms of drastic scenarios' about demographic change in late Roman Britain. But the consensus among experts in the first decades of the twenty-first century, influenced by research in contact linguistics ,
8645-595: The black-faced Suffolk sheep. Ipswich is home to many artists and has a number of galleries, the most prominent of which are at Christchurch Mansion , the Town Hall, Ancient House and the Artists' Gallery in Electric House. The visual arts are further supported with many sculptures at easily accessible sites. The Borough Council promotes the creation of new public works of art and has been known to make this
8778-524: The call to the "Angle or Saxon nation" ( Latin : Anglorum sive Saxonum gens ) was initially answered by three boats lead by two brothers, Hengist and Horsa ("Stallion and Horse"), and Hengist's son Oisc . They had a region assigned to them in the eastern part of Britain. A bigger fleet followed, from the three most powerful tribes of Germania, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and these were eventually followed by terrifying swarms. According to one well-known passage by Bede: In another passage Bede clarified that
8911-537: The celebrated John Bale , author of the oldest English historical verse-drama ( Kynge Johan , c. 1538 ). There were also several hospitals, including the leper hospital of St Mary Magdalene, founded before 1199. During the Middle Ages the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Grace was a famous pilgrimage destination, and attracted many pilgrims including Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon . At
9044-460: The chapter undermine its credibility as a clue to sixth-century population in Britain." The work of Gildas is based around a constant theme of blaming the Romano-British people for being the cause of their own distresses, with the Saxon conflict only being one example. Leading up to these events they had been rebellious within the Roman empire, supporting many usurpers who attempted to take control of
9177-593: The coastal defences of Britain, stood at Walton near Felixstowe (13 miles (21 km), and the largest Roman villa in Suffolk (possibly an administrative complex) stood at Castle Hill (north-west Ipswich). The modern town took shape in Anglo-Saxon times (7th–8th centuries) around the Port of Ipswich . As the coastal states of north-western Europe emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, essential North Sea trade and communication between eastern Britain and
9310-604: The collapse of the Roman economy and administration. In Higham's assessment, "language was a key indicator of ethnicity in early England. In circumstances where freedom at law, acceptance with the kindred, access to patronage, and the use or possession of weapons were all exclusive to those who could claim Germanic descent, then speaking Old English without Latin or Brittonic inflection had considerable value". All linguistic evidence from Roman Britain suggests that most inhabitants spoke British Celtic and/or British Latin . However, by
9443-544: The construction of Orwell Bridge in the 1980s. John Speed's Map [REDACTED] 52°03′06″N 1°09′13″E / 52.051647°N 1.153664°E / 52.051647; 1.153664 This Suffolk location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a bridge in the United Kingdom is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ipswich Ipswich ( / ˈ ɪ p s w ɪ tʃ / )
9576-580: The continent (especially to Scandinavia , and through the Rhine ) passed through the former Roman ports of London (serving the kingdoms of Mercia , the East Saxons , Kent ) and York (Eoforwic) (serving the Kingdom of Northumbria ). Gipeswic (also in other spellings such as Gippeswich ) arose as the equivalent to these, serving the Kingdom of East Anglia , its early imported wares dating to
9709-652: The continental ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons were more diverse, and they arrived over a long period. He named pagan peoples still living in Germany ( Germania ) in the eighth century "from whom the Angles or Saxons, who now inhabit Britain, are known to have derived their origin; for which reason they are still corruptly called Garmans by the neighbouring nation of the Britons": the Frisians , the Rugini (possibly from Rügen ),
9842-499: The culture of the Anglo-Saxons was not transplanted from there, but rather developed in Britain. In 400, the Roman province of Britannia had long been part of the Roman Empire . The imperial government and military forces had been divided by internal conflicts several times during the previous centuries, often because of usurpations beginning in Britain such as those of Magnus Maximus , and Constantine "III" . However, there
9975-510: The dates). Yet there is little basis for sifting truth from invention. As Dumville pointed out about the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , "medieval historiography has assumptions different from our own, particularly in terms of distinctions between fiction and non-fiction". Explaining linguistic change, and particularly the rise of Old English , is crucial in any account of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. According to Higham ,
10108-518: The dead in the early Anglo-Saxon landscape. Anglo-Saxon secondary activity on prehistoric and Roman sites was traditionally explained in practical terms. These explanations, in the view of Howard Williams , failed to account for the numbers and types of monuments and graves (from villas to barrows) reused. Anglo-Saxon barrow burials started in the late 6th century and continued into the early 8th century. Prehistoric barrows, in particular, have been seen as physical expressions of land claims and links to
10241-445: The deliberate location of burials of the elite next to visible monuments of the pre-Saxon past, but with 'ordinary' burial grounds of this phase also frequently being located next to prehistoric barrows. The relative increase of this kind of spatial association from the 5th/6th centuries to the 7th/8th centuries is conspicuous. Williams' analysis of two well-documented samples shows an increase from 32% to 50% of Anglo-Saxon burial sites in
10374-407: The docks was especially devastated. Eighty civilians died by enemy action in the Ipswich county borough area during the latter war. The last bombs to fall on Ipswich landed on Seymour Road at 2 a.m. on 2 March 1945, killing nine people and destroying six houses. The Willis Building is a glass-clad building owned by Willis . Designed by Norman Foster , the building dates from 1974, when it
10507-405: The dominance of English across post-Roman England. Intensive research in recent decades on Celtic toponymy has shown that more names in England and southern Scotland have Brittonic, or occasionally Latin, etymologies than was once thought, but even so, it is clear that Brittonic and Latin place-names in the eastern half of England are extremely rare, and although they are noticeably more common in
10640-415: The dominant group led, ultimately, to the "myths which tied the entire society to immigration as an explanation of their origins in Britain". The consensus in the first decades of the twenty-first century was that the spread of English can be explained by a minority of Germanic-speaking immigrants becoming politically and socially dominant, in a context where Latin had lost its usefulness and prestige due to
10773-554: The downtrodden subjects of Anglo-Saxon oppression. This has been used by some linguists and archaeologists to produce invasion and settlement theories involving genocide, forced migration and enslavement. The depiction of the Britons in the Historia Ecclesiastica is influenced by the writing of Gildas, who viewed the Saxons as a punishment from God against the British people. Windy McKinney notes that "Bede focused on this point and extended Gildas' vision by portraying
10906-466: The eighth century, when extensive evidence for the post-Roman language situation is next available, it is clear that the dominant language in what is now eastern and southern England was Old English, whose West Germanic predecessors were spoken in what is now the Netherlands and northern Germany. Old English then continued spreading westwards and northwards in the ensuing centuries. This development
11039-417: The empire. These tyrants dominate the historical accounts of the fifth and sixth centuries and the work tells us much about the transition from magisterial to monarchical power in Britain. Gildas' remarks reflected his continuing concern regarding the vulnerability of his countrymen and their disregard and in-fighting: for example, "it was always true of this people (as it is now) that it was weak in beating off
11172-426: The end of Roman rule, and his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae is therefore the most detailed and contemporary account available. However, it is a highly stylized critique of Romano-British politics, society and religion, which treats the Saxons as a punishment sent by God, and gives few details such as dates, and the sections might not have been intended to represent one single sequence of events. Gildas described
11305-519: The extensive evidence for the use of Celtic and Latin. While many studies admit that a substantial survival of native British people from lower social strata is probable, with these people becoming anglicised over time due to the action of "elite dominance" mechanisms, there is also evidence for the survival of British elites and their anglicisation. An Anglo-Saxon elite could be formed in two ways: from an incoming chieftain and his war band from northern Germania taking over an area of Britain, or through
11438-488: The gradual death of Celtic and spoken Latin in post-Roman Britain. Likewise, scholars have posited various mechanisms other than massive demographic change by which pre-migration Celtic place-names could have been lost. Scholars have stressed that Welsh and Cornish place-names from the Roman period seem no more likely to survive than English ones: 'clearly name loss was a Romano-British phenomenon, not just one associated with Anglo-Saxon incomers'. Other explanations for
11571-588: The grandest is St. Mary-le-Tower , rebuilt by the Victorians. Holy Trinity Church by the waterfront is one of the few churches in the country which was built during the reign of William IV and whilst the outside looks plain, the interior is quite spectacular. The world's oldest circle of church bells is housed in St Lawrence Church . The Ancient House in the Buttermarket is an example of
11704-534: The kings of Lindsey , which argues for the survival of British elites in this area also. In the Mercian royal pedigree, the name of King Penda and the names of other kings have more obvious Brittonic than Germanic etymologies, though they do not correspond to known Welsh personal names. Bede, in his major work, charts the careers of four upper-class brothers in the English Church; he refers to them as being Northumbrian , and therefore "English". However,
11837-423: The lack of works of archaeological synthesis for the Anglo-Saxon period in general, and the early period in particular. This is changing, with new works of synthesis and chronology, in particular the work of Catherine Hills and Sam Lucy on the evidence of Spong Hill , which has opened up the possible synthesis with continental material culture and has moved the chronology for the settlement earlier than AD 450, with
11970-522: The later Viking settlers , may have begun as piratical raiders who later seized land and made permanent settlements. Other settlers seem to have been much humbler people who had few if any weapons and suffered from malnutrition. These were characterised by Sonia Chadwick Hawkes as Germanic 'boat people', refugees from crowded settlements on the North Sea which deteriorating climatic conditions would have made untenable. Catherine Hills points out that it
12103-569: The local afternoon show prior to the rebrand). The younger audience was catered for with Suffolk-based Kiss 105-108 , until September 2023 when its 106.4 frequency flipped over to carrying Greatest Hits Radio Ipswich & Suffolk . Ipswich Community Radio was launched in 2007. The town's daily newspaper is the Ipswich Star a sister title to the county's daily newspaper the East Anglian Daily Times . In addition to
12236-474: The modern period there were large regional variations, with the genetic impact of immigration highest in the east and declining towards the west. This evidence supports a theory of large-scale migration of both men and women, beginning in the Roman period and increasing in the early medieval period until the 8th century. This sits alongside evidence of rapid acculturation, with early medieval individuals of both local or migrant ancestry being buried near each other in
12369-467: The most of its wealth. Five large religious houses, including two Augustinian Priories (St Peter and St Paul, and Holy Trinity, both mid-12th century ), and those of the Ipswich Greyfriars ( Franciscans , before 1298), Ipswich Whitefriars ( Carmelites founded 1278–79) and Ipswich Blackfriars ( Dominicans , before 1263), stood in medieval Ipswich. The last Carmelite Prior of Ipswich was
12502-543: The most prestigious language in a particular region, speakers of other languages may have found it advantageous to become bilingual and, over a few generations, stop speaking the less prestigious languages (in this case British Celtic and/or British Latin). A person or household might change language so as to serve an elite, or because it provided some advantage economically or legally. This account, which demands only small numbers of politically dominant Germanic-speaking migrants to Britain, has become 'the standard explanation' for
12635-937: The names of Saint Chad of Mercia (a prominent bishop) and his brothers Cedd (also a bishop), Cynibil and Caelin (a variant spelling of Ceawlin) are British rather than Anglo-Saxon. A good case can be made for southern Britain (especially Wessex, Kent, Essex and parts of Southern East Anglia), at least, having been taken over by dynasties having some Germanic ancestry or connections, but also having origins in, or intermarrying with, native British elites. Archaeologists seeking to understand evidence for migration and/or acculturation must first get to grips with early Anglo-Saxon archaeology as an "Archaeology of Identity". Guarding against considering one aspect of archaeology in isolation, this concept ensures that different topics are considered together, that previously were considered separately, including gender, age, ethnicity, religion, and status. The task of interpretation has been hampered by
12768-459: The pagan Anglo-Saxons not as God's scourge against the reprobate Britons, but rather as the agents of Britain's redemption. Therefore, the ghastly scenario that Gildas feared is calmly explained away by Bede; any rough treatment was necessary, and ordained by God, because the Britons had lost God's favour, and incurred his wrath." McKinney, who suggests that "Bede himself may not have been an ethnically 'pure' Angle," argues that his use of ethnic terms
12901-410: The passage of goods. Andrew Pearson suggests that the "Saxon Shore Forts" and other coastal installations played a more significant economic and logistical role than is often appreciated, and that the tradition of Saxon and other continental piracy, based on the name of these forts, is probably a myth. The archaeology of late Roman (and sub-Roman) Britain has been mainly focused on the elite rather than
13034-400: The peasant and slave: their villas, houses, mosaics, furniture, fittings, and silver plates. This group had a strict code on how their wealth was to be displayed, and this provides a rich material culture, from which "Britons" are identified. There was a large gap between richest and poorest; the trappings of the latter have been the focus of less archaeological study. However the archaeology of
13167-571: The peasant from the 4th and 5th centuries is dominated by "ladder" field systems or enclosures, associated with extended families, and in the South and East of England, the extensive use of timber-built buildings and farmsteads shows a lower level of engagement with Roman building methods than is shown by the houses of the numerically much smaller elite. Confirmation of the use of Anglo-Saxons as foederati or federate troops has been seen as coming from burials of Anglo-Saxons wearing military equipment of
13300-531: The primary aim of advocating innovation and development of dance in the East of England is now resident in their new premises as part of the waterfront development. They are building new premises as part of the waterfront development. These are the first custom built dance facilities in the east of England at a cost of around £8 million. Spill Festival of Performance was launched in Ipswich in 2007 and alternates between London and Ipswich yearly. In 2018, Clarion Call
13433-570: The quay. Around 700 AD, Frisian potters from the Netherlands area settled in Ipswich and set up the first large-scale potteries in England since Roman times. Their wares were traded far across England, and the industry was unique to Ipswich for 200 years. With growing prosperity, in about 720 AD a large new part of the town was laid out in the Buttermarket area. Ipswich was becoming a place of national and international importance. Parts of
13566-417: The replacement of Roman period place-names include adaptation of Celtic names such that they now seem to come from Old English; a more gradual loss of Celtic names than was once assumed; and new names being coined (in the newly dominant English language) because instability of settlements and land-tenure. Extensive research is ongoing on whether British Celtic did exert subtle substrate influence on
13699-505: The same new ways. One of the few written accounts of the period is by Gildas , who wrote in the early 6th century. His account influenced later works which became more elaborate and detailed, but which cannot be relied upon for this early period. He reported that a major conflict was triggered some generations before him, after a group of foreign Saxons was invited by the Romano-British leadership to help defend against raids from
13832-585: The start. The list is evidence for more complex settlement than the single political entity of the other historical sources. In the eighth century, if not the seventh, Anglo-Saxon scholars began writing lists and genealogies of kings which purport to record their ancestry through the settlement period and beyond, prominently including the Anglian King-list and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List (which may share
13965-544: The time of Bede , more than a century after Gildas, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had come to dominate most of what is now modern England. Bede and other later Welsh and Anglo-Saxon authors apparently believed that the kingdoms of their time had always been distinctly Anglo-Saxon. However, many modern historians believe that the development of Anglo-Saxon culture and identity, and even its kingdoms, involved not only Germanic immigrants but also local British people and kingdoms. Although it involved immigrant communities from northern Europe,
14098-476: The time of King John , in about 1215. The abbreviation Gipes appears on the coins. King John granted the town its first charter in 1200, laying the medieval foundations of its modern civil government. Thenceforth Ipswich strongly maintained its jurisdiction over the Liberty of Ipswich, an administrative area extending over about 35 square kilometres centred on the town. In the next four centuries it made
14231-538: The time of King Rædwald , ruler of the East Angles (616–624). The famous ship-burial and treasure at Sutton Hoo nearby (9 miles; 14 km) is probably his grave. The Ipswich Museum houses replicas of the Roman Mildenhall and Sutton Hoo treasures . A gallery devoted to the town's origins includes Anglo-Saxon weapons , jewellery and other artefacts. The seventh-century town was centred near
14364-500: The time, admiring the rushing waters, and were tipped in. Two were rescued, but one was drowned, his body recovered days later. An engineer, William Cubitt, succeeded in constructing a temporary floating bridge. The bridge is featured in John Speed's map of Ipswich of 1610 and Joseph Hodskinson 's map of 1783. In 1789, Robert Ransome moved to Ipswich to begin the “Orwell Works" company employing 1500 men. His fourth patent in 1808
14497-512: The town from 1746 until 2002 when Ridley's Breweries took Tolly Cobbold over. Felix Thornley Cobbold presented Christchurch Mansion to the town in 1896. Smaller breweries include St Jude's Brewery, situated in an 18th-century coach-house near the town centre. Ipswich was subject to bombing by German Zeppelins during World War I but the greatest damage by far occurred during the German bombing raids of World War II . The area in and around
14630-590: The town, the commercial station Heart East which was founded in 1975 as Radio Orwell covering the A14 corridor in Suffolk, and Ipswich 102 who took over the FM frequency in 2018, until 2020 when it rebranded as Greatest Hits Radio Ipswich & Suffolk . Then in September 2022, the station was rebranded again as Nation Radio Suffolk where it has one local show on weekday afternoons 1pm-4pm, hosted by Rob Chandler (who hosted
14763-404: The use of peplos dress, or particular artistic styles found on artefacts such as those found at Alwalton, for evidence of pagan beliefs, or cultural memories of tribal or ethnic affiliation. The evidence for monument reuse in the early Anglo-Saxon period reveals a number of significant aspects of the practice. Ancient monuments were one of the most important factors determining the placing of
14896-600: The waterfront area The Mill is the tallest building in East Anglia , reaching 23 storeys. Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain The settlement of Great Britain by diverse Germanic peoples led to the development of a new Anglo-Saxon cultural identity and shared Germanic language , Old English , which was most closely related to Old Frisian on the other side of the North Sea . The first Germanic speakers to settle permanently are likely to have been soldiers recruited by
15029-402: The weapons of the enemy, but strong in putting up with civil war and the burden of sin." Gildas used the correct late Roman term for the Saxons, foederati , people who came to Britain under a well-used treaty system. This kind of treaty had been used elsewhere to bring people into the Roman Empire to move along the roads or rivers and work alongside the army. Gildas called them Saxons, which
15162-460: The western half, they are still a tiny minority─2% in Cheshire , for example. Into the later twentieth century, scholars' usual explanation for the lack of Celtic influence on English, supported by uncritical readings of the accounts of Gildas and Bede, was that Old English became dominant primarily because Germanic-speaking invaders killed, chased away, and/or enslaved the previous inhabitants of
15295-622: Was "tied to the expression of tradition and religious ideas, to the loyalty of a people to authority, and subject to change as history continued to unfold. Therefore, it is a moot point whether all of those whom Bede encompassed under the term Angli were racially Germanic". A traditional semi-mythical account of the origins of English kingdoms was supplied by Bede and the still later Historia Brittonum . These accounts add many details to Gildas based upon unknown sources. These are however considered doubtful by modern scholars. Several other types of evidence are considered relevant. The Tribal Hideage
15428-478: Was a printing, bookseller centre, and an entrepôt for continental books in the 16th century. From 1611 to 1634 Ipswich was a major centre for emigration to New England . This was encouraged by the Town Lecturer, Samuel Ward . His brother Nathaniel Ward was first minister of Ipswich , Massachusetts, where a promontory was named 'Castle Hill' after the place of that name in north-west Ipswich, UK. Ipswich
15561-587: Was also one of the main ports of embarkation for puritans leaving other East Anglian towns and villages for the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1630s and what has become known as the Great Migration . The painter Thomas Gainsborough lived and worked in Ipswich. In 1835, Charles Dickens stayed in Ipswich and used it as a setting for scenes in his novel The Pickwick Papers . The hotel where he resided first opened in 1518; it
15694-400: Was an overall continuity and interconnectedness. Before 400, the Roman sources used the term Saxons to refer to coastal raiders who had been causing problems on the coasts of the North Sea . In what is now south-eastern England the Romans established a military commander who was assigned to oversee a chain of coastal forts which they called the Saxon shore . The homeland of these Saxon raiders
15827-408: Was being ruled by corrupt Romano-British tyrannies, that could no longer be relied upon for law and order. He explicitly noted that there was peace, and that there was only internal fighting instead of fighting with foreigners. There are very few historical records from Britain in the 5th or 6th centuries which can help historians to understand the settlements of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronica Gallica
15960-747: Was built in 1881, has been renovated and is now home to the Botanist bar. Modern buildings include Endeavour House (headquarters of Suffolk County Council and formerly home of the TXU Corporation ), Grafton House (home of Ipswich Borough Council ) and Ipswich Crown Court , all located on Russell Road in the area known as the Ipswich Village Development , which includes Portman Road stadium. The stadium has hosted England under-21, under-23, and international soccer matches, as well as rugby union and hockey matches. In
16093-558: Was considerable regional variation. Settlement density varied within southern and eastern England. Norfolk has more large Anglo-Saxon cemeteries than the neighbouring East Anglian county of Suffolk ; eastern Yorkshire (the nucleus of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira ) far more than the rest of Northumbria. The settlers were not all of the same type. Some were indeed warriors who were buried equipped with their weapons, but we should not assume that all of these were invited guests who were to guard Romano-British communities. Possibly some, like
16226-409: Was for improvements on the wheel and spring ploughs. He was then joined in business by his two sons and the firm “Ransome and Sons” was one of the first to build iron bridges. The Stoke Bridge at Ipswich was constructed by them in 1818. The current southbound bridge has a plaque celebrating the bridge's erection over 1924 and 1925. The bridge was the southernmost crossing of the river in Ipswich until
16359-566: Was in his 3rd consulship, which was in 446. Another 6th century Roman source contemporary with Gildas is Procopius who however lived and wrote in the Eastern Roman Empire , and expressed doubts about the stories he had heard about events in the west. He states that an island called Brittia , which was supposedly not Britain, was settled by three nations: the Angili, Frissones, and Brittones, each ruled by its own king. Each nation
16492-478: Was known as the Willis Faber & Dumas building. It became the youngest grade I listed building in Britain in 1991, being at the time one of only two listed buildings to be less than thirty years old. In September 1993, Ipswich and Arras , Nord Pas-de-Calais, France, became twin towns, and a square in the new Buttermarket development was named Arras Square to mark the relationship. Ipswich formerly had
16625-570: Was not clearly described in surviving sources, but they were apparently the northerly neighbours of the Franks on the Lower Rhine . At the same time, the Roman administration in Britain (and other parts of the empire) was recruiting foederati soldiers from these same general regions in what is now Germany, and these are likely to have become more important after the withdrawal of field armies during internal Roman power struggles. According to
16758-489: Was of great economic importance to the Kingdom of England throughout its history, particularly in trade, with the town's historical dock, Ipswich Waterfront , known as the largest and most important dock in the Kingdom. Ipswich is divided into various quarters , with the town centre and the waterfront drawing the most footfall. The town centre features the retail shopping district and the historic town square , known as
16891-420: Was probably the common British term for the settlers. Gildas' use of the word patria (fatherland), when used in relation to the Saxons and Picts, implies that some Saxons could by then be regarded as native to Britannia. Various sources, including Gildas, were used by Bede in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , written around 731. Bede's view of Britons is partly responsible for the picture of them as
17024-414: Was probably written in south-eastern Gaul and only contains snippets of information. In this chronicle, the entry about raids upon Britain in 409 is introduced with a general comment about weakening Roman power, and the growing number of enemies. It is grouped with events in Gaul and Spain which suffered invasions during the same period. Gildas lived only a few generations later in the 6th century after
17157-487: Was quite rapidly filled by the intrusive Anglo-Saxon material culture, while the native culture became archaeologically close to invisible—although recent hoards and metal-detector finds show that coin use and imports did not stop abruptly at AD 410. The archaeology of the Roman military systems within Britain is well known but is not well understood: for example, whether the Saxon Shore was defensive or to facilitate
17290-765: Was so prolific that it sent large numbers of individuals every year to the Franks, who planted them in unpopulated regions of their territory. He never mentions the Saxons or Jutes, and the continental relatives of the Angles are named as the Warini , who he believed had a kingdom stretching from the Danube to the Ocean. Michael Jones , a historian at Bates College in New England, says that "Procopius himself, however, betrays doubts about this specific passage, and subsequent details in
17423-501: Was substantial as implied by the statement that Anglia was deserted; and an establishment phase, in which Anglo-Saxons started to control areas, implied in Bede's statement about the origins of the tribes. The manner in which a land of Romano-British kingdoms in the time of Gildas transformed into a land of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the time of Bede a century or so later is uncertain. Bede's scholarly and patriotic attempt to explain this as
17556-528: Was then known as The Tavern and later became known as the Great White Horse Hotel . Dickens made the hotel famous in chapter XXII of The Pickwick Papers , vividly describing the hotel's meandering corridors and stairs. In 1824 Dr George Birkbeck , with support from several local businessmen, founded one of the first Mechanics' Institutes , which survives to this day as the independent Ipswich Institute reading room and library. The building
17689-401: Was very symbolic, and distinct differences within groups in the cemetery could be found. Some recent scholarship has argued, however, that current approaches to the sociology of ethnicity render it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to demonstrate ethnic identity via purely archaeological means, and has thereby rejected the basis for using furnished inhumation or such clothing practices as
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