Ipswich, Suffolk, England

Ipswich is the county town of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, on the estuary of the River Orwell.

It was successively a Stone age, Iron age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement known as "Gippeswic".

King John granted it its first charter[?] in 1200, and in the next four centuries it made a living trading Suffolk cloth with the Continent.

Ipswich is still a flourishing port today, handling several million tons of cargo[?] each year.

The Ipswich Museum[?] houses replicas[?] of the Mildenhall treasure[?] and the Sutton Hoo treasure[?], as well as Saxon weapons and jewellery.

Tolly Cobbold Brewery, built in the 19th century and rebuilt 1894-1896, is one of the finest Victorian breweries in Britain. There has been a Cobbold Brewery in the town since 1746. Felix Thornley Cobbold presented Christchurch Mansion[?] to the town in 1896

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the son of a butcher, was born in Ipswich in about 1475. He founded a college in the town in 1528.

In 1555, the Ipswich Martyrs[?] were burnt at the stake for their Protestant beliefs.

From 1611 to 1634 Ipswich was a major centre for emigration to New England. This was organised by the Town Lecturer, Samual Ward[?]. His brother Nathaniel Ward[?] was first minister of Ipswich, Massachusetts[?].

The painters John Constable and 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. In ca. 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer satirised the merchants of Ipswich in the Canterbury Tales.

The world's first lawnmower[?] was produced in Ipswich in 1832.