Saxmundham ( ) is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the East Suffolk district, in the county of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England. It is set in the valley of the

River Fromus A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...

about north-east of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, 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, ...

and west of the coast at

Sizewell Sizewell is an English fishing hamlet in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It belongs to the civil parish of Leiston and lies on the North Sea coast just north of the larger holiday village of Thorpeness, between the coastal tow ...

. The town is bypassed by the main A12 road between London and

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

. The town is served by

Saxmundham railway station Saxmundham railway station is on the East Suffolk Line in the east of England, serving the town of Saxmundham, Suffolk. Situated between and , it is down the line from , and from Liverpool Street station, London Liverpool Street. Its three-l ...

on the East Suffolk Line between

and

. In 2011 the parish had a population of 3644.

Governance

The district

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

also has the name Saxmundham. Its population at the 2011 census was 4,913. Saxmundham Town Council consisted of eleven councillors. The Town Clerk is Mrs Sharon Smith. In 1894 Saxmundham became part of

Plomesgate Rural District Plomesgate Rural District was a rural district within the administrative county of East Suffolk between 1894 and 1934. History The district had its origins in the Plomesgate Poor Law Union, which had been created in 1835. It was named after t ...

, in 1900 Saxmundham became an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

, the district contained the parish of Saxmundham. On 1 April 1974 the district and parish were abolished and became part of

Suffolk Coastal Suffolk Coastal was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Suffolk, England. Its council was based in Melton, Suffolk, Melton, having moved from neighbouring Woodbridge, Suffolk, Woodbridge in 2017. Other towns include Fel ...

district in the

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a subdivision of England used for local government. The non-metropolitan counties were originally created in 1974 as part of a reform of local government in England and Wales, and ...

of Suffolk. A

successor parish Successor parishes are Civil parishes in England, civil parishes with a parish councils in England, parish council, created in England in 1974. They replaced, with the same boundaries, a selected group of Urban district (England and Wales), urban d ...

was formed covering the same area as the former district and its parish. In 2019 it became part of East Suffolk district.

Heritage

The place-name Saxmundham is first attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as ''Sasmunde(s)ham''. It appears as ''Saxmundham'' in the

Feet of Fines A foot of fine (plural, feet of fines; Latin: ''pes finis''; plural, ''pedes finium'') is the archival copy of the agreement between two parties in an English lawsuit over land, most commonly the fictitious suit (in reality a conveyance) known a ...

of 1213. The name denotes "Seaxmund's village or estate". The Parish Church of St John the Baptist dates back to the 11th century. Some features remain from the medieval period, but its present appearance owes most to the 19th century. Much of the church's official architectural guide, with accounts of its medieval remnants, can be read on the Town Council site.

Facilities

Saxmundham has facilities for overnight, bed-and-breakfast and camping accommodation. It has had a

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

charter since at least 1272, and holds a market every Wednesday in the Market Place just off the High Street, with indoor and outdoor stalls.

Notable residents

With a Wikipedia page, in birth order: * John Shipp (1784–1834), army officer, was born in Saxmundham. His military memoirs were widely read in the 19th century. * Henry Bright (1810–1873), painter. * Thomas Thurlow (1813–1899), sculptor. *

Hamlet Watling Hamlet Watling (born Kelsale, Suffolk, 1818, died Ipswich, 2 April 1908) was a Suffolk-born antiquary, who worked as a schoolmaster. He spent much of his life to recording clerical and other antiquities in his native county. His prolific records an ...

(1818–1908), archaeologist, illustrator and schoolmaster. *

Bernard Collins Bernard Abdy Collins (17 February 1880 – 22 October 1951) was a British administrator in India and English first-class cricketer. Collins was born at Saxmundham in February 1880 to Henry Abdy Collins and his wife, Florence Ellen Cartwr ...

(1880–1951), county cricketer, also wrote a book on life after death: ''Death is Not the End'' (London: Psychic Press, 1939). * Buck Read (1880–1970), American basketball coach, was born in Saxmundham. *

Herbert Heyner Herbert Heyner (26 June 188218 January 1954) was a noted English baritone. Heyner appeared in a handful of operas, and a number of broadcast operas, but his stage appearances were predominantly in oratorio and songs. He sang in some notable pe ...

(1882–1954), baritone, died here. * Jennifer Toombs (1940-2018), stamp designer. * Eleanor Berwick (born 1943), wine-grower. *

Maggi Hambling Margaret J. Hambling (born 23 October 1945) is a British artist. Though principally a painter, her best-known public works are the sculptures '' A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' and '' A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft'' in London, and the ...

(born 1945), artist, has lived in a cottage near Saxmundham since the mid-1980s. *

Sam Miller Sam Miller (born 28 September 1962) is a British television director and former actor from Saxmundham, England. As an actor, he is known for his role as Sgt. John Maitland in the ITV (TV network), ITV police procedural drama ''The Bill'' from 1 ...

(born 1962) works as a television director. *

Ray Allen Walter Ray Allen Jr. (born July 20, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. Allen played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a play ...

(born 1975),

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

All-Star, spent some childhood years in Saxmundham.

In fiction

Brother Eadulf has become Saxmundham's most famous international fictional character, through the best-selling

Sister Fidelma The Sister Fidelma mysteries are a series of historical mystery novels and short stories by Peter Tremayne (pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis) about a fictional detective who is the eponymous heroine of a series. Fidelma is both a ''dalaigh'' ( ...

mysteries by

Peter Tremayne Peter Berresford Ellis (born 10 March 1943) is a British historian, literary biographer, and novelist who has published over 98 books to date either under his own name or his pseudonyms Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan. He has also published 10 ...

(a pseudonym of the Celtic scholar and author Peter Berresford Ellis). Brother Eadulf, as companion and assistant to Sister Fidelma, often plays a crucial part in resolving the mystery. He is introduced as originally the hereditary gerefa (magistrate) of "Seaxmund's Ham in the land of the South Folk." He attends the famous

Synod of Whitby The Synod of Whitby was a Christianity, Christian administrative gathering held in Northumbria in 664, wherein King Oswiu ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Roman Catholic, Ro ...

in AD 664 and joins Sister Fidelma in solving a murder of one of the delegates (''Absolution by Murder'', 1994). He has since appeared in most of the novels and some of the short stories, although the Saxmundham area has been used as a setting in only one of the novels: ''The Haunted Abbot'' (2002). Tremayne chose Saxmundham as Eadulf's place of origin because of local connections, the nearness of the town to an ancient royal burial site of the East Angles, and the historic

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

n connections with Irish Christian missionaries. He appears in all but two of the Sister Fidelma series of mystery novels, set in 7th century

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The series has now reached 31 published titles, appearing in a score of languages. An International Sister Fidelma Society, devoted to the author and his work, has existed for 20 years and publishes a 20-page colour magazine three times a year.Society site. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
/ref>

References

External links

Saxmundham Town Council websiteThe Saxmundham & District Community Interest CompanySaxmundham businesses websitePASTELSaxmundham Community
— Saxmundham Website
The International Sister Fidelma Society
{{authority control Market towns in Suffolk Towns in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk