Suffolk

Suffolk is a  and  in,. It has borders with to the north,  to the west and  to the south. The lies to the east. The is, at 52.05611°N, 1.14972°W and other important towns include  and. is one of the largest ports in Europe.

The county is low-lying with few hills, and is largely habitat and  with the wetlands of  in the North, and the  is an.

History
Suffolk was part of the which was settled by the  in the 5th century.

Suffolk was divided into separate divisions. These were originally four in number, reduced to two in 1860: the eastern division being administered from and the western from. The two divisions were made separate administrative counties as and  under the, with Ipswich becoming a.

Under the, East Suffolk, West Suffolk and Ipswich were merged to form a unified county of Suffolk on ,. This was divided into several s:, , , , , ,. This also saw a further part of land near become part of Norfolk. As introduced into Parliament, the Local Government Bill would have included and  into Cambridgeshire, with it being compensated by the inclusion of  from : these proposals were ultimately decided against.

The is currently considering whether  should become a new unitary authority.

West Suffolk is, like nearby, renowned for findings from the , the  and the. Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the area between and, in  and in. Many bronze objects, such as swords, spear-heads, arrows, axes,, knives, daggers, rapiers, armour, decorative equipment (in particular for horses) and fragments of sheet bronze, are entrusted to the Moyse's Hall Museum in. Other finds include traces of s and.

Economy
The majority of in Suffolk is either arable or mixed. Farm sizes vary from anything around 80 acres to over 8,000. Soil types vary from heavy clays through to light sands. Crops grown include winter wheat, winter barley, sugar beet, oil seed rape, winter and spring beans and linseed, although smaller areas of rye and oats can be found in lighter areas along with a variety of vegetables.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Suffolk at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.


 * See also: Companies based in Suffolk

Well-known companies in Suffolk are and  in Bury St Edmunds. have their largest UK factory in Lowestoft, where all their meat products and frozen vegetables come from. biscuit company are now in Sudbury. The UK industry is based in Newmarket. There are two bases in the west of the county close to the A11. is at on the coast near. have some processing units in the county, specifically. is an important port.

Geology, landscape and ecology
Much of Suffolk is low-lying on  and s.  These rocks are relatively  and on the coast are  rapidly. have been used to protect several towns, but several cliff-top houses have been lost to coastal erosion in the past.

The west of the county lies on more resistant. This chalk is the north-eastern extreme of the that stretches from  in the south west to  in the south east. The Chalk is less easily eroded so forms the only significant hills in the county. The highest point of the county is, the highest point of the , near the village of Rede which reaches 128 (420 ).

Demographics
The Suffolk recorded a  of 668,548. Between 1981 and 2001 the population of the county grew by 13%, with the district of growing fastest at 25%. The population growth is due largely to rather than natural increase. There is a very low population between the ages of 15 and 29 as the county has few large towns and institutions of higher education, though the 15-to-29 population in Ipswich is average. There is a larger population over the age of 35, and a larger than average retired population.

Most English counties have nicknames for people from that county, such as a from  and a  from ; the traditional nickname for people from Suffolk is 'Suffolk Fair-Maids', or 'Silly Suffolk', referring respectively to the supposed beauty of its female inhabitants in the Middle Ages, and to the long history of Christianity in the county and its many fine churches (from Anglo-Saxon selige, originally meaning holy).

Cities, towns and villages
The agreed-upon number of established communities in Suffolk varies greatly because of the large number of the all but non-existent hamlets which may consist of just a single farm and a deconsecrated church: remnants of wealthy communities, some dating back to the early days of the Christian era. Suffolk encompasses one of the most ancient regions of the UK: A monastery in founded in 630AD, plotting of  in 1215; the oldest documented structural element of a still inhabited dwelling in Britain found in.

This comparatively recent evidence is but a coda to the widespread settlement in the region shown by earlier archaeological evidence of Mesolithic man as far back as c.7000BC, (, Norfolk - a 5000 y/o flint mine) with Roman settlements, , later Bronze and Saxon settlements. : burial ground of the Anglo-Saxon pagan kings of East Anglia.


 * For a full list of settlements see the .

Notable people from Suffolk

 * See also: People from Suffolk

In the arts, Suffolk is noted for having been the home to two of England's best regarded s, and  - the Stour Valley area is branded as "Constable Country" - and one of its most noted s,. Other artists of note from Suffolk include the,  and  , actors  and , musician and   and , singer of the Suffolk-based  group,. is originally from Suffolk and the influential and   made the county his home.

Suffolk's contributions to sport include magnate  and  ers,  and. Due to being the centre of British  many s have settled in the county, including  and.

Significant ecclesiastical figures from Suffolk include former, , King of East Anglia and Christian martyr, (after whom the town of  is named),    , and  author, poet and Benedictine monk

Other significant persons from Suffolk include the, , captain of , , Witch-finder General and both Britain's first female  and ,. leader settled in Suffolk and based her charity in.

Primary and Secondary
See also 

Suffolk has a system with fourteen. Unusually for the UK, most of Suffolk has a 3-tier school system in place with (ages 5-9), (ages 9-13) and Upper Schools (ages 13-16). However, a 2006 Suffolk County Council study has concluded that Suffolk should move to the 2-tier school system used in the majority of the UK. The exception to this is in the Ipswich district and some in the districts of Suffolk Coastal, Mid Suffolk, and Babergh where the more common have 11-16 age schools are in place. All of the county's Upper schools have a as there are no specific sixth form colleges (though most  colleges in the county offer  courses). In terms of school population, Suffolk's individual schools are large with the Ipswich district with the largest school population and Forest Heath the smallest, with just two schools.

Tertiary
The establishment of, a collaboration between the , the , partner colleges and local government, began accepting its first students in September. The main Ipswich based waterfront campus building is not due for completion until.

Trivia
The is the name given to a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and objects in the sky, and the alleged landing of an extraterrestrial spacecraft, in December 1980, in the vicinity of Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England.

A TV series about a British antiques dealer,, was filmed in various locations in Suffolk.

The Series was Also filmed in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk although the producers pretended that they were in Russia.