Woodbridge, Suffolk
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History
It was a centre for boat-building, rope-making and sail-making since the Middle Ages. Edward III and Sir Francis Drake had fighting ships built in Woodbridge.
Around the town there are various buildings from the Tudor, Georgian, Regency and Victorian eras. The town has a restored tidemill, one of only 4 in the UK, and one of the earliest—a mill was first recorded on this site in 1170, operated by the Augustinian Canons. In 1536, it passed to King Henry VIII. In 1564, Queen Elizabeth I granted the mill to Thomas Seckford. In 1577 he founded Woodbridge School and the Seckford Almshouses, for the poor of Woodbridge.
Sutton Hoo, a group of low grassy mounds famous for turning up Anglo-Saxon treasure of one of the earliest English kings, Redwald, overlooks Woodbridge from the Eastern Bank of the Deben.
The so-called Rendlesham Forest Incident took place nearby. There were claims that a UFO landed in the Rendlesham Forest near Woodbridge, this has been strongly denied by the US military and has been compared to the Roswell UFO incident.
Famous residents
- Edward FitzGerald, translator of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
- Bernard Barton, Quaker poet
- Brian Eno from Roxy Music
- Charlie Simpson from Busted
- Sir Ian Jacob, Director-General of the BBC
- Brian Capron who portrayed Richard Hillman in Coronation Street from 2001-2003
External links
- [Visit Woodbridge]
- [Woodbridge Town Guide - shops, businesses, maps]
- [Woodbridge]
- [History of Woodbridge]
- [Tidemill website]
- [Woodbridge School website]
- [Farlingaye High School's website]
- [The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident]
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