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Saxmundham

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Saxmundham
St.John the Baptist Church, Saxmundham
Population3,644 (2011 Census)[1]
OS grid referenceTM381632
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSAXMUNDHAM
Postcode districtIP17
Dialling code01728
PoliceSuffolk
FireSuffolk
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Suffolk

Saxmundham (/ˈsæksməndəm/) is a small market town in Suffolk, England. It is set in the valley of the River Fromus, a tributary of the River Alde, approximately 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Ipswich and 5 miles (8.0 km) west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed by the A12 and is served by Saxmundham railway station on the East Suffolk Line.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 4,913.[2]

Origin

The town's name allegedly derives from the Saxon "Seizmond's Home". The earliest recorded mention of Saxmundham is in the Domesday Book of 1086 which mentions three churches. It has had a market charter since at least 1272 AD [citation needed] and carries on the tradition to this day.

Notable residents

  • Ray Allen, NBA All-Star spent some of his childhood in Saxmundham[3]
  • Henry Bright, painter
  • Jerome Bright (1770–1846), clockmaker
  • Herbert Heyner, baritone, died there
  • Sam Miller, television director
  • Richard Shaw, best-selling author
  • Thomas Stopher (b. 1825), master craftsman in wood
  • Thomas Thurlow (1813–1899), sculptor
  • Hamlet Watling, painter and schoolmaster

In fiction

Brother Eadulf has become Saxmundham's most famous international fictional character. He appears in the best-selling Sister Fidelma mysteries written by Peter Tremayne (nom de plume of the Celtic scholar and author Peter Beresford Ellis). Brother Eadulf is companion and assistant to Sister Fidelma and 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 in 664 AD 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 as well as the East Anglian historic connections with Irish Christian missionaries. He has appeared in all but two of the Sister Fidelma series of mystery novels, set in 7th century Ireland.

References

  1. ^ "Town population 2011". Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  2. ^ "Ward population 2011". Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  3. ^ http://www.jockbio.com/Bios/Allen/Allen_bio.html
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Saxmundham.


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