Suffolk II

Suffolk, England. 19-07-2011

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich.

The county is low-lying with very few hills, and is largely arable land with the wetlands of The Broads in the North. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Suffolk was part of the kingdom of East Anglia which was settled by the Angles in the 5th century AD.

West Suffolk is, like nearby East Cambridgeshire, renowned for archaeological finds from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Many bronze objects, such as swords, spearheads, arrows, axes, palstaves, knives, daggers, rapiers, armour, decorative equipment (in particular for horses) and fragments of sheet bronze, are entrusted to St Edmundsbury heritage service, housed at West Stow just outside Bury St Edmunds. Other finds include traces of cremations and barrows.

In the East of the county is Sutton Hoo, the site of one of England's most signicant Anglo-Saxon archæological finds; a ship burial containing a collection of treasures including a Sword of State, gold and silver bowls and jewellery and a lyre.

In the arts, Suffolk is noted for having been the home to two of England's best regarded painters, Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable – the Stour Valley area is branded as "Constable Country" – and one of its most noted composers, Benjamin Britten. Other artists of note from Suffolk include the cartoonist Carl Giles (a bronze statue of his character "Grandma" to commemorate this is located in Ipswich town centre), poets George Crabbe and Robert Bloomfield, writer and editor Ronald Blythe, actors Ralph Fiennes and Bob Hoskins, actress and singer Kerry Ellis, musician and record producer Brian Eno and Dani Filth, singer of the Suffolk-based extreme metal group, Cradle of Filth. Hip-hop DJ Tim Westwood is originally from Suffolk and the influential DJ and radio presenter John Peel made the county his home. One of Britain's leading contemporary painters, Maggi Hambling, was born, and resides, in Suffolk.
Suffolk's contributions to sport include Formula One magnate Bernie Ecclestone and England footballers Terry Butcher, Kieron Dyer and Matthew Upson. Due to Newmarket being the centre of British horseracing many jockeys have settled in the county, including Lester Piggott and Frankie Dettori.
Other significant persons from Suffolk include the suffragette Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett; the captain of HMS Beagle, Robert FitzRoy; Witch-finder General Matthew Hopkins; and Britain's first female physician and mayor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.