Introduction to Needham Market

Located, mid-way between Bury St Edmunds (18 miles) and Ipswich (12 miles) in the valley of the River Gipping, amidst the delightful rolling countryside of Suffolk, Needham Market is a small town (population c.4,250) with a long history.

The town is a very pleasant place to live, with an attractive high street, traditional family- owned businesses and a number of pubs and cafes to welcome visitors.

Situated just south of the A14, the main trunk route that bisects the county on a NW-SE axis, linking Felixstowe, the biggest container port in Britain, with the Midlands and the North, the town is a base for several companies and entrepreneurs with business interests in more distant markets. The Norwich-London Inter-city rail line, runs parallel to the A14, through NM, giving a fast, frequent service of 1¼ hours to London, Liverpool Street, direct from nearby Stowmarket station.

Needham Market is surrounded by rich agricultural land and has been fortunate not to have been caught up in the turbulent times that have marked other communities in the region.

Recent archaeological digs have confirmed the existence of settlements along the fertile flood plain of the River Gipping in neolithic times, with extensive evidence of flint knapping on a large scale.

The Romans settled and farmed in the area. The homesteads of Queen Boudicca’s Iceni people are only a day’s march to the north and Colchester’s Roman garrison, which she slaughtered, even closer to the south.

Clearly the Saxons were here, hence the name (the needy village) and the Danish invaders established forts nearby from which they pillaged, before settling the area and leaving many place names to mark their occupation.

The Normans built castles elsewhere in the county, but Needham is not mentioned in Domesday Book, so it was probably no more than an unexciting hamlet at that time.

In medieval times, when East Anglia became rich from the wool trade, Needham Market grew around the wool combing industry. King Henry III granted the town a Charter in 1245, enabling a market to be held and the town prospered until the onset of the plague, which swept the town from 1663 to 1665. To prevent the spread of the disease, the town was isolated by chains across the highway at either end. Isolation was successful but two-thirds of the population expired.

The town did not recover for nearly two hundred years, until the canalisation of the River Gipping between Stowmarket and Ipswich in the late 18th Century. This improved trade, with grain, fertilisers and gun cotton going down to Ipswich and onwards by sea and with coal and building stone as return loads. As with many canals, the introduction of the railway in the mid-1800’s killed off the canal trade and it was eventually closed to navigation in 1922. A limited restoration project is active at some locks and the towpath has been re-opened for ramblers. In the twentieth century malting and the manufacture of margarine were the major local employers.

The most significant buildings in the town are the 15th century parish church of St John the Baptist and two former water-powered corn mills, now converted to apartments.

St Johns Church Hawkes Mill

The church was originally a Chapel of Ease subsidiary to the senior parish of Barking. It has a unique double-hammerbeam roof which attracts tourist and academic interest. Also of ecclesiastical interest is Christchurch, now the United Reformed Church, where in 1755-58 Joseph Priestley, the scientist who discovered oxygen and held strong nonconformist religious views, was minister.

Behind the Post Office there is a former Quaker Meeting house and burial ground, which can be visited with permission.

The town has links with the community of Needham, near Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Visits by mayors of the two communities have taken place and greetings have been exchanged between the RBL Branch and their equivalent Post of the American Legion of Veterans in USA