Editing Sudbury, Suffolk (section)

==History==

===Early history===
Sudbury's history dates back into the age of the [[Saxons]].<ref name=Kelly1/> The town's earliest mention is in ''circa'' 799, when [[Ælfhun]], [[Bishop of Dunwich]], died in the town.<ref name="sudburyhistory">{{cite web | title=Sudbury's History | publisher=sudburysuffolk.com | url=http://www.sudburysuffolk.com/newsite/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=43 | access-date=14 January 2008 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303150510/http://sudburysuffolk.com/newsite/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=43 | archive-date=3 March 2008 }}</ref> The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' records the town as ''Suðberie'' ("south-borough"), presumed to distinguish it from [[Norwich]] or [[Bury St Edmunds]], to the north,<ref name=Kelly1>{{Cite journal|title=Kelly's Directory of Suffolk|publisher=Kelly's Directories, Ltd.|page=327|author=Kelly|year=1900|access-date=21 October 2008|url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/EXE/tiff2png.exe/00005RFY.PNG?-i+-r+80+-g+4+-h+2,136,3+E%3A%5CZYIMAGE%5CDATA%5CHISTDIR%5CTIF%5CLU8FD8%7E1%5C00005RFY.TIF}}</ref> and {{circa|995}} is recorded as ''Suðbyrig''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Lewis|first1=Carenza|last2=Ranson|first2=Catherine|date=2014|title=Archaeological Test Pit Excavations in Sudbury, Suffolk, 2014|url=https://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports/suffolk/sudbury/2014/SudburyTestPitting.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031125829/http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports/suffolk/sudbury/2014/SudburyTestPitting.pdf |archive-date=2015-10-31 |url-status=live|publisher=Access Cambridge Archaeology, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, [[University of Cambridge]]}}</ref> The town is also mentioned in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086, as a [[market town]] where the local people came to barter their goods.<ref name="sudburyhistory"/> The market was established in 1009.<ref>{{cite web|title='Suffolk', Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 |year=2005|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40435&startPage=2}}</ref> During this period the town was surrounded by a [[Ditch (fortification)|defensive ditch]] and a diverted section of the [[River Stour, Suffolk|River Stour]].<ref name=":0" />

The Church of All Saints was established in the 12th century before being bought by Adam the Monk, who then passed the church and its lands to the [[Abbey of St Albans]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allsaints-sudbury.co.uk/index.php/history/|title=History – All Saints Church|website=allsaints-sudbury.co.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-08-13}}</ref> [[Sudbury Benedictine Priory|St Bartholemew's Benedictine Priory]] and the Chapel of Holy Sepulchre were also established in the 12th century.<ref name=":0" />

A community of [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] established [[Sudbury Priory]] in the mid-13th century and gradually extended the size of their [[priory]], which was one of three Dominican priories in the county of Suffolk.<ref>{{cite web|title='Dominican friaries: Sudbury', A History of the County of Suffolk|volume=2|year=1975|pages=123–124|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=37915|access-date=29 July 2009}}</ref> A [[Leprosy|leper hospital]] was founded on the outskirts of the town in 1272.<ref name=":0" />

Sudbury was one of the first towns in which [[Edward III]] settled the [[Flemings]],<ref name="Kelly1" /> allowing the [[weaving]] and silk industries to prosper for centuries during the [[Late Middle Ages]]. As the main town in the area, Sudbury prospered too, and many great houses and churches were built, giving the town a major historical legacy. The [[Woolsack]] in the [[House of Lords]] was originally stuffed with wool from the Sudbury area, a sign of both the importance of the wool industry and of the wealth of the donors.

One citizen of Sudbury, Archbishop [[Simon Sudbury]] showed that not even the [[Tower of London]] guarantees safety. On 14 June 1381, guards opened the Tower's doors and allowed [[Peasants' Revolt|a party of rebellious peasants]] to enter. Sudbury, inventor of the [[Tax per head|poll tax]], was dragged to [[Tower Hill]] and [[behead]]ed.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13799c.htm|first=Joseph|last=Clayton|title=Simon of Sudbury|publisher=New Advent|encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol XIII|year=1912|access-date=17 January 2008}}</ref> His body was afterwards buried in [[Canterbury Cathedral]], but his skull is kept in [[St Gregory's Church, Sudbury|St Gregory's Church]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/sudburystg.html|title=St Gregory, Sudbury|publisher=suffolkchurches.co.uk|access-date=17 January 2008}}</ref> one of the three [[medieval]] churches in Sudbury. Simon's concerns for his native town are reflected in the founding of St Leonard's Hospital in 1372, a place of respite, towards [[Long Melford]], for [[leper]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title='Hospitals: St Leonard, Sudbury', A History of the County of Suffolk|volume=2 |year=1975|pages= 140–141|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=37940|access-date=29 July 2009}}</ref> For the College of St Gregory, which he founded in 1375 to support eight priests, he used his father's former house and an adjoining plot.<ref>{{cite web|title='Colleges: Sudbury', A History of the County of Suffolk|volume=2|year=1975|pages=150–152|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=37946 |access-date= 29 July 2009}}</ref>

From the 16th to 18th century. the weaving industry was less consistently profitable and Sudbury experienced periods of varying prosperity.<ref>{{cite web|title="Sudbury... very populous and very poor" Daniel Defoe (1722)|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Defoe&c_id=3&p_id=26#pn_97}}{{cite web|title="At Sudbury... manufacture... is at present flourishing", Arthur Young (1784)|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Young&c_id=2&p_id=26#pn_1}}</ref> By means of the borough court, the mayor and corporation directed the affairs of the town. They built a [[house of correction]] (1624) for '[[rogue (vagrant)|rogue]]s, [[Vagabond (person)|vagabond]]s and [[sturdy beggar]]s' and tried to finance the reconstruction of [[Ballingdon]] Bridge, which disappeared during a storm on 4 September 1594. Among theatrical companies that they paid to visit Sudbury were [[Lord Strange's Men]] (1592) and the [[King's Men (playing company)|King's Men]] (1610). Minor infringements, such as not attending church, were punished by fines; for worse offenders there was a [[stocks]] or a whipping. During the [[English Civil War|Civil War]], a 12-strong band of [[Watchman (law enforcement)|watchmen]] was created to prevent the town's enemies, presumed to be [[Royalists]], burning it down.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Records of Archdeaconry of Sudbury''|url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/england-archdeaconry-sudbury/records-of-the-sudbury-archdeaconry-1580-1640-by-v-b-redstone-suffolk-co-r-bdu.shtml}}</ref>

Sudbury and the surrounding area, like much of [[East Anglia]], was a hotbed of [[Puritan]] sentiment during much of the 17th century. Sudbury was among the towns called "notorious wasps' nests of dissent."<ref>Thompson, Roger, ''Mobility & Migration, East Anglian Founders of New England, 1629–1640'', Amherst: [[University of Massachusetts Press]], 1994, 98–99.</ref> During the 1630s, many families departed for the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] as part of the wave of emigration that occurred during the [[Great Migration (Puritan)|Great Migration]].

In 1706,<!-- act is titled 1705 from start of session of Parliament, but was actually passed in February 1706 --> the [[River Stour Navigation Act 1705]] ([[4 & 5 Ann.]] c. 2) was passed in [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]], and work was undertaken to make the river navigable all the way from [[Manningtree]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.waterways.org.uk/ipswich/river_stour_navigation|title=River Stour Navigation|website=waterways.org.uk|access-date=2018-08-02}}</ref>

By the 18th century, the fees charged to become a [[Serfdom|freeman]], with voting rights, were exorbitant and the borough of Sudbury, along with 177 other English towns, was reformed by the [[Municipal Corporations Act 1835]].

[[File:Gainsborough Statue 30thJune2008.jpg|thumb|left|Statue of the painter [[Thomas Gainsborough]] on Market Hill]]

During the 18th century, Sudbury became famous for its local artists. [[John Constable]] painted in the area, especially the [[River Stour, Suffolk|River Stour]]. Painter [[Thomas Gainsborough]] was born in Sudbury in 1727, and was educated at [[Sudbury Grammar School]].<ref name=Gainsboroughhist>{{cite web |publisher=Gainsborough's House |title=Biography |url=http://www.gainsborough.org/tg/biography.htm |access-date=14 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509164648/http://www.gainsborough.org/tg/biography.htm |archive-date=9 May 2008 }}</ref> His birthplace, now named [[Gainsborough's House]], is a museum to his work and is open to the public. It houses many valuable pictures and some of his family possessions. A statue of Gainsborough was unveiled in the town centre outside [[St Peter's Church, Sudbury|St Peter's Church]] on Market Hill in 1913.<ref name="sudburyhistory"/>

===Victorian times to 1960s===
The [[Reform Act 1832]] ([[2 & 3 Will. 4]]. c. 45) saw the villages of [[Ballingdon]] and [[Brundon]] appended to the town.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oldtowns.co.uk/Suffolk/sudbury.htm|title=Sudbury in 1842|publisher=oldtowns.co.uk|work=Old Towns of England|access-date=18 January 2008}}</ref> In the [[1841 United Kingdom general election|1841 general election]] Sudbury became the first place in the UK to elect a member of an [[Ethnic groups of the United Kingdom|ethnic minority]] to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|parliament]], with [[David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre]], the son of an [[India]]n queen, winning the seat. However, he was not allowed to take his place in parliament as he was subsequently declared insane.<ref>''Minority MP 'ought to be commemorated''' East Anglian Daily Times, 23 November 2007</ref>

A new workhouse was built in 1836 off Walnut Tree Lane, close to St Gregory's church.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sudbury, Suffolk |url=http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Sudbury/ |website=The Workhouse}}</ref> From 1946, with the foundation of the [[National Health Service]], it became the local cottage hospital.<ref>{{cite web |title=Walnut Tree Hospital, Sudbury |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/a53003d3-95a3-436e-82f7-c808ad517edf |website=National Archives}}</ref>

Sudbury's Catholic Church, Our Lady Immaculate and St. John the Evangelist, was designed by [[Leonard Stokes]] and erected in 1893. The [[shrine]] of Our Lady of Sudbury sits within its nave.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sudburywithhadleigh.net/About_The_Parish.htm|title=The Parish|website=sudburywithhadleigh.net}}</ref>

During the [[Second World War]] an American squadron of [[B-24 Liberator]] bombers of the 834th Squadron (H), 486th Bomb Group (H), 8th Air Force was based at [[RAF Sudbury]]. This squadron performed many important bombing and photographic missions during the war, but is perhaps best known as the "Zodiac Squadron", as its bombers were decorated with colourful images of the twelve signs of the zodiac painted by a professional artist named Phil Brinkman,<ref>[http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/brink-phil.htm Phil Brinkman] USAAF Nose Art Research Project</ref> who was taken into the squadron by its commander, Capt. Howell, specifically for the purpose of painting the bombers. 
Now most of the airfield buildings have been demolished, including the control tower. Sections of perimeter track, aircraft hard stand areas, and two narrow crossing lengths of former runways provide footpaths between Chilton, Newmans Green and Great Waldingfield. A number of [[Pillbox (military)|pillboxes]] were constructed along the river and by Ballingdon Bridge, many of which are extant.<ref name=":0" />

The [[Corn Exchange, Sudbury|Corn Exchange]] became the local public library after a successful campaign in the mid-1960s by the Corn Exchange Preservation Association to save it.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sudburysociety.org.uk/press-article-how-sudbury-came-close-to-losing-one-of-its-finest-buildings-by-anne-grimshaw/|title=How Sudbury came close to losing one of its finest buildings | first= Anne |last=Grimshaw|publisher=Sudbury Society|access-date=19 June 2023}}</ref>