History highlights Ipswich as the birthplace of Cardinal Wolsey but the story of Suffolk's county town starts very much earlier. It has been a port since the time of the Roman occupation and by the 7th century the Anglo-Saxons had expanded it into the largest port in the county. King John granted a civic charter in 1200 confirming the townspeople's right to their own laws and administration and for several centuries the town prospered as a port exporting wool, textiles and agricultural products.

Thomas Wolsey arrived on the scene in 1475 the son of a wealthy butcher and grazier. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford he was ordained a priest in 1498 and rose quickly in influence becoming chaplain to Henry VII and then Archbishop of York, a cardinal and Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII. He was quite indispensable to the king and had charge of foreign policy as well as powerful sway over judicial institutions. He also managed to amass enormous wealth, enabling him to found a grammar school in Ipswich and Cardinal's Collage (later Christ Church) in Oxford. Wolsey had long been hated by certain nobles for his low birth and arrogance and they were easily about to turn Henry against him when his attempts to secure an annulment from the Pope of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon met with failure. Stripped of most of his offices following a charge of overstepping his authority as a legate he was later charged with treason but died while traveling from York to London to face the king. his death put an end to his plans for the grammar school and all that remains now is a red brick gateway.

When the cloth market fell into decline in the 17th century a respite followed in the following century when the town was a food distribution port during the Napoleonic Wars. At the beginning of the 19th century the risk from silting was becoming acute at a time when trade was improving and industries were springing up. The Wet Dock constructed in 1842 solved the silting problem and with the railway arriving shortly after Ipswich could once more look forward to a safe future. The Victorians were responsible for considerable development and symbols of their civic pride include the handsome Old Custom House by the West Dock, the Town Hall and the splendid Tolly Cobbold brewery rebuilt at the end of the 19th century, 150 years after brewing started on the site.

Christchurch Mansion is a beautiful Tudor home standing in 1 65 acre park. Furnished as an English country house it contains a major collection of works by Constable and Gainsborough and many other paintings, prints and sculptures by Suffolk artists from the 17th century onwards.

The Black Horse is a whitewashed building with distinctive tall chimneys and a steeply raked tiled roof. Though not far from the main attractions of metropolitan Ipswich it enjoys a secluded location surrounded by trees with a church on either side and one of the town's oldest buildings just behind.

On the outskirts of town signposted from Nacton Road is Orwell Country Park a 150 acre site of wood, heath and reed beds by the Orwell Estuary. At this point the river is crossed by the imposing Orwell Bridge a graceful construction in pre-stressed concrete that was complete in 1982 and is not far short of a mile in length.