Discover Southwold

A chartered town that is very nearly an island

Southwold sits on a low cliff on the Suffolk coast with the North Sea to the east, the River Blyth curling round the south to the harbour at Blackshore, and Buss Creek running across the north. That leaves one neck of land, crossed at Mights Bridge, and for centuries a bridge there was the only connection to Reydon and the rest of Suffolk; a benefactor, Emma Lord, left money for a permanent one in 1524. Henry VII granted the town a charter in 1489 releasing it from legal obligations to the Crown, and in 1509 the local merchant William Godell left most of his lands to the townspeople, two acts that between them made Southwold self-governing and self-financing for a very long time.

In 1659 a fire destroyed most of the town in four hours, taking the Town Hall and the records inside it, the market place, the prison, shops, granaries and warehouses, and leaving three hundred families homeless. The town that was rebuilt put open greens between the blocks as firebreaks, which is why a place of about 950 people has South Green, East Green, North Green, St James's Green and Bartholomew Green scattered through it. Southwold has been a front-line town three times since: the Battle of Sole Bay in 1672, Zeppelin raids and naval shelling in the First World War, and mined beaches and beach huts strewn across the Common to deter gliders in the Second.