Ipswich

Ipswich is an ancient port on the River Orwell, whose sheltered waters open towards the North Sea. Its medieval streets, churches and quays grew around a lively trading community. Wool and cloth passed through the harbour, and by the fourteenth century merchants of the Hanseatic League maintained warehouses in the town.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an influx of Flemish weavers helped shift the emphasis of local trade from wool to finished cloth. One of Ipswich's most prominent sons was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's powerful minister. In 1528 he founded a college in his birthplace, taking over the site of a priory near the town quay on the river. The college was dissolved in 1531, shortly after Wolsey's fall from power.