Ipswich, city and district, Suffolk,
E England, on the Orwell estuary 12 mi (19 km) from its entry into the North
Sea. Ipswich is the county seat of Suffolk. A market and port, it exports
barley, malt, and fertilizers and imports coal, petroleum, phosphates,
grain, and timber. Agricultural machinery and construction vehicles are the
chief manufactures of Ipswich, which also has fertilizer, cigarette,
malting, milling, brewing, printing, and textile industries. The area was a
commercial center and pottery producer from the 7th to 12th cent. The city
reached the peak of its significance in the woolen trade in the 16th cent.
Its port declined with the decrease in wool trading but revived with new
dock construction in the mid-19th cent. Vestiges of Roman habitation remain
there. Ipswich was an important ecclesiastical center in the 16th cent. and
retains 12 old churches and several 15th- and 16th-century houses.
Christchurch mansion (1548, now in part an art gallery), the public school
(14th cent.), and Sparrowe's House (1567) are noteworthy. Wolsey's Gate is
the only remnant of the college founded in the early 16th cent. by Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, who was
born in Ipswich.
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