Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh is the bottom-right settlement shown in this 1588 map

The name "Aldeburgh" derives from the Old English ald (old) and burh (fortification),[6] although this structure, along with much of the Tudor town, has now been lost to the sea. In the 16th century, Aldeburgh was a leading port, and had a flourishing shipbuilding industry. The flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture is believed to have been built here in 1608. Aldeburgh's importance as a port declined as the River Alde silted up and larger ships could no longer berth. It survived mainly on fishing until the 19th century, when it also became a seaside resort. Much of its distinctive, whimsical architecture dates from that period. The river is now home to a yacht club and a sailing club.

Aldeburgh is on the North Sea coast, about 87 miles (140 kilometres) north-east of London, 20 mi (32 km) north-east of Ipswich and 23 mi (37 km) south of Lowestoft. Locally it is 4 mi (6 km) south of the town of Leiston and 2 mi (3 km) south of the village of Thorpeness. It lies just north of the River Alde, with the narrow shingle spit of Orford Ness all that stops the river meeting the sea at Aldeburgh – instead it flows another 9 mi (14 km) to the south-west.

The beach is mainly shingle and wide in places, allowing fishing boats to draw up onto the beach above the high tide, but it narrows at the neck of Orford Ness. The shingle bank allows access to the Ness from the north, passing a Martello tower and two yacht clubs at the site of the former village of Slaughden. Aldeburgh was flooded in the North Sea flood of 1953, after which its flood defences were strengthened.[7] The beach received a Blue Flag rural beach award in 2005.

The town is within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), with a number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and nature reserves in its locality. The Alde-Ore Estuary SSSI covers the area surrounding the river from Snape to its mouth, including the whole of Orford Ness. This contains several salt marsh and mudflat habitats.[8] The Leiston-Aldeburgh SSSI extends from the northern edge of the town over a range of habitats, including grazing marsh and heathland.[9][10] It includes Thorpeness Mere and the North Warren RSPB reserve, an area of wildlife and habitat conservation, and nature trails run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.[10][11]

Two smaller geological SSSI units lie on the southern edges. Aldeburgh Brick Pit, of 0.84-hectare (2.1-acre), shows a clear stratigraphy of Red Crag deposits above Corralline Crag.[12] Aldeburgh Hall Pit is a shallow pit 0.8 ha (2.0 acres) in area, featuring a section of Corralline Crag. It is seen as one of the best sites in Britain for Neogene fauna.[13]

The town's churches include the pre-Reformation Anglican parish church of St Peter and St Paul and the Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Peter.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Mayor of Aldeburgh, 1908

Aldeburgh has a town council and lies within the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district. Aldeburgh ward, including Thorpeness and other communities, had a population of 3225 in the 2011 census, when the mean age of the inhabitants was 55 and the median age 61.[14]

It is within the Suffolk Coastal parliamentary constituency represented by Therese Coffey, having had John Gummer for a member from 1983 to 2010. It is seen as a safe seat for the Conservatives.

Aldeburgh was a Parliamentary Borough from 1571, and returned two Members of Parliament, the right to vote being vested in the town's freemen. By the mid-18th century it was classed as a rotten borough, as the votes were controlled by a City of London merchant, Thomas Fonnereau:[15] and memorably described it as "a venal little borough in Suffolk".[16] It lost its representation under the Great Reform Act of 1832.

In 1908 Aldeburgh became the first British town to elect a female mayor: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, whose father, Newson Garrett, had been mayor in 1889. In 2006, Sam Wright became Aldeburgh's town crier and mace bearer at 15, and so the youngest in the world.[17]

Aldeburgh is linked to the main A12 at Friday Street in Benhall, by the A1094 road. The B1122 leads to Leiston. There are bus services to Leiston, southward to Woodbridge and Ipswich, and northward to Halesworth.[18]

Aldeburgh railway station opened in 1860 as the terminus of the Aldeburgh Branch Line from Saxmundham, but was closed in 1966 under the Beeching Axe. Now the nearest railway station is Saxmundham on the East Suffolk Line,[19] approximately 7 miles away. This has hourly weekday services to Ipswich for London Liverpool Street station, and to Lowestoft for Norwich.[18]

A nearby aerodrome, Royal Naval Air Station Aldeburgh, was used in the First World War as a Night Landing Ground and for training observers.[27]

George Crabbe, 1818

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, 1900

Benjamin Britten, 1968

Peter Sinfield, 2010

• Henry Johnson (c. 1659–1719), "greatest shipbuilder and shipowner of his day" and MP for Aldeburgh, 1689–1719
• George Crabbe (1754–1832), poet, was born in Aldeburgh, which features in his poems The Village and The Borough. The latter concerns a fisherman named Peter Grimes, on whose story Benjamin Britten's opera of that name was based.[28][29]
• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836–1917) was the first woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain, co-founder of first hospital staffed by women, first female dean of a British medical school, first female doctor of medicine in France, first woman in Britain elected to a school board, and as Mayor of Aldeburgh, first female mayor and magistrate in Britain.[30]
• Annie Hall Cudlip, (1838–1918) writer, novelist and short story writer, was born in Aldeburgh.[31]
• Agnes Garrett (1845–1935), suffragist and interior designer, founded the Ladies Dwellings Company.[32]
• Dame Millicent Fawcett (1847–1929), suffragist, feminist and writer, was born in Aldeburgh, where she set her one novel, Janet Doncaster.[33]
• M. R. James (1862–1936), author, set a story, "A Warning to the Curious", in "Seaburgh" (Aldeburgh). Landmarks such as the Martello tower and White Lion Hotel feature.[34]
• Joan Cross (1900–1993), soprano and theatre director who created several Britten opera roles, is buried in the town churchyard.[35]
• Gerry Fiennes (1906–1985), railway manager and author, was Mayor of Aldeburgh in 1976.
• H. T. Cadbury-Brown (1913–2009), architect
• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) moved to the town in 1942. He, Eric Crozier (1914–1994) and Peter Pears (1910–1986) founded the Aldeburgh Festival and Aldeburgh Music Club. He moved with Pears into The Red House in 1957. They lie side by side in the town churchyard.[36]
• Ruth Rendell (1930–2015), author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries, created Chief Inspector Wexford.[37]
• Rt Revd Sandy Millar (born 1939), once Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton[38] and co-founder of the Alpha course, lives in Aldeburgh.
• Francis Carnwath CBE (1940–2020), Deputy Director of the Tate gallery 1990–1994, and co-founder of the Aldeburgh Beach Lookout.[39]
• Sue Lloyd (1939–2011), model and actress, played Barbara Hunter in Crossroads.[40]
• Christine Truman (born 1941), Grand Slam tennis event winner, lives in Aldeburgh.[41]
• Malcolm Bowie (1943–2007), Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, 2002–2006[42]
• Peter Sinfield (born 1943), songwriter with the progressive rock act King Crimson, lives in Aldeburgh.[43]
• Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian (living), composer, lives in Aldeburgh, on the border with Thorpeness.[44]
• Roy Keane (born 1971), footballer, became an Aldeburgh resident in 2009 on taking over as manager of Ipswich Town.[45]
• Miranda Raison (born 1977), actress, has a weekend cottage in Aldeburgh and belongs to Aldeburgh Golf Club.[46]
• Isabella Summers (born 1980), songwriter, producer and remixer (Florence and the Machine), is an Aldeburgh native.[47]

Coastline at Aldeburgh.

Outside the town, the Snape Maltings is the venue for the Aldeburgh Festival held every June.

Aldeburgh Music Club, founded by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears in 1952,[48] has since evolved into one of East Anglia's leading choirs, with about 100 members and over 120 supporting patrons. It rehearses from early September to late May each year and holds three major performances, two of them at Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

The annual Aldeburgh Carnival in August has been held at least since 1892 and possibly since 1832, when "Ye Olde Marine Regatta" was mentioned. The focal point today is a Carnival Procession featuring locals and visitors dressed in home-made costumes and on floats, often with a topical or local theme. In the evening, a parade with Chinese lanterns and a firework display are traditional. The procession has been led for over 30 years by Chief Marshal Trevor Harvey, also a Carnival Committee member for over 50 years.[49]

The Suffolk Craft Society hold an annual themed exhibition in the Peter Pears Gallery over July and August, showing the work of its members.

The town of Aldeburgh or "Owlbarrow" is the setting of a series of children's illustrated books centred on Orlando (The Marmalade Cat) written by Kathleen Hale, who spent holidays in the town. Many illustrations in the books feature landmarks in the town, including the Moot Hall. The town features in the thriller Cross of Fire by novelist Colin Forbes, as do the nearby villages of Dunwich and Snape Maltings.[50] James Herbert based his book The Jonah in the area, using several names represented in the local area for characters, including Slaughden.

Aldeburgh (spelt there Aldborough) is the location of a key scene in Wilkie Collins's novel No Name, where Captain Wragge and Magdalen Vanstone enact their conspiracy against Noel Vanstone and Mrs Lecount. The town's Martello Tower is mentioned as a landmark. Aldeburgh also features in Joseph Freeman's novel Arcadia Lodge as "Seaburgh", and in the M. R. James story "A Warning To The Curious". The Maggi Hambling sculpture appears in an early scene, as do various other landmarks.

These include Aldeburgh Cottage Hospital,[55][56] a traditional English cottage hospital, the Aldeburgh Library,[57] which also relies on volunteers,[58] and the Aldeburgh Cinema,[59] which puts on films and cultural events.

• Norman Scarfe: The Shell Guide to Suffolk, 1976
• Kate Pugh: Return to Suffolk, 2007 Crabbe 1792–1805. Bottesford Living History Community Heritage Project on the poet George Crabbe
• Ray Sturtivant and Gordon Page: Royal Navy Aircraft Serials and Units 1911–1919, Air-Britain, 1992, ISBN 0 85130 191 6

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aldeburgh.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Aldeburgh.

• The Aldeburgh Museum
• Aldeburgh Past
• Aldeburgh in the Domesday Book