Publisher's Synopsis
The town of Ipswich began as an Anglo-Saxon trading port, serving the kingdom of East Anglia. The Middle Ages saw continued commercial prosperity, with the establishment of five large religious houses and the consolidation of its street patt ern, still discernible today. It was an important centre for the Hanseatic League, trading with the Baltic, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a port of emigration for the colonies of North America. In the nineteenth century it expanded its port facilities, changing the course of the River Orwell to do so, and it also developed large breweries and foundries to make agricultural machinery. In the late twentieth century it became the home of an iconic Norman Foster building. An Historical Map of Ipswich shows, on a multi-period map, how Ipswich developed and includes its vanished buildings, earthworks and sites of interest, as well as those that remain. A comprehensive gazett eer on the map's reverse, complete with many illustrations, explains how Ipswich developed and introduces its buildings and sites of interest.
