SUFFOLK, an eastern county of England. Area 1,488.6 sq. miles. Much of the county is formed by low hills, rising oc casionally over 400 ft. They are a continuation of the Chilterns and they form the main watershed of the county. They consist of chalk, covered to the east by boulder clay, with glacial sand interspersed with patches of London clay, Pliocene deposits and alluvium. Alluvium also appears in the fens in the north-west. Subsidence has let the sea far into the land along the rivers.
Palaeolithic implements have been found in fair abundance in some of the gravels in the north-west of the county, less abun dantly from there southward to the Stour and only sporadically in other parts of the county. In Neolithic times the middle of the county with its boulder clays was probably for the most part forested, and this accounts for the fact that most of the artefacts of this age have been found on the higher chalk lands of the west and on the lighter soils near the coast especially in the north and south extremities of the county. In other parts they are found generally along the river-valleys that are floored with gravel. A marked feature of pre-historic Suffolk is the number of beaker pots of the late Neolithic or early Metal age which have been found there. These have been found particularly around the estuaries of the Stour, Orwell and Deben, where presumably, the immigrants landed first. It is thought that they then pushed up the rivers into the north-western part of the county and here a number of other beakers have been discovered. Bronze imple ments have been found in much the same places as the Neolithic, except that they are scarce in the north-east. In the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era Suffolk was invaded by Brythonic tribes, and traces of their handiwork have been found here. Along with Norfolk it formed part of the kingdom of the Iceni, and it was ravaged by the Romans after the unsuccessful revolt of Boudicca (Boadicea). The Roman road from Col chester to Venta Icenorum crossed the county from near Stratford St. Mary to Scole. Just north of the Gipping this road threw out a branch in the direction of Dunwich, whence it led north west again to cross the Waveney near Bungay. To the west there ran from north to south from Norfolk the continuation of the Peddar's way. The ancient track of the Icknield way ran along the chalk hills of the north-west. On the Suffolk coast the Romans
built two forts to guard the Saxon shore—the first has left traces at Burgh castle, the other, which was at Walton near Felixstowe, has been washed away by the sea.
The county of Suffolk (Sudfole, Suthfolc) was formed from the south part of the kingdom of East Anglia which had been settled by the Angles in the latter half of the 5th century. The most important Anglo-Saxon settlements appear to have been made at Sudbury and Ipswich. It suffered severely from the Danish incursions and after the treaty of Wedmore formed part of Danelaw. The whole shire lay within the diocese of Dunwich, which was founded c. 631. In 673 a new 'bishopric was estab lished at Elmham to comprise the whole of Norfolk which had formerly been included in the see of Dunwich. The latter came to an end with the incursion of the Danes, and on the revival of Christianity in this district Suffolk was included in the diocese of Ely. The county has now become part of the new diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich. There were a number of religious houses in the county, and the most important remains are those of the great Benedictine abbey of Bury St. Edmunds; the col lege of Clare, originally a cell to the abbey of Bec in Nor mandy and afterwards to St. Peter's Westminster, converted into a college of secular canons in the reign of Henry VI., still retaining much of its ancient architecture, and now used as a boarding-school ; the Decorated gateway of the Augus tinian priory of Butley; and the remains of the Grey Friars monastery at Dunwich. A peculiarity of the church architecture is the use of flint for purposes of ornamentation. Another char acteristic is the round towers, the principal examples 'being those of Little Saxham and Herringfleet, both Norman. The Decorated is well represented, but by far the greater proportion of the churches are Perpendicular. The church of Blythburgh in the east and the ornate building at Lavenham in the west may be noted as typical, while the church of Long Melford, another fine ex ample, should be mentioned on account of its remarkable lady chapel. Special features are the open roofs and woodwork (as at St. Mary's, Bury St. Edmunds, Earl Stonham and Stonham Aspall, Ufford and Blythburgh), and the fine fonts.