The Normans built castles in the county at Eye and Walton, and there are remains of the entrenchments and part of the walls of Bungay, the ancient stronghold of the Bigods; the ruins of Mettingham, built in the reign of Edward III. ; Wingfield, sur rounded by a deep moat, with the turret walls and the draw bridge still existing; the ruin of Framlingham, with high and massive walls, originally founded in the 6th century, 'but restored in the 12th; the outlines of the fortress of Clare castle, anciently the baronial residence of the earls of Clare ; and the Norman keep of Orford castle. Probably the establishment of Suffolk as a separate shire was scarcely completed before the Conquest, and although it was reckoned as distinct from Norfolk in the Domesday survey of 1086, the fiscal administration of Norfolk and Suffolk remained under one sheriff until 1575. The shire court was held at Ipswich. In 1o86 Babergh was rated as two hundreds, Cosford, Ipswich and Parham as half hundreds, and Samford as a hundred and a half. Hoxne hundred was formerly known as Bishop's hundred and the wills which were included later in Thredling hundred were within Claydon hundred. More than half the county was included in the ecclesiastical liberties of St. Edmund and St. Aethelreda of Ely, and in these the king's writs did not run.
In 1173 the earl of Leicester landed at Walton with an army of Flemings and was joined by Hugh Bigod against Henry II. Since 1290 the county was constantly represented in Parliament by two knights. In 1317 and the succeeding years a great part of the county was in arms for Thomas of Lancaster. Queen Isabella and Mortimer having landed at Walton found all the district in their favour. In 1330 the county was raised to sup press the supporters of the earl of Kent ; and again in 1381 there was a serious rising of the peasantry chiefly in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds. Although the county was for the most part Yorkist it took little part in the Wars of the Roses. In 1525 the artisans of the south strongly resisted Henry VIII.'s forced loan. It was from Suffolk that Mary drew the army which supported her claim to the throne. In the Civil Wars the county was for the most part parliamentarian, and joined the Association of the Eastern Counties. Within the county there are several interesting examples of domestic architecture of the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. Hengrave hall (c. 1530), 4 m. N.W. from Bury St. Edmunds, is a building of brick and stone, enclos ing a court-yard. Another is Helmingham hall, a Tudor mansion of brick, surrounded by a moat crossed by a drawbridge. West Stow manor is also Tudor with a fine gatehouse.
The Reform bill of 1832 gave four members to Suffolk, at the same time disfranchising the boroughs of Dunwich, Orford and Aldeburgh. For parliamentary purposes the county now consti
tutes five divisions, each returning one member, viz., Lowestoft division, Eye, Bury St. Edmunds, Sudbury and Woodbridge. Ipswich returns one member, and part of the borough of Great Yarmouth falls within the county.
Suffolk was early among the most populous of English counties. Fishing fleets had left its ports to bring back cod and ling from Iceland and herring and mackerel from the North sea, while it carried on a trade with Flanders. From the 14th to the 17th century it was among the chief manufacturing counties of Eng land owing to its cloth-weaving industry, which was at the height of its prosperity during the 15th century. In the 17th and i8th centuries its agricultural resources were utilized to provide the rapidly-growing metropolis with food. In the follow ing century various textile industries, such as the manufacture of sail-cloth, coconut fibre, horse-hair and clothing were estab lished; silk-weavers migrated to Suffolk from Spitalfields, and early in the 19th century an important china factory flourished at Lowestoft.
In the i8th century Suffolk was famed for its dairy products, but the high price of grain during the wars of the French Revolution led to the breaking up of the pastures and it is now one of the principal grain-growing counties in England. In 1926 the acreage of land under crops and grass was 742,693 ; 552,383 of which were arable. Barley is the chief grain crop with 126, 179 ac., wheat next, 97,866 ac., and then oats with about half as much acreage as wheat. Mangolds, turnips, and swedes occu pied 47,271 acres and sugar beet 35,000 acres. Beans and peas covered nearly 5o,000 acres. The acreage of clover and rotation grasses for hay was 55,589. Suffolk punch horses are famous and the native breed of cows is of the polled variety. Milk is sent to London and other towns, while a large number of cattle are also fattened in the county. Sheep, usually a cross between the old Norfolk horned and the Southdown are reared on the drier soils, while large numbers of pigs are also bred.
The most important manufactures relate to agriculture. They include that of agricultural implements, especially at Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket, and that of artificial ma nures at Ipswich and Stowmarket, for which coprolites are dug. Malting is extensive, with small manufactures, including silk, cotton, linen, woollen and horsehair and coconut matting.
The L.N.E. railway serves the county. Suffolk comprises 21 hundreds, and, since 1888, for administrative purposes is divided into the counties of East Suffolk (557,353 ac.), population (1931) 294,977, and West Suffolk (390,916 ac.), population, 106,137.
The following are the municipal boroughs: