Lowestoft

Lowestoft is a large town located on the edge of the Broads and it is the most easterly British settlement, sitting on the North Sea coast of East Anglia, Suffolk.

Some of the earliest evidence of settlement in Britain was found here. These flint tools found in 2005, the cliffs at Pakefield, in south Lowestoft were deposited 700,000 years ago. The area was inhabited in the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages as well as the Roman and Saxon periods. Several finds have been made at a Saxon cemetery at Bloodmoor Hill in south Lowestoft.

The Domesday Book 1086 states the village of Lothuwistoft had a population of 16 households in three families, with ten smallholders and three slaves. The manor formed part of the king's holding in Hundred of Lothingland, worth about four geld in tax income.

In June 1665, the naval Battle of Lowestoft was the first of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. It took place about 40 miles off the coast and it a clear victory for the English over the Dutch.

In the Middle Ages, Lowestoft developed into an important fishing town that grew to challenge its neighbour, Great Yarmouth. The trade, particularly for herring, continued as the town's main identity into the 20th century.

In the 19th century, Sir Samuel Morton Peto's built a railway line for the Lowestoft Railway and Harbour Company, connecting the town with Reedham and the city of Norwich. This had a profound impact on the town's industrial development as it could sell to markets further inland, also this helped other industries. The railway also helped Lowestoft to become a seaside holiday resort.

In World War I, Lowestoft was bombarded by the German Navy on 24 April 1916. The port was a major naval base during the war, including armed trawlers, used to combat German U-boats in the North Sea. In World War II, the town was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe. The Royal Naval Patrol Service, formed mainly by trawler men and fishermen of the Royal Naval Reserve, was mobilised in August 1939. Its central depot HMS Europa, was also known locally as the Sparrow's Nest.

As its fisheries declined, oil and gas exploitation in the southern North Sea in the 1960s added to its development, as it did in nearby Great Yarmouth. These have declined, but Lowestoft is developing as a regional centre of the renewable energy industry.

Lowestoft is subject to periodic flooding, notably in January 1953, when a North Sea swell driven by low pressure and an extreme high tide swept away many earlier sea defences and deluged most of the southern town. Heavy rain caused flash flooding in the town in September 2006. In December 2013, a storm surge caused severe flooding of Lowestoft and its suburbs.