Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately northeast of London.
History
There are competing theories as to how the name of Felixstowe arose. One is that the town is named after Felix of Burgundy, a saint and the first bishop of the East Angles in the seventh century, although this is unlikely as the name Felixstowe isn't recorded for almost nine hundred years. An alternative etymology is from the Anglo-Saxon or Old English name Filicia and stōw meaning a place of location. Literally Filicia's place. The earliest recorded names "Filchestou" from 1254, and "Filchestowe" in 1291 support this idea. It is possible that the later reworking of Filicia/Filche was made with the intention of referencing Felix of Burgundy.
The old Felixstowe hamlet was centred on a pub and church, having stood on the site since long before the Norman conquest of England. The early history of Felixstowe, including its Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norman and medieval defences, is told under the name of Walton, because the name Felixstowe was given retrospectively, during the 13th century, to a place which had expanded to a form beyond the boundaries of Walton alone. In the Domesday Book, for instance, only Walton is shown, and not Felixstowe, which at the time held little more than a few houses scattered over the cliff tops. Walton was a settlement on the River Orwell and in 1844 had a population of 907 compared to the relatively small Felixstowe Parish holding only 502 people. Walton had always preceded Felixstowe as a settlement as seen by the presence of Walton Castle, built by the Romans in the 3rd century, but today Walton is generally considered part of Felixstowe due to modern expansion.
Felixstowe is situated at the tip of the Colneis peninsula, and was in the ancient Colneis Hundred.
The Felixstowe area as a whole provided a linchpin in England's defence, as proved in 1667 when Dutch soldiers landed near the Fludyers area and tried (unsuccessfully) in the Battle of Landguard Fort to capture Landguard Fort due to strategic location. The town only became related to a major port in 1886 when the port opened to trade, following the initial construction of the dock basin in 1882.
In 1810 or 1811 seven Martello Towers were built along the shore, of which 4 (Tower P on Wireless Green off Old Fort Road is the home of the local CoastWatch group, Q Tower in the town, and two more towards the Deben mouth) survive. Q Tower was the HQ of the Harwich-Ipswich-Martlesham Heath anti-aircraft guns between 1941 and 1945 (earlier it had been in Landguard Fort).
On 11 August 1919, the Felixstowe Fury sideslipped and crashed into the sea 500 yards offshore soon after takeoff while on a test flight. It was preparing for an 8,000-mile flight to Cape Town, South Africa. The wireless operator, Lt. MacLeod, was killed, and the 6 passengers were rescued. The wreckage was towed ashore.
At the turn of the century, tourism increased, and a pier was constructed in 1905 some of which is partially functional to this day as an amusement arcade. Indeed, during the late Victorian period (after circa 1880) it became a fashionable resort, a trend initiated by the opening of Felixstowe railway station, the pier and a visit by the German imperial family in 1891.
It was in this buoyant period that Felixstowe was the first British town to adopt beach huts as stationary permanent structures (rather than wheeled bathing machines) and there is photographic records of beach huts at the 'spa area' in Felixstowe dating back to 1895. It is therefore known as the home to British beach huts. Some of the beach huts in the spa area (a conservation area) date back to c.1900, so are probably the original beach huts. On the cliffs above this area sits Harvest House, which was built as The Felix Hotel in 1903, and was known as 'the millionaire's hotel', because of the gentry and royal visitors it attracted. The Floral Hall was built in 1909, and subsequently became known as The Spa Pavilion. Felixstowe remained a fashionable seaside destination until the late 1930s.