Southwold (GB)
Southwold is a small town and civil parish on the English North Sea coast in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
A fire in 1659 devastated most of the town and damaged St Edmund's Church, whose original structure dated from the 12th century. The fire created a number of open spaces within the town which were never rebuilt. Today this "series of varied and very delightful village greens"[8] and the restriction of expansion by the surrounding marshes, have preserved the town's genteel appearance.
On the green just above the beach, descriptively named Gun Hill, the six 18-pounder cannon commemorate the Battle of Sole Bay, fought in 1672 between English and French fleets on one side and the Dutch (under Michiel de Ruyter) on the other. The battle was bloody but indecisive and many bodies were washed ashore. Southwold Museum has a collection of mementos of the event. It has occasionally been said that these cannon were captured from the Scots at Culloden and given to the town by the Duke of Cumberland, who had landed at Southwold in October 1745 having been recalled from Europe to deal with the Jacobite threat, but they are much larger than those used by Charles Edward Stuart's army in that campaign. During World War I, it was widely thought that these cannon were one reason why this part of the coast was bombarded by the German Fleet as a "fortified coast". In World War II the cannon were prudently removed, reputedly buried for safety, and returned to their former position after hostilities.[citation needed]
On 15 May 1943 low-flying German fighter-bombers attacked the town and killed eleven people.
Southwold Penny Post
Southwold was issued with its own Penny Post cancellation and is often found on mail. The post office handstamped the mail and sent it on for the stamp to be cancelled to a nearby postal town which would have been Norwich or Ipswich depending on route it had to go on.
_a.jpg) 1d Black Plate 3 EE on Southwold cover to Westminster London. |
