Lowestoft Stadium

Lowestoft (/ˈloʊ(ɪ)stɒft, ˈloʊstəf/) is an English North Sea coast town and civil parish in the county of Suffolk. On the edge of The Broads, it is the most easterly UK settlement, 110 miles (177 km) north-east of London, 38 miles (61 km) north-east of Ipswich and 22 miles (35 km) south-east of Norwich. The main town in the district of East Suffolk, it has an estimated population of over 70,000 in the built-up area. The port town developed out of the fishing industry and as a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches. As its fisheries declined, oil and gas exploitation in the southern North Sea in the 1960s added to its development. These roles have declined, but Lowestoft is developing as a regional centre of the renewable energy industry.

History

Some of the earliest evidence of settlement in Britain was found here. The discovery of flint tools in the cliffs at Pakefield in south Lowestoft in 2005 means that human habitation of the Lowestoft area can be traced back 700,000 years.

The area was inhabited in the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages and in the Roman and Saxon periods. Several finds have been made at a Saxon cemetery at Bloodmoor Hill in south Lowestoft. The place name derives from a Norse personal name, Hlothver, and toft, an Old Norse word for homestead. It has been variously spelt as Lothnwistoft, Lothuwistoft, Lestoffe, Laistoe, Loystoft and Laystoft.

The 1086 Domesday Book gives Lothuwistoft village a population of some 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.Roger Bigod was the tenant in chief. The lost village of Akethorpe may have lain close by.

In the Middle Ages, Lowestoft became an increasingly 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 centu