Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich, and the main town in its district. Its development grew with the fishing industry and as a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches. As fishing declined, oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea in the 1960s took over. In 2021 the built-up area had a population of 71,327 and the parish had a population of 47,879.
History
Prehistory and early settlement Some of the earliest signs of settlement in Britain have been found in Lowestoft. Flint tools discovered in 2005 in the cliffs at Pakefield, south Lowestoft, show that humans inhabited the area as far back as 700,000 years.S. Parfitt et al. (2006) '700,000 years old: found in Pakefield' , British Archaeology, January/February 2006. Retrieved 24 December 2008.
Habitation occurred in the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages and in the Roman and Saxon times. Several finds have been made at a Saxon cemetery at Bloodmoor Hill in south Lowestoft.Cambridge Archaeological Unit A Roman and Saxon settlement at Bloodmoor Hill, Pakefield, Lowestoft . Retrieved 28 November 2009.'Human influences' , Waveney District landscape character assessment pp. 27–29, Waveney District Council, April 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
The place name derives from a Norse personal name, Hlothver, and toft, an Old Norse word for homestead.A. D. Mills (1998), A Dictionary of English Place-names, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 227. Over time, it has been spelled Lothnwistoft, Lothuwistoft, Lestoffe, Laistoe, Loystoft and Laystoft.
Domesday Book and Norman period The 1086 Domesday Book gives Lothuwistoft village some 16 households in three families, with ten smallholders and three slaves.Freeman E & J (2009) Old Lowestoft, Stanlake publishing, p. 3.Lowestoft , Domesday Map. Retrieved 20 April 2011. The manor formed part of the king's holding in the Hundred of Lothingland, worth about four geld in tax income.Lowestoft, Domesday Book online. Retrieved 20 April 2011. Roger Bigod was the tenant in chief. The lost village of Akethorpe may have lain close by.Akethorpe , Domesday Map. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
Medieval period In the Middle Ages, Lowestoft became an important fishing town that came to challenge its neighbour, Great Yarmouth.Lowestoft, Poppyland Publishing. Retrieved 21 April 2011. The trade, particularly for herring, continued as the town's main identity into the 20th century.
Early modern period In the First English Civil War Lowestoft's sympathies were Royalist partly due to her commercial rivalry with the Parliamentarian Great Yarmouth and in 1643 was seized by Royalist sympathisers, who were defeated and captured by Eastern Association troops led by Oliver Cromwell, the only civil war battle in Suffolk. The naval Battle of Lowestoft in June 1665 was the first in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Held off the coast, it was a victory for the English.Battle of Lowestoft: notes , National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
Eighteenth century Lowestoft Porcelain Factory, from 1757 to 1802, was in production for longer than any English soft-paste porcelain manufacturer other than Royal Worcester and Royal Crown Derby, producing domestic pots, teapots and jugs.Lowestoft , Eastern Daily Press, 14 April 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2011. It stood on the site of an existing pottery or brick kiln and was later used as a brewery and malt kiln. Most of its remaining buildings were demolished in 1955.
Nineteenth century
Sir Samuel Morton Peto's arrival in 19th-century Lowestoft brought a change in the town's fortunes, including its fishing industry. To help stimulate this, Peto was given the task of building a line for the Lowestoft Railway and Harbour Company, connecting with Reedham and the city of Norwich.Port of Lowestoft , Lowestoft Maritime Museum, February 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011. This had a profound impact on the town's industrial development – its fishing fleets could sell to markets further inland, and other industries such as engineering gained from increased trade with the continent. Peto's railway enabled Lowestoft to become a flourishing seaside holiday resort; much of Peto's seaside resort in south Lowestoft still exists, including the Grade II listed Kirkley Cliff and Wellington Esplanade terraces.
World Wars During World War I, Lowestoft was bombarded by the German Navy on 24 April 1916 in conjunction with the Easter Rising. The port was a major naval base during the war, including for armed trawlers such as Ethel & Millie and Nelson used to combat German U-boat actions in the North Sea such as that of 15 August 1917. In World War II the town was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe for its engineering industry and role as a naval base.Prime target for bombers, Lowestoft Journal, 27 May 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2011.James Hoseason Obituary, The Guardian, 17 July 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2011. It is sometimes placed among the UK's most heavily bombed towns per head of population. The Royal Naval Patrol Service was mobilised in August 1939, mainly by trawlermen and fishermen of the Royal Naval Reserve. Its depot, HMS Europa, was also known locally as the Sparrow's Nest.Naval War Memorial, Lowestoft, British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
Governance Lowestoft is the major settlement in the East Suffolk district. In 1885 Lowestoft became a municipal borough which became part of the administrative county of East Suffolk in 1889, the district contained the parish of Lowestoft, from 1890 to 1907 the district also contained the parish of Kirkley. On 1 April 1974 the district and parish were abolished and became part of Waveney in the non-metropolitan county of Suffolk. In 2008, a Government Boundary Committee proposed that Lowestoft become part of Norfolk, but this proposal was met with strong opposition from residents, and Lowestoft remained in Suffolk. It retained a ceremonial mayor elected annually by its district councillors and acting as charter trustees until 2017.Mayor of Lowestoft , Waveney District Council. Retrieved 30 April 2011. Suffolk County Council is the county authority. A civil parish of Lowestoft was created on 1 April 2017, governed by Lowestoft Town Council, which elects a town mayor annually. The town is part of the Lowestoft parliamentary constituency.
Before 1 April 2019, Lowestoft, as part of Waveney District Council, was divided into ten electoral wards, with Carlton Colville treated as a separate electoral area. Harbour, Kirkley, Normanston, Pakefield, St Margarets and Whitton wards elected three councillors each, and Carlton, Gunton and Corton, Oulton and Oulton Broad wards two.Lowestoft ward map , Waveney District Council. Retrieved 6 May 2011. Of the 48 council seats in the district, 26 represented wards within Lowestoft and three were in Carlton Colville. In 2010 the council changed to a system of all seats being elected every four years.Changing to Whole Council Elections – Explanatory Document , Waveney District Council, 2010. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
On 1 April 2019, governance arrangements for Lowestoft changed with the merger of Waveney and Suffolk Coastal District Councils to form a new district council of East Suffolk. Elections were held on 2 May 2019 for the six new Lowestoft wards. The seats, fourteen in all, are allocated to Carlton and Whitton (2), Gunton and St. Margarets (2), Harbour and Normanston (3), Kirkley and Pakefield (3), Lothingland (1), and Oulton Broad (3). There are also changes to wards adjacent to Lowestoft.East Suffolk District Council elections 2019 . Retrieved 26 March 2019. After the inaugural 2019 East Suffolk District Council election of 2 May, eight of the fourteen Lowestoft seats over the six new wards went to the Conservatives and six to Labour.
On Suffolk County Council, Lowestoft and its district are represented by eight councillors, split equally between four divisions: Gunton, Lowestoft South, Oulton and Pakefield.County council elections , Waveney District Council. Retrieved 6 May 2012. For county council elections, held every four years, Pakefield division includes Carlton Colville. After the 2017 election, seven of Lowestoft's county councillors represented the Conservatives and one Labour. In 2018, one Conservative councillor left the party and became an Independent.{https://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/conservatives-take-all-but-two-seats-in-local-elections-in-waveney-1-5004793] {https://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/councillor-expelled-from-conservatives-over-islamaphobic-comments-1-5634064]
Geography and climate
Lowestoft, the easternmost town in the United Kingdom, lies on the North Sea coast. The town is divided by Lake Lothing, which forms the inner part of Lowestoft Harbour and gives access via Oulton Broad and Oulton Dyke to the River Waveney and the Broads. The northern half is on the island of Lothingland.
Lowestoft is mainly low-lying, with hilly areas in the north and high points of above sea level.'Physical influences and ecological context' , Waveney District landscape character assessment pp. 15–21, Waveney District Council, April 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2011. The rock beneath is crag-sand with overlying sand and glacial till deposits with gravel, with the crag exposed at coastal cliffs such as Pakefield's. Areas around Lake Lothing feature alluvium silt; some marshland remains west of Oulton Broad. The sandy beaches south of the harbour have Blue Flag status.Lowestoft north of Claremont Pier , Blue Flag. Retrieved 10 April 2011.Lowestoft south of Claremont Pier , Blue Flag. Retrieved 10 April 2011. To the north of the harbour is an area of old sand dunes known as the Denes, along with more beaches and Ness Point, the easternmost point of the UK.
Lowestoft has been 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.1953 floods – What areas were affected?, BBC Suffolk, 2003. Retrieved 21 April 2011. Heavy rain caused flash flooding in the town in September 2006.Homes under water in flash floods, Fierce storms force mass evacuations in England |BBC News Website, 15 September 2006. Retrieved 21 April 2011. In December 2013, a storm surge caused severe flooding of Lowestoft and its suburbs.Fierce storms force mass evacuations in England, BBC News Website. Retrieved 30 January 2014.Lowestoft flooded, ITV news. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
Lowestoft is among the UK's driest areas: annual rainfall averages under 600 mm distributed fairly evenly through the year.Lowestoft 1971–2000 averages , Met Office. Retrieved 10 April 2011. Mean daily summer temperatures peak at 21 °C in August, when the town averages over 200 hours of sunshine, while in winter minima average 2 °C. Marked snowfall is rare. Sea fog and cool onshore breezes can affect the town.
Demography Lowestoft is Suffolk's second largest town, after Ipswich, with an estimated population of 58,560 in 2010.Economic statistics and data – an overview of Waveney, Waveney District Council. Retrieved 14 August 2013.Profiles of Ipswich, Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds , Suffolk County Council. Retrieved 10 April 2011. The wider urban area brought the estimated population of the built-up area to 73,755 in 2018 from 68,850 at the 2001 census.City Population site. Retrieved 26 October 2020. The town's wider urban area includes the suburbs and villages of Carlton Colville, Gunton, Pakefield, Oulton, Oulton Broad and Kirkley. Other outlying villages in the urban area include Blundeston, Corton, Gisleham, Kessingland and Somerleyton.