Felixstowe

Felixstowe (ˈfiːlᵻkstoʊ ) 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. 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.