Stowmarket

Stowmarket is a small industrial market town in Suffolk.

Understand
The town's name comes from the Old English word stōw ("principal place"). A market town (charter granted in 1347), the town still holds bi-weekly markets.

The town lies on the River Gripping which was made navigable between the town and Ipswich in the 18th century - called the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation. However the construction of the railway to the town in 1846 started the demise of the canal and the canal navigation was closed in 1832 (by Act of Parliament).

The town's population has grown from 3,000 in 1841 to 6,000 in 1981 to 19,000 in 2011, something that is planned to continue with further development of the town and surrounding villages. Much of the development has been taking place to the northers side of the town.

By road
Located on the A14 approx 18 miles NW of Ipswich and 15 miles E of Bury St Edmunds and at the southerly end of the A140 main road to Norwich (40 miles).

By rail

 * {| class="wikitable"
 * {| class="wikitable"

! Destination !! Time
 * + Journey Times
 * London || 85 min
 * Ipswich || 10-15 min
 * Colchester || 30 min
 * Bury St Edmunds || 15-20 min
 * Norwich || 30 min
 * Cambridge || 60 min
 * Peterborough || 80 min
 * }
 * Norwich || 30 min
 * Cambridge || 60 min
 * Peterborough || 80 min
 * }
 * Peterborough || 80 min
 * }
 * }

By bus
There are regular bus services from Ipswich operated by First Eastern Counties. These run every 20–30 minutes and most run via Claydon and Needham Market, taking approx 50 minutes to reach Stowmarket, although some peak hour services travel via the A14 and take as little as 30 minutes. There are also hourly services to Bury St Edmunds (this takes well over an hour so it is much quicker and possibly cheaper to take the train), infrequent services to Diss and a two-hourly service to Bildeston for connections to Hadleigh and Sudbury.

By bicycle
The town is on National Cycle Route 51 (Harwich to Oxford, to Ipswich to the SE and to Bury St Edmunds to the W.

Get around
Everything in Stowmarket can be reached easily on foot, however various areas in Stowmarket can also be reached using the #87/88 buses including Combs Ford, Chilton Hall, Cedars Park and Stowupland.

Do
Walk through the countryside from Combs Ford to Great Finborough and John Peel's grave.

Buy
The town centre is divided into two sections. The area south of the Marketplace along Ipswich Street features various high-street chains including Boots, Superdrug and Argos. The northern side along Bury Street is more traditional with numerous speciality shops. The Ipswich-based East of England Co-op have quite a strong influence in the town with a Co-op travel agency and a small department store in the town centre, as well as a Co-op Neighbourhood Shopping Centre in Combs Ford housing a pharmacy, a supermarket, a Godfrey's hardware store and a QS clothing store. There is also a large Asda superstore in the town-centre and a possibly larger Tesco close to the A14 at Cedars Park, which has had an effect on local trade. The historic street market still exists and takes place every Thursday and Saturday along Ipswich Street, the Marketplace and the Meadow Centre.

Eat
Stowmarket's food scene is fairly limited, although the only fast-food chain is a Wimpy and the only chain coffee shop is Costa Coffee in the Tesco store on the edge of town. There is nowhere to grab a good coffee in the town centre.

There are Indian and Chinese restaurants in Stowmarket but they're at best average and rather overpriced.

There are several (chain) pubs in the town that do good and reasonably priced pub lunches.

Drink
There are a lot of pubs scattered around Stowmarket, most of which open daily and serve good food and beer, including local ales. Stowmarket has a strong drinking culture and most locals will know each other. The most lively pubs are the Oak and the Dukes Head in the town centre. The Magpie in Combs Ford also hosts a lot of live bands.

There is only one nightclub in Stowmarket - Jokers in Ipswich Street. Many younger Stowmartians will head out to Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds or Norwich for a good night out, and a Jokers crowd usually consists of a mixture of young people from the surrounding villages, and an older (i.e. above 21) crowd of Stowmartians, which when combined with poor out-dated music on a tinny PA on a sticky dancefloor causes a lot of noise and often, violence. This place is best avoided, especially on a Saturday night.

Connect
As of Sep 2022, Stowmarket and its approach roads have 5G from EE, and 4G from O2, Three and Vodafone.

Go next

 * Needham Market: A small town about 3 miles from Stowmarket. Although there is no longer a market in Needham Market, it is still a very attractive town of narrow streets, small independent shops including a hardware store, a butcher, a bakery and an antique centre, a couple of decent pubs and a fish & chip shop. Take a walk along the river Gipping past two historic mills and a large lake made from a former quarry. Needham can be reached by road from Stowmarket (parking at Needham Lake car park is not free, however parking at the railway station is) or on the half-hourly #87/88 bus (journey time 15 minutes) which drops off outside Needham Market church on the way to Ipswich. There are hourly train services from Stowmarket on the Ipswich-Cambridge line which take 4 minutes to cover the 3 miles from Stowmarket and are cheaper than the bus. Needham Station is unstaffed but tickets are sold by the conductor on the train.


 * Bury St Edmunds
 * Ipswich
 * Diss
 * Thetford & Thetford Forest