The place-name 'Beccles' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ‘Becles’, located in the ancient hundred of Wangford.

[5] It appears as ‘Beacles’ circa 1095 in a document from Bury St Edmunds Abbey, and as ‘Beclis’ in 1157 and ‘Becclis’ in 1158 in the Pipe Rolls.

[6] Once a flourishing Anglian riverport, Beccles lies in the Waveney valley and is a popular boating centre.

[10] The Puritan Peck was eventually forced to flee to Hingham, Massachusetts, founded by many members of his parish, where he resided for several years, until King Charles I had been executed and Oliver Cromwell had taken the reins of government.

[11] Robert Peck then elected to return to Hingham, Norfolk, and resumed as rector of St Andrew's Church.

He died in Hingham but left descendants in America, including his brother Joseph Peck, who settled in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.

Robert's daughter Ann Peck (16 November 1619 – 30 June 1672) also remained in Massachusetts, and married John Mason, who led colonial forces in the Pequot War.

[15] Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 the borough was reformed which became part of the administrative county of East Suffolk in 1889, the district contained the parish of Beccles.

The building dates from the 16th century and was the original site of the town's Grammar School, named after John Leman who endowed it following his death in 1631.

[31] Bus services in the area are operated predominantly by First Eastern Counties and Borderbus; routes link the town with Norwich, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Bungay and Southwold, along with surrounding villages.

[32] The town is served by Beccles railway station on the East Suffolk Line between Ipswich and Lowestoft.

Services run hourly in each direction on weekdays, following the completion of the Beccles rail loop in 2012; the disused island platform was rebuilt and the track relaid to allow trains to pass, the only point north of Halesworth where this is possible.

Originally built in 1942 as a wartime airfield,[34] it was used as a heliport servicing the North Sea petrochemical industry and is now a base for light aircraft and parachuting.

The by-pass was built in the 1980s and the main road previously ran through the town, crossing the River Waveney at the narrow Beccles bridge.

In 2006, a southern relief road for Beccles was approved, running from a roundabout just south of the town towards Ellough where the A145 connects with an industrial area, before joining with the A146 at North Cove.

[38] The completion cost was around £7.0 million and the road forms part of Suffolk County Council traffic management plans.

[39] It allows north–south industrial traffic to by-pass the narrow streets of the town centre, reducing congestion and increasing safety and officially opened on 25 September 2018.