Ipswich and Suffolk Freehold Land Society

Ipswich and Suffolk Freehold Land Society (FLS) was founded in 1849 as part of the "forty-shilling freeholders movement" which developed across England.

Its aim was to enable "the ordinary man" to obtain sufficient property to meet the requirements needed to gain the vote.

On Saturday 1 December 1849 the first meeting of the society was advertised in the Suffolk Chronicle.

As they acquired land, they divided it into plots and laid out the roads in a regular street grid.

Subsequently they would then need to pay for the construction of buildings on their land.