[3] Southwold was the home of a number of Puritan emigrants to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s, notably a party of 18 assembled under Rev.

Today this "series of varied and very delightful village greens"[7] and the restriction of expansion by the surrounding marshes, have preserved the town's tidy appearance.

On the green just above the beach, descriptively named Gun Hill, six 18-pounder cannon commemorate the Battle of Sole Bay, fought in 1672 between English and French fleets on one side and the Dutch (under Michiel de Ruyter) on the other.

These cannon were captured from the Scots at Culloden and given to the town by the Duke of Cumberland, who had landed at Southwold in October 1745 having been recalled from Europe to deal with the Jacobite threat.

[9] On 15 May 1943, low-flying German fighter-bombers attacked the town and killed eleven people,[10] including the cricketer George Katinakis.

[13] Once home to several industries, Southwold's economy is now centred on services: hotels, holiday lets, catering and tourism.

Southwold Primary School, adjacent to St. Edmund's Church, currently caters for children aged 2 to 11 years.

[16] In 2007 the Southwold Railway Society submitted plans to build a new line between the parish of Easton Bavents and Henham Park, to link the town to the nearest mainline service at Halesworth.

[20] In February 2016, the original Railway Park proposal for Blyth Road, Southwold, on the site of the town's former gasholders, was revived, and a new planning application was submitted and approved.

[21][24][25][26] From 2023, Trinity House has arranged that tours of the lighthouse are offered by the Adnams brewery, which stands close by, and may be booked with that company.

On St Valentine's Day 1899, George Neller, a respected local man, died when his coat got caught in its machinery.

It was built in 1864 as a place for fishermen and mariners to read, as an alternative to drinking in pubs, and also to encourage the pursuit of Christian ideals.

[citation needed] The Grade I listed parish church of Southwold is dedicated to St Edmund and considered one of Suffolk's finest.

The earlier church dated from the time when Southwold was a small fishing hamlet adjacent to the larger Reydon.

The quay and area in front of the inn and clubhouse is called Blackshore; although the name has often been used incorrectly for the whole harbour in recent years.

The river can be crossed on foot or bicycle by a public footbridge upstream from The Harbour Inn, which leads to the village of Walberswick.

It had a central swinging section to allow the passage of wherries and other shipping on the Blyth Navigation, but this was largely removed at the start of World War II under the precautions against German invasion.

In 2005/06 it was further protected by a coastal management scheme which includes beach nourishment, new groynes on the south side of the pier and riprap to the north.

The town and its vicinity has been used as the setting for numerous films and television programmes, including Iris about the life of Iris Murdoch starring Judi Dench, Drowning by Numbers by Peter Greenaway, Kavanagh QC starring John Thaw, East of Ipswich by Michael Palin, Little Britain with Matt Lucas and David Walliams, and a 1969 version of David Copperfield.

Julie Myerson set her 2003 murder novel Something Might Happen in an unnamed Southwold – "a sleepy, slightly self-satisfied seaside town".

Forgive us our Trespasses (1947), based on a true story of twin boys lost at sea, renames the town Senwich.

[45] An earlier book thought to be set in Southwold is Beside the Guns (1902) by the Christian author Mary Elizabeth Shipley.

[citation needed] The German writer W. G. Sebald describes Southwold in The Rings of Saturn, an account of a walk through East Anglia.

The writer George Orwell (real name Eric Blair) spent periods as a teenager and in his thirties in Southwold, living at his parents' home.

After his departure from Eton College in December 1921, Orwell travelled to join his retired father, mother and younger sister Avril, who that month had moved to 40 Stradbroke Road, Southwold, the first of four homes in the town.

[46] In January–June 1922 he attended an educational crammer in Southwold to prepare for Indian Police Service exams and his career in Burma.

He spent the time writing A Clergyman's Daughter, which is partly set in a fictionalised East Anglian town called "Knype Hill".

For several years, Suffolk Summer Theatres have offered a varied programme of plays from July to September, staged in Southwold Arts Centre (formerly St Edmund's Hall).

It offers a mix of literature, music, film and art exhibitions, with the main events over an eight-day period in the summer, bringing entertainers of diverse backgrounds together.