Sudbury (/ˈsʌdbəri/, locally /ˈsʌbəri/) is a market town and civil parish in the south west of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour near the Essex border, 60 miles (97 km) north-east of London.

It is the largest town in the Babergh local government district and part of the South Suffolk constituency.

The town became notable for its art in the 18th century, being the birthplace of Thomas Gainsborough, whose landscapes offered inspiration to John Constable, another Suffolk painter of the surrounding Stour Valley area.

[6] Sudbury was one of the first towns in which Edward III settled the Flemings,[4] allowing the weaving and silk industries to prosper for centuries during the Late Middle Ages.

Simon's concerns for his native town are reflected in the founding of St Leonard's Hospital in 1372, a place of respite, towards Long Melford, for lepers.

They built a house of correction (1624) for 'rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggars' and tried to finance the reconstruction of Ballingdon Bridge, which disappeared during a storm on 4 September 1594.

During the Civil War, a 12-strong band of watchmen was created to prevent the town's enemies, presumed to be Royalists, burning it down.

"[16] During the 1630s, many families departed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony as part of the wave of emigration that occurred during the Great Migration.

[6][17] By the 18th century, the fees charged to become a freeman, with voting rights, were exorbitant and the borough of Sudbury, along with 177 other English towns, was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.

[22] Sudbury's Catholic Church, Our Lady Immaculate and St. John the Evangelist, was designed by Leonard Stokes and erected in 1893.

Sections of perimeter track, aircraft hard stand areas, and two narrow crossing lengths of former runways provide footpaths between Chilton, Newmans Green and Great Waldingfield.

[29] In the previous year's by-election a dead heat of 263 votes each was recorded for the two candidates, Edward Barnes and J. Bagshaw.

Salters Hall School which was partly housed in the town's fifteenth century building of the same name, was closed in 1995.

Television signals are received from the nearby Sudbury TV transmitter situated south east of the town.

Once a busy and important river port the last industrial building on the riverside in Sudbury has been converted into the town's Quay Theatre.

The River Stour Trust, formed in 1968, has its headquarters in Sudbury, and a purpose built visitor centre located at Cornard Lock.

The trust operates electric-powered boats from the Granary in Quay Lane, to Great Henny, a few miles downstream.

Each September, the 24 mi (39 km) stretch of the River Stour hosts hundreds of canoe and small boat enthusiasts in a weekend event called Sudbury to the Sea, which finishes at Cattawade.

While they were drinking at the fountain, church clocks began to strike midnight.By road, Sudbury is served by the A131 which runs from near Little Waltham, north of Chelmsford in Essex, and the A134 which runs from Colchester in Essex, through Bury St Edmunds, past Thetford in Norfolk to its west, before merging with the A10 south of King's Lynn.

The town escaped the Beeching Axe of the 1960s and maintained its rail link with London, although many villages further up the river lost their railway stations.

This junction on the Great Eastern Main Line provides connections to London, where trains terminate at Liverpool Street station.

The town was formerly a port; from 1705, horse-drawn lighters transported grain to the numerous water-mills, locally made bricks, coal and even coconuts used for mat-making in Sudbury and Long Melford.

During the Great War of 1914–18, and fearing German invasion, the remaining fourteen Stour Lighters were scuttled in Ballingdon Cut.

[41] The superintendent of the railway construction project James Worthington was married to Caroline Hitchcock, a woman who had been born in Sudbury, Suffolk, and the name was chosen to honour her.

[52] Ruralist journalist and farmer Adrian Bell (1901–1980) wrote the agricultural memoir Corduroy at his parents' rented house in the town.

[53] Musician Jack Bruce (1943–2014), lead singer and bassist of the rock band Cream, died in Sudbury.