Coastal erosion and the shifting of the mouth of the River Blyth caused the neighbouring town of Dunwich, 3 miles (4.8 km) to the south, to be lost as a port in the last years of the 13th century.

Following a brief period of rivalry and dispute with Dunwich, Walberswick became a major trading port from the 13th century until the First World War.

The name Walberswick is believed to derive from the Saxon Waldbert[2] – probably a landowner – and "wyc", meaning shelter or harbour.

The original sign went missing in the 1980s, but after changing hands has since been returned and restored to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

The village and surrounding beach and marshland have long attracted residents drawn from the arts, film and media.

Considering its size, an inordinate number of British celebrities own or have owned holiday homes in the village including the late Clement Freud and his wife Jill, and their daughter Emma Freud and her partner Richard Curtis.

The village is the setting for Esther Freud's novel The Sea House, thinly disguised as 'Steerborough'—presumably a coded reference, or in-joke, towards one-time resident Philip Wilson Steer (see above).

Walberswick is reputedly haunted by a phantom coach, drawn by headless horses and driven by the murderer Tobias Gill, who was hanged in the area in the 18th century.

The station was located to the west of the village around 400 metres (440 yd) south of the crossing at the Bailey Bridge.