Anglo-Saxon origins

In attempting to reach any sense of when, how and where the earliest hub of settle ment (constituting what might be termed ‘proto-Lowestoft’) was formed, the investigator is handicapped by the limited amount of archaeological evidence concerning the parish at large. Important and significant finds of Lower Paleolithic flint artefacts which came to light at Pakefield (three to four miles away, south by west) during 2001–2 gave an indication of the presence of hominids in the local area some 700,000 years ago, during the Gunz-Mindel interglacial period, when Britain was an integral part of the European land-mass. These flakes and cores are currently among the earliest signs of human activity found anywhere north of the Alps, but their discovery does not contribute anything to the study of Lowestoft's early founding and development because of their remoteness in time from the period of recorded history. A huge leap forward is therefore required to reach a point where any sense of the town's beginnings can be arrived at – and, before that is attempted, it is necessary to consider (if only in a cursory manner) the settlement's presence in its local geographical area.

Reference has already been made to the comparative paucity of known archaeological discoveries in the parish of Lowestoft itself – a fact which is alluded to in a report concerning the archaeology of the Suffolk coastal zone prepared by two members of the county's specialist unit. One contributory cause is the town's remoteness (being in the extreme north-eastern corner of Suffolk) from the county archaeological service, located in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, which has led to a marked under-recording of amateur finds. However, the overriding reason for the dearth of information lies in the rapid expansion of the town during the second half of the nineteenth century and practically the whole of the twentieth. Most of Lowestoft's available land is now built over and much of the construction took place before there was sufficient awareness of the need to investigate particular areas of land ahead of their development.