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Stowmarket
Market town in Suffolk, England

Stowmarket

Stowmarket is a market town and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, on the A14 trunk road between Bury St Edmunds to the west and Ipswich to the southeast.

Plan a trip to Stowmarket→From London, Essex

The town lies on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) between Diss and Needham Market, and lies on the River Gipping, which is joined by its tributary, the River Rat, to the south of the town.

Get in

Getting to Stowmarket

Located on the A14 approx 18 miles NW of Ipswich and 15 miles E of Bury St Edmunds and at the southerly end of the A140 main road to Norwich (40 miles).

  1. 01
    Stowmarket Train Station
See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Museum of East Anglian Life

    Iliffe Way, Stowmarket IP14 1DL (opposite the Asda supermarket in the centre of Stowmarket), enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk.

  2. 02
    Church of St

    An impressive church that can be spotted from most parts of the town.

  3. 03
    Mid-Suffolk Light Railway

    Wetheringsett, Stowmarket, IP14 5PW (9 miles NE of Stowmarket),.

  4. 04
    John Peel Centre for Creative Arts
Do

Things to do

Walk through the countryside from Combs Ford to Great Finborough and John Peel's grave.

  1. 01
    Regal
  2. 02
    StowFiesta
  3. 03
    Mid-Suffolk Leisure Centre
  4. 04
    Virgin Ballon Flights
Eat

Where to eat

Stowmarket's food scene is fairly limited, although the only fast-food chain is a Wimpy and the only chain coffee shop is Costa Coffee in the Tesco store on the edge of town. There is nowhere to grab a good coffee in the town centre. There are Indian and Chinese restaurants in Stowmarket but they're at best average and rather overpriced.

  1. 01
    The Oak
  2. 02
    Magpie

    1 Combs Ford, Stowmarket IP14 2AP, info@themagpiesuffolk.co.uk.

  3. 03
    Cracknells
  4. 04
    Chip Inn

    5 Combs Ford, Combs Ford IP14 2AP,.

How locals move

Getting around Stowmarket the local way

  • Get inMotorists, cyclists and pedestrians can use Stena Line ferries from Rotterdam () to Harwich.
  • Get inThe Harwich Harbour Ferry operates from Harwich Ha'penny Pier in Essex to and .

From Wikivoyage: Suffolk, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-01.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: kitmasterbloke (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.