Qualla: Framlingham

Framlingham: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 19 July 1553, in the courtyard of Framlingham Castle, Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen of England - the first woman to rule the country in her own right. Her cousin Lady Jane Grey had held the throne for nine days; Mary's forces had rallied to her at Framlingham, and from this Suffolk fortress she launched the brief march on London that secured her crown. Four hundred and sixty-four years later, in 2017, a song called 'Castle on the Hill' was released by a young singer-songwriter who had grown up two miles from Framlingham Castle and attended Thomas Mills High School in the town. He was Ed Sheeran. The song - about driving home to Suffolk and seeing the castle from the road - became one of the biggest hits of the year. Both moments mark the town as a place where England's largest stories occasionally intersect with its quieter local life.

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Framlingham: Castle on the Hill

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Framlingham Castle is the Norman fortress that gives the town its skyline. The earliest reference dates from 1148, though some academics argue the structure may be as old as the eleventh century. It is built on the curtain-wall plan - thirteen towers linked by a continuous high w...

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Framlingham: A Church, an Organ, and the Howards' Tombs

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Church of St Michael the Archangel dates from the twelfth century, with the main rebuilding carried out in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Inside are eight bells dating from the fifteenth to the twentieth century - a slow accumulation of bronze whose oldest surviv...

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Framlingham: The Smallest House and the Oldest Pillar Boxes

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Framlingham has the two oldest functioning Post Office pillar boxes in the United Kingdom. Both date from 1856, the early days of the British public letter-posting system. They stand on Double Street and on College Road, painted the standard red, marked V. R. for Victoria Regina....

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Framlingham: Ed Sheeran and the Other Voices

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Framlingham has produced a remarkable run of musical voices for a town of just over four thousand people. Ed Sheeran, born in 1991, attended Thomas Mills High School - a state secondary school dating from 1751, which is considerably older than the more famous Framlingham College ...

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