Saxmundham ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England, set in the valley of the River Fromus about north-east of Ipswich and west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed by the main A12 road between London and Lowestoft. The town is served by Saxmundham railway station on the East Suffolk Line between Ipswich and Lowestoft. Governance Saxmundham Town Council comes under East Suffolk District. It was previously in Suffolk Coastal District before April 2019. The district electoral ward also has the name Saxmundham. Its population at the 2011 census was 4,913. As of December 2022, Saxmundham Town Council consisted of ten councillors. Heritage The place-name Saxmundham is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Sasmunde(s)ham. It appears as Saxmundham in the Feet of Fines of 1213. The name denotes "Seaxmund's village or estate". The Parish Church of St John the Baptist dates back to the 11th century. Some features remain from the medieval period, but its present appearance owes most to the 19th century. Much of the church's official architectural guide, with accounts of its medieval remnants, can be read on the Town Council site. Facilities Saxmundham has facilities for overnight, bed-and-breakfast and camping accommodation. It has had a market charter since at least 1272, and holds a market every Wednesday in the Market Place just off the High Street, with indoor and outdoor stalls. Notable residents With a Wikipedia page, in birth order: John Shipp (1784–1834), army officer, was born in Saxmundham. His military memoirs were widely read in the 19th century. Henry Bright (1810–1873), painter Thomas Thurlow (1813–1899), sculptor Hamlet Watling (1818–1908), archaeologist, illustrator and schoolmaster Bernard Collins (1880–1951), county cricketer, also wrote a book on life after death: Death is Not the End (London: Psychic Press, 1939). Buck Read (1880–1970), American basketball coach, was born in Saxmundham. Herbert Heyner (1882–1954), baritone, died here. Eleanor Berwick (born 1943), wine-grower Maggi Hambling (born 1945), artist, has lived in a cottage near Saxmundham since the mid-1980s. Sam Miller (born 1962) works as a television director. Ray Allen (born 1975), NBA All-Star, spent some childhood years in Saxmundham. In fiction Brother Eadulf has become Saxmundham's most famous international fictional character, through the best-selling Sister Fidelma mysteries by Peter Tremayne (a pseudonym of the Celtic scholar and author Peter Berresford Ellis). Brother Eadulf, as companion and assistant to Sister Fidelma, often plays a crucial part in