Eastbridge

Minsmere is a place in the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast around 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north of Leiston and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-east of Westleton within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB. It is the site of the Minsmere RSPB reserve and the original site of Leiston Abbey.

Leiston Abbey outside the town of Leiston, Suffolk, England, was a religious house of Canons Regular following the Premonstratensian rule (White canons), dedicated to St Mary. Founded in c. 1183 by Ranulf de Glanville (c. 1112-1190), Chief Justiciar to King Henry II (1180-1189), it was originally built on a marshland isle near the sea, and was called "St Mary de Insula". Around 1363 the abbey suffered so much from flooding that a new site was chosen and it was rebuilt further inland for its patron, Robert de Ufford, 1st Earl of Suffolk (1298-1369). However, there was a great fire in c. 1379 and further rebuilding was necessary. The house was suppressed in 1537. A Cartulary or monastic register survives. The Abbey's annual rolls of their court of wreck from 1378 to 1481 are a most important historical resource. A series of late visitations, and a list of abbots, are in Premonstratensian records. The impressive remains of the second abbey stand in the fields to the west of the road going north out of Leiston towards Theberton. After the Abbey was closed the estate was granted to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The Abbey became a farm, the farmhouse being built into the abbey walls. A Georgian frontage was added to the house, which was extended in the 1920s. In 1928 the ruins and farm were bought by Ellen Wrightson for use as a religious retreat. At her death in 1946 she bequeathed the house, ruins, land and buildings to the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. It was purchased in 1977 to become the home of the Pro Corda Trust, a centre for the specialized education and training of chamber musicians. The site is managed by them, and is in the guardianship of English Heritage.

RSPB Minsmere is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere, Suffolk. The 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) site has been managed by the RSPB since 1947 and covers areas of reed bed, lowland heath, acid grassland, wet grassland, woodland and shingle vegetation. It lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Suffolk Heritage Coast area. It is conserved as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area and Ramsar site. The nature reserve is managed primarily for bird conservation, particularly through control and improvement of wetland, heath and grassland habitats, with particular emphasis on encouraging nationally uncommon breeding species such as the bittern, stone-curlew, marsh harrier, nightjar and nightingale. The diversity of habitats has also led to a wide variety of other animals and plants being recorded on the site. Before becoming a nature reserve, the area was the site of an ancient abbey and a Tudor artillery battery. The marshes were reclaimed as farmland in the 19th century, but were re-flooded during World War II as a protection against possible invasion. The reserve has a visitor centre, eight bird hides and an extensive network of footpaths and trails. Entry is free for RSPB members. Potential future threats to the site include flooding or salination as climate change causes rising sea levels, coastal erosion and possible effects on water levels due to the construction of a new reactor at the neighbouring Sizewell nuclear power stations.

Theberton is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is located 4 miles (6 km) north-east of Saxmundham, and 3 miles (5 km) miles north of Leiston, its post town. In 2011 the parish had a population of 279.

St Peter's Church is the parish church of Theberton in Suffolk, England, and in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. It is a round-tower church, and parts of the building date from the 12th century. The building is Grade I listed.

Sizewell Marshes form a 260-acre (105.4 ha) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest adjacent to Sizewell in Suffolk. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is part of a 356-acre (144-ha) nature reserve managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust as Sizewell Belts. These unimproved wet meadows are designated by Natural England as important for their outstanding assemblages of invertebrates, with many nationally rare and scarce species, and of national significance for their assemblage of breeding birds typical of wet grassland. The aquatic flora are diverse, including the nationally scarce soft hornwort and fen pondweed.

Minsmere–Walberswick Heaths and Marshes are a Special Area of Conservation and Site of Special Scientific Interest in the English county of Suffolk. The site is located on the North Sea coast between Southwold and Sizewell, extending over an area of coastline around 7 miles (11 km) in length. The site is also designated as a Special Protection Area, part of the Minsmere–Walberswick European Marine Site and contains areas designated as Ramsar sites and Natura 2000 sites. It lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is made up of a "complex mosaic" of marshes, reed beds, shingle banks and lowland heath habitats. The SSSI covers an area of 2,325.89 hectares (8.98 sq mi; 23.26 km2). It is a composite site and was formed by the almagamation of the Minsmere Level, Walberswick and Brick Kiln Walks SSSI units. It extends from Hen Reedbeds and Southwold Common north of the River Blyth, through Walberswick and Dunwich to Westleton, Minsmere and Eastbridge to the north of Sizewell nuclear power stations. The area includes the Suffolk Coast National Nature Reserve sites at Hen Reedbeds, Walberswick and Dingle Marshes, the National Trust property at Dunwich Heath and the Minsmere RSPB reserve. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, and covers two nature reserves managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Dingle Marshes and Hen Reedbeds.

Summerhill School is an independent (i.e. fee-charging) day and boarding school in Leiston, Suffolk, England. It was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than the other way around. It is run as a democratic community and is considered a Democratic School; the running of the school is conducted in the school meetings, which anyone, staff or pupil, may attend, and at which everyone has an equal vote. These meetings serve as both a legislative and judicial body. Members of the community are free to do as they please, so long as their actions do not cause any harm to others, according to Neill's principle "Freedom, not Licence." This extends to the freedom for pupils to choose which lessons, if any, they attend. It is an example of both democratic education and alternative education.

Leiston railway station was a station in Leiston, Suffolk. It was opened in 1859 by the East Suffolk Railway and later became part of the Great Eastern Railway on its 8.5 miles (13.7 km) branch line from Saxmundham to Aldeburgh. It was closed in 1966 as part of the Beeching Axe as much of the British rural rail network was cut back. The station survives intact and the line is still used to service the nearby nuclear power station at Sizewell.

Westleton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is located 4 miles (6 km) north of Leiston and 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Saxmundham near the North Sea coast. The village is on the edge of the Suffolk Sandlings, an area of lowland heathland. The village lies along the B1125 road, 2 miles (3 km) to the east of the A12 and Darsham railway station. Westleton Heath National Nature Reserve is 0.5 miles (1 km) north east of the village. The heath is crossed by a minor road from Westleton to the coastal village of Dunwich, 2 miles (3 km) to the east. The famous Minsmere RSPB reserve lies immediately to the east of the village. The fourteenth-century village church of St Peter in Westleton was built by monks from Sibton Abbey near Saxmundham. The church has twice seen the collapse of its tower: in 1776 under the strain of hurricane winds; and during World War II, when the smaller wooden replacement had to be demolished following bomb damage. It is a grade II* listed building. Westleton retains some other basic services, helped by its proximity to the coast and Minsmere. These include a post office, two bookshops, a garage and two pubs, the White Horse and The Crown. The latter is a historic coaching inn dating from the 12th century. The bookshop, Chapel Books, has been depicted in print in Julie Myerson's 2003 novel, Something Might Happen, as the location for a seduction scene.

Richard Garrett & Sons was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, steam engines and trolleybuses. Their factory was Leiston Works, in Leiston, Suffolk, England. The company was founded by Richard Garrett in 1778. The company was active under its original ownership between 1778 and 1932. In the late 1840s, after cultivating a successful agricultural machine and implement business, the company began producing portable steam engines. The company grew to a major business employing about 2,500 people. Richard Garrett III, grandson of the company's founder, visited the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, where he saw some new American manufacturing ideas. Richard Garrett III introduced flow line production – a very early assembly line – and constructed a new workshop for the purpose in 1852, known as the "long shop" on account of its length. A machine would start at one end of the long shop and as it progressed through the building it would stop at various stages where new parts would be added. There was also an upper level where other parts were made; they would be lowered over a balcony and then fixed onto the machine on the ground level. When the machine reached the end of the shop, it would be complete. In 1914, following a major fire at the works, it was decided to build a new factory on land that had been owned as a demonstration farm next to the station. From then on the sites were always known as the "Old Works" and the "New Works". The company joined the Agricultural & General Engineers (AGE) combine in 1919, and the combine entered receivership in 1932. The company was purchased by Beyer, Peacock & Company in 1932 after the collapse of AGE. The business continued as Richard Garrett Engineering Works until the works finally closed in 1981. Today, part of the old works is preserved as the Long Shop Museum. Some of the offices are used as flats but the rest of that site has been demolished and the land used for housing. Some of the New Works is still used as industrial units while the offices have been converted to flats and more built on the site, known as Colonial House. About 120 of the company's steam engines survived into preservation.

Leiston ( LAY-stən) is a town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is close to Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, 21 miles (34 km) north-east of Ipswich and 90 miles (145 km) north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the 2011 Census.