The medieval heart of Stowmarket lay around the parish church
of St. Peter and St. Mary and in the area leading down to the riverbank.
The town has many buildings listed by the  Department
of National Heritage as “buildings of special architectural
or historic interest” and one, the parish church, is classified
as being of “exceptional interest”.
The dedication is unusual and results from there having originally
been two church buildings in the churchyard. The church of St Mary’s
was demolished in 1544 and its dedication appended to the then St
Peter’s. The surviving church is mainly fourteenth century,
in the Decorated style. The great size of the church is a demonstration
of the wealth generated in Stowmarket during the medieval era, largely
through the wool and cloth trade. Unlike the famous south Suffolk
wool towns, Stowmarket did not become a major centre for the manufacture
of the finest quality cloth and the church is perhaps as a consequence
not so ostentatious. Although its decline probably started in the
late medieval period, the wool trade struggled on in Stowmarket
in various forms before completely dying out in the nineteenth century.
Most uncommonly for Suffolk, the church had a spire in the medieval
period which was rebuilt in 1674, blown down in the great gale of
1703, rebuilt in 1712, taken down in 1975, and rebuilt in 1993 as
a replica of the 1712 spire. The spire is timber framed clad in
 copper
and is very rare in having a gallery within its height.
Museum of East Anglian Life
This is one of the Town’s great assets and one of the country’s
leading open air museums. The museum occupies a site of 70 acres,
is close to the town centre and features a wide range of attractions.
A number of historic buildings have been moved to the Museum from
elsewhere in East Anglia. There are extensive exhibition galleries,
rare breeds of animals, picnic sites, a gift shop, a Bistro / Restaurant
and an enjoyable riverside walk.
The Museum also boasts the Abbots Hall within its grounds, which
dates from around 1709 and stands on the site of the grange of the
Abbots of St Osyth. It is, in effect, Stowmarket’s manor house
and in the past, much of the town and surrounding countryside was
owned by the occupants of Abbots Hall.
Town Clock
The former post office in the market place, which  closed
in 1938 and is now a Corals betting shop, houses the town clock.
The clock was erected as the result of public subscription in the
late nineteenth century when the clock on the church tower was becoming
unreliable. The clock remained out of action for many years until
2004 when the Town Council organised its refurbishment.
Stowmarket Railway Station
Stowmarket Station was completed in 1849 to a design by the architect
Frederick Barnes and is recognized as one of this country’s
finest examples of Victorian country station architecture. The design
is a reinterpretation of the Jacobean style, and uses local red
and white bricks in a way that has been imitated in many other buildings
around the town.
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