Sizewell is an English fishing hamlet in the East Suffolk district of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England. It belongs to the civil parish of

Leiston Leiston ( ) is a town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is close to Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at th ...

and lies on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast just north of the larger holiday village of Thorpeness, between the coastal towns of

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the English county, county of Suffolk, England, north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the comp ...

and

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the North Sea, in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth, Suffolk, River Blyth in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths ...

. It is east of the town of

and belongs within the

Suffolk Coast and Heaths The Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Suffolk and Essex, England. The AONB covers ancient woodland, commercial forestry, the estuaries of the Alde, Blyth, Deben, Orwell and Stour ...

AONB. It is the site of two nuclear power stations, one of them still active. There have been tentative plans for a third station to be built at the site.

Nuclear power stations

The village is the location of two separate nuclear power stations, the

Magnox Magnox is a type of nuclear power / production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The ...

Sizewell A and Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Sizewell B, which are readily visible to the north of the village. Sizewell A is decommissioned, having ceased to generate electricity in 2006. The decommissioning process is expected to take until 2027 to complete, with the site not expected to be cleared until 2098.Sizewell A
, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Retrieved 28 May 2013. There were plans to build a third nuclear power station nearby, but by May 2013 there were significant doubts about whether an agreement would be reached with the government.Doubts over plan for Sizewell C nuclear power station
BBC Suffolk news website, 23 May 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013. However, in October 2021, the government announced new funding rules to allow the funding to be found through the RAB (Regulated Asset Base).New funding plan paves way for Sizewell C nuclear plant
BBC News. 26 October 2021. "Welcome to Sizewell, twinned with

Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...

" was a slogan used by anti-nuclear campaigners.

Sizewell Marshes

Sizewell Marshes form a 260-acre (105.4-ha) biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

on the edge of Sizewell, in the

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

. They are part of a 356-acre (144-ha) nature reserve managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust as Sizewell Belts. It is noted for its rare invertebrates and bird species, and as one of the main wetlands in East Anglia for wild flowers.

History

The hall

The village became the nucleus of the Ogilvie estate in 1859. It extended as far south as Aldeburgh. Sizewell Hall, now used as a Christian conference centre, is still owned by the Ogilvie family. From the end of the war up to the summer of 1955 it housed a mixed, semi-progressive prep school attended, among others, by the theatre critic and biographer Sheridan Morley.

Lifeboat

The Suffolk Humane Society provided a number of lifeboats along the coast of Suffolk where shallow water and sand banks create navigation problems for ships approaching harbours. One was stationed at 'Sizewell Gap' from 1826 until 1851 when it was moved to . The Plenty-class lifeboat was long and equipped for 8 oars.

Wartime

The beach at Sizewell was the landing site of Henri Peteri and his brother Willem in September 1941. The brothers left the Dutch town of

Katwijk Katwijk () is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland, which is situated in the mid-western part of the Netherlands. The Oude Rijn (Utrecht and South Holland), Oude Rijn ("Old Rhine") river flows through the town and i ...

in a collapsible canoe on a journey that took 56 hours. Those who escaped occupied Holland were known as '' Engelandvaarders''. About 1,700 ''Engelandvaarders'' reached England, including about 200 who crossed the North Sea; 32 men tried to make a canoe trip like the Peteri brothers, but only eight succeeded in reaching the English coast.History
Engelandvaarders 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2013. In 2005, Henri Peteri commissioned a memorial to the men who made the journey across the North Sea by canoe, consisting of a pair of crossed

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

oars and a broken paddle that commemorates those who did not survive the trip. In June 2009, the monument was unveiled by his widow on Sizewell Beach, together with the original kayak.Council adds to tributes to modern Engelandvaarders
, Suffolk Coastal District Council, 25 August 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2013. An inscription on the broken paddle reads:

In memory of the thirty-two young Dutchmen who tried to escape to England by kayak during World War II to join the Allied Forces. Eight of them reached the English coast. Only three survived the war. The last living survivor dedicated this memorial to his brothers in arms who were less fortunate. He reached England – and freedom – on this beach on 21 September 1941.

Historical writings

In 1870–1872, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described the hamlet as In 1887, John Bartholomew wrote a shorter description of Sizewell in his ''Gazetteer of the British Isles'':

Facilities

Sizewell retains a few basic services associated with tourism, including a refreshment kiosk and a public house, the ''Vulcan Arms''.Own site. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
/ref> A handful of fishing boats operate from the beach.

References

External links

Sizewell HallBritish Nuclear Group, Sizewell ABritish Energy — Sizewell B
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Populated coastal places in Suffolk Leiston