The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Stowmarket, Suffolk*

Stowmarket, Suffolk Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• the Oak
• I love the Train Station. Ohh, and that row of little cottages down the side of the church. there cute!!
• The train station.
• Favourite Building? Some great prefab concrete structures along the highstreet amongst all the nice Victorian buildings.
• seeing chilton meadows, as it means im on my way out of stow!
• i like my house
• asda
• THE ROYAL OAK, PURE FUCKING CHOSTOTON BOH!!!!
• Probably The Regal as it's where most time was spent.
• Stow High
• the most attractive thing in stowmarket is proberly the toilets in the park
• It has to be the pit, sorry people but thats the only thing that is semi nice about stowmarket.
• The Church in the centre of town, but if you want a really pretty country church, the one near Combs Ford is best!! (but way freaky at night)
• Xcel is new and looks good from the outside - but don't bother going inside!
• The old water mill at the ford
• Theres an upside-down flower pot on the corner of Bridge Street which I always liked.
• Any one with a bar and alcohol for sale in it.
• Station is old and pituresque if you like that kind of thing. My personal favourite is The Royal Oak public house, but that's not for architectural reasons.
• my home of course!!!! and even better my parents shop! (Floor Dimensions)
• That little white crooked house in Bury Rd on the roundabout. Nice and weird looking.
• BUS SHELTER
• can,t think of one......cracknell's chippy?
• Regal - Im not telling you why!
• some of the houses are gorgeous.
• the little library. An island of intelligence in this sea of idiocy.
• The very ugly gray building behind the post office quite tall,VERY UGLY
• The royal Oak aaaah such bliss
• The Church of St Peter's and St Mary's.
• Barnards VW dealership - More elobrate than the Millenium Dome!
• The Oak - best place in town. Or possibly the Dukes (undecided on this issue)
• The old abandoned pool-hall. Cool building just waiting for a facelift. T.
• the station

Demolish It Now Building

• Excel niteclub/youthclub needs 2 b flattened NOW!
• URC
• EXCEL!!!!! its such and ugly building. JOKERS RULES!!! Ooh. And also, stowmarket vets. there bad for bussiness.
• The Stowmarket vets!!!!!!!!
• Pointless, the whole lot would have to go!!!!
• Any building within the vincinity of Cherry tree road. I biked through there a couple of months back and thought I had wandered onto the streets of Liverpool.
• 2005..... This is a hard one. There are so many.... Of the pubs it would be Capones and the snooker club. Of the buildings in town it would be the market place ( hopefully catching all the idiots in there whilst demolishon was in progress ).
• The whole of stow.
• grrr, i h8 the toilet block on the rec. it stinks, and i dont think anyone ever uses it anyway.
• warrens house......preferably with him in it!!
• Solar, Combs Ford. Why was it built?
• All of the factory outlet/QD tat shops
• regal sports kit
• Stow High School
• The united reformed church needs flattening, its ugly and no one likes it we need a new shopping precient here. The regal cinema is also rubbish, everyone goes to the UGC now so smash it and replace it with a new night club that has a stylish interior ... and a day time fancy wine bar.
• Simpsons, those suckers!
• XCEL
• Stowmarket High School
• Browns/XCEL
• Browns, with all the tw@ts inside it.
• the regal surely to god we can do something better with that building. exel night club pretty please burn it down again put us out of our misery.
• stow high an qd
• ICI and all the other factories which make Stowmarket STINK and look horrible!!
• The Regal - its way past its best. I think it should be knocked down and replaced with something that is useful, maybe something for the teenagers that just hang around the streets.
• all of the new houses that spring up like bacteria on old playing fields
• Solar Combs Ford
• All the houses in Cherry Tree road would be nice.
• Select,Hughes, Superdrug, Bensons, Pound saver!!! What other shops are there??? Cherry tree road!!
• Eerr? now let me think! how about the council offices and all of Cherry Tree road.Lets cut back on costs and not bother to evacuate them first.
• Brown´s `nightclub´. Everyone knows that the Jokers Entertainment Complex is the only place to see `top´DJ´s and rub shoulders with the cream of the Stowmarket A-list scene. -Dr Gonzo
• on the hight street, most of the building are quits nice. The rest can go, though.
• ermmmm the house that has been painted red but theres 2 different reds on it and it looks absoloutly stupid!
• STOWMARKET
• apart from the gun emplacement outside woolies....that ici factory.
• Browns Nite Club - Give it up Dave!
• The evil that is the United Reform Church, which *exactly* blocks the view of the proper spire if you're coming down Union Road.
• All of Stowmarket needs its footprint expanding by 50 miles with a nuclear strike.
• JOKERS and BROWNS
• My house, so i would have an excuse to live in the royal oak
• Jokers
• Browns.JAM
• Well it shouln't have been but they're trying to demolish all but the front of the old waterworks building. I say trying since part of the front collapsed into the road. The URC church could use a little over-zealous redesign work.
• The Dukes head with everybody still in it.
• The Regal - where is our McDonalds? Ideal location
• most of the dead neck town most of all that bloody railway crossing should be demolished the times is has caught me at the gates 16 minuts b4 the train has left its previous station
• Browns- shit nightclub
• Any building which houses Slowmarket Scum. That'll probably leave less than 40 houses.
• Delia Smith's house - preferably with her and her butterfly buns inside. T.
• stowmarket high school..do it now!!!!
• the united reformed church

The Best Things

• There's lots of countryside.
• Is the A14, you can escape. It's such a sh*te place. The Chavs don't even make it to scratch, they can't even afford knock-off Burberry. Nuff said.
• Larling Poodles-well done grooming, Asda-cheap cds, Wimpy-yummy, fresh food, and a certain boy who lives in the area who is perticularly yummy. mmmm
• Larling Poodles Grooming. A girl called Katie Roper works there, she is a wicked groomer!!
• There isn't any. Waiting to be able to emigrate to Australia as we speak.
• 2005......it is next to the A14 so escape is not to hard.....lol
• The squaddies from the local raf base, yum. The a14 out of stow.
• the A14-u can make a quick exit
• The ugly assymetric faces you see on the street v. funny.
• Top ten sexiest ladies. Julie List, Lisa Sumpter, Janine Chittock, Clare Hall, Lily Mark, Shanan Sumpter, Tracy Jolly, Sarah Walton, Laura Green, Karen whitehead
• Paul Ford Wesly mcSloy Andrew Beck
• the duke, gr8 drink offers and the fact that i dnt live there ne more!!!!!!!!!1
• The outdoor swimming pool up to about 1982?? Every night most of the people I knew from School would go there. We went as often as we could, a great place. Outdoor changing rooms, outdoor pools. Later I think it was where the skateboarders went. Stow-City's very own DogTown and Z-Boys.
• Either Hicks or Gordan Inces. Proper old fashioned shops with proper old fashioned customer service. Exactly what Stowmarket needs more of.
• Some local birds scarey i know but there are ! Jokers can be good but dont get your hopes up
• Some of the girls are ok , most are whores but a few r fit and worth talking 2
• The labour party office is a waste of space! Build a prison or something!
• The Trolly Patrol, thats it and the best members have left anyway! The Museum of east anglian life, need i say more? Rich Mac
• Are there any?
• The high amount of Norwich fans and geezers who simply take libertys around stowmarket can be very funny. apart from that FUCK ALL
• The sheer siz of the place. You can walk from one end to the other and not realise you've done it. Birthplace of The Fist. Seen some action over the years.
• Girls who give it up easily
• well there always something going on in stowmarket but the night life is pretty good as long as you don't over do it. You never know you might meet me in jokers sucking someones face (lucky you)
• That i am no longer there. It is a sweet market town, or should i say used to be. It has been over taken by gary boys who race up and down the roads, hanging out in places you wouldnt expect and full of drunks on Friday and Saturday night, DO NOT GO INTO STOWMARKET AT THESE TIMES!!!!!!!! It was also surrounded by country but that is not being bulldozed to put up more houses!! Stowmarket is slowly being ruined, and im sure, in a few years, it will be a small London!! But the best thing is Stowe Vets!!!! What a great practice and great Vets, especially Paul and Ella who work there. (we miss you!!)
• Overall Stowmarket is my home town so I will always love it really. There are alot of things that I hate about Stowmarket but it will always be my home and a place where I feel most safe (unless someone is after me for looking at their bloke - the girls in Stow are so paranoid).
• It's a safe little timewarp where nothing really happens & violent crime, for the most part, is something that happens elsewhere. You don't need a constant attitude to survive every day, unlike in the city.
• The bus out of town
• Despite being the crappest, most inbred town ever - it is great would change it for the world!
• Me and my mate. The spots cemtre is pretty good to.
• Very easy to get out of. A14, main-line station, express bus to Ipswich.
• The mad lady who wears huge rubber coats in the middle of summer and goes by the name ´Mad Mary´ -Dr Gonzo The town centre is quite compact so a low yield, low altitude, cluster form JP223 runway denial bomb pod would easily deal with its inhabitants. -Dr Gonzo Ameteur Boxing can be viewed free of charge every Saturday night in the Sultan Kebabs Restaruant/Arena -Dr Gonzo The mad lady who wears huge rubber coats in the middle of summer and goes by the name ´Mad Mary´ -Dr Gonzo
• I like stow, its very rural (i live in the midlands) and rather quaint. I also like being able to drive to Ipswich and Bury in under half a hour. It's cool!!
• The beautiful countryside around Stowmarket
• The people are nice and there seems to be lots of talent in and around the area, as you can tell im not from stow. But i soon will be
• THE YOUNG GIRLS AND THEIR LOVELY ACCENTS
• the A14..B113..A1120....THE MANY WAYS OUT OF STOWMARKET.
• The atmosphere, everyone know everyone else, so you dont get much trouble, this is coming from a female by the way. I hate the amount of squaddies they have down there though, Cant the build them there own nite club or pub to go to?!! They only come down to throw a few punches and hit on the girls.
• It's...peaceful. And it's close to other places. the sport centre is really good, & the gym's going to be refurbished soon. About time, too. & the people are some of the nicest anywhere. You never feel out of place or bothered. Apart from near the Esso station.
• You can be rude to people without them knowing because the're too thick to understand.
• Green fields,fresh air,better weather than the west of england,ipswich is only a 10 minute drive away,BUT you dont have to live there,marriots lane or it was when i was about 15.
• When you go somewhere else . The Leisure Centre.
• The friends i've made and the people i have met. I moved to suffolk 15 years ago, and have lived in stowmarket for 8 years. It does take quite a while for your face to be excepted. But once it is you can't walk down the high street without bumping into someone who knows you.JAM
• The people. Stowmarket is a cosmopolitan oasis in sleepy suffolk. A resident in nearby Needham Market once said "I've been here 28 years - I think they're begining to accept me" not so in stow, after just 18 months I'm welcome in 3/4 pubs and can find at least half a dozen people to chat to in any of them.
• The Market every Thursday & Saturday is well worth a visit. Theres a cool jewellery stall there on both days.
• knowing most people is always good.
• It is small enough not to have the major problems of a big town but large enough that some of the most inbred people never have to leave the town boundaries from birth to death.
• It's only a ive minute walk from anywhere in Stowmarket until you're out of Stowmarket.
• There are none, apart from schools which mean you can leave Stowmarket and discover a real life at university
• being able to get to places easily and all the friends
• NORMANS FISH SHOP
• qd sometimes has nice glass ware. the oak, and it's landlord and lady chris and ellie. the rec is quite nice..
• EVERYBODY KNOWS EACH OTHER, IT'S FAIRLY SAFE AND AS A RESULT MOST PEOPLE ARE PRETTY FRIENDLY

The Worst Things

• Nobody ever seems to leave. It's stuck in a loop...kids grow up, live down the road from their mum, work at a the same local shop or pub that they used to work part-time at when they were at school, the people they know at school remain their friends for life and they still hold grudges from back then, and then they have kids, and their kids do exactly the same bloody thing.
• Its a Small town, everyone know everyones else. plus the old spots seem to be over run with Idiots trying to start fights.
• the 'cool' guys who drive round in circles in their tacky cars, playing crap music, thinking the are really cool, trying to get attention, but it doesnt really work because everybody thinks 'what prats', so it kinda back fires!!
• BLOODY CHARITY SHOPS, I HATE, HATE, HATE THEEEEEEMMMMMMM!!!!!
• Where do we start, Buggy pushers, mingers (bush pigs a go go), inbreds ..... we could go on and on.
• Not enough time to be able to type everything.
• 2005..... You have to drive at least 40 miles to get the stink of Muntons out of your nose...
• noel grapes and his extremly bad djing,he is so shit and the worst thing is that everyone there thinks hes good,sad as fuck man
• noel grapes and his extremly bad djing,he is so shit and the worst thing is that everyone there thinks hes good,sad as fuck man
• The girls who walk rouund like they are gods gift, when really they look like complete mingers.
• the town centre. the town is growing, but the town centre isnt. we need shops to cope with the capacity of the growing population
• Top ten pot lickers Gary List,David Reed,Scott Sumpter,John Duve, Adam Bullard, Boobs, The gay manager from the Snooker club who wears way too tight tops, Adam thompson, George Smith, david Brooke
• No mens fashion shops or propoer music shops. No decent fast food outlets just the turkish mafia run ones. No restaurants
• Any cherry tree rat
• The massive influx of wogs and asylum seekers!
• The massive influx of wogs and asylum seekers!
• the people who just wanna know everything, the people who get so druged up that they pass out at or feet in the local shitholes that they refer to as clubs, the 13-14 yr olds who go to these so-called clubs. twats who think that heir poor excuse for a penis enlargement e.g. a red festa is gona attract sane women that is if there is any, and who can 4get the plate of grease at the end of the night from the local turk shops!!
• People very inward looking. There is a life and a world outside the big STOW CITY you know.
• Where to start. Stowmarket is about 80% scum. 99% of the shops are tat. It's about as cosmopolitan as an Armish community. The average IQ is the same as the average number of toes: 11.
• other birds who are 'loose' the round brick thing, so poor and there was lighting around it who would want that lit up
• Stow is a fuckin dump its that shitehole in between Ipswich and Bury everytime i go down there I see the same losers who will be there in 50 years, retards who have to tatoo their names on their backs to remember them and clubs which are no bigger than my car boot if u like stow then u have never lived!!
• everything apart from the museum and the trolly patrol!Rich Mac
• The whole of stowmarket i think lol
• the inbread peolple, gary boys, the sss (silly stowmarket slapers), pubs,clubs,the school and its teachers, ipswich wanabee hooligans who cant stand up to all the norwich boys, skateboarders, cheeky kids, young mothers, dodgy old blokes,transexuals, the drugs, underage drinking and smoking and the fact that no-one leaves stowmarket if they have theve been to the next village on a day out and thats it a REAL ROYSTON VASSEY (league of gentlemen) local place for local people which i am not
• The hardcore locals. Those who despise all. Even themselves.
• Men who don't like their girls giving it up easily.
• Chloe Mossesson and people like her. No life but plenty of arrogance (no-one can work out why).
• the shops in stowmarket are pretty pants and if your looking to do something at night time other than go and get drunk theres not really much to do. Theres no cool clubs for younger people to explote there hobies.
• everythin
• Where i used to live, Combs Ford area, near Melford Road. Place is full of wannabe gardeners, who are extremely opinionated and if you do not conform to their beliefs, you are black listed and outcasted!!!!!!!! I pity the people who live there and do not conform, cos we were one of them to!!
• The bitchy girls - why do people have to be like that. All the problems between Girls in Stow you can guarantee a bloke will be involved, but they always come out of it smelling of roses. I think the girls should stick together and mess the blokes in Stow about for a change!!!!!!!
• It's a safe little timewarp where nothing really happens. Lots of the people are really ill-mannered & ignorant
• The bus into town
• Shelly Betts
• The large group of so called gary boys led by a fat blonde bloke with a 14 year old girlfriend.
• The worst part of Stowmarket has really got to be all those poxy LONDONERS & the twats from the Manchester area!
• There is NO-WHERE for under 18's to go!!! Wrinklys!! Crime rate that no body knows about!! Sarcastic police officers "farm yard animals"!!! Shop assistants that watch Every move you make because they think you are stealing!!We are not all thieves!! Cherry tree road!! Need I say more?!
• Lack of facilities. Rubbish Shops. Lack of fresh new ideas from local council. Their inability to deal with youth crime and dogs poo just about every where you look.Peoples grumpy faces and a majority of rude unhelpful sahop assistants in the newer shops in town, mentioning no names.(select).
• In ability of seemingly sane people (including many of my own associates) to realise that leaving Stowmarket permanetely is not only possible, but nearly always a preferable option. - Dr Gonzo
• silly stowmarket slappers. and gary boys.
• Jokers, Jokers, Jokers
• ermmm the train station cos im scared of trains!!!
• The way all the teenage girls look identical - and dreadful. They're all skinny with dark hair scraped into a bun, cheap black trousers and a pop eyed moody face.
• absolutely nothing! its a brilliant place to be.
• Level it and of the thick inbread locals.
• THE YOUNG GIRLS AND THEIR LOVELY ACCENTS
• THOSE POXY RAILWAY CROSSING GATES...DOWN FOR AGES B4 ANY TRAIN GOES PAST.
• Squaddies as I said
• the things which are wrong with every small town; there's everything, but only one of everything. That, and the faint suspicion of in-breeding you get when you look around the high street on a tuesday afternoon.
• Market day, when the occupants all the tiny little villages come to town for their trip to the "big town". There's not enough chlorine in the gene pool here. Also the mobile phone store in the marketplace who never know how much their products cost. In general, Slowmarket exists in it's own little bubble of reality - you have to live here to know just how bad it is.
• SQUADDIES,SQUADDIES,SQUADDIES,SQUADDIES,SQUADDIES,SQUADDIES,OH AND SQUADDIES,you see even your most lamest gary boy idiot is better than 6 or 7 drunken squaddies thinking theyre rock(rock is now considered an insult as in ROCK ROCK TO THE BEAT Y'ALL TO THE LAME CREW)whilst beating up 1 yes i mean 1 person be it man or woman and getting away with it NOTHING BUT COWARDS as its never 1 on 1 is it boys,apart from that stowmarket quite cool,with possibly some of the soundest people ive met coming from there,considering the amount of w£$^&%* ive met from the whole pop of england,oh and most things are never to far away
• Not enough to do in the evenings. Not many late night shops. Not enough clothes shop's. Too many soldiers.
• Everyone thinks they know your business and if they don't they make it up. JAM
• The architecture - Stowmarket opened up with the coming of the railway, so there is little of interest before the victorian era, tho' the market square has some interesting georgian frontages on obviously older buildingsIf
• Inbred people are everywhere. It is like the night of the living dead if you venture into town after 8pm on a Friday or Saturday night. Lock up your daughters (and pets) or they will come home with in a Repsol tin can with a bum fluff shaving Gary boy how things he is invincible but has never been outside Suffolk.
• Gus Stayden.
• The Gary boys and the masses of teenage mothers
• er..everyone knowing your business
• Everyone is mental. Imagine, you would be too if you could only buy clothes in QD, food in Gateways and cds in Woolies. Needham is ten times better, and that's pretty sad
• Stowmarket is a shithole. I lived and worked there for four years and hated nearly every second of it. There is nothing to do and the people are all raving idiots
• everyone is related to each other. it is small and dull. but sweet enough i suppose. a place to get out of by the time you are 20
• EVERYBODY KNOWS EACH OTHER - IF YOU GET DRUNK AND MAKE A PRICK OF YOURSELF, EVERYBODY KNOWS ALSO SQUADDIES FROM THE NEARBY RAF BASE, WHO DESCEND UPON THE TOWN TO WREAK HAVOC AND IMPREGNATE YOUNG GIRLS THE BORED GARYBOYS WHO RIDE AROUND THE TOWN IN CIRCUITS IN THEIR SOUPED UP PENIS COMPENSATORS (MIND YOU THEY DO PROVIDE ENTERTAINMENT)

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

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Last updated: 2007-06-26