St Mary Stoke was defined by the fact that until the Reformation it was owned by Ely Abbey, unlike the riff-raff over the river. I’m rereading Robert Malster’s “A History of Ipswich” and it says on page 10 that it was likely that the whole of Ipswich was owned by Ely Abbey. Then the Vikings came along and disrupted everything.
When the dust settled and the kings of East Anglia were finally persuaded to give the abbey its’ lands back, however he only gave the best bits back to the monks and the King kept the scraps on the other side of the river – which would later become the borough of Ipswich.
So rather than Stoke being a part of Ipswich, we should really say that the borough of Ipswich is an outgrowth of the more ancient and venerable parish of St Mary Stoke.
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