Eye’s name comes from the old word for an island, from the days when the town was surrounded by water. William Malet built a castle here soon after the Norman Conquest and started a market, and the town grew up around both. You can still trace the old castle lines in Church Street, Castle Street and Broad Street, and the Victorian mock keep stands on top of the mound.
The church of St Peter and St Paul, with its tall flint tower, is one of the finest in Suffolk, and the flint-and-brick Town Hall from 1857 is hard to miss. Eye was the smallest borough in the country until 1974 and still has its own Town Mayor.