Newmarket, Suffolk

Newmarket is a market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, 14 miles west of Bury St Edmunds and 14 miles northeast of Cambridge. The population in 2021 was 16,772.

The town is known as a centre for the breeding, training and racing of thoroughbred horses, being home to two racecourses, about seventy training yards, some 3,000 horses, over sixty stud farms, two equine hospitals, the British Racing School, Tattersalls auction sales, the Jockey Club Rooms, the National Horseracing Museum, and racing charities. The Rowley Mile racecourse hosts two British Classic Races. Between them, the two racecourses hold races on 39 days every year, more than any other town in Britain.

Newmarket originated in the early thirteenth century, when the lord of the manor of Exning was granted a charter to hold a weekly market. During the Tudor period, it served the needs of travellers on the London to Norwich road with a number of inns and alehouses. The town has enjoyed royal patronage since the seventeenth century, when James I, Charles I and Charles II made Newmarket Palace their base for sporting activities. Until the late nineteenth century, Newmarket was divided down the middle of the High Street into two parishes: St Mary's in Suffolk to the north and All Saints in Cambridgeshire to the south. From 1889 to 1974, the town was part of the county of West Suffolk, and since 1974 has been part of the West Suffolk district in the county of Suffolk.