It initially grew around the wool combing industry, until the onset of the plague, which swept the town from 1663 to 1665. To prevent the spread of the disease, the town was chained at either end, which succeeded in its task but at the cost of two-thirds of the populace. The town did not recover for nearly two hundred years, with the canalisation of the River Gipping in the late 18th Century and the introduction of the railway. Modern Needham Market contains two road names that are linked to the plague. Chainhouse Road, named after the chains that ran across the East end of the town. The Causeway, is a modern variation of 'the corpseway' so called because of the route that plague victims were transported out of town, to neighbouring Barking church for interment.
Notable buildings
Notable buildings in the town include:
The 15th-century parish church, , originally a chapel of ease for the parish of Barking. - Which is currently searching for funding for its unique wooden beamed roof.
no.12 High Street. A house now called The Waggon, it was originally an Elizabethan construction of 1591: a 'black and white' design typical of the period, called The Old Hall.
The Quaker Meeting House and its graveyard was constructed during the ages of enlightenment and revolution in 1772.
Sport and leisure
Needham Market has a Non-League football club Needham Market F.C. who play at Bloomfields, they have been very successful over recent years after reaching the semi-finals of the FA Vase. The town is on the route of the Dunwich Dynamoannual cycle ride. Needham Lake provides leisure facilities and a wildlife habitat.
Transport
The East Anglia Main Line railway runs through the town, with Needham Market railway station providing trains to Ipswich and Cambridge. The A14 once ran directly through Needham Market, but a bypass was built in the 1970s. This has left the town with good road links to the surrounding area, but with less traffic than before.
