The Sign
It was first erected in 2002 and then again the following year after it suffered vandalism.

The town arms are centre stage on the sign which are those of Ositha, a princess from East Anglia being martyred by the Danes in AD635. The towns motto shown underneath the shield, 'sit anima mea cum Christo' means "May My Soul Be With Christ".
The three red crowns on gold are derived from the arms of the Abbot of St. Osyth in Essex. The significance of this is that the Town and Manor of Stowmarket, with the royalties and the church living, were held by the Augustine Abbey of St. Osyth from 1348 until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. St. Osyth or Ositha, daughter of King Frithwald and married to Sighere, King of the East Saxons. It is said that she lived as a religious person and was beheaded by the Danes in 653 AD, in one of their bloody ravages, because she would not worship their idols, and the Priory was built in her honour. It is also claimed that the Monastery adopted the arms of St. Osyth to honour her memory – three bloody crowns which spoke of the painful death of the pious virgin Queen and the gold shield of rich inheritance in heaven (heraldry-Wiki).

The Name and Population
The name is from Old English meaning the "Principal Place", with a population of 21,534 at the 2021 census. It was granted a market charter in 1347 by Edward III, and still holds two weekly markets today. It was called Stou in the Domesday Book, market being added after the charter.

Other Points of Interest
The church is dedicated to St Peter and St Mary situated close to the town centre; it dates from the 14th century.

The Rev. Thomas Young, who was the poet, John Milton’s tutor at Cambridge, was vicar at Stowmarket in the 1600s and was also the person who invited and paid for Matthew Hopkins, the ‘Witchfinder General’, to come to the town. He was reported to have found two unfortunate women that were tried as witches.