Lowestoft is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. As the most easterly UK settlement, it is 38 miles north-east of Ipswich and 22 miles south-east of Norwich, and the main town in its district. Its development grew with the fishing industry and as a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches. As fishing declined, oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea in the 1960s took over.