Before and after: How the Port of Felixstowe expanded over 35 years

Aerial pictures taken in 1967 and 2002 reveal how the sprawling port has taken over the surrounding land over a 35-year span.

The Landguard Container Terminal opened in 1967 (Image: Archant)

Landguard Container Terminal, which was the UK’s first purpose-built container terminal, opened in Felixstowe in July 1967, sparking the port's growth to become the eighth-busiest in Europe.

The port has grown over the decades (Image: Archant)

Work began on an expansion at the north of the port in 1979 and Trinity Container Terminal had doubled in size by the time the project was completed in 1988.

The port's expansion was revealed in aerial shots 35 years later (Image: Archant)

Much of the land is owned by Trinity College of the University of Cambridge, which purchased it in the 1930s.

Felixstowe is the UK's busiest container shipping ports and ranks eighth in Europe (Image: Archant)

Today, the port employs around 3,500 people and occupies a huge 8,360-acre site.

The site currently occupies a site of more than 8,000 acres (Image: Archant)

It has recently welcomed famous vessels in the Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal earlier this year, and the Ever Ace, the world's largest container ship.