The Suffolk coast is the seaside that time forgot. Visiting its very best
settlements — Southwold, Walberswick, Dunwich, Aldeburgh — requires you to
part company with civilisation (otherwise known as the A12) and trust your
luck to spindly side roads down to the sea. All around, rivers such as the
Alde, the Deben and the Blyth bite deeply into the countryside, cleverly
guarding the coastline from commercial “progress”. And then, suddenly, you
emerge on the shore, to find a set of beaches and boardwalks straight from
the pages of a post-war family album.
Here, once-prosperous ports have taken early retirement, tucked away from the
action behind spits and creeks. As habitats go, it is far more inviting to
birds than builders. Add a generous measure of wildlife protection
(“heritage coast” and “area of outstanding natural beauty” designations
abound), and the result is a just-plain-natural slice of coastal nostalgia.
SOUTHWOLD
Southwold is delightful — a place of Georgian listed buildings, Victorian
terraces and open greens, where the fragrance of malt adds extra tang to the
North Sea breeze. Cut off from the rest of Britain by the River Blyth and a
maze of creeky marshes, the tiny town is a showcase of traditional values,
thanks in no small part to Adnams, brewer of champion real ales. The
company’s paternal presence has helped keep Southwold stripped of modern
attractions, nude of neon, bare of brashness.
The town has a surprising stock of sights, many with a nautical flavour. Sole
Bay lighthouse, found in the backstreets, is Southwold’s Eiffel; while the
Sailors’ Reading Room remains an active social centre, where retired
mariners pass their days beneath figureheads, knots, charts and other briny
artefacts. Visitors are welcome, but not in the billiards room out at the
back.
Southwold Pier (01502 722105, www.southwoldpier.demon.co.uk) opened after
rebuilding in 2001, and was named UK “Pier of the Year” just a year later.
You can get married on it, have a meal, watch a Punch and Judy show, play
some slot machines handmade by a local inventor, fish for your supper, and
catch the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world, the Waverley —
sometimes all the way to London (0845 130 4647, www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk).
Another of Southwold’s great assets is Jill Freud’s theatre (she and husband
Sir Clement have a house in nearby Walberswick), which stages summer
performances in the church hall (until the end of August). Interval ice
cream is enjoyed in the graveyard. Call 01502 724441; tickets from £9 to
£13.50.
As well as its brewery, Adnams also owns the Crown (01502 722275), a
pub-cum-small hotel, with doubles from £116, B&B; and the
traditionally elegant Swan (01502 722186; from £140, B&B), a
17th-century coaching inn. The beach huts along the prom can be rented from
— guess who? — Adnams (although not this August, as they are all booked),
and the firm also owns some self-catering properties (01502 723292,
www.haadnams.com).
WALBERSWICK
He who pays the ferryman — or ferrywoman in this case — can be rowed across
the River Blyth to the village of Walberswick. It’s well worth the 50p to
avoid a long tack back to the A12 at Blythburgh, with its “cathedral of the
marshes” church, then east again to return to the coast.
Walberswick is so sleepy that it makes Southwold seem positively metropolitan.
Just off the pretty green is downtown — an art gallery, craft shop (nice
garden tearooms), an exclusively English wine store, and a pair of pubs. It
has one of Suffolk’s best beaches, mostly sand, and is the crabbing capital
of East Anglia, with the bridge over the creek the prime spot.
DUNWICH
Visitors are drawn to Dunwich largely by what it lacks. In the 11th century it
was heaving — the 10th biggest town in England, a place of shipbuilding,
fishing and pilgrimage, with six churches, two monasteries, three chapels
and a mint. Today, it has 130 people and one museum — featuring a model of
the town before it got gradually washed away by wave erosion. On stormy
nights, so they say, you can still hear the pealing of church bells from
beneath the waves.
The Flora Tearooms (01728 668625) serves five-star fish and chips, and the
National Trust lets out the coastguard cottages (01225 791199, www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk).
LEISTON
The Sizewell nuclear power station, with its giant reactor squatting on the
horizon like a fallen moon, is the great blight on this coastline. You won’t
want to linger long hereabouts, but might want to visit the unusual Long
Shop museum (01728 832189, www.longshop.care4free.net),
housed in a 19th-century steam-engine works, which puts on a good show of
energy from an earlier epoch. Adults £3.30, children £1.
MINSMERE
The coastal heaths and marshes between Southwold and Aldeburgh are mainly for
the birds, with the RSPB reserve at Minsmere a favourite nesting ground.
Stacks of lowland species are found within its 2,400 acres, including a
quarter of Britain’s shy but booming bitterns. Adults £5, children £1.50
(family ticket £10); closed Tuesdays. Call 01728 648281.
THORPENESS
Thorpeness is just one of the pottiest bits of seaside in Britain. This folly
of a holiday village was built from scratch in the 1920s by Glencairn Stuart
Ogilvie, an eccentric Scot who set out to re-create the spirit of merrie
olde Englande, where “the hours could be whiled away in an effortless haze”.
There is much mock Tudor, a country club (one week’s family membership costs
£103), a golf club (details of both on 01728 452176), and The Meare, a
wonderful boating lake inspired by Ogilvie’s chum JM Barrie, complete with
“Peter Pan’s Island”, “Wendy’s house”, a life-size croc, a mini fort and a
pirates’ den to fuel the fantasies.
You can put up at the Dolphin (01728 454994, doubles from £85, B&B)
or rent an apartment in the country- club grounds. Or you could take over
the House in the Clouds (020 7224 3615), built on the bones of an old water
tower, which starts from £1,040 a week for up to 12 people.
ALDEBURGH
Just a mile away, and linked to Thorpeness in summer by horse-and-carriage
rides (call Blinkers, 01728 831314), lie the wonky roofs and gaudy gables of
Aldeburgh. This is an even more arty place than Southwold, with contemporary
galleries (Avocet, Thomson), interesting shops (Palmer & Burnett for
designer houseware, Rubber Duck for bathroom gear, Fat Face for clothing), a
cinema, a cookery school and several good restaurants. Pick of the eats are
the Lighthouse (01728 453377) and Regatta (01728 452011).
But while it may have a fashionable sheen, Aldeburgh is also fiercely
old-fashioned, offering two sailing clubs, visits to the lifeboat and a
healthy crew of fishermen, who winch their boats onto the pebbles and sell
the freshest fish in Britain. The 16th-century Moot Hall, now a little
museum (afternoons only), used to stand right in the middle of town, a
testimony to the powers of coastal erosion. It is the starting point for
Aldeburgh’s annual carnival (August 16), which begins with a parade and
concludes with fireworks and candles on the beach.
The place to stay is the genteel Wentworth (01728 452312), at the quieter
north end of the beach, owned by the Pritt family since 1920 (sea-view
doubles from £148, B&B). Other seafront options include The White
Lion (01728 452720; £144, B&B) and the newly renovated Brudenell
(01728 452071; £154, B&B). Self-catering options include the
Martello Tower, built to repel Napoleonic invasion and now rented out by the
Landmark Trust (01628 825920, www.landmarktrust.org.uk);
high-season prices from £1,090 a week (sleeps up to four).
SNAPE
The annual Aldeburgh Festival, founded by Benjamin Britten, largely happens in
the nearby Snape Maltings, where whispering reed beds reach to the horizon
and the riverside lawns are adorned with sculptures by Moore and Hepworth.
The festival is in June, but the “Snape Proms” run throughout August,
featuring everything from blues to flamenco, folk to chamber music (01728
687100, www.aldeburgh.co.uk).
ORFORD
The road through Tunstall Forest leads to this pretty village, dominated by
Henry II’s 12th-century castle keep. Across the water is Orford Ness, the
largest shingle spit in Europe and once the test site for hush-hush
atomic-bomb hardware, which explains — sort of — its porcupine of masts and
curious pagoda shelters. Now owned by the National Trust, you need to
pre-book a visit (July 1-September 27, plus Saturdays only in October; 01394
450057).
From Orford’s characterful quay, you can sail along the River Alde aboard the
Lady Florence, a 50ft Admiralty MFV that offers brunch, lunch and dinner
cruises all year round (there’s a log fire in the saloon). A four-hour jaunt
costs from £12.50, including the meal (07831 698298, www.lady-florence.co.uk).
The 18-room Crown and Castle (01394 450205, www.crownandcastle.co.uk) has been
given an attractive makeover by its new owners: from £95, B&B.
Butley Oysterage (01394 450277) is a gastro-caff serving oysters from its
own beds, lobsters from its own pots and fish from its own smokery. Open for
lunch and dinner daily in summer (but note that it closes at 9pm); about
£15-£20.
WOODBRIDGE
On the banks of the Deben, this boaty haven feels more like a real town than
either Southwold or Aldeburgh, especially along its pedestrianised high
street. The main visitor attraction is the 18th-century clapboard tide mill,
powered by a 20ft water wheel and turning most days, but no longer producing
flour (01473 626 618; adults £1.50, children free).
Woodbridge also has a museum devoted to the Suffolk Punch, Britain’s oldest
breed of working horse (01394 380643; £2). Just outside town, Sutton Hoo
(01394 389700, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/places/suttonhoo;
adults £4, children £2; open daily till September 30, then weekends) is the
site of one of the most remarkable finds in British archeology — the
treasure-stuffed “ship burial” of an Anglo-Saxon king. The discovery is
explained in a new interpretative centre.
Good eateries include The Captain’s Table (01394 383145), Spice Bar (01394
382557) and the Elizabethan Seckford Hall Hotel (01394 385678,
www.seckford.co.uk), whose “Swimmers’ Dinner” deal includes use of a pool,
gym and spa bath set in a converted barn before you dine (minimum spend
£9.50; double rooms from £130 per night, B&B).
Further information: tourist information centres at Aldeburgh
(01728 453637) and Woodbridge (01394 382240); or visit www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/leisure.
