Map
of Suffolk
The whole of Suffolk can feel like a secret: that’s probably the key to its
charm. Even its most popular seaside resort, Southwold, made its name as a
town “famous for offering visitors nothing to do”. So, ferreting out the
county’s special places takes insider knowledge. Step forward the painter
and the pier-owner, the swimmer and the smoker...
KAREN PICKERING Britain’s most decorated female swimmer, a four-time
world champion, Karen is based in Ipswich
“I’ve done quite a bit of impromptu swimming on rowboat outings on the River
Stour at Dedham. It’s an idyllic spot, little more than a hamlet, and you
can moor up on the banks for a picnic, but I’m generally happy with an ice
cream (or two) from the Boathouse: it’s stunning stuff. The whole day always
reminds me of The Wind in the Willows.
“The thing to do is to get a bunch of friends, pack a bottle of wine and have
no-rules races. I’m told it’s a lovely way to float down to Flatford Mill,
which was the setting for Constable’s The Hay Wain, but we’ve never made it
that far. We usually end up in the river!
“My other big tip for visitors is to see what’s been done with the waterfront
in Ipswich. It’s gone from smelly docks to smart hang-out — good for
bar-hopping and a seafood supper at the Last Anchor. I usually put friends
up at the Salthouse Harbour Hotel: contemporary again, overlooking the
marina, really helpful people, immaculate rooms. It would hold its own
against anything in my home town, Brighton.”
Details: Dedham Boathouse hires out rowing boats from April to
September (01206 323153, www.dedhamboathouse.com
; £11 per hour); doubles at the Salthouse Harbour Hotel (01473 226789, www.salthouseharbour.co.uk
) start at £130, B&B.
MAGGI HAMBLING The feisty artist has a studio outside Saxmundham — and
a 13ft-high steel scallop shell on Aldeburgh beach
“Anyone who thinks Suffolk is flat should go to Hadleigh, a handsome market
town in a hole among the hills — which seem to keep out day-trippers,
somehow. I grew up there and it hasn’t changed: a really wide high street,
grand church, proper butchers and bakers. It has staved off the Tesco
menace, so far.
“My favourite place was Constitution Hill, where we’d toboggan in winter. I
was into the Just William stories, and I’d walk up “the Conch” with my dog,
Jet, reliving his adventures. It’s where I first responded to the Suffolk
landscape: picking blackberries, the shadows of the clouds on the
cornfields. It’s still full of romance now.
“These days, I’ve a regime: up at 5am to draw the North magical, intimate
place: a few fishermen dragging their boats out into the dawn, hundreds of
gulls whizzing off the towers that spike out of the sea, and the great dome
of the power station looming over the beach. Very Peter Grimes. Afterwards,
I might treat myself to England’s best fish and chips, from Cooney’s, in
Aldeburgh.”
Details: the easy walk up Constitution Hill begins at Toppesfield
Bridge in Hadleigh (OS Explorer map 196). The Fish and Chip Shop (Cooney’s)
is at 226 High Street, Aldeburgh (01728 452250).
STEPHEN BOURNES The hotelier bought the newly rebuilt Southwold Pier in
2005 and set about making it Britain’s quirkiest seaside attraction
“The essential taste of Suffolk is Adnams Broadside, and for a pint, there’s
no place like place in September; for more the King’s Head, in Laxfield. Sea
from Sizewell. That’s a MAGGI It’s a tucked-away village with jettied
cottages and lots of history, and the pub fits in perfectly: squeezed behind
the church, with an open fire and ancient pews, but no bar. Instead, the
landlord totters into a tap room and pours your pint straight from the cask.
I don’t suppose it has changed since the place was built in the 15th
century.
“The time to visit, if you can, is on ‘Tolerance Day’ — a village tradition
that recalls a 16th-century martyr who was burnt at the stake. It’s not your
typical fête: the children’s entertainment includes a pillory and a ducking
stool, the food is barbecued venison and rabbit, and there’s a playlet put
on by the villagers to make you think. Last year, they parked an army tank
on the green and acted out a drama about the Iraq war. It’s topped off with
a candlelight procession to the church. All slightly eccentric, but great
fun.”
Details: the King’s Head is on 01986 798395. Laxfield’s Festival of
Tolerance takes information, visit www.laxfield-village.co.uk.
RONALD BLYTHE The veteran writer and editor is best known for
Akenfield, his 1969 portrait of Suffolk village life, which was later filmed
by Peter Hall
“As a young man, I worked for Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh festival, and
he sent me up to Blythburgh village to ask if we could use the church for
concerts.
“It’s the most marvellous building in Suffolk, huge but fragile, shimmering
above the coastal marshes like a ghost ship: just a breathtaking medieval
work of art. William Morris said it’s the pattern of how a country church
should age — patched up by local people, rather than overrestored — and, for
me, it always feels as though the wind and the rain blow straight through.
Yet it’s full of unusual things: angels crowning the battlements; carvings
on the stalls by children of the Dutch workers who came to drain the
marshes.
“The walk out there from Walberswick across the marshes is haunting,
especially in winter. And I’ll never forget Yehudi Menuhin playing
Schubert’s Fantasy for Violin and Piano in 1957, with 600 people packed
inside and more sitting in the churchyard, the music surging out across
these vast views to the sea.”
Details: Blythburgh Church is still a fixture in the Aldeburgh
festival’s programme (01728 687110, www.aldeburgh.co.uk;
June 8-24 in 2007; lineup yet to be announced).
MARK THOMAS Mark is Suffolk’s master smoker — his deli-cum-smokehouse,
Emmett’s, in the tiny village of Peasenhall, supplies beer-pickled Suffolk
Black hams to the royals
“My wife is from Barcelona, and the first time she came to England, I drove
her straight to the Great House, at Lavenham, for dinner — it’s that good.
An odd thing to do, in retrospect, since it’s impeccably French: run by the
Crépys for 20 years or more, French staff, and all that Gallic attention to
culinary detail.
It’s in a terribly English setting, though — on Lavenham’s rickety square,
with its timbered tearooms and antiques shops. I loved it from the moment I
walked in, years ago, and saw the three-tiered cheese trolley, wafting
around and oozing everywhere. It’s a restaurant with rooms, and I’ve even
been known to stay overnight so I can really enjoy dinner: there are just
five rooms, beams and four-posters, nicely done. Don’t tell my wife, though
— she’ll want to know who I stayed with!
“For a simpler feed, I love Pinneys, at Orford: it’s been in the same family
since the 1950s, and they’ve their own oyster beds; their own trawlers, too.
Have the mixed plate of griddled sardines, mussels, squid and prawns — so
fresh, it’s still swimming.”
Details: the Great House (01787 247431, www.lavenham.co.uk/greathouse)
has main courses from £17, with doubles starting at £70, room-only. Pinneys
is on 01394 450277.
Interviews by Vincent Crump
