The Countryside - The Coast - Suffolk

The beauty of Suffolk’s countryside lies in its variety, a unique combination of gently rolling land, woodland, villages, scattered houses and water along the valleys and estuaries. Perhaps the most enduring images of this countryside are painted by John Constable. The area where he grew up and throughout his life continued to paint, is now immortalised as ‘Constable Country’ including East Bergholt (his birthplace) and Flatford Mill (scene of the ‘Haywain’). Suffolk’s villages come in all shapes and sizes, from Kersey with its ford and pastel-washed cottages and Cavendish with its lovely village green, to Polstead famous for its Victorian murder, and Chelsworth, where a garden festival is now a popular annual event. Just inland from the coast is Yoxford, the garden village of Suffolk, the crinkle-crankle wall of Easton, Hacheston’s famous rosefields and the weatherboarded windmill at Saxtead Green. To the west of the county is riverside Dalham, Moulton with its packhorse bridge, the Anglo-Saxon Village at West Stow, Kedington with its wigpole and the picturesque Great Wratting. While in the Mid-Suffolk area, explore Debenham, Rattlesden, Wattisfield, Woolpit, Walsham-le-Willows and the Thornham group of villages. During medieval times many villages and towns of South Suffolk became centres of the cloth industry which made this the wealthiest part of England, including Lavenham (England’s best preserved medieval town), Long Melford (the antiques centre) and Sudbury (birthplace of Thomas Gainsborough).

The forty miles of coastline are designated as ‘Heritage Coast’, being largely unspoilt and consisting mainly of low, crumbling cliffs, shingle ridges and marshland, together with some sandy and shingle beaches. Much of it is remote and best appreciated on foot, bicycle or by boat. The curious village of Thorpeness was built as a holiday resort, and has many unusual buildings such as the ‘House in the Clouds’. Nearby is Snape, home of the famous maltings and the Aldeburgh Festival. Further up the coast is Dunwich, now a village, but once a large town, until it disappeared into the sea due to coastal erosion. Try the fish and chips here, they are some of the best in England! There are also two major resorts, Lowestoft which successfully mixes a holiday resort and busy fishing port, and Felixstowe with its seafront gardens. While Aldeburgh and Southwold are two smaller seaside towns of peaceful and period charm. Further south, the Shotley Pennisula hides creeks and inlets along the River Orwell and Stour. Here you will find the picturesque hamlet of Pin Mill.