Walks France
... by The Walking Party
A Taste of Suffolk
Why Suffolk? Well I suppose because we have been away from my home county for eighteen years and there is a kind of pull that lures us back. Coming back to England as a ‘tourist’ I find there are a vast amount of attractions that get lost when you live in a country controlled by the media. England is still the most beautiful country and as Suffolk is the county in which I grew up it is a great pleasure to start a walk there. We hope to have two walks here and will be starting research next year on how to link Woodbridge with Aldeburgh and Southwold. This would mean great fish, diverse and famous bitters and Benjamin Britten music.
| Duration | Distance | Price Per Person | Single Room Supplement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Days | 50 Miles | €1570 pounds sterling | €360 pounds sterling |
| Departure Dates | |||
| 2nd - 9th July | |||
The Great House
For this week we will start the week in The Priory at Lavenham, a grade 1 listed half timbered building with a beautiful garden and delightful hosts in Tim and Gilli Pitt. This is a wonderfully charming place to stay in what has been called England’s finest medieval town. We will eat at The Great House which was built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by an important weaving family and converted into a restaurant in 1985. This is a truly excelent place to eat. There is a fabulous wine list with great French wine including the delicious Saussignac of Gerard Cuisset from Château Miaudoux which many of you would have drunk here with us in France and then as far as quintessential English gastronomy goes: what better way to start the day than with the classic English breakfast?
The churches of Suffolk are innumerable and these will be the focal points of our walks. The county is relatively flat and arable which therefore lends itself very easily to comfortable walking! Steeples can be seen from afar, rising above fields of English green, boosting a possibly tired moral and of course the donkeys will be there, as ever, carrying all those essentials that we need to have with us like alcohol, water, bags and Diana’s delicious homemade biscuits. With the mention of alcohol we will be drinking the best of English wine from vineyards such as Wyken Hall, Nyetimber and New Hall and also of course a chance of the best of English ale. How could we not have some time for such heritage? The drink that has been the great drink of England for centuries past and which will be for centuries to come.
Cream tea?
We will have the chance of staying in the pretty village of Bildeston at ‘The Crown’: a pub of great local repute, newly restored with wonderful character and charm and a great English chef. Some of the beer there is from a micro brewery. These micro breweries are becoming ever more fashionable. Delicious New World wine to accompany our dinners, wine that has sadly pushed French sophistication aside but wine which has much roundness and is simply quite delicious.
Art history will also be on the agenda as two great English artists were born in Suffolk: Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable. We will finish the week in Dedham a village of great fame as it was a part of the world favoured by Constable and some of his greatest paintings came from this area. We will have a light hearted talk with Peter Maxwell Devis about Constable’s life in his native Suffolk and visit Will Lott’s house now a National Trust house and scene of ‘The Haywain’. Dedham is also the place where Sir Alfred Munnings lived and worked and we will visit his home before another English gastronomic treat in the tea rooms at Dedham: freshly baked scones, fine English jam and clotted cream.
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 1
You will be met at Stansted airport and driven to the beautiful medieval village of Lavenham in Suffolk. This is one of the most perfectly preserved medieval villages of England and built around the great wool trade of the fourteenth century. We stay at the Priory in Lavenham. This is a beautiful medieval Grade 1 listed half timbered house set in three acres of lovely garden in the heart of this wonderful village. It has been awarded the AA’s Guest Accommodation of the Year award. It has elegant four poster bedded rooms and an excellent breakfast! Dinner at The Angel.
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 2
Breakfast in England of course is renowned. We do not let those interested down!. A full fantastic English breakfast is available for those who feel it an important part of the days walking! Bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, marmelade and hot black coffee will certainly put you in the mood for a morning walk. We will set off from Lavenham by foot for the pretty village of Long Melford. We lunch at the Black Lion pub. English pubs are making a comeback with their quality lunches. There was a period when a Ploughman’s lunch would be a couple of slices of Slimcea bread, a hunk of cheese and a spoon of chutney. This is something of the past and gastropubs are now at the fore. In the afternoon we walk to Sudbury the market town of Sudbury to visit the tiny Gainsborough Museum. Thomas Gainsborough was born here and lived here while he was married. There are just a few lovely examples of his early work on show which have always appealed to me more than the later robust social portraits. It has the appeal of the naïve, being much influenced by his tutor Francis Hayman, portraying almost doll-like figures (see the Portrait of Mr and Mrs Andrews in the National Gallery, London). Return by car to Lavenham Priory.
Dinner at The Great House. This is run by Martine and Regis Crepy who come from our region here in France. Fabulous food with a huge reputation locally and internationally! Voted the best restaurant with rooms in the country! Walk: 7 miles
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 3
After another delightful English breakfast we drive in the vehicles to the pretty village of Boxford where we will set off on foot for the medieval village of Kersey. We will pass through the tiny village of Groton, famous for once being the seat of John Winthrop before he sailed to settle in America. He was the founder of the city of Boston and was elected Governor of the State of Massachusetts in 1629. We cross the ford in Kersey and arrive for lunch at the Bell Inn. Kersey was an important weaving village and gave its name to the particular type of broad cloth it produced. After lunch we visit the curious 13th/15th century chapel of St James before returning to enjoy the beauty of Lavenham and the gentleness of the Priory. Dinner the Great House. Walk: 9 miles
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 4
The last great Priory breakfast before we set off on foot for the village of Bildeston. We will walk through flower filled fields for the pretty village of Bildeston passing through the lovely villages of Brent Eleigh, Monks Eleigh and Chelsworth. Lunch at The Peacock in Chelsworth. We continue after lunch to Bildeston. Here we will stay at The Bildeston Crown, recently restored by its present owner James Buckle and an excellent English gastropub with a superb award winning chef, Chris Lee. Chris Lee seems to continue rising the ranks. It is another sheer delight to eat here and we have two nights to enjoy this fantastic clever delicious cuisine. Walk: 11 miles
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 5
Today we drive to Bury St Edmunds, burial place of St Edmund and where, at the abbey in 1214, the barons swore to force King John to sign the Magna Carta. Before Bury though we have a private tour of the great house Ickworth which belonged to the Earl of Bristol and which has a wonderful family history of all sorts of sauce and a magnificent collection of furniture, ceramics, silver and paintings containing several magnificent Gainsboroughs as well as a much treasured Velasquez and an extraordinary collection of Paul de Lamerie silver. We then visit Greene King in Bury after a quick drink in the smallest pub in England. We are very much in a beer region here and this brewery is a good example of why the British bitter is so good and shows us how it is made. Lunch then after a short drive to the Wyken vineyard belonging to Carla Carlisle. Lady Carlisle has a seven acre vineyard and we drink her award winning Wyken Pink at her Leaping Hare Restaurant. A short walk then to a local village before driving back to the Bildeston Crown. We then wind our way back to Bildeston passing the once famous Wattisham Airfield, base to the USA Air Force in 1944. Dinner at The Bildeston Crown. Walk: 4 miles
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 6
After breakfast a drive to the village of Boxford again but this time we set off on foot southwards towards the famous village of Dedham in the heart of the Stour Valley. We arrive at Stoke by Nayland for lunch. In the afternoon we continue to Dedham. You stay at The Sun Inn which has a lovely cosy armchair, folded newspaper feel to it and you spend your last two nights here. Dinner at the Sun. Walk: 11 miles
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 7
We set off in the vehicles to be dropped off for a walk through Dedham Vale. Dedham Vale is pure Constable country. “I associate all my careless boyhood with what lies on the banks of the Stour; those scenes made me a painter” (John Constable). We walk along the river to pick up the rowing boats at Dedham Lock before rowing down river for half an hour (lightly!) and messing about in boats ‘til we meet the picnic on the river’s bank. Those not wanting to be rowed can walk alongside the swans and boats. After lunch we then continue the short distance to Flatford Mill where we will see Will Lott’s house (famous for its position in Constable’s ‘Haywain’ painting). We then return to Dedham by car to visit the lovely house of the great horse painter Alfred Munnings. This is followed by a deliciously wicked clotted cream tea with Tiptree jams and home-made scones in Dedham’s famous sixteenth century tea rooms. Last night’s dinner is at a well known highly reputed restaurant Le Talbooth on the banks of the Stour.
Walk: 6 miles
A Taste of Suffolk : Day 8
We leave Dedham after breakfast for Stansted airport
