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Suffolk’s colour palette – all coppery rushes, yellow gorse bushes and silvery waterways – is about as English as Gouda, too. Essentially rural, the county relies heavily on farming, and any motoring jaunt will take you past fields of fat pink porkers, wallowing in marshland mud. This means that Suffolk butchers’ shops are full of wonderful sausages, hams and bacons – but fresh fish is also sold all along the coast. Close to the beautiful cities of Cambridge and Norwich, Suffolk is not the rural backwater that many believe it to be. Indeed, its blend of ravishing scenery and sea air attracts affluent weekenders up the A12, many of whom have bought second homes – creating urbanite outposts in the increasingly fashionable towns of Southwold and Aldeburgh.
When entering a Suffolk village, the first thing you’ll notice is its pale-red buildings. Though probably coated in Dulux these days, ‘Suffolk Pink’ houses are a hangover from a time when thrifty farmers would mix their whitewash with pig’s blood. Adnams bitter – brewed in Southwold for 135 years – never quite tastes the same outside the county (www.adnams.co.uk).
… a string of award-winning pork sausages from Rolfe’s of Walsham in Walsham-le-Willows, near Bury (+44 (0)1359 259225). Enjoy them with some Colman’s mustard from – whisper it – neighbouring Norfolk.
Our round-up of the hippest hideaways and romantic boutique hotels in Suffolk
This 17th-century Suffolk abode is a converted water mill set in 12 acres of land, with super-stylish boudoirs and high-spec Starck-fitted ensuites. While away lazy sunny days playing boules by a swan-studded pond, or cosied up in Tuddenham Mill's spacious lounge bar under exposed beams.
Built as a family home in 1812, Milsoms Kesgrave Hall, close to the Suffolk hubs of Ipswich and Woodbridge, is set on a vast manicured lawn, and is backed by some gloriously dense woodland. All in all, it’s the ideal country retreat.
A stately Georgian mansion set in seductive Suffolk surrounds, The Gosbeck Rectory is a historic home from home. Its six acres of landscaped gardens provide all the sylvan tranquillity you could ever need.
With impressive gates and a quarter-mile drive up to the hotel, few entrances can be grander than the one to Ickworth House a stately home for all the family.
Planes, trains, automobiles, or maybe even helicopter – we tell you the best way to go.
May Enjoy the bluebell-carpeted grounds of Haughley Park, a 17th-century stately home near Stowmarket, every Sunday throughout the month. June The famous Aldeburgh festival, started in the 1940s by Benjamin Britten, brings classical music and opera to the Suffolk marshes (www.aldeburgh.co.uk). Mid July Latitude festival, held in beautiful parkland near Southwold, attracts a younger crowd of music-lovers, who come here to see the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Damien Rice and Arcade Fire (www.latitudefestival.co.uk). This event is featured in our European events guide, Smith 52. Click here for details, or buy the book for the insider lowdown. Early August Walberswick hosts the no-adults-allowed British Open Crabbing Championship, which pits child against crustacean – the holder of the heaviest crab wins. Mid October Whether or not you enjoy Champions Day at Newmarket racecourse depends on which nags you back (www.newmarketracecourses.co.uk). Late December The Christmas services at Ely cathedral allow you the chance to belt out your favourite carols in one of England’s oldest and most dramatic ecclesiastical settings (www.cathedral.ely.anglican.org).
This lovely spot in picturesque Framlingham offers a simple and fresh menu in the comforting surroundings of a former greengrocers’ shop. It’s also very handy for the nearby castle (www.otsframltd.co.uk).
3 Church Street, Framlingham, Suffolk IP13 9BG
It may look like a wine bar from the outside, but its wide selection of local meats and cheeses, as well as treats from around the world, make this deli-café the ideal place to stop for an epicurean lunch (www.vinchfinch.co.uk).
43–45 Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1RG
Thanks to its proximity to Aldeburgh beach, where local fishermen lay out their still-flipping wares each day, this is simply one of the best places on the coast to pick up a fish knife (www.152aldeburgh.co.uk).
152 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AQ
A brasserie-style café on Southwold’s pier that offers locally caught moules marinières, baskets of organic bread, and blonde abbey beer Leffe on draught – as well as far-as-the-eye-can-see views of the coast (www.southwoldpier.co.uk).
Southwold Pier, North Parade, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6BN
Gordon McNeill’s tantalising Modern European fare, made with fresh local produce and tinged with a hint of his native Scotland, is served up against a backdrop of sleek Italian tables and oak beams at this restored millhouse hotel in Tuddenham. Don’t miss the awesome assiette of puddings.
High Street, Tuddenham, near Newmarket, Suffolk IP28 6SQ
A wonderful, relaxed fish restaurant with its own smokehouse, the Oysterage even sends out its own boats to guarantee the freshness of its produce (www.butleyorfordoysterage.co.uk).
Market Hill, Orford, Suffolk IP12 2LH
So upscale that its menu includes a ‘plâteau de fruits de mer’ requiring 48-hours’ notice, this West Suffolk establishment offers fine dining at reasonable prices. The emphasis is on seafood, and the influence is unmistakably French (www.maisonbleue.co.uk).
31 Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
It may be a little formal for a seaside town, but the Swan hotel is the place to eat in chi-chi Southwold. Its excellent menu – featuring lots of fresh local fish – is complemented by what is probably Suffolk’s best wine list.
The Swan Hotel, Market Place, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6EG
Just up the high street from the Swan, the Crown – also owned by the local Adnams brewery – offers another fine-dining experience by the coast. Its brasserie-style menus are changed daily in both the main restaurant and its dark, atmospheric bar.
The Crown Hotel, 90 High Street, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6DP
An unpretentious restaurant inhabiting what looks like an old-fashioned grocers’ shop. The reasonably priced bistro-style dishes appeal to weekending urbanites who flock to Aldeburgh year round (www.lighthouserestaurant.co.uk).
77 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AU
Sister establishment of Maison Bleue, this intimate country-hotel restaurant brings a little bit of France to the Ipswich environs. Lots of local pork and fish, all served with a Gallic twist – and at reasonable prices (www.lavenham.co.uk/greathouse).
Market Place, Lavenham, Suffolk CO10 9QZ
An eye-catching fixture on the seafront since the 16th century, Aldeburgh’s most auspiciously positioned hotel is a lordly place for a drink. The oak-panelled bar offers views out to sea and, in the winter, the chance to dry out in front of a log fire after a beach walk.
Market Cross Place, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5BJ
A cracking pub right on the Southwold seafront, with the sort of bar menu that those who’ve spent all day paddling, throwing frisbees and chasing errant children along the pebbles dream about. Its enormous portions of fish ’n’ chips are the perfect accompaniment to a pint of Adnams.
42 East Street, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6EJ
With a saloon bar only marginally larger than a snooker table, this thatched pub is officially one of the smallest in Britain, with room for no more than ten drinkers. You’ll rub shoulders (literally) with having-a-look-see daytrippers, and don’t be put off by the dead cat hanging from the ceiling, strategically placed for those clever so-and-sos who suggest you couldn’t swing it in here.
17 The Traverse, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1BJ
A higgledy-piggledy pub by the River Blyth with beer on handpumps, low-slung beams and a marker showing the floodline reached by a devastating high tide in the Fifties. Good for a pint of Adnams and some locally produced pork scratchings. Live music at least twice a week.
Blackshore, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6TA
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