Assington Mill

Mill Cottage is on the edge of Constable Country, with many beautiful Suffolk villages in easy reach, such as Boxford, Lavenham, Long Melford, Dedham, Flatford and Hadleigh. Roman Colchester is ten miles away, historic Sudbury (Dicken's Eatanswill) is about six miles away, with its interesting market. Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds are within striking distance.

There are also some excellent gastro pubs in Nayland (the White Hart or The Anchor), and Stoke by Nayland (the Crown and the Angel) and Lavenham (the Angel) where there is also an first class restaurant, the Great House, together with a golf course and full health club facilities within three miles.

Here at Assington Mill, we can offer an unusually wide variety of different experiences: Badger watching (Bob has spent most of his life studying them), Dowsing, all sorts of crafts, Bushcraft etc. See our website, www.assingtonmill.com for full details. There are plenty of interesting walks, which we will show you, and it is possible to borrow bicycles to explore the extensive networks of cycle tracks.

Castle Hedingham is nearby with its Norman Motte and Bailey. The Moat is one of the finest still standing in Europe. Roman Colchester Castle has a good museum. Kentwell Hall has been carefully restored over many years and specialises in Tudor re-enactments. Long Melford Hall nearby is often open to the public.

Essex and Suffolk contain more listed buildings than most counties. Anne is an ex-conservation officer and will be happy to point out all the special places nearby and answer your historic building/architecture questions.

The River Stour (of Constable fame) flows into the estuary at Brantham and from there it runs past Manningtree (about 30 mins away by car), a charming seaside village, and Mistley, once the home of the Witch-finder General, where there is a vegetarian cafe on the quayside overlooking the river. Further down is Harwich, an unusual survival of an 18th century town, which has some good pubs and a well-known restaurant, the Pier, which is right on the quay. From the quay, you can take ferry boat trips to Shotley and Felixstowe, Britain's largest container port. On the way to Harwich, you can visit the secret wartime bunker at Mistley. There are sea trips on offer from Orford, home of the wonderful fish-smokery (a definite must for those who like seafood), and to Havergate Island, where there is a large flock of avocets. Minsmere, one of the best RSPB reserves, is not far away on the east coast, and also Welney, in the fens.

Art galleries: to be found in Lavenham, Colchester (the Minories), Cambridge and the Constable exhibition at Flatford Mill on the River Stour.

There are theatres in Colchester (the Mercury), Ipswich (the Wolseley) and an exciting 18th century theatre in Bury St Edmunds. Apart from the usual cinemas there are special screenings in Polstead (3 miles) and Flicks in the Stix at Hadleigh, and an Arts Cinema in Cambridge.

We are very fortunate to have regular and nationally well-known jazz evenings at The Fleece in Nayland.

Classical music is freely available, especially choral music, and there is an annual Suffolk Villages Early Music Festival in the summer, which takes place in churches within five miles of here, and features international artists. The best free show, in our opinion, can be found at the choral evensongs in the Cambridge Colleges. Bob and Anne spend a lot of their time singing, so can easily help you find concerts locally. Snape Maltings, home of Benjamin Britten, also has a well-known festival and is about an hour by car from here. There is also a craft centre and a good pub there, together with some lovely walks along the river.

Suffolk is an excellent place for a church-crawl and most of them are kept open during the day. We can lend you the "Thousand Best Churches" and Pevsner's guides to help you choose which to visit.
 

About Suffolk

 These are some images of the countryside and tiny unspoilt vilages around Mill Cottage

In Charles Dickens's days, boys living in Scotland and here in East Anglia would be allowed to leave boarding school a day early because it took so long to get back home to those places.

Even though we are just 60 miles from London, this area was always very inaccessible and remained so until very recent times.

Now the local mainline train journey to London is a mere 45 minutes and a car journey takes about an hour and a half.

But still Suffolk has retained an unusually strong independent rural atmosphere and one of the great joys of the area are the beautiful little hamlets that even locals get lost getting to though the meandering 'spiders web' of tiny lanes and byroads. Many of these villages are wonderfully preserved in their medieval origins, our local village of Lavenham being a fantastic example.

The area is very rich in History from the Saxon treasure of Sutton Hoo and the rebel Queen Bodicea who defeated the Romans, right up to the many expeditions of Settlers leaving for America - in fact the First Governor of Massachusetts came from this tiny hamlet of Edwardstone when I am based at The Old Grove Farm.

The landscape and the Architectural beauty of the area has long inspired Artists to work and move here. The greatest English landscape painter John Constable painted all his famous masterpieces along the Stour which is just 5 miles from The Grove Cottages. His work undoubtedly created this landscape as the quintessential English Landscape, which is one reason why visitors to the area feel so at home.

Flatford Mill where many of Constables most well known works of art such as 'The Haywain' were painted is now a National Trust area devoted to this artist and preserving his memory and the area he made so famous.

The Great Portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough lived in Sudbury which is the closest town to us and it is a real pleasure to visit his home which is now a very interesting museum and exciting showplace for local artists and events, it also has a wonderful print making workshop where courses on all kinds of printmaking are constantly held and very much sought after.

The great artist Sir Alfred Munnings, famous for his portraits of Rural Suffolk Life lived and had his studio close to the river Stour at Dedham and these are now an interesting museum devoted to him and his works of art.

For more information, please visit: my  'What to Do' Web Pages where I have an extensive insiders guide to South Suffolk

Here are a few photos I took around the area  - The seaside is at Aldeburgh which is a totaly unspoilt seaside village, famous for its Arts events and good food - it is about 50 minutes from Mill Cottage.

 Kentwell Hall is just 20 minutes away and open to visitors, it is famous for it's Medieval Re-enactments 

There are lovely walks around the little lanes and tracks that criss cross the countryside.

There are 2 lovely hamlets close to Mill Cottage, Polstead and Chelsworth.  These are the bluebell walks at Polstead - Hiya Reuben (my grandson)  

Please have a look at our Guide to South Suffolk - What to do web pages for more information about this gorgeous area.

 
 Below is a recent article about the Suffolk Coast

Joanna Symons, Telegraph Travel Newspaper January 2nd 2010.

'Popular though the Lake District and West Country are as tourist destinations, they can be rather damp. If you want to reduce the risk of a rainy holiday, statistics show that you should head east.

Suffolk for instance, had only about a third as much rainfall as the Lake District last summer. It also happens to have one of the loveliest stretches of coastline in Britain.


The Met office regional statistics per annum.

                        The Lake District             Suffolk

Rain fall         2300 - 3900mm          600 - 660 mm