Grove-Stamp-100

Discover: Kersey

Kersey is Suffolks most famous tiny hamlet, it is completely unspoilt and nestles in a steep little river valley with beautiful walks along Kersey Vale in both directions. You can throw a ball into open fields from any position in Kersey, it is that small!

Kersey Village

Kersey lies in a pretty River Valley along which you will find many of Suffolks famous medieval villages with Lavenham, an easy cycle ride away. And it has a smashing village pub called The Bell with good food and a roaring log fire in the winter. Dogs and walkers are welcome!

The next little hamlet called Lindsey has a good food pub known as The Lindsey Rose, also close by is The Edwardstone White Horse which does light food but has its own Micro Brewery so a good place to cycle or walk to (bikes are provided for free in Water Cottage)

Hollow Trees Farm has a wonderful Farm Shop comlete with a good Butchers and Deli, it also has a lovely farm trail where you can meet the animals and a great picnic area which tree swings and tunnels which the kids love and there is a good cafe for them if you didnt bring a picnic. Hollow Trees Farm is a decent walk away or an 8 minute drive.

If you follow the tiny lanes across country Long Melford, where Lovejoy was filmed, is just 9 miles away and the River Stour, where constable painted his most famous landscapes including ‘The Haywain’, is just 5 miles away.

You are right in the middle of the prettiest part of Suffolk here.

Close by is Lavenham which is England’s best preserved Medieval Village with a lovely Market Place, Guild Hall (now a National Trust local History Museum) and some great shops and art galleries. There are a number of excellent cafes, tearooms, restaurants and good food pubs.

 

History

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 Suffolk Landscape

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. This is now an interesting museum devoted to him and his works of art.

The Suffolk Coast

The unspoilt Suffolk coast line is about an hour from Kersey. The seaside at Aldeburgh which is a totaly unspoilt seaside village, famous for its Arts events and good food – it is about 50 minutes from Lavenham.