Discover: Great Maplestead
The Stables is down a tiny country lane surrounded by lovely countryside with walks directly from the cottage. The countryside is particularly nice with small tight hills rolling into one another and dipping away sharply into the valley where Castle Hedingham is.
Castle Hedingham has a few lovely pubs, restaurant and tea room along with a couple of shops and a lovely Castle with all kinds of events like jousting, it makes for an interesting evening in the pub when the knights, serfs, servants and maids come down for a well earned drink after the days events – all in costume and charcter.
The Bulmer Fox is a good pub doing very good food
The Pheasant at Gestingthorpe is another good gastro pub with a pretty circular walks from it
The Foragers Retreat is a wonderful and very unusual place to visit for tea and cakes or a proper meal as it features a lot of foraged ingredients and is very popular.
“SHILLINGFORDS WILD FOOD RESTAURANT at The Foragers Retreat.
Shillingfords Wild Food Restaurant offers a unique and intimate dining experience upstairs at The Foragers Retreat on Friday and Saturday nights.
Our chef Carl Shillingford cooks with equal enthusiasm and imagination for all plant, meat and fish based dishes using locally sourced, foraged, natural ingredients that change through the season. The menu changes each month and depends on the wild plants and mushrooms that we find.
Foraging and preparation of these wild foods take time and there is a limit to what we can serve, which is why we ask our guests to choose their meal beforehand so we can forage just what is needed – reducing waste and never over-foraging the wild plants.
The personalised menu creates a special connection between the chef and our guests.
To book a table email: shillingfords@theforagersretreat.co.uk”
Little India is our local Indian Restaurant and very popular.
There are also a number of really excellent tea rooms, pubs and restaurants in Long Melford like Scutchers and The Black Lion and The Long Melford Tandoori
Staying at The Stables gives you the oppurtunity to explore the lovely countryside surrounding it and you dont need a car; walking or using the bikes we provide is ideal.
There are pretty little churches to discover like the one in the gallery which is a crusader church and replicates the shape of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The church retains close links with the Order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem and every 1st Sunday in June Members of the order can be seen in procession, clad in traditional full robes.
The bustling market town of Sudbury is just a 10 minute drive away and has all the shops you could need plus a lovely little Theatre : The Quay Theatre, where you can enjoy a drink with the cast afterwards in the little bar.
Sudbury is also the birthplace of Thomas Gainsborough, probably Englands most famous Portrait painter. Of course when we mention painter we have to mention John Constable; best known for works like The Haywain along the river Stour which runs through Sudury.
There are lots of good restaurants and gastro pubs in Sudbury like The Secret Garden in Friars Street, as well a number of wine bars, excellent Turkish restaurants like Alaz and Lydia Turkish Kitchen Indian restaurants and many coffee shops.
