SUFFOLK IS SO PRETTY

[Mitchy1nge]

especially in the sun and when there are all new flowers and spring blossom everywhere

in case anyone was wondering

I live in Suffolk too. Love Woodbridge, aldeburgh etc. Had a lovely wander round ipswich today. St Peters Street is fab at the moment!

Suffolk here too , need to read thread but there are just too many great things about Suffolk to mention

I am halfway between Fressingfield and Bramfield................

Haverhill is not as bad as it was
I no longer have to wear my stab proof vest to go shopping

I am close to Tesco which is actually a bit rubbish
Sainsburys is better

What a lovely thread- so happy to read all this praise of Suffolk.

Here is Suffolk local if you want to take a look and maybe wax lyrical on our many attractions with a review (or two) pretty please.

[[http://splashurl.com/onmuedu Loads of Suffolk porn on Mumsnet Suffolk Facebook site too).

Loads of Suffolk porn on Mumsnet Suffolk Facebook site too

youvegottobekittenme: is it not haverhole! hehe, I never found it tooo bad but I know to a lot of locals its not seen in good light! I lived near clare for 1 1/2 yrs ad loved it very friendly, also good fruit picking!

What I love about Suffolk (or one of the many things I love about Suffolk) are the small towns packed with independent shops and they all support each other so well. Clare and Woodbridge, Hadleigh are all great examples of towns that have grimly hung onto their butchers, bakers and candlestick makers with Hadleigh even fighting off the Tesco onslaught.

The countryside around Hawkedon with its deep cuts bracketing lanes, wooded dips and hollows and houses punctuating miles of fields is one of my favourites.

Also love Clare Castle country park with its tumbled down Motte ruins and lakes with wooded shaded paths that turn into the railway walk and Suffolk route taking you all the way to Sudbury.

Foxearth picnic place was a childhood haunt, again with the Stour running through, rabbit warrens to run up and around and thick wooded glades with footworn paths.

The Crown & Castle is a favourite- we have stayed there several times and the nearby Orford Ness. We rented the seafront house next door to Alain De Bottons architecturally unique mammoth - ours had sunbleached slightly mildewy fabrics in the sunroom, rickety collections of furniture amassed over the years from family donations and would certainly not win a RIBA award but my goodness did we feel we were reliving an Enid Blyton style childhood we never really had!

Iamsix

There are lots of gorgeous villages near BSE- I love Risby with its spacious village green, little primary and great Farmers market; Walsham Le Willows with its own butchers, pubs and a great village social life; Pakenham with a working windmill that makes amazing flour; Horringer has Ickworth Park, a few pubs and some really picturesque old houses and it is close to town; Whepstead, Chevington and Chedburgh are well thought of too.

Great Barton and Thurston are larger villages- Thurston has a primary and high (Upper) school, a butchers and general store, very active social calendar and several pubs. It is also on the main train Ipswich- Bury- Cambridge line with its own little station.

Elsmwell is on the same train line- it has pretty parts and some larger housing estates that threaten to subsume the character in parts. But we need housing.

Cockfield is the largest English parish I believe and lies between Sicklesmere and Lavenham. You will need a car to get about although parts of it are covered by the main Sudbury-Bury to Colchester bus route. Lavenham is ten miles away but feeds the Sudbury school system in the main although some pupils do attend Bury schools.

Great Welnetham near Bury off the Bury-Sudbury road is a small etiolated village, mainly houses and not a lot of shops.

So many gorgeous villages around BSE - how does one choose?

I live in Bramfield!

I love Suffolk. I couldn't live anywhere else. I'm a Suffolk girl. I love the wide open countryside and the huge skies. I love Southwold, I love everything about it. The beach, the pier, the common, the shops. I love the bleakness of Dunwich beach. I love the walks of Walberswick and the huge beach. I love the quirkiness of Aldeburgh, not to mention their fish and chips. I'm not too keen on big cities, give me a dog, a pair of wellies and a nice day and I'm happy for hours.

Ooh, Bramfield, we got our pigs butchered at Bramfield meats. You're lucky to have ready access to their bacon!

Oh my word Yaffle have you tried their beer cured bacon?

Thanks to this thread I am now very homesick! California may be sunny basically all the time (sorry) but you can't beat the Suffolk countryside and lovely towns and villages. Sigh.

Seriously, I'm about to cry with homesickness now thanks to you lot...

Yup - in catering packs! I live in Diss but go over there every now and then to stock the freezer.

bailey you are right about the small towns. They are amazing in the way they keep their independence. I think possibly one of my favourite shops in the whole world us Partridges in Hadleigh.

Oh god, I really am homesick for Suffolk now.

Ruddy

Ohh Partridges - the shop that people go into and never come out of . They sell everything don't they?

The artisanal food (sorry for the poncey word) is amazing- Henrietta Inmans patisserie, Suffolk Black bacon, Weldons pick your own fruit in Gt Cornard, Shortts Farm Brewery ales- #Skiffle and #Strummer, Bread from The Friendly Loaf Company from a farm near BSE that has whole duck and geese families waiitng around the barn door as the baker bakes!

We met your friend at #PumpStreetBakery Lottie I think- we bought bear claws and an almond filled pastry then ate them naughtily in the pub opposite. I watched my DH quiver and shake as he attempted to swallow and enormous oyster at the smokehouse- along with the rest of the restaurant.

Sugfolk here too, but in middle of a move to cornwall atm. Will miss it terribly but we're moving to be closer to family now we have dd (2.9)

We're over between bse and newmarket and south a bit.

gosh you make it all sound so lovely I almost don't want to move...

Well the flip side of all the loveliness is the rural poverty, super slow broadband and poor transport links because of the denigration of rural bus routes.

These do get lost in all the prettiness.

But the scenery is stunning- heart stopping sometimes. Travelling around the tree enclosed roads locally now they are in bud and misted with green, I often pull over in a layby just to look.

Ruddy we use to lose my dad for hours in Partridges. I've never since seen a shop so utterly random in terms of stock - they sold everything!

justicewomen I grew up next to the Red Lion, and have some find memories of summer afternoons in the pub garden with a britvic and a bag of crisps while dad gossiped with the landlord!

My aunt used to work in the Ancient House when it was a proper bookshop. The children's section was fantastic.

Ipswich

Ancient House was such a beautiful bookshop- so many lovely book shops lost. I remember when Sudbury had two of them within feet of each other on Gainsborough St and another on the neighbouring Friars St. Both little treasure chests of carefully selected stock.

Harris & Harris in Clare is lovely as is Landers book shop in Long Melford.

Posted too soon- I remember the Blue Coat Boy in Ipswich and the Chrissie in Sudbury

Off to spend a lovely morning at Twist the yarn shop in Woodbridge

Dh taking dog and children to Aldeburgh, they are objecting but chips will solve the problem!

I love the fact that we have so many wonderful independent food shops , it's a foodies paradise really. And also that largely the towns do retain a good smattering of independents although there are lots of empty shops in Woodbridge at the moment.Also love the independent cinemas.

I constantly marvel at the scenery and it's a great place to bring up the children ,.

Not so good is the lack of public transport,the high house prices in places like Woodbridge , slow slow broadband, very late postal deliveries and sometimes the lack of bigger shops although the new John Lewis at Ipswich has been a godsend .