Suffolk Coast & Cambridge

Suffolk remains one of England’s most rural and unspoiled counties with an extraordinary heritage of beautiful medieval buildings and magnificent churches built at a time when the wool made this one of the wealthiest areas of England. Our Walk combines three distinct areas: a coastal area of outstanding natural beauty with heath land, reed beds, and river estuaries; a very rural area that includes the Stour valley, the inspiration for Ronald Blythe’s Akenfield and for so many of the landscapes of Gainsborough and Constable; and we end in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities - Cambridge! Many emigrants departed from Suffolk for the New World, including Bartholomew Gosnold, who reputedly named Cape Cod and founded the Virginia Company at Jamestown.

We stay in Aldeburgh, the home of the renowned Music Festival founded by Benjamin Britten who lived for many years in the town. At the top of the Town Steps, leading off the High Street and up the cliff, there is a wonderful view over the roof tops and out to sea. Our hotel overlooks the shingle beach, where fishermen still sell their daily catch from huts, and is a short walk from the River Alde, which inspired Britten’s opera Curlew River.

We begin our walk at Southwold with a visit to the working lighthouse, busy harbour, the magnificent 15c church and a stroll along the pier. We follow the River Blyth through whispering reed beds to our destination at Dunwich, formerly East Anglia’s busiest town with nine churches, and an important boat building industry and harbour, home to an impressive fleet of royal ships. It has now nearly all eroded into the sea and little remains apart from eerie tolling of church bells from beneath the sea – or so local lore has it. A visit to the little museum tells a fascinating tale.

We set off for the Maltings at Snape, where the Festival’s Concert Hall overlooks the salt marshes and mudflats of the Upper River Alde. We may see a Thames Barge venturing up the winding river at the top of the tide as they have done for generations; once used for transporting barley from the fields of East Suffolk to the breweries of London, they are now a rare, if stunning, sight. We cross ancient heath land where woodlarks and rare heath butterflies abide and reach Orford, one of the prettiest villages on the Suffolk Heritage Coast and a true historical gem; the river Ore still flow past the quay and are home to fishermen, boats and birds. We visit the unique polygonal tower keep of Orford Castle, built by Henry II in the 12th century to counterbalance the power of turbulent East Anglian barons and to guard the coast against foreign mercenaries called to their aid. We return by boat upriver to Aldeburgh where we have time to visit the fascinating Town Museum housed in the16th century Moot Hall.

We leave the coast and head inland to an area with some remarkable Manor Houses. We walk through ancient oak woods with names such as Sally’s Grove and Maids’ Wood to the village that inspired Ronald Blythe’s ‘Akenfield’ which describes traditional farming life in this part of Suffolk. In the afternoon we visit Otley Hall, a privately owned 16th century moated Hall set in 10 acres of gardens. Bartholomew Gosnold (1571-1607), whose family lived at Otley for 300 years, voyaged to the New World where, in 1602, he discovered Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, which he named after his infant daughter. In 1607, 13 years before the Mayflower landed, he returned to found Jamestown colony in Virginia, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in America. We wander around the renowned gardens and enjoy a Suffolk Cream Tea before continuing to Lavenham, arguably the most beautiful village in England. We have time to admire the stunning half-timbered, colour-washed houses and more than 300 buildings of the highest architectural interest, including the museum in the 16th century Guildhall of Corpus Christi. Our lodging, dating back to the 15th century, is one of England's most iconic hotels.

After breakfast, we set off for yet another stunning village - Long Melford - with a High Street that is 2 miles long! The church is recognised as being the finest in Suffolk and has a treasury of English medieval art with outstanding stained glass. From the church we cross the village green to Melford Hall, one of East Anglia’s most celebrated Elizabethan houses. We see the Regency Library, the panelled Banqueting House and the Great Hall, where Elizabeth I was entertained along with her 2,000 courtiers. There are mementoes of Beatrix Potter in the room where she stayed. After lunch we walk along the Upper River Stour, known, loved and painted by both Gainsborough and Constable, before we drive to Cambridge, that great city of learning, for our Farewell Dinner in one of the famous colleges.

We stroll the lanes of this most romantic of cities set on the winding River Cam and view the university from the ‘Backs’. We visit some of the colleges whose magnificent architecture reminds of the myriad of people who have studied here over the last 800 years and shaped our culture today. We end our East Anglian adventure with a gentle cruise on a river-punt, offering a unique view of the colleges before our departure.