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We’re out and going East
  • Ant Travels
July 2021

We’re out and going East

Suffolk and a week in Aldeburgh! Read more
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  • Trip start
    July 16, 2021
    Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East

    Picture Postcard time

    July 23, 2019 in England ⋅ 27 °C

    Homeward via Lavenham! Lavenham is the picture postcard village and noted for its Guildhall, Little Hall, 15thC church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walks. In the medieval period it was among the twenty wealthiest settlements in England. It’s a good end to a great week !Read more

  • Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East

    We are here and it’s fish and chips!

    July 16, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    So a trip to the coast ! We hit Aldeburgh mid afternoon to settle in ! A quick trip to pick up Molly the Morris 1000 ( in for a service ) , a quick beer , and then it’s join the queue at the most popular fish and chips shop in town ! It’s a beautiful blue sky , sunny warm late afternoon sky and …relax ….Read more

  • Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East

    Down and up the coast

    July 17, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We first came here thirty plus years ago and some friends liked it so much they bought a house here! It’s changed somewhat but still has the chic charm of an isolated seaside community . The sun is out and the weekenders have arrived and it’s time to take the air and walk the dog !
    It’s a leisurely trip south to the Martello tower - which you can actually stay in - and onwards to the edge of Orford Ness, an old military base with some crazy structures which we have previously taken the kids too !
    It is divided from the mainland by the River Alde, and was formed by longshore drift along the coast. In 1913 the War Department acquired a large part of the Ness to develop into airfields and a bombing range and became established as the ballistics testing facility in the country. Other work included experimental radio beacons and the birth of radar! These days it’s owned by the National Trust and a nature reserve and accessed by only boat .
    Back into town and the brightly coloured cottages and everywhere varieties of hollyhocks ! It’s hot - time for a rest and a beer !

    Rested and trip up north to visit
    Leiston abbey ruins (mainly 14thC of Premonstratensian canons and Among Suffolk’s most impressive),
    Blythburgh priory ruins and the Holy Trinity church (great roof) before a first return to Dunwich beach ! The dog does not like the sea!    Read more

  • Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East

    Old, older, oldest

    July 18, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    The history of Suffolk has been shaped by the sea and the Sailor’s Path is one of the walks developed by the boots of seamen who used to trade along this part of the coast. Legend has it that when their boats got stuck in the Snape Maltings mud at low tide, the sailors would have to abandon their craft and head back to their Aldeburgh homes on foot. It’s a hot walk with an occasional bit of shade as we walk the dog by the estuary !

    Nearby is impressive Orford castle which was built by Henry II around 1165 . It was built as part of the coastal defences and first keep with 18 sides on the outside yet with a cylindrical inside. The keep is over 90ft high with a great view of the shingle bank of Orford Ness.


    Lunch at the Ramsholt Inn on the estuary and a quick look at its old isolated church .

    Up to Woodbridge to Sutton Hoo which is back in news via the movie The Dig. First excavations began in 1938 on the 11 burial mounds and soon unearthed a 90ft ship used for a Saxon chiefs burial . It’s a hot sunny walk around the site - most of the impressive remains are in the British Museum!    Read more

  • Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East

    Oddities and curiosities

    July 19, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    A leisurely start to visit The Scallop which sits on the beach in Aldeburgh . It’s a 13ft high monument, by local artist Maggi Hambling, to Benjamin Britten, composer and past Aldeburgh resident, who used to take his afternoon walks along the beach. The sculpture consists of two, broken, interlocking scallop shells. Cut into the rim of the upright shell are the words “I hear those voices that will not be drowned” from Britten’s opera Peter Grimes. And it’s another sunny day !

    Onto small village of Thorpeness dominated by the Mere a small lake area . In 1910 Stuart Ogilvie bought the hamlet and set to transform it into a private fantasy holiday village. Today the village is just how Ogilvie envisaged it with pretty mock Tudor houses and the fairy-tale ‘House in the Clouds’. The Mere comprises many little islands, all named by J.M Barrie, author of Peter Pan and visitors can hire little boats to drift between fairytale settings such as the pirate’s lair and Wendy’s house.
    You can’t miss the ‘house in the clouds’, an unusual water tower with a boarded house on top, which appears to float up into the sky. A friend hired it when the kids were young - it is fun but expensive then and now!
    We take a walk around the golf course , mere , woods and finish on the beach.

    Next its Southwold which is a small seaside town and quaint but always full of tourists ! There’s the Adnams brewery ! Hundreds of brightly coloured beach huts , a good beach and a pier ! We move onwards to quieter areas like Covehithe with its beach , stranded bunker and a ruined church and priory !
    Before winding home it’s Bungay’s Bigot Castle and a great wooden church roof at Margaret of Antioch near South Elmham!
    Another good day !    Read more

  • Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East

    The world of Beachcomber

    July 20, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    It’s another sunny day so it’s find a good walk for pooch! I think Benacre nature reserve sounds fun and it’s close to where we were yesterday ! Wild birds and woods and the beach! It turns out it’s mainly the 4 miles of Coverhithe beach ! Unspoilt and clean and not crowded ! We take a six mike stroll and get in some paddling ! Luna does not like the waves or the sea!
    Loads of Sand Martins buzz us from their cliff nests ! Eventually we do come across the ancient WW2 bunker on the beach ! A bit submerged these days ! A great walk !
    Quiet afternoon wandering and the highlight is curious tower of cubes of St Mary at Burgh St Peter ! Odd indeed - a thatched church with tower or is it a pyramid or a monstrosity or maybe a folly ? Who knows !!!    Read more

  • Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East
    22

    It’s not what it appears to be !

    July 21, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    To exercise the dog it’s a walk by the Orwell estuary from Pin-Mill with some great views of the river and also the inland farmland ! Fields of swede interspersed with some poppies and what appears to be lavender but isn’t ! Purple swathes of the herb borage !
    After a fishy lunch at the Butt & Oyster it’s a short trip over to Tattingstone village - very quaint with another oddity or rather the Wonder ! It looks like a church but it’s a private house that was three cottages. And from the front it looks like a church but the tower is FAKE and from behind it’s just tiles!
    Then it’s our afternoon visit to Flatford Mill and Mr Constable’s paintings ! All very scenic and NT these days but it seems even the great painter adapted what he could see ! Not quite a view across the meadows then or even now ! A little creativity to remove the trees , add a meadow and distant steeples !
    Another fun hot day !    Read more

  • Ant TravelsAnt TravelsWe’re out and going East

    My other home is a folly !

    July 22, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Framlingham Mere is a nature reserve and has a lake and wet meadows adjoining Framlingham Castle. There are many birds and flora! Framlingham castle is early motte and bailey or ringwork Norman castle. In the 15thC artificial meres were built around the castle, which was expanded with new brickwork including some odd out of place chimneys ! We embrace a quiet walk around the mere avoiding the cows!

    Ickworth House is a large Italianate NT country house set in large parkland ! Originally it had been planned as an art gallery but the Earl's collection was seized by Napoleon. As one of England's more unusual houses, Ickworth has been unflatteringly described as resembling "a huge bulk, newly arrived from another planet" and as "an overgrown folly". The rotunda is the feature ! The central rotunda is 105 ft. high with a domed and balustraded roof. The building is accessed through the central entrance ionic pedimented portico. The rotunda is decorated with pilasters, the lower are Ionic and Corinthian above. The ground and first floor and the third floor and the balustraded parapet are divided friezes bas-relief. It’s quite a place !

    Rendlesham has a folly that’s now a house ! Woodbridge lodge !
    Gothic meets modernity at this unique Suffolk home, which combines a grade II-listed folly with a glass addition by architect Hugh Pilkington.The lodge was constructed in 1806 by architect James Wyatt in the grounds of Rendlesham Hall, demolished in 1871. It has some bizarre flying buttresses that probably ever serve a useful purpose ! Though the estate is long gone, the folly was revived as part of the award-winning Woodbridge Lodge in the 1990s. All for £780,000! Great spiel online ! https://www.themodernhouse.com/past-sales/woodb…    Read more

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    Trip end
    July 23, 2021
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