If you’ve visited the Cotswolds you’ll know it’s a place of Farrow & Ball paint, Chelsea Tractors, expensive second homes for wealthy Londoners, great pubs and is very dog-friendly. And so is Suffolk! In fact, we think our wonderful eastern county has everything that the land-locked Cotswolds have, with one added extra – Suffolk is by the sea!
‘Suffolk Pink’ houses at Lavenham.
To be fair, Farrow & Ball’s Sudbury Yellow No 51 might not be named after the Suffolk market town that’s home to Gainsborough’s House, birthplace of the acclaimed British painter, but if F&B do want inspiration from this neck of the woods, they could do worse than look at Suffolk Pink, our own paint from medieval times that’s a concoction of white lime wash and pigs’ blood and which you’ll see on wonky timber-framed houses in quaint villages all over the county.
Quaint villages are something that the Cotswolds and Suffolk have in common, both a result of the prosperous wool trade (Cotswold means sheep pen on the hill) that ended when the Industrial Revolution took the textile trade to the north.
DeVere House, Lavenham was featured in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
A legacy of those times are our marvellous ‘Wool churches’, included in the total of more than 500 medieval churches, the second largest concentration in the world after neighbouring Norfolk. Suffolk also has its beautiful wool towns, not least Lavenham, which was used as a location for a Harry Potter film (Potter was also filmed in Gloucester, in the Cotswolds).
Flatford Mill was an inspiration for Constable, and this young lady.
Suffolk has two National Landscapes to the Cotswolds’ one: we have Dedham Vale, inspiration for famous British painter Constable (The Hay Wain was painted at Flatford Mill), and Suffolk Coast and Heaths, which, unlike the Cotswolds, is next to the sea, so can offer short cliffs, lovely estuaries that can only be crossed by ferry, and fabulous sandy beaches at sleepy Walberswick, bright and breezy Felixstowe and genteel Southwold with its fabulous Adnams’ Brewery and Distillery and working lighthouse. Aldeburgh, just down the coast, isn’t known as ‘Islington-on-Sea’ for nothing!
Fresh Suffolk produce at The Suffolk Food Hall.
Talking of estuaries, in the shadow of the Orwell bridge on that estuary you’ll find The Suffolk Food Hall, our equivalent of the famous Cotswolds’ Daylesford Farm Shop.
Both areas have gently rolling countryside, and while the Cotswolds have the meadows of the upper Thames, Suffolk has coastal marshes at Carlton near Lowestoft, Dunwich and Snape Maltings.
A replica of the King Raedwalk mask at Sutton Hoo.
Like the Cotswolds, the Romans settled in Suffolk, but Suffolk was also a homestead for the Anglo Saxons, including at National Trust Sutton Hoo, famed for the burial ship and treasure of King Raedwald. Another Suffolk Saxon King, Edmund, was martyred by the Vikings and became the first patron saint of England. He is best remembered at bustling but gentle Bury St Edmunds, which could easily be mistaken for a Cotswolds market town.
The Rotunda at Ickworth House is the place for an Insta.
Suffolk is punctuated with beautiful gardens, historical and lively market towns such as Georgian Beccles, picturesque villages such as Clare and Kelsey, and splendid stately homes such as National Trust Ickworth House with its Italianate Rotunda and moated Tudor Kentwell.
Like the Cotswolds, Suffolk has famous reserves for birdwatching, such as Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Carlton Marshes and RSPB’s Minsmere, breath-taking landscapes that are ideal for walking and cycling, and an arty vibe with galleries, exhibitions and festivals.
The Cotswolds have their wildlife park but Suffolk has Jimmy’s Wildlife Park and Farm.
Unsurprisingly, this landscape provides a rich harvest that can be enjoyed in gastro pubs, country inns, and restaurants in chic hotels as well as characterful cafes. Except, again, Suffolk has its own superb seafood and shellfish that can be enjoyed along the 40-plus miles of coastline.
Adnams’ Brewery at Southwold- where magic is made to distribute to pubs across Suffolk.
On pubs, both the Cotswolds and Suffolk are renowned for them. Except Suffolk’s beer is better, especially the afore-mentioned Adnams and St Peter’s. Oh, and if The Cotswolds has the amazing Fleece Inn at Bretforton, owned by the National Trust, then Suffolk has The King’s Head/Low House at Laxfield, an ancient wood-panelled watering hole that doesn’t have a bar – you order at a back room that’s full of fresh barrels of guest beers.
Pubs and Inns to stay in
Hotels to stay
And talking of hotels, there’s great accommodation in Suffolk – spa hotels, country house hotels, boutique hotels, charming B&Bs, glampsites and self-catering cottages.
So, is that enough to win you over? Suffolk. Just like the Cotswolds. With added Coast. And perhaps a little less pretentious. And better beer and seafood. You’ll love it. At any time of the year.
