1 - OULTON BROAD
A centre for yachting and yacht racing. In the summer power boat races are held. It is a place where families promenade and play a bit like Seurat’s painting ‘A Sunday Afternoon at the Grand Jatte’. Well almost. There is a bandstand where Brass Bands and the like play on summer Sunday afternoons.
2 - BECCLES
Has a view to the North. It is said that on a very clear day from the top of St Michael’s Bell Tower (separate from the church) and perhaps with the help of an optical aid, that Norwich Cathedral can be seen, where Peregrine Falcons regularly nest. The tower has ten bells.
One time resident and pupil at the Sir John Leman School, Dorothy Hodgkin, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964.
3 - BLYTHBURGH
Small village on the A12 South of Southwold.
In 1944 President John F. Kennedy’s elder brother Joe Jnr. was killed in the air just to the South of the village when his B17, packed with munitions, exploded, killing both members of the crew. It was part of an USAF project to use radio controlled planes to strike at German targets in France. They were due to bail out over Manston Airport in Kent. Joe Jnr was expected to be the Kennedy to run for the Presidency. John took his place, and there was speculation that a shot was fired from ‘the grassy knoll’.
Holy Trinity Church (the Cathedral of the Marshes) overlooks the ‘heart’ of the village, the public house called The White Hart.
4 - PAKEFIELD
Once a fishing village apart from Lowestoft. All Saints and St Margaret’s Church was once two Churches, now joined together.
Of the several Public Houses, The Tramway was the southern terminal for trams out of Lowestoft.
The Ferini Gallery is much loved as is the Seagull Theatre.
In 2005 evidence of habitation some 700,000 years old was discovered. It was linked to the Kindertransport bringing Jewish children to safety from Nazi Germany.
5 - BARSHAM
A part of Barsham is known as Barsham City. Lord Horatio Nelson’s mother was born and brought up in the Vicarage here.
The architect who designed The Royal Albert Hall is buried in the Churchyard.
In the mid seventies several ‘Barsham Faire’s were held in the meadow next to the church.
6 - BUNGAY
Harry Potter books were printed here at Clays Printers.
There is fully functioning Fisher Theatre.
The windmill has long been a house.
A well known patchwork and quilting shop called Sew and So’s sits beneath the castle remains.
Bungay had its own coinage, now worth a lot to collectors.
A black dog known as Black Shuck lives in folklore.
7 - WESTLETON
Fairly large duck pond by the Village green.
Next to Minsmere Bird Reserve where Bitterns can be found.
The Church has no tower, first one lost in a storm, the replacement lost to a stray bomb in WW2.
There are eighteen Lime trees as a memorial to those who died in the First World War.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have stayed at the Crown Inn.
It is close to Dunwich Forest and Heath which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
8 - YOXFORD
Miss out the Y and you end up in Oxford.
There is a pub called The Griffin here, and one in Oxford.
In nearby Peasenhall a housemaid was murdered in 1902.
The Methodist Minister was tried twice and the juries failed to agree.
A TV programme suggested it was the Minister’s wife!
9 - HALESWORTH
Kew Gardens are 123 miles from Halesworth. The first Director of Kew, Sir William Hooker lived in Halesworth. His son Sir Joseph Hooker was born in Halesworth and became the second Director of Kew.
There is an annual ‘Halesworth in Bloom’ competition.
The spandrels on the sign are two US Airmen acknowledging their roll at the nearby airfield during World War Two. The unique moving platform has been restored and is part of the museum at the railway station.
The Cut is a theatre and arts centre.
10 - SNAPE MALTINGS
Benjamin Britten once lived in a house overlooking the Old Maltings. He thought that it could be a ‘Suffolk Glyndebourne’ and give more room for the expanding Aldeburgh Festival.
Ivory are the piano keys, alloys are the Brass instruments and strings the various stringed instruments.
Grain was malted here for the making of ale.
11 - KESSINGLAND
Kessingland is often thought of as two separate areas but in reality they are one large village.
Sir Rider Haggard [author of King Solomon’s Mines] lived here overlooking the sea. He was an early advocate of the planting of couch grass etc. as a means of protecting the cliffs from penetration from the sea. His close friend Rudyard Kipling visited him here.
One of the early Lifeboats is in the Lifeboat Museum at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, where Nelson’s ship at the Battle of of Trafalgar, The Victory, was built.
The Sailor’s Home is a Public House.
Africa Alive wildlife park is to the south of the village.
12 - COVEHITHE
A secluded hamlet just north of Southwold. Said to have the highest rate of coastal erosion in the UK. In the seventeenth century St Andrew’s Church was partly demolished and a smaller one built within the ruins. It is thought to be just a matter of time before it is given up to the sea.
Its uninterrupted easterly views are a good place to watch the sunrise.
13 - LOWESTOFT
Most easterly town in UK and second largest in Suffolk. Once home to hundreds of fishing vessels and birthplace of the composer Benjamin Britten.
Apart from being musical charts ‘scores’ are the steep alleyways in the north of the town.
Mathew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, applied his dubious trade here.
International rockstars The Darkness are from here and Gulliver is the name given to the very large wind turbine that overlooks the town.
14 - BARNBY
Small village between Lowestoft and Beccles.
In 1891 there was a train crash where three people were killed. The bodies were kept over Christmas in the the cellar of the local pup, The Swan Inn.
St John the Baptist Church is very small and the door to the stave locker is the original and thought to be the oldest in continual use in the country.
15 - SOMERLEYTON HALL
Grade 2 listed large country house with some very large trees in the grounds.
A Ha Ha is a hidden ditch built so as not to spoil the view of the parkland from the house.
In the hallway are two polar bears, shot by a previous inhabitant.
Sir Christopher Cockerell used the lake as a testing place for his invention of the hovercraft.
Samuel Morton Peto, a previous owner, at one time employed more people than anyone else in the world.
16 - SOUTHWOLD AND WALBERSWICK
Two communities situated North and South of the River Blythe on the East Coast. A rowing boat ferries foot passengers across the river.
Adnams Brewery is located in Southwold which has an active pier.
Walberswick is famous for crabbing. Both places have a large number of ‘holiday homes’.