Tag: Aldeburgh

Saturday 14 October 2023 – Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

We’d first booked this overnight stay at The Suffolk Hotel in Aldeburgh for July, it was to be one of Eleanor’s ‘significant birthday’ events. Sadly, we were forced to cancel a few days prior to going due to a train strike. I no longer have a car and a last minute rental was ludicrously expensive so a postponement was the right thing to do at the time. Frustrating, but right. The Suffolk describes itself as a restaurant with rooms rather than a hotel with a restaurant and it was established by George Pell a well known Soho restaurateur. Either way, both the room and the restaurant were fabulous. We had been looking forward to going for the extra three months we were forced to wait after reading some rave reviews in the mainstream press.

We were away from home for slightly over 24 hours and over that time we experienced every type of weather you would expect for this time of year. Heavy rain, high wind, sprinkling showers, high cloud and finally the crystal clear empty deep blue we want to see when we’re on holiday.

Luckily, the heaviest rain fell while we travelled north east from Liverpool St Station towards Ipswich, where we changed to a smaller, slower train to the ancient town of Saxmundham. Unlike the trains we’ve recently taken to the north west these were in good condition, and they even had phone charging points, which seems so critical in these always connected times.

We took a local bus from Saxmundham to Aldeburgh, sadly the windows were so filthy there was only a limited view. It was hard to work out where we were at times.

Aldeburgh is a lovely, small coastal town that has not fallen on particularly hard times, it’s popular with the ‘Chelsea set’ and this is clear from the condition of the town centre; it’s a lot cleaner and shinier than St Leonards, as were the people. Like St Leonards’ nearest neighbour, Hastings, Aldeburgh is also a beach launched fishing town; though significantly smaller with only a small number of working fishing boats. There are a lot of fish restaurants here.

After we dropped our bags at the hotel we took a short walk south down the coast. One of my favourite desolate places, and England’s only official desert, Orford Ness, is at the end of the long isthmus; though as an ex-weapons testing site access is not allowed from this end due to the potential of unexploded ordnance. I really wanted to go in there though, and there was nothing physically stopping access.

It was very windy, it howled through the masts of the yachts in the yards of the sailing clubs that ran between the gravel road and the River Alde. 

The raised road is all the separates the sea from the river and it has been heavily protected against the constant pounding tide. It won’t be like this for ever and I suspect Aldeburgh and Orford Ness, and many similar places on the Suffolk coast will disappear under the waves before the next generation is gone.

Just before the gate to Orford Ness stands a fabulous example of a Martello Tower. This one has been made into a B n B and featured recently on one of the many property renovation TV shows. The exterior looks amazing and it’s a beautiful, rugged defensive building, from what I recall of the TV show it was beautiful inside. It’s the northern most of a series of towers built along the south eastern coast of England as defensive gun batteries protecting against the very real threat posed by Napoleon. The construction of this tower ended in 1812. The unusual concentric circular design was inspired by a tower on Mortella Point in Corsica that withstood a prolonged barrage by two British Warships in 1796.

Back in town we walked up and down the high street and along the waterfront, stopping for a drink in one of the many pubs. I wished, as I always do, that there were fewer cars parked outside some of the lovely, and often colourful, cottages and houses between the high street and the seafront.

Eleanor went back to the room and I took a stroll around the fishing huts and boats. The beach is a lot tidier than where the fishing fleet of Hastings launch.

We had an early sitting in the hotel’s restaurant, ‘Sur-mer’ and everything about the (admittedly expensive) meal was excellent, the food, the wine we drank, the impeccable service, and the old fashioned I started with. There are no better drinks than a well made old fashioned. It was the first time we’ve been in a restaurant where we’ve felt young. Aldeburgh is definitely a town for older folk and much as I liked it, and much as I’m getting older, I’m not quite ready to be counted with the old people yet.

We only had the one night here, so after breakfast I went for a walk with the camera to see if I could find a few buildings without cars in front of them; I was disappointed. I was also interested in trying to capture some of the harsh light on this now cloudless day but didn’t quite have the success I was after.

We picked up a coffee and sat on the seawall and stared at the sea before getting the bus from Aldeburgh high street back to Saxmundham, then the train back to London for mid-afternoon on Saturday.

It was a lovely night away, though on Monday we are off again….