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Eyke
Friday 10th July 2026 |
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After a slightly longer
journey than anticipated, because of major roadworks on
the A12 to accommodate the Sizewell C Power Station project,
we arrived in the village of Eyke just before 11:00 am and
quickly found Gillian and Tony's house, set back from the
main road. |
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Gillian and Tony gave
us a warm welcome before showing us around their lovely
house and garden, which is currently undergoing an extensive
but very promising transformation. After sitting and chatting
for an hour about the proposed list of things that we might
like to see and do, then deciding which ones we preferred,
given that we couldn't fit everything into a couple of days,
we set off for lunch at a pub beautifully located close
to the River Deben. |
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We were lucky to get
a table with a view just inside the marquee and enjoyed
our light lunch there. |
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A view across the River
Deben. |
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A short drive later
and we arrived at Sutton
Hoo where we had a really interesting visit. This is
just a very short summary of what is there, but there is
a lot more information about it online. |
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The original excavation
of the Sutton Hoo ship revealed only a ghostly imprint of
the ship in the acidic soil. Outside the museum is this
full-size sculptural outline (by no means an accurate reconstruction)
built to show the vessel's enormous size and shape. The
original ship was about 27 metres long, making it one of
the largest known Anglo-Saxon ships. There is, however,
a real full-size reconstruction being built by the Sutton
Hoo Ship's Company in nearby Woodbridge. Unlike the museum's
sculptural outline, this is a working wooden reconstruction
based on the archaeological evidence and experimental archaeology.
The aim is eventually to launch and sail it to learn more
about how the original vessel would have handled on rivers
and at sea. |
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Another view of the River
Deben. |
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One of the Anglo-Saxon
burial mounds. |
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Another view of Edith
Pretty's house. |
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We finished our visit
inside the on-site museum, where we were amazed by the many
and varied exhibits. |
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After our visit to Sutton
Hoo, we drove back to Eyke and then continued for a short
distance beyond the village to visit St Gregory's church,
which has strong connections to Sutton Hoo.
St Gregory the Great church stands in an isolated location
west of the village of Rendlesham which was once the capital
of the Kings of East Anglia. The history of St Gregory's
goes back to at least the 7th century. Raedwald, a descendant
of the first King of the East Angles, reigned from roughly
AD 599–624. He was a Christian, but his wife was a
pagan, so he came up with an ingenious solution. Raedwald
established his royal church at Rendlesham, and in the church
were two altars, one pagan and one Christian. Raedwald is
believed to be the king buried in the famous ship burial
at Sutton Hoo and it is certainly possible, given Rendlesham's
importance as a royal seat of power, that Raedwald was carried
from this church to his burial at Sutton Hoo. |
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After a most interesting day, we drank
champagne and dined in the garden. The heat of the day
had lessened to a point where it was just comfortable.
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A gorgeous sunset, as
seen from the garden as we looked out over the fields beyond. |
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Lesley, G&T's pet cat
was beautiful, but wasn't quite prepared to be best friends
with us yet!
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Saturday
11th July 2026 |
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Today was cloudy and
felt almost cool, for which we were all quite grateful.
The sun did eventually emerge, but in the meantime, we had
a full programme of activies planned for us, starting with
a drive to Snape Maltings, famous for the Snape Maltings
Concert Hall, established by Benjamin Britten. It sits on
the bank of the River Alde, surrounded by an Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty. Its converted Victorian buildings are home
to independent shops, galleries, a restaurant and a café,
plus several performance venues. |
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For us, visiting the
impressive concert hall was the main attraction. The BrittenPears
website provides quite a good overview of the site. |
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The museum adjacent
to the house contains many interesting items, one of them
being this original score of the opera Peter Grimes, which
we both know and love. Other items included some moving
letters exchanged between the couple. |
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The interior of the house,
in which they both clearly felt very comfortable. |
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A narrow staircase takes
you up to the dedicated composing room. |
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The gardens are still
well maintained and felt very tranquil. |
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Tony was particularly
taken by this variety of sunflowers. |
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Geoff was pleased to
see mulberries growing on the tree. They are one of his
favourite fruits. |
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We drove on into the
town of Aldburgh.
Close to the car park is the Scallop
sculpture, a 2003 work by artist Maggi Hambling. The work
is a tribute to Benjamin Britten. |
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We walked slowly along
the full length of the town. We had visited it once before
many years ago, but it was good to visit it again. |
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We had a light lunch
(well actually we shared a croque monsieur) at the Two Magpies
Bakery restaurant. The bakery is one of a few branches (another
being in Southwold that we really like) and we were equally
impressed by this branch. |
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Driving back to Eyke,
Tony took us on a detour to visit the Church of St Botolph,
Iken.
The Church is Grade II listed and at the time of the most
recent amendment to the listing (1984), the church was still
burnt out. The nave is the oldest part, dating from before
1200. The chancel fell into disuse after the Reformation,
and was in ruins by the 18th century. It was rebuilt in
1853. The tower is 15th century. The church suffered a devastating
fire in 1968, caused by sparks from a bonfire. |
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Back at the house, Lesley
was still not ready to make friends, but she was happy to
stare at us, possibly willing us to leave as soon as possible! |
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We had an hour to rest
before we set off again to Orford,
where we were booked to have dinner at the Crown and Castle
Hotel. Beforehand, however, there was time to look out over
the River Alde towards the North Sea beyond. |
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There was also time to
take a few photos of one another in the early evening light. |
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It was only a short walk
into the heart of the village to the Crown and Castle for
dinner. |
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Another delicous meal.
Geoff had the crab with watermelon, soy gel, brown crab
cremeux & toasted sesame to start, followed by the risotto
with summer vegetables & parmesan crisp. |
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Bruce didn't take photos
of his food, but had the heirloom tomato tartare, served
with sourdough crostini & herb oil to start, followed
by Suffolk lamb rump, served with boulangère, spring
onions and cherry tomato compote. We couldn't fault anything! |
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Walking back to the
car park after dinner, we were able to get a better feel
for the village. |
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Sunday
12th July 2026 |
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We were treated to croissants
and coffee for breakfast. We were due to catch a train home
at 11:00am, but there was plenty of time to take a walk
through the village of Eyke to the All
Saints Church, where Tony gave us a guided tour, which
we both found very interesting. |
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Sadly and all too soon,
it was time to go home. Tony drove us to their closest station,
Melton, which is on the same line that we took from Ipswich
to Halesworth a couple of weeks previously. We had a trouble-free
journey home. We were so appreciative of the efforts that
Gillian and Tony took to make our stay with them so nice
and we'll remember everything we did with them for a long
time to come. |
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