Gainsborough’s House is probably the most famous address in Suffolk. The birthplace of the leading English painter Thomas Gainsborough is now a museum and gallery and is a Grade I listed building. Visitors can view the family house, see examples of his work (alongside specialist exhibitions) and walk around the famed crinkle-crankle walled garden beside it, complete with mulberry tree dating back to the early 1600s. It’s all at 46 Gainsborough Street, Sudbury.
Another famous artist John Constable made Willy Lott’s Cottage at Flatford, East Bergholt (pictured above), a subject of several of his paintings, most notably The Hay Wain.
The Grade I listed property by the River Stour is now owned by the National Trust. Lott (1761-1849) was a tenant farmer who worked the 39 acres around Flatford belonging to Gibbeon’s Gate farm.
The Red House, Aldeburgh was the Grade II 17th century home of the composer Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears. The farmhouse, surrounded by a five acre garden is now something of a museum containing their collections and archive. The eclectic mix of art, artefacts and furnishings on display give a glimpse into the lives and inspirations of two extraordinary musicians.
The Victorian actress and socialite Lillie Langtry transformed a farmhouse at Kentford, called Regal Lodge, into what could be described as a pleasure palace. Gutting the building she added an extension to triple its size. The finest oak panelling and marble fireplaces were imported from Portugal and Italy and the main dining room was designed as a theatre complete with miniature stage and a Proscenium arch. The grounds included an Italianate sunken garden with a fishpond.
Fyfield Hall in deepest Essex contains oak roof timbers that were felled in 1167-85. It is believed to be the oldest continually inhabited, timber-framed house in Britain.
Meanwhile The Manor House at Little Chesterford is the earliest surviving domestic building in the county. The manor house was built of stone in around 1200 and in 1320 a timber framed aisled hall was added.
It was claimed the Krays, perhaps the most mythologised gangsters of all time, planned to retire in Suffolk. Certainly they were very fond of the county. Ronnie, Reggie and their older sibling Charlie were evacuated to Hadleigh in 1940. They stayed at East House, a listed Georgian property in George Street. Several years later – and while police were investigating the deaths of rival hoodlums -The Krays escaped to Gedding Hall, now the home of Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman. It was during their short stay there that they bought two properties in Bildeston,a large period house called The Brooks, and a pink washed cottage for their parents.
The idiosyncratic crime writer Patricia Highsmith once bought a characterful house in Earl Soham (pictured above) that consisted of two 17th century farm labourers’ cottages knocked into one. It had attractive gardens and a stream at the rear. Highsmith – the author of The Talented Mr Ripley – was said to be an alcoholic and a nymphomaniac and loved snails so much she was known to keep a hundred or so in a handbag feeding them lettuce.
Chelsworth – just a few miles from Bildeston – was once the temporary home of the celebrated columnist, gambler and heavy drinking womaniser, Jeffrey Bernard. In 1966 the twice divorced Bernard left Soho to make a fresh start in Suffolk. He, and the woman who was to become his third wife, rented an idyllic thatched cottage at 84 The Street. Bernard wanted to join Chelsworth’s cocktail set but said: “The gentry struck me off as I had peed in the rectory flowerbed.”
Westhorpe Hall near Stowmarket was once the 16-room home of Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, and Mary Tudor. The couple risked execution to be together, incurring the wrath of the tempestuous Henry VIII. A bridge and a moat are all that is left of the Hall and its estate – the site is now occupied by a nursing home.
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