Holiday cottages in Southwold - and more!

As you drive into Southwold a sort of nostalgic melancholy settles upon you. Even more curious is the fact that you may never have been there before. A focal point of Suffolk’s Heritage Coast, just off the A12 and midway between Lowestoft and Aldeburgh, Southwold is one of those places that tugs a distant memory chord. It’s like opening an old book with watercolour illustrations that recall an England where all was green and gracious and leisurely.

One of the first things you notice is Southwold’s neatness. Clearly it has a strong community spirit that gives high regard to order and a sparkling doorstep. Little gnomes peep mischievously through foliage at you as you wander the back terraces. Window-boxes are filled with colour and here and there, as if to remind you that this is a maritime town, a ship’s bell or figurehead will arrest your eye. A particularly good example of a merchant ship’s figurehead, representing a girl holding a bunch of grapes, stands outside a cottage in Park Lane. Several more are in the Sailor’s Reading Room at East Cliff. You don’t have to be a sailor to visit it , or even to read, but if nautical history is your interest this place has a fascinating collection of seafaring relics and model ships. You might even find an old salt there for a yarn or two.

Among many desirable cottages in Southwold is Fisherman’s Cottage.

Southwold spreads itself thinly and, virtually surrounded as it is by water (the River Blythe, Buss Creek and the North Sea) is practically an island. Not content with a single green, Southwold has nine, said to be the spaces once occupied by cottages that were destroyed in the major fire of 1659. This could be true of some but unlikely of others. South Green, for instance, sweeping across to Gun Hill, was almost certainly open heath long before the fire. If nine greens still fail to serve those with an appetite for bracing walks, there’s a magnificent 130 acre common and a stretch of marshland to the south and west of the town that should satisfy the most ardent walker.

Gun Hill is not so-called for nothing. Six splendid eighteen-pounder, muzzle-loading cannon point defiantly seaward from the crest of the hill. They have stood thus since 1745, when the Corporation petitioned George II for the means to defend the town against the Dutch. The guns are usually associated with the famous Battle of Sole Bay, but this actually took place in 1672. For some years England had been at war with the Dutch and the battle was a bloody affair that took the lives of many sailors and famously ended with neither side able to claim victory.

A Southwoldian by adoption, thriller writer P D James, who had a summer cottage there, once wrote that the guns should be turned inland to protect this civilised little community against the encroaching vulgarities of our age. The point is well taken, yet you feel too that the 2000 or so people who live here are perfectly able to handle the less desirable aspects of the age without the discharge of cannon-ball, symbolic or otherwise. Nowhere in Southwold is this resourceful, no nonsense approach more evident than in the town centre. At first glance, Market Place is pure’Toy Town’. You almost expect to see Mr Mayor and Larry the Lamb hurrying across to the town hall on some urgent civic problem. Market Place is Southwold’s focal point and at its hub is a delightful old water-pump, dated around 1873. Opposite the pump, the adjoining Town Hall and Swan Hotel offer between them one of the most handsome façades to be seen in any small town.

Readers of The Good Holiday Cottage Guide have recommended Wyvern Cottage, in the heart of the town.

From Market Place a walk in any direction will lead to more façades, with the fascinating juxtaposition of Georgian, Victorian, Tudor, and even Dutch architectural styles. Sutherland House in High Street is worth particular note, as it dates from the 15th century and was the headquarters of the Duke of York (later James II), England’s Lord High Admiral during the Dutch wars. Also in High Street are a couple of antique shops, a jeweller’s selling locally found amber and semi-precious stones, and a bookshop dating from 1662. Each shop jostles happily with its neighbour, giving an impression of commercialism on its best behaviour.

Some locals will tell you that Southwold’s lighthouse can be seen from any part of the town. If that owes more to wishful thinking than fact it doesn’t really matter, as the lighthouse does have a habit of popping up over the rooftops at unexpected moments. Unmanned and automatic, it was built in 1890 and is over a hundred feet high. Apart from its light, which can be seen for seventeen miles, the lighthouse is a landmark for ships by day.

Among the most sought-after holiday properties in Southwold is Pier View.

The tower of the parish church of St Edmund’s could probably do with a few more inches, but it is still one of the most striking churches in Suffolk. Dedicated to the last king of East Anglia, it impresses with its great size and pleasing proportions. Built around 1460, of rubble faced with stone and flint, it has a single hammer-beam roof, one of the most beautiful painted screens in all England and an equally eye-catching 14th century chest carved in walnut.

You can see more of the Dutch influence in the Southwold Museum, just across Bartholomew Green, opposite the church. Quite small, the building was probably a weaver’s cottage, but inside it seems surprisingly roomy and light. Its exhibits range from an old whipping-post to a fine collection of stuffed birds, some quite rare, but all found locally. However, the museum’s most noteworthy exhibit is a section devoted to the Battle of Sole Bay (England and France against the Dutch 1672).

A personal favourite of ours among Southwold Cottages is Blackshore Corner on the books of Suffolk Secrets.

In a town of such charm and sobriety it might be surprising to discover that Southwold has a brewery. Indeed, it has had one since the 16th century and the present one, Adnams, brews its beer solely from hops, malted barley, water and sugar. In keeping with long tradition, Adnams uses horse-drawn draws to deliver its splendid product. Beer lovers will find Southwold’s few pubs comfortable and friendly. I enjoyed the King’s Head, which had a display of local art and was lively without being raucous. Wine drinkers should make for the Crown Hotel and fans of a good ploughman’s lunch will find that at the Sole Bay Inn, beneath the lighthouse. The Harbour Inn, as its name implies, is down by the harbour south of the town, and here you can reflect upon a shoulder-high plaque on the outside wall, showing the water level during the flood of 1953.

It is hard to believe Southwold’s harbour was once a thriving fishing port. In the 16th century the town was sending more ships to Icelandic waters than any other on the east coast and in 1839 records show that 400 vessels arrived or sailed from the harbour. It all came to an end as the seaward approaches began to silt up. Today there are still a few fishing boats to be seen but it is mainly private yachts and dinghies that will be slipping into the harbour for a temporary mooring.