Once again we take advantage of the hire car and go a little up the Sussex coast to Aldeburgh, passing golf courses and then fields, some with sugar beets. We even see a number of thatched roofs as well as quite a number of tile ones. Aldeburgh is an attractive seaside town, once a Tudor port, given borough status by Henry VIII. Wooden painted houses here as well as the more common brick and stone.It was formerly home to Ruth
Rendell and Benjamin Britten, among others. And about a third of its residences are second homes. (Average detached house price £690,840 ($1,195,153 CAD).
We stop for a walk along the shingle beach, fascinated by the multicoloured pebbles. There are a few boats in sight and a number of places selling fish - fresh or smoked - and seafood. So we stop and buy salmon steaks, smoked mackerel, large scallops, and fish paté.
Our next stop, a few miles down the road, is a complex that rejoices in the name of Snape Maltings, in the village of Snape. The Domesday Book records 49 men in Snape in 1085. Current population is about 600, but presumably this is not men only. Its history goes back well before that, though, at least 2000 years, with the village serving as a centre for salt production in Roman times. More recently - as in mid nineteenth century to mid twentieth - barley malting for domestic and export purposes was a major industry.
When that ceased Benjamin Britten was key (well, can’t say instrumental) in developing a major music study and concert centre in the former malting facility. We have lunch in the little restaurant and visit a shop with extensive cook ware, kitchen gadgets and furniture, varying from the beautiful to the functional, all of it classy and none of it underpriced. Fortunately, most items are too heavy to be seriously tempting. (Marble figures prominently). Pass Smugglers Cottage, built in 1859, and think what a wonderful address - Smugglers Cottage, Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk. Worth acquiring for the address alone.
Salmon for supper with a sauvignon blanc, and it’s lovely.