It’s that time of year again. Time for our family pilgrimage to a part of England that holds a beloved place in our hearts. Our family has been going on holiday to this place since 1936. Yes, 1936. That’s 85 years. It’s true, Brits are traditionalists, but even so – that’s quite a commitment. What is so marvellous about this place that it would cause five generations to keep coming back? Simple. This is the place of our childhood. It is where we all remember our happiest times; summers filled with sunshine; roaming all day with friends on bicycles or on boats; sea swimming and sandy beaches; evenings of ‘Housy-housy’ (bingo); Scottish country dancing. Laughing with our mums and dads, sisters and brothers, cousins and uncles and aunts. Where is this idyll? In Suffolk, on the East coast of England. It is a little village perched on a headland, or a storm beach, called a ‘ness’.
Thorpeness was constructed according to one man’s dream to build a holiday village. Hewn out of unpromising marshland and sand dunes, the estate took form in the early part of the C20th, just before World War I. One mile north of the medieval town of Aldeburgh, Thorpeness village is an idyll of New England style wooden clapperboard houses surrounding a mature and now picturesque boating lake called The Meare. The Meare is punctuated by small islands and populated with quaint old fashioned attractions such as The Pirates’ Fort, Peggoty’s House and Smugglers Cave. The whole place is modelled on J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan. (Barrie was a friend of the founder and stayed often in Aldeburgh.) The lake is 60 acres of water, never more than a metre deep, fringed with willow and marsh grass and reeds. If you make it up to the North East Passage (right at the far end, furthest from the Boat House), watch out for the crocodile (you’ll see what we mean when you get there).
Thorpeness is an enclave – there is something time-warpy and other-wordly about Thorpeness – beyond its confines you feel like you are re-entering the real world. But it is a ‘posh’ enclave. Posh derives from the phrase Port out, Starboard home – smart, rich people, when travelling by boat, would always chose their cabins on the left side of the ship (port) for the journey out from Britain, and the right side (starboard) of the ship for the return trip. Why? To have a cabin that was in the shade for the majority of the day on board, and was kept, therefore, cool for the duration of the voyage. Thorpeness has played host to ‘posh’ families for over a century. It was meant as a family holiday destination for professional people down from London. A place where the children could play and adults could enjoy themselves playing tennis or bridge or golf without worrying about what their children were up to and knowing that they were amusing themselves safely. It used to have its own railway station and well to do families would send their luggage ahead with the servants so the house was all ready for the family’s arrival. There is a Country Club – originally called the Kursall in homage to the close relations the pre-WWI generation had with our cousins over the German Sea. The name was changed in 1914 when we went to war.
There are tennis courts and the Country Club puts on evening events: when I was a child, we had dinner dances where the adults dressed in Black tie and Scottish reeling. We had fancy dress balls (I won second prize one year when I went as the Pope, with half a football festooned with brightly coloured sweets glued to it as my Pontiff’s skullcap). We had table tennis for when it rained and all the children gathered in the afternoons to play and chat. It was child Heaven.
Houses are universally pretty and can be rented in Thorpeness year round, although in the peak summer months it is nigh on impossible to get one. (We prefer the houses facing the sea, but there are more to choose from around the Mere or on the perimeter of the club grounds.) Or you can rent in neighbouring Aldeburgh, which has more going on in the winter, several decent hotels, good delicatessens, a world class fish and chip shop and a fabulous book shop. You can also buy fresh fish from the fishermans’ huts on the beach, caught in their beach-launched boats. There are several renting agencies in the area such as https://www.bestofsuffolk.co.uk/ and the houses are all characterful and quirky.
Our family usually finds there is plenty to do to keep ourselves amused within the confines of the village, but if you fancy a trip around the neighbourhood, there is a famous concert hall at the Snape Maltings https://snapemaltings.co.uk/ which is an art and musical centre and the main venue for the famous Aldeburgh Festival (mid June). There is beautiful Orford, home to two very good country pubs https://www.jollysailororford.co.uk/ and the https://crownandcastle.co.uk/ and my favourite seafood restaurant in the world: the Butley Oysterage, where the food is fresh from the sea and simple – but all the better for that. (You will need to book.) Don’t expect fancy, but the clientele is loyal for a reason and we return year after year. https://www.pinneysoforford.co.uk/restaurant/
If you really want to venture out, Cambridge is 73 miles and a beautiful day out and Bury St. Edmunds is a lovely market town only an hour’s drive away. Just up the coast is Southwold, a picturesque coastal town, complete with pier and home to Adnams brewery – a favourite pint of mine. Between Thorpeness and Southwold is the best bird reserve in Britain – Minsmere. To the south and around the Orford estuary, is Shingle Street, a unique hamlet (a few houses) on a shingle spit and a brilliant place to get far away from the madding crowd. If you are writing a novel, this is where to do it, away from all the world’s distractions. And slightly nearer home, is Sizewell. Now, don’t be put off, but Sizewell is actually a nuclear power station. It’s distinctive golf ball reactor provides a rather alien backdrop to Thorpeness, but so far none of us have turned green.
There are families all over the UK who feel the loyalty we feel towards Thorpeness. But we are not alone in our affection. Other families have equally long traditions but in other places: the sailors go to Salcombe in Devon or Abersoch in Wales or Seaview on the Isle of Wight. The surfers go to Rock in Cornwall. All of these places have their own unique character.
Brittons love the seaside. When we all jetted off to sunnier climes, starting in the 1970s with holidays in Spain, these places had to reinvent themselves. In Covid times, they have come back into their own as everyone has to staycation at home. But for some families, we never deserted these places. They are where we have English fun, come rain or come shine. We wear shorts every day. Come rain or come shine. We BBQ, come rain or come shine or wind or tempest – often all of them, because the weather on the coast is usually all four seasons in the space of one afternoon! And we remember all the laughing and shouting and splashing and silliness that makes memories of holidays with our loved ones so special.
All these places are worth a stay. They are all special in their own way and beautifully British. But Thorpeness is the most special of all places, obviously. When you visit, do send it our love.
