Welcome to my very personal Insiders Guide to this wonderful part of Suffolk.

The Guide is growing day by day and as soon as the bees stop swarming and the bantams have been fed and my baby walked I promise to get some more bits up, but this is more than enough for a great visit to this lovely rural area.

Please let me know of any gems you happen on and I will happily check them out and include them.

Happy Hols

Mark.

Latest News

We have virtually finished renovation on our fabulous 300 year old Log House which we can now to offer you for Summer 2008, here are some pics and you can find a whole page of info on the menu button on the left.

Or get a sneak preview of the main webpage at http://www.grove-cottages.com/tara.htm

About Suffolk

In Charles Dickens's days, boys living in Scotland and here in East Anglia would be allowed to leave boarding school a day early because it took so long to get back home to those places.

Even though we are just 60 miles from London, this area was always very inaccessible and remained so until very recent times.

Now the local mainline train journey to London is a mere 45 minutes and a car journey takes about an hour and a half.

But still Suffolk has retained an unusually strong independent rural atmosphere and one of the great joys of the area are the beautiful little villages that even locals get lost getting to though the meandering 'spiders web' of tiny lanes and byroads. Many of these villages are wonderfully preserved in their medieval origins, our local village of Lavenham being a fantastic example.

The area is very rich in History from the Vikings of Sutton Hoo and the rebel Queen Bodicea who defeated the Romans, right up to the many expeditions of Settlers leaving for America - in fact the First Governor of Massachusetts came from this tiny hamlet of Edwardstone.

The landscape and the Architectural beauty of the area has long inspired Artists to work and move here. The greatest English landscape painter John Constable painted all his masterpieces along the Stour which is just 5 miles from The Grove Cottages. His work undoubtedly created this landscape as the quintessential English Landscape, which is one reason visitors to the area feel so at home.

Flatford Mill where many of Constables most well known works of art such as The Haywain were painted is now a National Trust area devoted to this artist and preserving his memory and the area he made so famous.

The Great Portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough lived in Sudbury which is the closest town to us and it is a real pleasure to visit his home which is now a very interesting museum and exciting showplace for local artists and events, it also has a wonderful print making workshop where courses on all kinds of printmaking are constantly held and very much sought after.

The great artist and founder of the Royal Academy George Munnings was famous for his portraits of Rural Suffolk Life and there is a museum and exhibition devoted to him nearby in the village of Dedham.

About this website

This is a very personal guide to all the best things to do around my holiday cottages in South suffolk.

Here is a brief index of some of what this area has to offer, if you have something to add please do contact me and I will put it on here.

Tel.: 01787 211 115
E-mail: mark@grove-cottages.co.uk

Mark Scott