Molletts Farm, Suffolk — Graham Custance Photography

We had been wanting to visit Suffolk for some time, there are so many pretty villages to photograph as well as rolling countryside and coastal locations and from our home in Bedfordshire, the route is a lovely drive avoiding the major motorways, instead enjoying a leisurely tour through East Anglia.
Sasha & Richard had invited us to stay with them on Molletts Farm in one of their six new luxury cottages and studios near Saxmundham just off of the A12, which was perfectly positioned for all of the locations that we wanted to see. The working farm can be traced back to the 17th Century and would have seen hard-working Suffolk Punch horses ploughing the fields all of those years ago.

On our drive to Mollets Farm we stopped at the picturesque village of Lavenham, a Medieval wool town and one of the best preserved in England. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century it was one of the foremost cloth making centres, famed for its blue broadcloth. Today, it is a thriving community with an abundance of Tudor buildings, including the magnificent Guildhall, overlooking the Market Place, which houses a museum with fascinating insights into local life. Outside is a walled garden with examples of plants used in the Tudor cloth industry plus a village lock-up and mortuary.

While we were walking around Lavenham we noticed that there was a service offering guided tours of the village, which we would have used if we had more time here but definitely a useful resource for visitors.

On arrival at Molletts Farm we were met by Sasha and Richard who gave us a guided tour of the properties. We would be staying in the ‘Orford Stables Studio’ all of the cottages are named after nearby locations - Woodbridge, Framlingham, Aldeburgh, Dunwich, Orford and Snape.

The accommodation was spotless, the large super-king bed had Egyptian cotton linen, and to keep us cosy there was electric underfloor heating.

A large flat screen TV with Freeview HD, and a bedside clock radio, drop-leaf dining table with two fold-up chairs were all supplied. The kitchen was really well equipped, with a kettle, toaster, microwave, fridge, ceramic hob fan oven and even a dishwasher. A really nice touch was the welcome pack that Richard and Sasha had left for us, which consisted of bread, cake, milk, butter, tea, coffee and cereal.

The walk-in wet-room shower is wheelchair friendly and comes with a lovely selection of toiletries for your use. Outside, there is a pretty courtyard, with a rose garden, there are 3 cottages on one side of the courtyard consisting of 2 floors, and 3 studios on the other. Stand outside in the evening and you will see an abundance of stars in the sky due to the lack of any light pollution. Explore the surrounding countryside and see Millie the friendly horse along with chickens, ducks and peahens. There is a large gravel carpark adjacent to the properties, so easy transportation of any luggage that you may have. Molletts Farm also caters for camper vans, caravans and tents, in the nearby field.

Suffolk has so many beautiful places to visit and all are within driving distance of the farm. There is a fabulous welcome pack in the accommodation detailing the local attractions, which include maps, flyers and books, which we found very useful.

Within the self-catering accommodation, well behaved pets are welcome to stay with you for a charge of £25 each per stay, which is great news because Suffolk has a good number of dog-friendly pubs. A couple that we really enjoyed were The Castle Inn at Framlingham, where there is a pretty courtyard and individual wooden enclosures to sit at and enjoy a meal. Also The Flora Tea Rooms on Dunwich Beach was a lovely location overlooking the sea and offered a wide variety of food and drinks.

Molletts Farm is surrounded by 35 acres of stunning countryside and every morning we would take Riley for a walk on the public footpaths across the fields. We met Mollie in one of the nearby paddocks one sunrise.
There are five locations for camper vans and space for tents on the camp site. An electric vehicle charging point is located in the carpark.

Southwold is about 15 miles from Molletts Farm and is a charming seaside town on the Suffolk Heritage Coast, with plenty of attractions including the pier, a working lighthouse, busy harbour and a sandy beach lined with colourful beach huts.

Framlingham is an ancient market town and home to the magnificent 12th Century castle belonging to the Earls and Dukes of Norfolk. It is said that Mary I spent time here in 1553 before going to London to reclaim her throne from Lady Jane Grey. The Church of St Michael has the tomb of Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII.

Other locations that are definitely worth a visit are Orford, with its castle, built by Henry II, pretty cottages and picturesque quay offering river cruises. the seaside town of Aldeburgh, a former Tudor port given borough status by Henry VIII himself, the shipbuilders here were responsible for the creation of Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind.

Thorpeness has two ‘must see’ places, the windmill which is Grade II listed and “The House in the Clouds’ , one of the country’s famous follies, originally built as a storage capacity for a basic water supply for Thorpeness village. The tank was removed in 1979 and today it is a 5 bedroom holiday accommodation.

On the way home from Molletts Farm we visited, one of the most beautiful villages that you could possibly see. Straddling a cobbled ford are Medieval timber-framed buildings, a church dating back to the 12th Century and The Bell, an inn from 1370. Kersey owes its wealth like Lavenham to the heyday of the Suffolk wool trade in the Middle Ages. Famous for its coarse twill broadcloth, much of which was used for army greatcoats and uniforms. Many of the attractive cottages in the village were home to families of weavers.