Day Five - Lavenham, Long Melford - 15 May

The weather forecast was partly sunny, heavy rain at times, showers, hail and unseasonably cold. It was all that was forecast and we postponed our day trip to The Broads until tomorrow hoping for better weather. We headed south to two beautiful old Suffolk wool towns of Lavenham and Long Melford which were about an hour’s drive from our little village of Pelgrave. Both are unusual for the Norfolk and Suffolk area as they are on small hills with views to the flat country side. Tomas drove, Liz navigated and Henk and I sat in the back taking it all in. Lavenham was a wonderful surprise as it was a small town comprising of many streets of old timber-framed medieval houses.

The High Street was long and wide with very quaint little speciality shops within the medieval buildings and many of their windows were decorated for the Queen’s Jubilee. There is a competition for the best dressed window and many were enthusiastically taking part. We drove up and down the quiet High Street until we found a suitable tea room.

After our cuppa and cake we walked down the street to be greeted by rain and then some hail. Tomas and Henk took to the car and Liz and I took to a shop to do some browsing and shopping. Once the weather improved we walked the streets with its astonishing array of medieval houses and buildings such as the white-washed Guild Hall and the mustard coloured Little Hall built in 1390 and improved in 1425-50.

One house in Shilling St was where Jane Taylor wrote in 1823 the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. When we arrived at Long Melford we drove down the long two mile main street from which its name derives. The town also had lovely buildings which we enjoyed but we were thoroughly spoilt by Lavenham.

We had lunch at the stylish Black Lion Hotel which is located at the beginning of the long High Street and sits under the shadow of the very large and impressive Holy Trinity Church. Whilst eating lunch we watched the heavy rain and hail bounce off the road and cars. The weather was very changeable all day. Liz, Henk and I had Long Melford sausage open sandwiches and they were very tasty.

After lunch the weather had cleared to sunny skies and we walked up the small road to the church to explore it. It was a lovely church with beautiful stain glass windows. One window had the Duchess of Norfolk, Elizabeth Talbot with a large headdress. John Tenniel used her as the model for the Duchess in “Alice in Wonderland”. We had a great day touring and even passed a windmill at small village of Stanton on the way home. We had to stop to take a photo. Tomas decided to cook dinner for us rather than go out. I haven’t cooked a meal since I left Australia on 2 April. It was a welcome change to have a home-cooked meal.