Exploring the UK countryside - Kettlebaston in Suffolk

Our first holiday in 2020 after the lockdown in March was in the UK itself, spent in a gorgeous English country house in Suffolk. Our house was located in the village of Kettlebaston, with the nearest town being Ipswich. To be honest, when we first heard that it was near Ipswich, we had very low hopes of the holiday being an exciting one. Ipswich is one of those British towns which has a poor reputation as a tourist destination among UK towns. In fact, we even started telling our friends we were holidaying in Suffolk, rather than Ipswich, so no one could judge us 😜.

The golden hue of wheat fields

The holiday turned out to be just the opposite of what we expected, though. Given it was the year of Corona, we learnt and started to appreciate how to spend a holiday without visiting touristy places. We spent our time enjoying the simple countryside pleasures of living in a comfortable grand country house and exploring the nearby areas. Which were as fun as any tourist attraction, with the added benefit of being safe as there were no crowds there. It was immensely enjoyable and relaxing by itself, and it did not impact us which was the nearest city at all (even if it was Ipswich!).

Getting there

The village of Kettlebaston where our country house was located is part of Suffolk county and quite close to London. The drive took us about 3 hours to get there, of which 1.5 hours were spent in getting out of London onto the M25. The rest of the drive was through huge fields, some still full and a lot of them already harvested. 

On the way, we saw a few animals like deer, rabbits and foxes, sometimes in the fields and sometimes crossing the road. There weren’t a lot of villages on the way, but the ones we crossed had some picturesque houses. But for us, anything would have looked magnificent. It felt awesome just to get out of London after 4 months of not leaving the city!


About our house, The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory

The country house we were staying in, known around as The Old Rectory, was a welcome surprise. None of us had stayed in such grand houses before and were awed by it. The house was huge and had a long driveway leading up to it through the woods. It used to be run as a B&B earlier but after the lockdown, the owners had converted it into a single family airbnb to enable people to come without fear. There were many rooms in the house but only 6 were available for us for use. It had many living spaces plus outside sitting areas, a huge garden in front with a trampoline, an aga oven (which I had seen for the first time ever) and many other spaces to have a comfortable and luxurious stay.

The gardens of the house were huge, with tennis grounds and a trampoline within its area. One of the days when it was supposed to be raining, we spent most of our time in the home grounds. We jumped for two hours on the trampoline which was pure and simple fun. And some of us made use of the tennis grounds too.

The owners of the house also stayed nearby, shifting to the outhouse when guests were over. They maintained some animals on the grounds, like hens, pigs and lambs. One of the days, we even went to see those animals and see the hen laying eggs. All in all, it felt like a real country houses with a farm-ish feel to it and we loved being there. Eating home cooked everyday in the cosy kitchen or the outdoor eating spaces. And just lazing, without a plan in mind. It was the perfect lockdown de-stresser vacation 😀.


Wheat fields around The Old Rectory

First view of wheat fields

The weather was supposed to be rainy over the 5 days we were there but it turned out to be sunny for most of the parts. The first day turned out to be a sunny and glorious day. Before we had decided the plan for the day, I went for a walk to the wheat fields right next to our grounds. You could just walk past an old abandoned boat next to a pond, cross a bridge on the stream and turn up into wheat fields stretching till where the eyes can see. I didn’t really realise till this trip that wheat farming was also popular in the UK. I walked for an hour or so through the fields, walking through them while touching the golden grains. There was something very uplifting, very freeing about it. It almost felt like being back at my village in Haryana, where we have similar wheat fields. 

The wheat fields

Some of the fields still had green-ish unripe grains, some were ripe and golden, and some had already been harvested. We got a few of the wheat stalks back to our house too, to make paranthe with those 😜. The next day again, we went for a short walk into the fields in the morning and it was as stunning as the first day. And a great location for a photoshoot too. 

The village of Kettlebaston

House in Kettlebaston

One of the evenings, after the rains were gone, I went out for a short walk to our village, Kettlebaston. According to Wiki, it has a population of 30 and I can attest to it. It was very small and lovely. I went on a 1.5 hour walk, through narrow roads and huge fields, crossing some huge picturesque houses nearby, the local church and a few stud farms around. There were some more wheat fields around it which gave some scenic views on the walk. It’s on this walk that I realised that Suffolk could easily be an easy holiday destination for weekends out of London. Maybe for next summer if lockdown doesn’t finish! 

Boating in Dedham AONB and Hadleigh riverside walk

One of the days we visited Dedham AONB, which was about 30 mins drive from our house. The villages on the way were small, and had colourful houses like they have in Italy. The villages weren’t too picturesque but still refreshing. We drove to the boathouse where we sat for some time in the grounds next to the river. We had picnic biryani lunch there as the sun had also come out for a bit.

Boating in Dedham

After that, we did a bit of boating in the river. You can hire rowing boats for £16 per hour there. The boat ride through the narrow river was fun. And quite bumpy too, with people bumping into each other. There were a few children swimming in the river too which felt quite inviting. It felt nice to be there but honestly we were surprised by the number of people around given it was still July and corona hadn't subsided yet. And they were not really maintaining any social distancing. So we decided the rest of the week to not go to any such touristy places and stay near our house only.

While driving back to our house, we stopped at the riverside walk in the village of Hadleigh and walked there along the stream in the woods. It was a nice walk and not many people were there either. The ones who were there weren't following social distancing though. But it still felt safer and less crowded.


Walk to Monks Eleigh and Kersey

Walk through the farms

One of the days, I decided to explore the villages around and went for a walk on the country footpaths, with no real plan or map in hand. I just followed the yellow footpaths, wherever they went and had quite an interesting day. Initially I walked through lots of wheat fields, again burning like gold all around. I walked through farms, farm houses and on random roads. Then I came across fields of ‘fali’. And at some places, there were loads of berries and wild flowers. I tasted some of the blackberries too. And then I walked through huge pea fields. I ate a lot of them too, they were fresh and tasty. But a lot of them were drying without being plucked and I later read that there weren’t enough workers that time to harvest ripe crops.

Views on the walks

Continuing on this walk, I reached a picturesque village Monks Eleigh Tye and kept walking past it. And I was near Swingleton Green when it started raining. I had to stop and wait at the village for the rain to stop. I searched for the nearest pub to sit and wait and found one 10 mins walking from there, Swan Inn in the village of Monks Eleigh. But even to get there, I had to take a lift for the 2 mins drive as the roads were too narrow and dangerous to walk on.

By the time I reached the pub, the sun was out and I sat outside in the sun, reading a book and waiting for my friends to pick me up as it was too long to walk back to my house. I chatted with the locals when I was there. A couple I was chatting with knew the owners, Paddy and Maggie of our airbnb. They talked about Suffolk and how much they loved being there, how it wasn’t well know among people in London and how lot of people from Suffolk commuted for work to London daily. Also apparently, Coronavirus was less here and things were open and safer most of the time. 

Village of Kersey

After my friends picked me up, we drove to the village of Kersey. It was a lovely village with a beautiful church on a hill. We stopped there for a bit and it felt nice to be there. Just being out of London and being able to walk in the open in a village felt like a gift to be valued and enjoyed. After eating a light snack there, we were off back to our house. On the drive back, we saw some stunning sunsets and enjoyed the cool breeze around after a long day. 

Coming back to London

The day we were coming back was quite a dampener. It started raining (finally), so once we checked out we just drove back and were back in London within 2.5 hours. We could have explored some more areas around if it hadn’t been raining but we couldn’t.

We enjoyed our time at the house without really exploring a lot of touristy places around. But there are a few places which are worth a visit in more normal times. Below are a few we read up about but never visited

• Grounds of Ickworth House near Bury St Edmunds, 34 mins from KB 
• Lavenham - 15 mins drive from Kettlebaston, with a very pretty 1 hour walk across country footpaths that is generally empty. 
• East Bergholt, known as Constable country is beautiful with a lovely walk along the river Stour 
• The sandy beaches of Frinton, Walton and Felixstowe are just under an hour’s drive away while Aldeburgh, Walberswick and Southwold are near enough for a day’s excursion. 
• Medieval wool towns of Long Melford, Cavendish and Clare