Aldeburgh Living - Summer 2017

aldeburghliving ISSUE 002 Summer 2017

Folk East

FREE

Dune House: Thorpeness Interiors

and your Summer Festival Guide

Style: Coastal Summer Chic

WIN YOUR GOLDEN TICKET

MAUI WAUI

Maggi Hambling: Amazing Aldeburgh

CARNIVAL!

Wall of Water and Edge

Thinking of letting your holiday home?

Find your perfect hideaway this summer

Whether you are looking for something romantic, dog-friendly or somewhere for a large family get-together, you’re sure to find the perfect holiday property with Suffolk Hideaways.

View our full portfolio at www.suffolkhideaways.co.uk or call us on 01728 666 300 Thinking of letting your holiday home?

Suffolk Hideaways, based on Aldeburgh High Street, are here to help you every step of the way and advise you on how best 2 SUMMER to let2017 youraldeburghliving holiday property. Why not give us a call?

Photograph: Emma Close-Brooks

CONTENTS

04 Folk East

33 We’ve got a golden ticket

The East Coast’s best loved folk festival

Win your ticket to the magical Maui Waui

07 Summer Festival Guide

36 Thorpeness Interiors

Your pick of the popular, alternative and classical

Dune House

12 This Season’s Diary

46 ‘I was just going to TASTE it...’

Your guide to this summer

Anna McCreadie and B Chocolates

14 She’s Our Cup of Tea

52 For Weddings and a Funeral

Emma Neilson and Cragg Sisters Tea Rooms

Moat Farm Flowers: Suffolk’s British blooms

20 Summer Style Edit

57 This Season’s Recipe

A collection of Aldeburgh’s best style pieces

The Dog and Duck share their favourite summer recipe

24 Carnival!

58 In Defense of Lilacs

The story of Aldeburgh Carnival’s 75 years

David Keleel of Darsham Nurseries writes

30 Happenings

62 Wall of Water and Edge

This summer’s most important news

Maggi Hambling in Aldeburgh

aldeburghliving Living Publishing Ltd. 31 Fawcett Road, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5HQ Registered in England no. 10383720

Stacey Paine

EDITORIAL AND DESIGN stacey@aldeburghliving.com 01728 453323 07800 566174 Nick Paine

ADVERTISING AND BRAND nick@aldeburghliving.com 01728 453323 07967 508006 Emma Close-Brooks

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

SUBSCRIBE Aldeburgh Living is a quarterly magazine published in March, June, September and December. Also available online at aldeburghliving.com, or by email (visit the website to subscribe).

To have all 4 issues posted to an address of your choice simply subscribe via our website aldeburghliving.com or by email info@aldeburghliving.com. A subscription is only ÂŁ19.50 a year.

Disclaimer: Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the data in this publication is accurate, neither the publisher nor the editor, nor its editorial contributors can accept, and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for omissions resulting from negligence, accident or any other cause. All artwork is accepted on the strict condition that permission has been given for use in this publication. Aldeburgh Living does not officially endorse any advertising material included within this publication. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of Living Publishing Ltd.

SUFFOLK

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Heading up the A12 through Little Glemham during August, you’ll be unlikely to miss a silk-pyjamaed, sixty-five foot oak skeleton resurrected annually to herald the six week countdown to the East Coast’s best loved folk festival: Folk East.

It takes 120m of material to cloak the tree in its gladrags and it’s an eye-catching display to say the least: a vivid figure of a long-dead oak, apparently brightly painted, decorated with anything from streamers to bicycles (yes, you read that correctly).

You can hardly ignore its joyful beckoning to the unique and equally characterful festival that commandeers this unusual harbinger.

Set in the ancient parkland of the imposing Glemham Hall, an Elizabethan stately home fifteen minutes inland of Aldeburgh, Folk East is a threeday celebration proclaiming itself ‘nothing like other music festivals’. Now in its sixth year, the event encompasses the quintessential magic of arts, crafts and folk music in an atmosphere described as ‘more like a very English village fete than a festival’ (The Guardian, 2016).

Think whirling streamers, Maypoles and delicious

local foods, all to the theme of some of the world’s leading folk music acts, and you’ll be starting to get the idea. The feel is humble, joyful, verdant and almost pagan – a fabulous contrast against the backdrop of the formal, crisp lines of the Hall and its grounds, designed and redesigned over centuries (in part by a student of Capability Brown) to draw the eye to the jewel of the estate: the Hall itself. This is an event that revels in nature’s pervasiveness over its location’s aristocratic heritage, with the delicious twist that each continues to call this glorious location home in part because of the other.

Folk East self-proclaims its line-up ‘refreshingly different’, with stages across the estate (one at St Andrew’s Church, to the south of the main site; another a ‘hidden woodland Soapbox Stage’).

The festival is something of a tribal invasion of the parkland, bringing with it an entire village including two pubs, an array of local foods (with a market), aldeburghliving

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celebrations of dance, arts, yoga, oral poetry and storytelling as well as donkey rides for children and a cinema showing folk and local films.

In keeping with its liberatingly inclusive feel, the festival is particularly encouraging of the attendance of ‘small folk’ – no, not hobbits – with a plethora of activities to entertain and inspire children: a mud kitchen, den-building, clay working, book making, open mic, and animation workshops, as well as the aforementioned donkey riding.

As part of the revelries, Glemham Hall opens its doors to welcome festival-goers for tours led by resident owner, the hilarious and eccentric Major Philip Hope-Cobbold. This experience must be something akin to participating in Radio 4’s The Unbelievable Truth; Philip has a talent for ‘telling tall stories peppered with truths’ (as described fondly by his step-daughter, Amy), the distinction between which is for you to decide. There is also a harmonious circularity to the relationship between Hall and Festival, with one of its ‘village pubs’, the ‘Cobbold Arms’, named after and serving ale under the historic family brewery name, as resurrected by local micro-brewer Marc Bartrum.

Many of the acts are as impressive in stature as the Hall itself, this year including Jon Boden (winner of no fewer than eleven BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards) and Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys pictured top right (winners of the Radio 2 Horizon Award 2016). The rest of the line-up boasts similar accolades – Nancy Kerr; Michael Chapman; Lau; and Irish band Beoga, who collaborated with Ed Sheeran on Divide and the hit single ‘Galway Girl’ – yet still leaving space for the up-and-comings, too. The festival’s primus inter pares is The Young ‘uns, Folk East’s ‘irrepressible patrons’.

Folk East runs 18–20th August 2017 at Glemham Hall, Little Glemham. Details can be found on the Glemham Hall and Folk East websites; tickets available online.

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Popular

Eccletic

Latitude Festival returns to Henham Park 13–16th July with more perfect sounds, dazzling visuals, eclectic surprises and bright minds. This year’s lineup includes The 1975, Mumford and Sons and Fleet Foxes. Book your tickets for more music, arts and magic than ever before! latitudefestival.com

Maui Waui returns to Peak Hill Farm for the 5th year this August 25–27th. With a welcoming family feel , Maui offers world class bands, circus shows, dance tents, small bands and acoustic acts, cabaret and comedy. Maui Waui invite you into another world you won’t be disappointed. mauiwauievents.co.uk

Americana

Classical

The Maverick Festival 30th June–2nd July is in it’s 10th year. A celebration of Americana and root music from both sides of the Atlantic, presenting music performances, film & workshops the festival features over forty different artists, across five stages indoors and out.

This 9–25th June the Aldeburgh Festival celebrates the 50th anniversary of Britten’s vision at Snape Maltings.The conversion of the Concert Hall was finished in time for the 1967 Festival and this year, as 50 years ago, the Festival presents Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Over the past decade the Maverick Festival organisers have stuck to what they believe in. This year’s line-up includes Grammy-winner Albert Lee and the godfather of UK alternative country, Hank Wangford. maverickfestival.co.uk

In addition the the classical music one expects to find, there is also a sound installation by Bill Fontana, the Band Stand returns to Aldeburgh beach, and there’s an eclectic mix of fringe events at Aldeburgh’s Pumphouse. snapemaltings.co.uk aldeburghliving

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Summer at The Red House, Aldeburgh

PASSIONATE ABOUT LOCAL QUALITY FOOD SINCE 2001 The farm cafe + shop at Marlesford is an oasis on the A12, a few miles from Woodbridge in Suffolk. We've been offering locally produced, quality food since 2001 and our cafe has built a reputation as a destination for good, honest, mouth-watering breakfasts and lunches (not to mention our famous homemade scones!). We also have a convenient shop next door, so if there’s anything on the menu that you’ve particularly enjoyed, you can buy it in the shop and cook it yourself at home!

Cafe opening times Monday to Saturday, 7am – 4pm Sundays and Public Holidays, 8am – 4pm Breakfast served: 7am – 11.30am Lunch served: noon – 4pm Coffee and cake served all day.

Bring a picnic, play croquet on the lawn and much more.

Visit our website for what’s on and opening times.

Golf Lane, Aldeburgh IP15 5PZ 01728 451700 brittenpears.org

Shop opening times Monday to Saturday, 8.30am – 5pm Sundays and Public Holidays, 8.30am – 5pm Farm Cafe + Shop Main Road (A12), Marlesford Woodbridge, Suffolk IP13 0AG 01728 747717 www.farmcafe.co.uk

Award winning butcher Our free range and organic meat is carefully chosen from local farmers.

Come in for dry-aged, traditional breed beef and grass fed steaks, our own sausages, Gerard’s shepherd’s pie, award winning burgers, hot sausage rolls, blue-brown eggs and free range bacon and ham.

We’re open from 8am until 5pm every day except Sundays.

~ We deliver locally and nationwide pop in with your order ~ 107-109 Aldeburgh High Street 01728 452758

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June Aldeburgh Festival Exhibitions 8–14th June Aldeburgh Gallery

Classic Boat Festival 10–11th June Aldeburgh Yacht Club

aldeburghartsgallery.co.uk

aldeburghyc.org.uk

Aldeburgh Studio Trail Weekends during 10–25th June Various venues

Music on the Meare 23rd June 4pm Snape Maltings and Thorpeness Meare snapemaltings.co.uk

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Aldeburgh Festival 9–25th June Snape Maltings snapemaltings.co.uk

The Alternative Aldeburgh Festival Weekends 9–25th June The Pumphouse snapemaltings.co.uk

Craig Brown’s Election Special 9th June The Pumphouse snapemaltings.co.uk

‘Life of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson’ Talk by Diana Quick 10th June 7.30pm Long Shop Museum longshopmuseum.co.uk

Maggi Hambling Wall of Water 10–25th June Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh Maggi Hambling Edge 10–25th June Garage Gallery, Aldeburgh

‘We are Concerned’: A public reading of the Wolfenden report 11th June 4pm–late The Pumphouse, Aldeburgh brittenpears.org

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letteringartstrust.org

Maverick Festival 30th June–2nd July Easton Farm Park maverickfestival.co.uk

Talk: Bill Fontana 13th June 11am Snape Maltings snapemaltings.co.uk

Red House Picnic 18th June 12.30–3pm Red House, Aldeburgh brittenpears.org

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Orchestra of Letters Throughout June Lettering Arts Trust, Snape Maltings

Country Fair 8–9th July Heveningham Hall countryfair.co.uk

August Suffolk Steampunk Spectacular 22–23rd July Long Shop Museum

Folk East 18–20th August Glemham Hall

Thorpeness Regatta 25th August 8pm Thorpeness Meare

folkeast.co.uk

longshopmusuem.co.uk

Flower Crowns Workshop 12th July Moat Farm Flowers, Dennington moatfarmflowers.com

Latitude Festival 13–16th July Henham Park

Fizz & Folk Songs 28th July 5–6pm Red House, Aldeburgh

aldringham.onesuffolk.net

Carnival 19–21st August Aldeburgh

Maui Waui Festival 25–27th August Peak Hill Farm

aldeburghcarnival.com

brittenpears.org

mauiwauievents.co.uk

Peter Harrison’s Sunday Lunch 20th August 12pm Brick Kiln Barn brickkilnbarn.com

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Peter Harrison’s Saturday Night Supper 15th July 7.30pm Brick Kiln Barn brickkilnbarn.com

Aldeburgh Regatta 20–25th August Aldeburgh Yacht Club aldeburghyc.co.uk

Westleton Barrel Fair 22nd August Westleton Village Green westletonbarrelfair.com

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SUMMER 2017 15

Photograph: Emma Close-Brooks

aldeburghdiary

July

aldeburghindependents

Opposite the bottom of the Town Steps is a tea house offering a glimpse of an Aldeburgh of years gone by. Emma Nielson, who owns and runs Cragg Sisters Tearoom, has perfected the detail of the traditional tea time experience.

Sitting here taking tea in delicate, vintage china cups, its hard to resist a feeling of timeless contentment. ‘I believe if you drink proper loose leaf tea it should be from a china cup,’ Emma says. ‘All of the bits and pieces in the tearoom are things I’ve collected over the years. Using china like the delicate tea sets your granny or great-granny would have used is part of what makes the experience at Cragg Sisters authentic – that and our friendly, relaxed atmosphere, which we try to maintain even when things get a bit full-on during carnival week!’

Her approach has certainly worked: Cragg Sisters has featured in The Sunday Times and Jamie Magazine (Jamie Oliver), and has just been shortlisted for the 2017 East Anglian Daily Times Food & Drink Awards. The array of cakes, all made from scratch, changes daily with the menu of homemade soups and sandwiches. Food is coastal, classy and straight out of the kitchen.

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Choices range from rejuvenating savoury bites (scrambled egg and smoked salmon on toast, or home-smoked mackerel and granary bread) to high teas (finger sandwiches, cake and scones with clotted cream and jam). There is a selection of teas, traditional and exotic, with loose leaf tea available for home-brewing – or opt for a cafetière of Butterworth & Sons coffee (from Bury St Edmunds).

‘We try to use local produce wherever possible,’ Emma says. ‘Our ham is from Salter & King butcher across the road and all our flour is produced by Marriages just over the border in Essex.’

Cragg Sisters was first opened as a tearoom in 1949, by – pleasingly – two real sisters from whom it takes the name. ‘It was an institution in the town and seemed to be a rite of passage for teenagers getting their first job,’ Emma explains. ‘We get lots of people visiting who either worked here or remember visiting when the two ladies ran it –

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everyone has fond memories. My mum actually said that she used to bring my brother and me, but I can’t remember!’ Emma came upon the disused tearoom while working at a cafe in Woodbridge – a job only intended to be temporary until she discovered a penchant for the work. She decided to make a career of it and reinvented Aldeburgh’s historic tearoom. The business is now in its seventh year of trading. ‘Cragg Sisters was fate really, right place at the right time,’ Emma says. ‘There’s a very strong business community in Aldeburgh and everyone was so helpful and supportive when I started.’

Following on from a successful ‘Cook for Syria’ charity event, Emma is starting a monthly, seasonal supper club, the first of which collaborates with Salter & King, focusing on lamb. ‘We’ll be transforming the tearoom into a cosy evening cafe with varying styles of cuisine, using a different local producer each month,’ Emma tells us. ‘Ipswichbased chef Mike Keen is coming to cook, which is very exciting!’ Cragg Sisters also does outdoor catering. ‘We created a woodland tearoom for a wedding fayre at Kenton Hall (near Debenham) and a pop-up tearoom in the walled garden for their open farm day. We’ve done drop-off afternoon tea parties; everything provided and served on our lovely china crockery. We also catered our first wedding at Bruisyard Hall – they played croquet on the lawn while we served traditional lemonade, teas, scones and meringues.’

Dunwich girl Emma has a degree in Fine Art and, after graduating, spent a year teaching in China (where she met her now tea merchant). ‘I have always had a passion for travel,’ she says. ‘I find it a constant source of inspiration.’ Yet, it’s Aldeburgh that wins Emma’s heart. ‘I’ve always loved Aldeburgh. Growing up here, the Suffolk coast will always be home. After a busy day in the kitchen nothing clears my mind and relaxes me better than a good walk along the beach!’

Cragg Sisters Tearoom, 110 High Street, Aldeburgh is open 10–5 daily. For details visit craggsisters.co.uk.

aldeburghindependents

Life | Land | Business

Whatever life brings we’re always there for you Our friendly, local solicitors are on hand to advise you on a host of legal matters, including buying and selling property, family breakdown, making a will or developing your business.

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Call 01473 611211 barkergotelee.co.uk

41 Barrack Sq, Martlesham, Ipswich IP5 3RF Free parking

collen & clare C O A S TA L C H I C

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aldeburghstyle O&C Butcher Cocoa Cashmere top £189 NYDJ chinos £140 Toni Pons sandals £45

The Aldeburgh Summer Style Edit Clockwise Collen & Clare Chloe Stora skirt £179 Fleur Cara espadrille £85 Louise Sant Waterlily Earings £98 Joules Margot bardot top £44.95

Quba Denim jacket £60 Striped tee £18 Crop jean £50

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aldeburghstyle

O&C Butcher Barbour sweater £85 Levi’s 511 jeans £90 Dubarry jacket £179 see below

Summer 2017 on Aldeburgh High Street combines on-trend pink with the classic coastal stripes and marine blue that are synonyous with summer here on the Suffolk Coast.

Mix and match textures for comfortable chic; linens against metallics, suede against cork, pleats against cashmere.

Quba Chino shorts £55 Collen & Clare Capri floral shirt £155 Universal Works palm tree shirt £95

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Suffolk Coast Electrician Ltd. Aldeburgh Rewires Indoor & Outdoor Lighting Showers, Cookers, Heating Fuse Boards Fault Finding Testing & Inspecting Fully Insured and Compliant No job too small!

07770 040011

jay@sc-elec.com

CELEBRATING

1 Aldeburgh Fish & Chips

226 High Street Aldeburgh IP15 5DB

01728 452250

OF ALDEBURGH FISH & CHIPS

2 Golden Galleon

137 High Street Aldeburgh IP15 5AR

3 The Upper Deck

01728 454685

www.aldeburghfishandchips.co.uk

137 High Street Aldeburgh IP15 5AR

01728 454685

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aldeburghcarnival

aldeburghcarnival

Roll up, roll up! Aldeburgh Carnival is in town: a three-day coming together of townsfolk, holiday-makers, local trades, competitive games and traditional seaside merriment, culminating in a magical Chinese lantern parade and fireworks display, drawing visitors from miles around. carnival /’ka:niv(Ə)l/ noun 1 an annual festival [...] involving processions, music, dancing, and the use of masquerade an exciting or riotous mixture of elements 2 N. Amer. a travelling funfair or circus The 75th anniversary of the Aldeburgh Carnival (19– 21st August) will be celebrated this year under the theme ‘Amazing Aldeburgh’. With roots as far back as 1835, the affair was first known as Ye Olde Marine Regatta, a name retained on the programme.

Historic schedules list several sailing and swimming competitions (some of which still feature) as well as a race between local Lifeboats, a link honoured by today’s much-loved RNLI display. Fireworks have always played a starring role but it was not until 1927 that the Carnival element was added to the Regatta – allegedly by a former Mayor of the town, Charles Andrew Ward – to create the event we know and love today. Early processions were led by a Carnival King Neptune, who emerged from the sea in a boat, pulled by locals.

Taking a pre-procession walk along the buntingstrung High Street complete with its decorated houses and shopfronts, you’ll encounter people of all ages making this event their own. Children make good use of the closed road, playing games in the street and putting finishing touches to their

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decorated houses; octogenarians (and several nonagenarians) reminisce about Carnivals past over morning cups of tea. Hedonistic teenagers cartwheel along the pavement adorned with enough glow-paint for a Koh Pahngan Full Moon Party; while every available balcony and window is prepared by familes and friends as a vantage point for the main event: the procession, featuring some of the most inventive ways of dressing a Land Rover that you are ever likely to witness, not to mention some fairly inventive ways of dressing, full stop.

For generations, families local and visiting have revelled in the procession: a glorious, carefree extravaganza of fancy dress, song, dance and sheer silliness, kept comically under vague control by the marching Military Band and, these days, generally led astray by the Suffolk School of Samba, the members of which look as if they would like to lead astray anyone who so much as taps their foot to the beat of the booming samba drum; a siren call, audible from Thorpeness, to anyone who foolishly hesitated to enter into the spirit of things.

Meanwhile, the Crag Path is transformed into a Ponte Vecchio of stalls showcasing the best (and most bizarre) of local trades, wares and foods. At the southern end of town, Fort Green plays host to Stocks Funfair, a travelling fair formed in East Anglia not long after the alleged conception of the Carnival itself.

The celebrations of this anniversary year will begin with a Carnival Prom at Snape Maltings on Friday 18th August. Every extant Carnival Queen from years gone by will be taking part in the procession as part of the festivities, while Pixie Ward, the eldest living relative of Charles Andrew Ward, hopes to make another entry at the age of eighty-nine.

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The Carnival is organised by volunteers, with donations from the previous year providing the funds. It evolves across the generations, reflecting the character of the town and its residents – a ‘wild, amphibious race’ if the atmosphere is anything to go by. Yet, this air of freedom is not reached without

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a serious effort in the preceding weeks and months, the town turning itself on its head to make room for the procession and vast influx of cars bringing local visitors. It costs around £35,000 to host the event each year, reliant solely on the support of attendees.

This cornerstone of Aldeburgh’s calendar is a town celebration that has, in all its eccentricity and apparent hotch-potch of activities, retained its character, integrity and sense of inclusiveness; long may it continue.

Aldeburgh Carnival runs 19–21st August 2017. Buy a programme and donate here: aldeburghcarnival.com/making-a-donation/ Our sincere thanks go to Margaret Currie for her photographs and carnival memories.

‘Carnival’ definition taken from OED.

Photographs In order from the beginning of the article Carnival Party at Colward, The Terrace 1932 c/o Margaret Currie Brian Ward (boy) and family 1958 c/o Margaret Currie Mr & Mrs Brian ‘Pixie’ Ward c/o Margaret Currie Friday Night is Bath Night 1958 with Pat and Carol Stowger c/o Margaret Currie Karl Barber of The Railway’s grandmother 1950’s c/o Shirley Barber Mr & Mrs Brian ‘Pixie’ Ward c/o Margaret Currie Carnival 1967 c/o unknown Felicity Bisset and family c/o Felicity Bisset Karen Lear and lion! 2016 c/o Nico DeVilliers Brass band c/o Margaret Harvey Circus 2016 c/o Nico DeVilliers Lantern procession c/o Emma Close-Brooks aldeburghliving

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GLEMHAM HALL’S GARDEN THEATRE The Castle Theatre Company returns to Glemham Hall on Monday 3rd July at 7pm to present Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Bring a blanket and settle down with a picnic in the beautiful gardens before the performance begins. glemhamhall.co.uk

Aldeburgh Gallery Festival Exhibition The Aldeburgh Gallery 8–14th June presents works by Tessa Newcomb, Maggi Hambling and other 20th Century artists.

Tessa Newcomb will talk about her work on Saturday June 10th at 3pm. aldeburghartsgallery.co.uk

COUNTRY FAIR AND CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE

A Welcome to Suffolk Hideaways Suffolk Hideaways has recently opened its new shop on Aldeburgh High Street. With twenty-five properties and thirty years experience it will be a great addition! Do pop in and meet the team. suffolkhideaways.co.uk

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The Concours d’Elegance brings together some fifty of the world’s finest motor cars, displayed against the backdrop of Heveningham Hall 8–9th July. This takes place at the same time as the annual Country Fair where visitors enjoy everything from aerobatic displays to powerboat racing, bungee jumps to stunt horses, in the Capability Brown landscape. heveninghamconcours.com

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Classic Boat Festival Make your way to the river wall on the weekend of 10–11th June to watch the vintage Loch Longs, classic dinghies and dayboats. Three races over the two days and a Concours d’Elegance competition. aldeburghyc.co.uk

THORPENESS REGATTA AND FIREWORKS 25th August all day with floats and fireworks at 8.30pm One of the most magical family events in the Suffolk calendar, Thorpeness Regatta is to be treasured. The illuminated floats and best fireworks of the season will make childhood memories for another generation.

SEA YOU IN THE MORNING! The youngest members of the Aldeburgh Lifeboat crew, Alex Wilson (eighteen) and Luke Cousins (twenty-one), are embarking on an odyssey of a land-based variety, in aid of the RNLI. The Dunwich Dynamo, an annual overnight cycle ride of 120 miles from London Fields to Dunwich Beach, is now in its 25th year. Setting off at 8pm on July 8th, the boys hope to make it back to Dunwich by 5am the following morning ‘– and then we’re cycling home afterwards’, Alex cheerfully told us.

‘We’d been thinking for a while about doing some kind of fundraiser and this seemed the perfect chance. Even though we do give our time as crew-members, we still felt we wanted to give something back. The RNLI means a lot to all of us. It’s a privilege to be able to do what we do.’

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The boys are aiming for a target of £1200 (£100 for every ten miles), collected via their Just Giving page. We can’t think of a good reason not to donate; you never know when you might be glad of the RNLI, which saved 558 lives in 2016. To donate visit: justgiving.com/lukeandalex4RNLI.

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Aldeburgh Academy

The new Aldeburgh Academy at the south lookout opens it’s doors this summer for courses in arts, ideas and creativity. David Baldry has joined Caroline Wiseman to create the academy. David says ‘We believe that small is beautiful. The Aldeburgh Academy offers the core principles and benefits of a traditional art school but in the intimate and inspirational setting of Aldeburgh’. Visit the webpage for details of the three day courses available. aldeburghbeachlookout.com/academy

2017 marks the fifth year of the Aldeburgh Studio Trail in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, which runs during the last three weekends of June (10–25th June), coinciding with the Aldeburgh Festival.

Local artists will be opening their studios again on this hugely successful walking trail (maps available) to include painting, printing, jewellery, ceramics & sculpture.

Artists this year include eminent jewellery designer Lousie Sant and fine metal sculpter Anne Steel; David Willinwater, Lamorna Good, Reet Gilday and Jenny Somerville. aldeburghstudiotrail.co.uk

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Happy 50th Anniversary Aldeburgh Fish & Chips This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Aldeburgh Fish & Chips. Horace and Celia Cooney bought the fish and chip shop in 1967 and first started trading on 14th April.

Today the fish and chip shops are run by Peter Cooney and his son and daughter-in-law Alan and Zuzana.

They would like to thank all the people that have worked incredibly hard for them over the years and all of their customers for their amazing support. They are proud to be one of the sponsors for Bandstand on the Beach as part of the Aldeburgh Festival from 9–25th June to mark this special milestone. aldeburghfishandchips.co.uk

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WE’VE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET!

Photographs by Jerry Tye

Win!

Win your golden ticket to the wonder that is Maui Waui (25–27th August 2017). We are giving away a single weekend ticket worth £90. Simply email info@aldeburghliving.com with ‘win’ as the subject to be entered into our draw.

Entries close at 11pm on 31st July mauiwauievents.co.uk

Terms and conditions Living Publishing will automatically add your email addresses to it’s own database for marketing purposes. Your email addresses will not be shared with any companies other than Maui Waui Events. Please indicate in your email if you do not wish to be contacted by us or Maui Waui in the future.

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Approaching Thorpeness from Aldeburgh, it’s hard to ignore Dune House overlooking the beach to the South of the village. Flanked by traditional, pale 1930s chalet beach houses, a two-storey house of impressive size and an oddly illusive appearance looms dark, wonky and self-assured.

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Dune House is unusual in purpose as well as form.

Commissioned by Living Architecture (the brainchild of author Alain de Botton) the house is one of several in a country-wide project bringing fantastic modern architectural design to those who don’t normally get the chance to experience it – creating holiday homes designed by world-class architects, enabling members of the public to see, feel and use extraordinary buildings. This building was the work of Norwegian company Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects (JVA) and brings together several ideas about building form, both conventional and less so, to create a unique place that both reflects and stands out from its surroundings. Although markedly different in style, the dark wood and eccentric but purposeful character of Dune House fits remarkably with the theatricality and statement architecture of Thorpeness itself.

Much like its location on the dunes by the beach, the house combines clean, smooth lines and reflections with rugged, irregular solidity. Sleek glass, in certain lights almost invisible and in others reflecting the skies and sea, ties together industrial concrete and earthy wood. Built over two levels, the upper and lower floors of the house bear stark contrasts, realising a space focused on the ways in which it is inhabited, rather than an introverted correlation with itself.

The ground floor is encased in glass outer walls,

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with few interior divisions, creating, from the outside, the appearance of a floating upper floor. A core at the centre of the building, inside which nestles a woodburning stove, provides a tangible reference point for the loosely defined communal downstairs living spaces surrounding it: an impessive kitchen, large dining space and a living room defined by a recess in the floor in front of the fireplace, filled with inviting, colourful cushions. Only the bathrooms and a daybed spot (offering a secluded, peaceful retreat from all that space) are enclosed. Yet, the spaces, while largely free of divisions, maintain a sense of both identity and purpose alongside a selfconsciously inclusive style of living.

Upstairs, four uniquely-shaped en-suite bedrooms occupy the extraordinary eaves of the irregularly gabled roof, with a patchwork of windows offering vistas at levels that entice the occupant to go out of their way out of them, ducking or reaching to see rather than merely drifting past as we habitually do. The effect, when standing back, is one of a sort of landscape art gallery; different sized panels focus on the various aspects of its beautiful and sometimes bleak location on the sand dunes behind Thorpness beach.

The wood panelling lining the walls and ceilings of the bedrooms gives a warm, natural and cosy feeling. This use of wood as a surface covering is one of the few aesthetic links with the ground floor of the house. The effect, combined with the abstract layout of the windows, puts one in mind of a bird’s nest or a den made from driftwood: an enveloping space offering a few, naturally-occuring glimpses of its setting.

Designers of other buildings for the Living Architecture project include Grayson Perry, while the Balancing Barn (near Walberswick) was featured last year on Channel 4’s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces.

Details of how to book a stay at Dune House, or any of Living Architecture’s other extraordinary houses, are available online at living-architecture.co.uk.

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A Alderton Collection from £450, Snape Maltings B Jersey Pottery jug £45 and plate £38.50, Looma C Cushions £various, Volga Linen D Rais Woodburner, Woodburning Solutions E Denim cotton zig zag rug £65, Snape Maltings F Woven chair £175, Snape Maltings G Stripe curtains from £374, Volga Linen H Relief pattern tiles £2.99 each, Smoke and Fire I Crushed linen duvet cover from £215, Volga Linen J Dowlde cotton throw £30, Looma K Rough planed vintage oak floor £87.60/sqm, Smoke and Fire

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129 -131 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AS Tel: 01728 452229

www.ocbutcher.co.uk

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On a fruit farm in the wilds of Suffolk, a tiny artisan confectionery consisting of three busy workers creates B Chocolates, as individual and delicate as the honey with which they are made.

In B Chocolates’ little unit on High House Fruit Farm, Sudbourne, with assistants Katie and Merlyn, Anna McCreadie lovingly handmakes and packs every chocolate. The result is a selection of honeybased delights – from Honey Truffles (2* winner in the 2014 Great Taste Awards) to Honeycomb Thins (‘discs of dark chocolate speckled with crumbled honeycomb toffee – a great after-dinner hit’).

‘Each batch tells a story of where bees have been foraging,’ Anna tells us. ‘Flavours vary from floral to spicy, to almondy and creamy. No two batches are exactly the same. I love opening a new bucket of honey, knowing where the honey comes from, wondering how the place will be reflected in taste and texture. I have a bucket of creamy heather honey we’re yet to use.’

Anna took over B Chocolates in July 2016, after thirtyseven years in the public sector. ‘I knew the Honey and Sea Salt Caramels and Truffles from local markets – and loved them,’ she says. The company is a Producer Member of the Guild of Fine Food

and Anna spent her first three months working alongside the founders, learning the business inside and out, including the art of chocolate making.

The caramel is hand-cut, then covered in glossy French couverture using a chocolate enrobing machine (the finish is as majestic as it sounds). The signature ‘Honey and Sea Salt Caramels’ (winner of 1* in the 2014 Great Taste Awards) are smooth and naturally sweet, with just enough bite to the chocolate and a delectably crisp, coastal tang from the sprinkling of local sea salt with which they are crowned. Ingredients are locally sourced wherever possible, with the exception of the single origin French chocolate. Using honey for the caramel lends a floral hue with a taste free of any sicklysweet effect. The packaging is simple and honest; plain, undyed, printed card boxes are tied with a pleasingly rustic raffia bow and inside, a personal message from Anna greets the recipent. An unfussy print of a honey bee on the lid is the only other adornment; the contents speak for themselves. aldeburghliving

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Alongside the staples, Anna produces fresh, seasonal honey truffles. ‘Through the seasons on the farm we have rhubarb, raspberry, loganberry, plums and blackberries,’ she says. ‘It’s lovely picking loganberries or blackcurrants, looking at the view over Orford Ness and out to sea. I use some High House Farm frozen fruits through winter. At home I grow morello cherries, lavender, herbs and other flowers.’

As well as providing a key ingredient, bees are crucial to pollinating the farm and on sunny days buzz approvingly outside Anna’s unit, drawn by the smell of caramelising honey. Recent sources have been hives at Darsham, Westleton and Wenhaston.

‘Leiston and District Beekeepers Association have been fantastic in linking me with local beekeepers so I know the hives and can trace all our honey.’

Anna says. ‘It’s great that so many people now appreciate the importance of bees, creating their own garden habitats. It’s especially helpful to plant later-flowering plants to extend the season – sedum, hebes and verbenas are colourful and easy to grow in Suffolk’s dry soil.’

Anna’s enthusiasm is inspiring and her knowledge has developed into genuine expertise. ‘I’ve learned so much about chocolate. It is so organic, responding to changes in temperature, humidity and mood. You cannot rush chocolate; working with it requires patience and attention to detail.’

Anna is half Finnish, describing her tastes as ‘heavily influenced’ by Finnish food and foraging. ‘I love the combination of spices and chocolate – cardamom being a favourite and used in much Scandinavian baking.’ Living in Chillesford, however, Anna has become a true Suffolk devotee. ‘My favourite places are Butley Creek, Shingle Street, and the forest pathways.’ Anna is working with local producers to try new combinations of spice and chocolate, adding to her range of caramels and truffles.

Seasonal truffles can be bought at Snape Farmers Market. B Chocolates are sold at Lawson’s (Aldeburgh) and La Fromagerie (London). For full details and to buy online: bchocolates.co.uk.

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Carnival

In a time when English flower farms are few and far between, Moat Farm Flowers, just thirty minutes from Aldeburgh, is bringing home the best of British blooms with sensitivity and panache.

Since beginning growing flowers in her vegetable patch at home near Framlingham, Frances Boscawen has gradually turned over her twoacre paddock and old cattle yard to growing classic, characterful flowers from seed, for exquisite bunches, wreaths, workshops and events.

Frances’ floristry career began in London in her early twenties. ‘I got married, moved back to Suffolk (where I grew up), spent years looking after children, ponies and making a garden – and occasionally doing flowers for friends’ weddings,’ she says. ‘For my niece’s wedding in 2012, I tried to use locally grown flowers and struggled to find them – which gave me the idea to grow them myself.’

Unbelievably, around 90% of flowers bought in the UK are imported. However, small-scale British flower farming is enjoying a renaissance, with growers like Frances leading the trend. Culturally,

we are increasingly focused on food miles and eating seasonally, yet you hear few people voicing the same concerns in relation to decorative crops.

Since the 1980s, the Netherlands has been the main supplier of flowers to the British market. Despite the iconic image of fields full of tulips, many flowers imported from Dutch markets originated further afield, as Frances explains. ‘I am not sure that people really think about where their flowers come from. Holland is the hub of the flower world and a lot are grown there, but they are also flown in to the huge markets from various African countries, Israel, Colombia and so on. So quite apart from the “flower miles”, fresh flowers are not especially fresh and chemicals are used to preserve the blooms in transit. It’s no wonder many seem sterile and totally lacking scent.’

A mere glance at a Moat Farm bouquet illustrates the difference she’s talking about. Even the most aldeburghliving

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delicate stems have bounce and vitality to them, while the scent and variety of textures and forms is greatly amplified over the comparitively vacant expressions of shop-bought imported blooms. The understated brown paper wrap is hand-stamped just once with the Moat Farm logo, itself subtle, authentic and strong.

‘We grow anything that lasts well as a cut flower – annuals, perennials, shrubs, bulbs,’ Frances says.

‘The year starts with bulbs – there are lots of tulips at the moment. Various biannuals and perennials follow. The annuals grown from seed come into their own during summer, along with the dahlias. In the polytunnel we have anemone and ranunculus, with early sweet peas, stocks and snapdragons following on.’

Flowers accompany all life’s important occasions – weddings, births, birthdays and funerals, to name but a few. Frances and her team are brought together with people for some of the most seminal days in the course of a life.

Frances also works with garden designer Catherine Howard, advising and gardening, while another string to the Moat Farm bow is its popular and original workshops, on everything from growing flowers from seed to making flower crowns and seasonal wreaths. ‘I call the workshops ‘playing with flowers’, because that is what I love to do,’ Frances says.

Visiting Moat Farm at any time of year, it is clear to see the thought and love that goes into producing these blooms, equally evident in any of the cut flowers.

Gift bunches can be delivered locally or ordered ahead for collection from the farm. Flowers are available on summer Fridays at Pump Street Bakery (Orford) and occasionally at Framlingham Market. Flower subscriptions and gift vouchers for workshops available. For full details of arrangements and floristry events visit moatfarmflowers.com or call 01728 638 768 .

ROGER GLADWELL

LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION LTD

Maypole Green, Dennington, Woodbridge, Suffolk. IP13 8AH Tel: 01728 638372 Mobile: 07785 966221 email: sales@rogergladwell.co.uk www.rogergladwell.co.uk aldeburghliving

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Grilled lemon sole with seaweed butter, brown shrimps, samphire and jersey royals Chef patron Tom Greening of The Dog and Duck has created this exquisite dish, inspired by the ingredients he loves to buy in Aldeburgh during the summer. Visit the fish huts on Crag Path for your lemon sole and samphire and forage along the river wall for your seaweed. Or if you’re feeling a little tired of the kitchen (or hunter-gathering!), simply make your way to Campsea Ashe and have Tom cook for you.

Serves 2 • • • • • • •

2 lemon sole (skinned) approx 300–400g 200g butter (soft) 100g brown shrimps 50g seaweed (soak in water for 10 mins then drain) 30g samphire 1 lemon Jersey Royals (boiled for 15 mins in salted water)

1 Start by making the seaweed butter: add the soft butter to a food processor and whip up until pale and light in colour.

2 Now add your drained seaweed and some lemon

zest and pepper; blend until smooth. Set aside.

3 Heat a large frying pan with some oil until smoking, then add the fish presentation side down and cook on a medium heat until golden.

4 Now add a little butter and flip over.

5 Add the brown shrimps, seaweed butter and samphire and cook for a further two minutes.

6 To finish, add a squeeze of lemon and place the fish on a plate, pouring over the butter and shrimps.

Serve with warm buttered Jersey Royals.

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aldeburghgardens

In Defense of Lilacs

by David Keleel, Darsham Nurseries I am often puzzled by a common gardening opinion: that some plants aren’t worth growing because ‘they only bloom for a couple of weeks’.

Recently in a magazine, a very well-known, wellrespected horticulturist stated quite categorically that if you had Lilacs in your garden you should remove them, post-haste. The reason given was that they looked good for ‘only two days’; a period followed, one could only surmise, by 363 days of utter drabness. I lost a great deal of respect for the gardener in question after reading that. Similar comments on brevity of flowering are made about peonies, rhododendrons, old roses, magnolias, and that is true, yet few people would suggest we ‘dig them out’.

I would argue strenuously against the statement that the Lilac (Syringa vulgaris and its cultivars) only blooms for ‘two days’. First, it easily blooms for a full two weeks and sometimes, weather permitting, a bit longer. Second, and more importantly, the interest begins somewhat earlier. Who would be blind to three or four weeks of watching the Lilac buds gently form?

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I will admit that the earliest buds are of little interest, except perhaps in providing an indication of how heavy this year’s bloom will be (mine, for some reason, have fewer buds than last year, perhaps because I didn’t cut off the dead flowers until the end of June. It is best to cut back the stems shortly after the flowers fade). As weeks advance, buds fatten and rise nobly above the foliage, slowly but steadily hinting at their colour. If one is sensitive to such things, the period of real interest begins about two weeks before the first flower opens, then the fortnight or so during which all the other budding panicles open fully, providing easily a month of beauty. This visual interest is coupled with one of the most intoxicating fragrances of the gardening year. I am of the opinion that the fragrance alone justifies the Lilac a place in our gardens. Proust had his Hawthorns but I’ve always preferred Lilacs.

Nevertheless, Lilacs are sadly maligned by so many people. Is it because we have been told they are unfashionable? Is it because ‘they remind me of my grandmother’s garden’? I am dismayed at how often I hear this ridiculous and facile excuse; for my part,

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it has been a life-long goal to make a garden even half as beautiful as my grandmother’s. Is it because they have been neglected and abandoned for too many years in so many gardens? Though these tough shrubs are happily responsive to pruning for size and shape, most people remain frightened to take secateurs to Lilacs – and many other shrubs.

Could it even be that people are still guided by the silly superstition that Lilacs should never be taken indoors as cut flowers? Well, I’ll let you in on a secret.

I’ve been cutting armfuls of Lilacs for the house for over fifty years and I consider myself one of the luckiest people on the planet (mostly due to my having found Suffolk!).

Perhaps it comes down to something seemingly missing from many people’s relationships with their gardens: an embrace of the enjoyment of anticipation, or, an ability to be patient. If we learn – and it is something requiring practice – that all phases of plant growth (and sometimes dormancy) have their appeal beyond the flower, we can come to appreciate and enjoy our gardens even more. I try to think of the bud stage as a feature as desirable as the full-blown flowers.

In an attempt to prove a point, we have just planted an eighty-metre avenue of Lilacs at the nursery and we’re looking forward to inviting people in, when it’s grown enough to enjoy the scent and the range of colours. I don’t think many visitors will be unmoved.

Lilacs need something of a renaissance. They are easy to grow in almost any soil, pest-free, rabbits and deer leave them alone, and with just a bit of sun they provide a few weeks of that wonderfully evocative fragrance. And don’t worry that they don’t look much during the summer; just grow a summer-flowering Clematis into your Lilac.

A final thought. The Japanese phrase mono no aware, roughly translated, means ‘a sensitivity to ephemera’. In other words, it’s not that Lilacs are beautiful despite only blooming for two weeks; it’s because they only bloom for two weeks. aldeburghliving

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07980 151 109 01728 663 888

LANDSCAPE & GARDEN DESIGN Ed Hopkins is Suffolk’s leading landscape and garden design company, building gardens of exceptional quality and providing an unrivalled service.

Please get in touch to discuss your project.

EDHOPKINS.COM

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Photograph: Nicola Bensley

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Maggi Hambling: Wall of Water and Edge Maggi Hambling’s name in Aldeburgh is synonymous with the Scallop but, to those who are yet to explore her work further, we must urge you to sample the two exhibits that are taking place in Aldeburgh this June 10–25th.

Hambling’s Wall of Water series (Peter Pears Gallery) began in late 2010, in response to her encounter with unnervingly high waves crashing onto the seawall at Southwold. In these paintings, the waves become a wall of water, poised between

animation and disintegration, flickering ghosts of people and animals appear and disappear within them as they challenge the seawall below. Wall of Water was exhibited at the National Gallery in 2014.

The Edge series (Garage Gallery) followed Hambling’s Wall of Water: her response to global warming and the consequent melting of the polar icecaps. Whereas nature challenges man in the Wall of Water paintings, man now dangerously challenges nature in the Edge series. aldeburghliving

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Collen & Clare

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164 High Street, Aldeburgh IP15 5AQ 01728 454976

30 Crabbe Street, Aldeburgh IP15 5BN 01728 454316

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Fleur

Louise Sant

166 High Street, Aldeburgh IP15 5AQ 01728 454822

07791 592756 Thelluson Lodge, Aldeburgh

fleuraldeburgh.co.uk

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Joules

O&C Butcher

204 High Street, Aldeburgh IP15 5AJ 01728 454849

129–131 High Street, Aldeburgh IP15 5AS 01728 452229

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Quba 127a High Street, Aldeburgh IP15 5AR 01728 454453 quba.com

Snape Maltings Snape IP17 1SP Box Office: 01728 687110 Retail Reception: 01728 688303 snapemaltings.co.uk

Smoke & Fire Main Road, Darsham IP17 3PL 01728 668700 smokeandfire.co.uk

Volga Linen London Showroom Studio R3, Redloh House, The Gasworks, 2 Michael Rd., London SW6 2AD London: 020 77367756 Head Office: 01728 635020 (Leiston) volgalinen.co.uk

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