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| | | | Estuary English
From the Mail on Sunday
Almost 200 years ago a man travelling by stagecoach leaned towards a fellow passenger and said: 'Do you know sir, this is Constable Country.' The other man, who was John Constable, nodded and let him continue on his way.
They were most probably crossing the Stour near Manningtree and looking west. They would have seen a shallow valley and a distant flint church tower, cows and park-like trees. Or they might have turned the other way. At the right time they would have seen a placid estuary and the chimneys of Mistley quay, but more likely they would have seen several hundred acres of grey, slimy, stinking, pockmarked mud.
The tide seems to be more often out than in on this shallow tidal bit of the river. But the mud, reeds, seaweed and wrecks of wooden boats are all part of my spiritual home. The parkland is for the tourists. The mud is for the aficionados.
What makes Constable's landscapes - and, thanks to their proximity, the tidal mud flats - so grandiose is the hugeness of the sky. It has something to do with the clouds borne in by depressions from the Atlantic. They have risen extra high by the time they get to the eastern part of England. This means we are more than usually dry as well. Sunny? Well, that would be too much.
But the glorious fluffy clouds still rise up above the gently swelling golden hills and the birds twitter in the ancient oaks and the little medieval churches still do a great nestling act much as they do in Constable's Hay Wain or Flatford Mill.
And the mud still gloops and seethes. For some reason, the artist never painted the mud further down his river.
I came to the glories of south Suffolk as a child. My father had invented a form of torture which I now realise, like all the most elaborate forms of parental torture, was good for me. It was called the boating holiday.
He kept an old, wooden, converted duck-shooting barge, the Windsong, in a curious place called West Mersea in Essex. Every weekend we went to this outcrop of shanties on the edge of the Essex drainage system, either to watch my father fiddle with his unhelpful diesel engine, or to scrape barnacles from the hulk's bottom (yes, even in winter, my children, when those huge skies are matched by icy blasts from the Urals).
But every summer he loaded his ditty bags with tins of mince, packed us aboard in extreme discomfort and set sail up the coast, past Clacton, past Frinton, past the pier at Walton (oh, how we longed to stop and get on to the rusty roller-coaster) and on up into some far, muddy creek in the Suffolk river system.
Travel guide: Suffolk
The new age of the youth hostel
From the Mail on Sunday
Despite having to sell off 10 hostels to clear debts arising from the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Youth Hostels Association is now on the brink of a new era.
At the peak of the outbreak last year up to 100 hostels were closed for weeks on end.
This led to losses of £5 million which will be recouped only at the end of this summer when the hostels are sold off.
However, the association is managing to open another nine new hostels, often in partnership with county councils.
The newest has just been set up at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk.
'We are constantly looking at expanding the network in a more creative way,' a YHA spokeswoman said.
But just what is the hostelling experience like?
After I had rejoined the YHA, long after the days of our teenage membership, my family and I decided to see how hostels are adjusting to the needs of 21st century travellers.
Our arrival in the Suffolk village where our hostel is situated was not especially auspicious.
A man clambered on to a bicycle and pedalled off unsteadily into the dark. A pig lorry thundered down the lane in his wake.
Moments later the inebriated cyclist hove back into sight only to clatter to the ground in a heap.
'So much for four weeks in rehab,' said the pub landlord, sotto voce.
Travel guide: Suffolk
The hotel for scandal
When Ickworth, the extraordinary Suffolk country estate connected with the troubled Hervey family, opens its doors as a luxury hotel this summer, visitors can look forward to checking into a property with an exceedingly notorious past.
The roll call of aristocratic roues connected with Ickworth House numbers jewel thieves, debauchers and bank robbers.
The decision, by its owners, The National Trust, to turn Ickworth into a hotel has an interesting precedent. The only other Trust property to be redeveloped as a hotel is Cliveden, in Buckinghamshire, once the luxurious home of the Astor family.
Reborn as a very upmarket hotel 15 years ago, Cliveden was anxious to play down its colourful notoriety: it was the setting for many of the key events of the Profumo affair in the Sixties. Christine Keeler famously swam naked in its swimming pool.
But Ickworth's past is even more colourful and shocking than Cliveden's.
The house hit the headlines most recently with the dissolute seventh Marquess of Bristol, John Hervey, a homosexual who died a drug addict three years ago at the age of 44. Before he died he managed to fritter away most of his family's £35 million fortune on drink, drugs, classic cars and lavish parties.
John went to prison twice on drug convictions, but claimed that incarceration had little effect: 'Sure, it might work for stupid people,' he said. 'But it's designed for the lower classes really, isn't it?' His family, for all their wealth and privileges, were no strangers to being banged up.
His father, Victor, the sixth Marquess, was a celebrated socialite, notorious for his 30-hour parties during which 500 guests often managed to quaff 1,000 bottles of champagne. He made money as a gunrunner for General Franco's fascist army in the Spanish Civil War.
When that career came to end he ran out of money and was declared bankrupt. Desperate for cash he took up burglary.
Working with three underworld accomplices, known as 'The Organisation', he took part in a number of jobs including the jewel robbery of the flat of a wealthy Mayfair society lady.
The trial of the Mayfair Gang, as it became known, at the Old Bailey in 1939 was a newspaper sensation.
Victor was found guilty and sentenced to three years' penal servitude. Afterwards Victor was said to have claimed that he was the last man to be flogged in a British prison.
Before his death, the seventh Marquess often wondered whether there was a rogue gene in the Hervey family which caused them to get embroiled in so many troubles. It seemed to him that the family had been cursed for generations.
Travel guide: Suffolk
Soaking up Suffolk
From the Daily Mail
The last time I walked in the fields around Kersey Uplands, Suffolk, I was looking down the barrels of a shotgun. I must have been aged about nine, and my cousin Paul and I had trampled a section of a farmer's wheat crop just before the harvest in order to create a football pitch. The farmer drove up in his tractor, jumped out, pointed the gun at us and told us to leave.
On this visit, 25 years later, little has changed. This is partly because Suffolk's landscape is so often dismissed as monotonous that many potential visitors are put off. But to call it dull is unfair: Suffolk is full of variety, with a romantically bleak coastline giving way to saltmarsh and sandy heaths, rich forest and fen.
It's also a county rich in history. Woodbridge, an attractive market town, has been occupied by the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, for example. Go ten miles north and you can see Framlingham Castle, an excellent example of a 12th-century fortress.
One of the county's joys remains its medieval villages. Many lie close to each other, and so are easy to visit. Lavenham, with its stunning half-timbered houses, is often described as England's perfect medieval town. Hadleigh's high street is studded with medieval houses. Its finest buildings include the 15th-century Guildhall.
Some say Chelsworth is Suffolk's prettiest village, but Kersey is hard to beat. A perpendicular church towers over the old weavers' cottages, a working pottery and ancient pubs lining the main street.
The 45-mile wild coast is slowly eroding, so visit it while you can, especially Dunwich. All that's left of this port, which in Henry II's time was of national importance, is a pub and the ruins of a monastery. The seaside town of Aldeburgh is delightful. Unfortunately, the coastal view is marred by the ugly sight of Sizewell nuclear power station further up the coast.
The miles of unspoiled countryside on the drive from Dunwich to quiet Orford port make it seem incredible that London is only a two-hour drive away. As you stroll through Orford, which boasts a Norman castle and a church, you may see smoke billowing from a shed behind the celebrated Butley Orford Oysterage.
This is Richardson's Smokehouse, first opened in 1925. The fire burns 24 hours a day, and the doors are blackened by the tar in the oak used to fuel it. Don't forget to buy some smoked pheasant or Stilton before you leave.
Food connoisseurs should also head for Southwold. The two hotels in the High Street, The Crown and The Swan, contain grand restaurants. But if you like the area enough to consider moving here, beware, it's not cheap. Southwold beach huts start at around £10,000.
Travel guide: Suffolk
A hotel for children to be seen... and heard
Despite its palatial surroundings, The Ickworth Hotel is as far removed from a stuffy old country pile as you could imagine.
Shirtless dads and screaming kids playing footie in the garden was the scene that greeted us as we arrived - not exactly what you might expect at a hotel that occupies one of England's grander stately homes.
Ickworth, just outside Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, was begun by Frederick Augustus Hervey, Fourth Earl of Bristol, in the late 18th Century to display the treasures gathered from his travels.
With its colossal rotunda, the earl's wife called it a 'stupendous monument of folly'. A vast swath of parkland, dotted with soaring oaks and cedars, designed by Capability Brown, surrounds the building.
Most of the estate passed to the National Trust in the Fifties. However, the late, and dissolute, Seventh Marquess of Bristol continued to live in the imposing neo-classical east wing until a few years ago, when he sold the lease on the wing to the trust.
It is this part of the building that, after a three-year, £4 million conversion, opened recently as The Ickworth Hotel.
The explanation for that incongruous game of football is revealed in the name of the group appointed by the trust to create the hotel - Luxury Family Hotels.
Far too many of our upmarket country-house hotels ban children altogether, or impose a minimum age limit, or say that they accept children but then get all flustered when a baby starts bawling in the dining room.
The UK edition of the Good Hotel Guide says: 'We have more hotels in the guide that welcome dogs than children.'
So it is hardly surprising that most families taking a holiday in this country are likely to self-cater.
Travel guide: Suffolk
Still Dad's Army country
Any Dad's Army fan knows that this classic of all British sitcoms was set on the South Coast of England.
But try to find the fictional Walmington-on-Sea there and you'll be almost as hapless as Captain Mainwaring and his men.
In fact, the cult comedy was filmed in and around Thetford in Norfolk and the broadcast by the BBC of two 'lost' episodes is generating an interest in visiting those locations.
The perfect starting point for a Dad's Army recce is the Anchor Hotel in Thetford. The cast used to stay here and at the Bell Hotel, across the river, during filming, and the first scene of the first episode was filmed, in 1968, in what was the Anchor's Norvic Room, but which is now the High Seas Restaurant.
The rare seafront scenes were shot in Lowestoft, in Suffolk, and Winterton, but Thetford was used repeatedly in the 80 episodes of Dad's Army.
It's a compact town, bisected by two rivers, the Little Ouse and the Thet, with narrow streets of flint-fronted houses.
I took a walk down Bridge Street to Newtown, where in one episode the orange-brick pre-War council houses formed the backdrop to a scene in which the platoon practised subterfuge cunningly disguised as dustbins, and down Bury Road to the derelict church of St Mary the Less.
It was in this churchyard that Corporal Jones undertook an obstacle course designed to prove he was fit enough to remain in the platoon.
Over the river is Nether Row, where he showed off his butcher's van, newly converted as troop transport.
Nether Row's terrace of flat-fronted cottages - renamed Percy Street on TV - were used countless times as a backdrop.
When a German paratrooper's parachute got caught on the town hall clock, the warden stood down here and had bottles chucked at him by Pike.
Travel guide: Suffolk
What a lovely aria
He was there at sunset in his normal pose, keeping guard on the Victorian boating lake that Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Britain's first woman doctor, donated to the Suffolk town of Aldeburgh.
But by morning, Snooks was gone. The mysterious theft of the little bronze statue of a dog earlier this year caused such widespread grief that locals and regular visitors are raising £2,000 for a replacement.
The Snooks Affair says much about both sets of people. They don't like change, and lack of change is the essential charm of this old North Sea fishing port.
Indeed, Aldeburgh remains much as it was a century ago. The fishermen are fewer but they still sit between tides, mending their nets and selling fish from huts beside their boats.
Composer Benjamin Britten, who lived here from 1947 to 1957, left Aldeburgh a formidable musical legacy that resulted the building of the concert hall at nearby Snape Maltings. As a result Aldeburgh has become a year-round resort. But in the summer it remains a classical seaside haunt for families.
Travel guide: Suffolk
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| | | | The great British backwater
Here he would sling his hook, light his primus and settle into his berth to 'get a nice fug up'. The rest of us sat glowering at him from the cockpit of Windsong. He liked it because, being as antisocial as Francis Chichester (naturally one of his great heroes), he could listen to the peewits, ignore pubs and indulge in his great hobby, which was screwing more bits of wood on to his boat.
The weeks ahead (he took his allocated four at a stretch) would find us manoeuvring our cumbersome barque from estuary to estuary. A falling tide would suck us out of the mysterious Walton Backwaters, a filigree of creeks and uninhabited hummocks where Arthur Ransome set Secret Waters, and sluice us past Harwich to catch a rising tide that would carry us into the Stour.
This was a moderately exciting part, as my father, a nervous sailor at the best of times, jillied about the river trying to avoid being run down by a ferry on its way to the Hook of Holland. Sometimes they hooted at us: a thunderous extended parp. We imagined every head on every boat in the whole crowded Harwich harbour turned and glared.
Harwich is not much to look at. There are some old pubs which the Luftwaffe managed to miss. The cinema is the most ancient in Britain. There are a few pompous customs houses. But the postwar rebuilding has been as tactless as anywhere, and the only real attraction is to stand by the Trinity House enclosure and measure yourself against the enormous buoys hauled up for repainting. The river beyond is magnificent, though.
They say the harbour master is to blame for the lack of pleasure boats. My father's jillying around the ferries probably persuaded some fusty Admiralty Board to ban marinas and those mile-long aquatic yacht parks that mar the Solent.
But for the walker or the boater the Stour Estuary is a ten-mile stretch of tranquillity.
From the church at Shotley where the heart of Anne Boleyn is buried, and from where she was wooed in a yacht by Henry VIII, down through Holbrook Bay, where the fake Christopher Wren Royal Hospital School surmounts the bank in pompous grandeur, past Copperas wood on the Essex side, between the glorious parkland of the estates of Crowe Hall (a Puginesque folly) and on up to the disused maltings of Mistley and Manningtree beyond (where the Witchfinder General executed a rather large number of old ladies who were too friendly with their cats), this is one of the great undiscovered havens of England.
Tableau of rural life
Welcome then not to Straw Dogs 2 but to a rural Suffolk pub on a warm July evening.
We had just arrived from Clapham, South-West London, and our daughters, Flora, 11, and Alice, seven, were agog at this latest tableau of rural life.
Having already been disgusted by the overwhelming whiffiness of fresh farm manure and mesmerised by the sight of an owl perched on a post, they are on fire as to what else the night may hold.
To the incredulity of some, we are spending a couple of nights in a youth hostel on the edge of the Suffolk Sandlings, an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The bloom of youth may have faded but we aspire, somewhat hopefully some might say, to having a youthful outlook.
Our hostel, the only one in Suffolk, is in Blaxhall, some 10 miles from the coast.
The village - a few cottages, the pub, a church and no shops - straddles two cycle routes; one is along the Suffolk coast and the other from Hull to Harwich.
The Minsmere RSPB reserve is nearby, as is Aldeburgh, famous for its music festivals; Snape, with its well known maltings concert hall; Dunwich village, much of which was swallowed by the sea centuries ago; and Southwold - the town that time forgot.
Most people think of youth hostels as being spartan places with strictly regimented opening hours.
Single-sex dormitories, compulsory chores and all-weather, hearty types spring to mind. It is an image the YHA is trying hard to shed.
Italian architect
Frederick Hervey, the fourth Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, who conceived and started building Ickworth House in 1795 with an Italian architect, was a famous traveller. His penchant for seeking out comfortable accommodation on his travels around Europe launched dozens of Hotel Bristols around the world.
The fourth Earl, however, is most vividly remembered for tipping a tureen of hot spaghetti over a procession of the Blessed Sacrament from his window in Rome because he couldn't bear the sound of bells.
But while it was the fourth Earl who built Ickworth, it was the seventh Marquess who, in 1997, finally ended the family's direct connection with the estate when he sold the lease on the East Wing of the house to The National Trust allowing them to convert it into a hotel.
The lease was the final link: the entire estate, held by the family for 500 years, had passed into the hands of the Trust in lieu of death duties owed to the Treasury in the Fifties. The Trust was very grateful to purchase the lease - as relations with the Marquess had deteriorated gravely.
There had been complaints about his penchant for driving classic cars at high speed around Ickworth, as well as his failure to prevent his dogs attacking members of the public who were visiting the estate.
The plan to re-open Ickworth as a hotel annoyed Frederick, the new Marquess of Bristol - brother of It-girl Lady Victoria Hervey - who had hoped that he might be able to take up the old family seat.
Given that all connections had been abandoned by the previous Marquess, this was something of a forlorn hope.
But the Trust has sportingly said that it would be happy to find the new Marquess more humble cottage accommodation on the estate if it were to become available.
The East Wing is being converted into a 27-room hotel by Luxury Family Hotels. The LFH group, which includes Woolley Grange, near Bath, Fowey Hall in Cornwall and Moonfleet Manor in Dorset, has built a devoted following by running upmarket hotels which actively welcome children.
It is a sign of the West Country-based group's rapidly growing stature that it has been singled out by the Trust.
Ickworth House, surrounded by 1,800 acres of parkland, is certainly a striking building. According to architectural experts, it represents that 'classic combination of aristocratic eccentricity and unobstructed vision'.
And the Trust says that the deal with LFH means that income can be increased 'without compromising the spirit of the place'.
The renovated East Wing will feature three restaurants, an 'extravagant' 50ft indoor pool, tennis courts, riding from the hotel's own stables, all-day child supervision, a health spa and walking and cycling trails through the estate.
But the luxury comes at a price. Double rooms will cost from £150 with bed and breakfast - children under 16 sharing their parents' room will stay free.
www.luxuryfamilyhotels.com (tel: 01284 735350)
Won't raise an eyebrow
If that doesn't strike you as a real break, then welcome to the world of Luxury Family Hotels. With The Ickworth, there are now four hotels in the group.
The others are Woolley Grange in Wiltshire, Moonfleet Manor in Dorset and Fowey Hall in Cornwall.
They share one aim: to cater equally for both the grown-up and younger members of the family. On the one hand, they claim to offer stylish surroundings, good food and pampering adult comforts.
On the other, they promise entertainment for, and supervision of, children, as well as staff who won't raise an eyebrow at soiled Pampers.
Having heard nothing but praise for the group's other hotels, I jumped at the chance to put The Ickworth to the test.
Last month, I spent a weekend there, incognito, with my partner and our three-month-old baby, Arthur.
The first pleasant surprise was what was waiting for us in our room: not just a cot, but a changing mat, steriliser and even nappy bucket.
The room itself - a standard double - was just about big enough for us, but would have been very cramped for a larger family.
Good touches included a Roberts radio and readable books. Arthur liked the fancy chandelier best - I think he thought it was a mobile.
Second big plus: unlike many other British hotels where you're expected to make yourself scarce during the day, The Ickworth very much encourages you to hang around.
Preserved unchanged landscape
I find Pike Lane - no relation to the 'Stupid Boy' - and go on into Guildhall Street. The Guildhall itself, a slightly eccentric Victorian building, became Walmington-on-Sea's town hall.
After lunch I drove north, on a die-straight road, through the pine plantations of Thetford Forest via Brandon, whose village station stood in for Walmington's.
I headed for the Stanford Battle Area where, in July 1942, 118,000 acres was evacuated so troops could train in secret for the eventual invasion of Europe.
The 500 or so inhabitants of six villages - Stanford, Buckenham Tofts, West Tofts, Langford, Tottington and Sturston - were displaced.
Today, the villages are still marooned in a vast no-go area marked Danger on the map and, on the ground, with signs warning: 'Army Training Area, No Admittance Without Permit'.
Within the restricted zone the landscape has been preserved unchanged for 60 years. In this area, which you can enter only by prior arrangement, Dad's Army's military exercises were often filmed.
At Buckenham Tofts, Warden Hodges challenged the platoon to a cricket match and fielded his secret weapon, played by Freddie Trueman.
At West Tofts Church, the platoon advanced on their token enemy behind portable gravestones, and on Frog Hill the sequence which closes each episode was shot.
Where to stay and eat
WHERE TO STAY: (Prices correct in June 2003)
GOLD: Brudenell Hotel (01728 452071), comfortable three-star overlooking the sea. Refurbished in Conran style. £48 to £93 per person per night in a double room with breakfast.
SILVER: The White Lion Hotel (01728 452720) is on the seafront. Decorated in country house style. £48 to £80 per person per night in a double room with breakfast.
BRONZE: Wentworth Hotel (01728 452312) is a traditional three-star set back from the beach and run by same family for three generations. £71 to £76 per person B&B.
B&B: Ocean House (01728 452094) is situated on Crag Path near the lifeboat station. It has two en suite rooms. £70 per night for a double room and breakfast.
SELF-CATERING: Aldeburgh's unique four-sided Martello Tower is the most northerly of the distinctive seaside defences built in Napoleonic times. It now belongs to the Landmark Trust (01628 825920) and has been converted into unusual holiday accommodation. It sleeps four people in two bedrooms. £1,030 from July 12 to August 29.
WHERE TO EAT:
GOLD: The Lighthouse (01728 453377) is rated in the Michelin Red Guide. £14.25 for two courses, three courses for £17.50.
SILVER: The Regatta (01728 452011) specialises in local fish and seafood. Oysters £1 each, main course £8.50 to £12.
BRONZE: 152 is behind the tourist information office. It has tables outside on sunny days. Main course £8.50 to £14.50.
TEA: The Cragg sisters' tearoom has been going since 1949. Afternoon tea £6
FISH AND CHIPS: Aldeburgh Fish And Chip Shop, family-run since 1967, is famous far beyond the boundaries of East Anglia, plaice and chips £3.50
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| | | | An estuary brimming with bass
Out in this estuary there were sea battles fought against the Vikings. On the southern side, a carefully disguised sea mine factory has been recently turned into a nature reserve.
The shallow basin empties every six hours and miles of sleek grey mud are exposed. Flocks of sea birds drift across it. Huge flights of geese rise up and rend the air with the beatings of their wings. In August the river fills with sea bass. 'Ah, you know about that, do you?' said the man in the tackle shop in Walton when we went to get equipped for a mighty harvest. 'We went down there and on one tide we got 17.'
Hmm. We sat with a boat full of children and dogs and caught none. But there are eels too. The eel fishers have their secret cuts and creeks, where they leave their traps for the green eels, which have to be caged in fresh water in an inland brook until they turn grey and can be sold to the Chinese restaurants in London.
The northern shore is, in fact, a peninsula. From Ipswich, that dull town - which was once a paradise (literally described as such in the 17th century) but since has been desecrated by generations of town councils - another beautiful but more crowded estuary, the Orwell, flows down to Harwich, isolating the Shotley peninsula. It was the last place to have the Black Death in England.
And still, once you get beyond Harkstead and out into the single track roads that swoop up and around the hedged fields, with glimpses of the huge international container dock at Felixstowe glittering across the water, you get an eerie feeling of isolation and backwardness.
When we sailed as children, we went on up to the Deben and finally to Woodbridge, Orford, Aldeburgh and Southwold, the furthest north that the duck punt could venture. And everybody today does the same. They hurry up the A12 to stick on their Barbours and their flat caps and parade in Hampstead by the sea. Every literary type in London talks knowingly of the Orford Buttery as if it were in Soho.
Well, let them go. There aren't many restaurants on the Shotley peninsula and a few bed and breakfast places are the only accommodation. You can't drive to the water's edge. You have to walk. If it keeps the majority away, that's the way I like it.
And not, I assure you, just because I live there, but because my spiritual centre lives there, somewhere. Please only come if you need solace. And bring your wellingtons.
FACTFILE: For further information on Essex and Suffolk call 01473 822922. For free Suffolk coast and countryside visitor and accommodation guide call 01271 336016.
Shared toilet and shower
The hostel at Blaxhall, for example, a converted Victorian primary school, reopened in August 2000 after major refurbishment. It can now put up 40 guests in family rooms with two to six beds.
There is a cycle store and drying room, a television lounge with books and various games, central heating and tea and coffee making facilities in every bedroom.
The rooms have their own washbasins but guests share toilet and shower facilities and the beds are double bunks.
There is a well-equipped kitchen for self-caterers, or guests can eat breakfast and supper in the communal dining room.
The food - healthy, simple fare - is inexpensive. Lentil and tomato soup, a tasty tuna and pasta bake, fresh fruit salad and coffee cost just £5. There is a children's menu, and guests can bring alcohol.
The plaque on the outside of the hostel recalls the YHA's original mission - it celebrated its 70th anniversary last year - to help young townspeople of limited means get to know the countryside.
Today, that mission has broadened to encompass budget holiday accommodation - £39 for a four-bunk room - for anybody from babes-in-arms to 90-year-old grandmothers.
Indeed, at breakfast on our first morning we appear to be the youngest people in the room.
A couple of elderly, single male travellers, a group of middle-aged cabbies from London on a canoeing trip and two cyclists with accompanying car-borne wives occupy the other tables.
The following morning several young families appeared at breakfast.
The reassuring Becky
It offers all the usual facilities found in a posh hotel, such as a tennis court, big indoor pool and indulgent spa. But with a young baby, how do you make use of them?
As at its sibling hotels, down in the basement The Ickworth has a playroom piled high with toys and games and supervised by experienced nannies.
So, several times, we gave Arthur and our mobile number to the reassuring Becky and went for facials, swims and a long ride around the estate's 1,800 acres on bikes supplied by the hotel.
Staying on the estate makes you feel rather proprietorial. On an early-morning stroll, we spotted the resident herd of deer, but didn't see another soul.
One afternoon we waved special passes provided to hotel residents to gain free access to the rotunda and, later, after hoi polloi had gone, we slipped into the Italianate gardens.
In the evening you can hook up your room to the hotel's sophisticated babylistening system - if there's any noise, someone from reception comes and finds you.
The arrangement enabled us to have our first grown-up evening out, without Arthur, since he was born.
We had drinks in the drawing room: the hotel has gone for a contemporary chic style, with retro leather furniture and giant, blown-up photos of fashion models on the walls.
Dinner in the main dining room is as casual as you want - some guests dress up, others don't - and the cooking adventurous and mostly successful.
Unusually flavoured ice creams, such as parsnip, are a speciality; if you're feeling piggy, choose the platter of ice-cream sandwiches.
Charming Suffolk villages
To the north of the restricted zone is Watton Airfield, where the men tackled a runaway secret weapon - a giant, radio-controlled wheel packed with high explosives, which chased Jones's van.
Dad's Army location shoots always took place in summer in what you might assume was an idealised, now lost, English countryside. In fact it's still here, just as it was.
The proof is to the south of Thetford, in a clutch of charming Suffolk villages that also had regular appearances in the show.
I took a walk from Honington, where I recognised the parish church with a pretty little school alongside it. Here, Captain Mainwaring heard the bank had been bombed.
Racing off to ensure the money was safe, he commandeered a horse and cart and careered off down a lane which fords the Black Bourn and doubles back to the next village, Sapiston.
A couple of miles down the lane is the village of Bardwell, where across a field is a splendid 16th Century pub called the Six Bells which also played a part and has a picture of the Dad's Army cast on the wall.
It was almost as if they were there with me.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
For guided tours in the Stanford Battle Area write to: Headquarters, Stanford Training Area, West Tofts Camp, Thetford, Norfolk IP26 5EP (01842 855235).
Bressingham Steam Museum in Bressingham, near Diss (01379 687 386) opens on March 23 2002 and has a permanent exhibition of Dad's Army memorabilia.
Accommodation: The Bell Hotel, Thetford (01842 754455), the Anchor Hotel, Thetford (01842 763925) and the Six Bells at Bardwell, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (01359 250820).
There is a Dad's Army Appreciation Society and its website is www.dadsarmy.com
What to do
WHAT TO DO:
MODEL YACHT SAILING: Generations of small boys spend part of their holiday mornings intent on sails billowing across the Victorian boating lake. Yachts cost from £8.50 to £49.50 from Baggott's newsagents.
MOOT HALL AND MUSEUM: Ancient Tudor building that still functions as the town hall and is the setting for the trial scene of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. The museum houses displays of local fishing techniques, flora, and butterflies. Open daily June to October 2.30pm and also 10.30am to 12.30pm in July and August. Adults £1, accompanied children free.
BRITTEN-PEARS LIBRARY: (01728 452615) At the Red House off Leiston Road, this is open to the public by appointment.
COASTAL IMAGES: (01728 454564) A gallery of coastal pictures by local photographer Tony Pick, housed in the South Tower, a former pilot's look-out on the beach.
LIFEBOAT STATION: Home to a Mersey lifeboat and a D-class inshore vessel, it is open to the public every day from 10am to 4pm, free of charge.
SNAPE MALTINGS: (Box office: 01728 687110) The riverside complex has not only the concert hall, but a gallery, tearooms and assortment of shops selling everything for home and garden as well as clothes and books. Regular buses run to Snape from Aldeburgh.
RIVER CRUISES: (07831 698298) Four-hour lunch and dinner cruises aboard the 50ft Lady Florence up the rivers Alde and Ore from Orford Quay to within sight of Iken and Snape. £10-12.50 per person for up to 12 people.
BEST BEACH: Aldeburgh's unspoilt beach is shingle, which, say locals, deters huge holiday crowds.
BEST THING: Aldeburgh has withstood the temptation to tackiness and is today much as it was more than a century ago.
WORST THING: Gradual gentrification of the High Street has seen the demise of staple businesses such as a hardware store and normal food shops in favour of expensive delicatessens.
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| | | | Perfect for a family
Keith Grainger, his wife Sarah and their three children seem to be enjoying their stay.
'It's got everything you need,' said Mr Grainger, from Norwich. 'It's perfect for a family. There are no airs and graces.'
Tim Barton, an Australian, staying with his English wife, Jane O'Brien, and their son, Joey, 3, and Bella, 18 months, from London, said: 'I think it's great.'
Jane adds: 'This is very clean. It's as good as any B&B.'
The morning after our arrival we awoke to torrential rain and thunder storms.
But we went on to the Minsmere reserve and spotted greylag geese and what might have been a marsh harrier then visited Aldeburgh and Snape Maltings.
Friends might scoff, but we are already planning our next trip - to the Peak District.
Youth hostels, like the quiet country life, aren't always quite what you'd expect.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
For further information on the YHA log on to www.yha.org.uk or call 0870 870 8808.
All hostels are rated between one and five star. Blaxhall is three-star.
Everyone comparing notes
High teas are laid on and there's a jolly cafe that does plainer food than the restaurant, such as pizzas.
So breakfast ends up being the one meal when all members of the family come together. It can feel rather like an NCT (National Childbirth Trust) gathering, with everyone comparing notes on last night's feeding and sleeping patterns.
Which brings me to a word of warning. Without children in tow, The Ickworth might feel a bit too - how shall I put it? - icky. On weekends and during school holidays the hotel group says 99 per cent of its guests are families.
I do have two little gripes. I like to be made a fuss over when I'm spending serious sums of money. Staff, though willing, can be disarmingly low-key, and the manager introduced himself only when pressed.
('Are you the boss?' I asked, when I found myself sharing the lift with him. 'Are you having a good time?' he quipped, before owning up.) And a similar minor moan on behalf of Arthur: apart from the nannies in the playroom and the other guests, no one made much of a fuss over him, either.
However, I strongly recommend splashing out on a couple of nights. Yes, the hotel is pricey: rates for dinner and B&B for two start at £190, and with a family larger than ours you'll need to pay considerably more for a bigger room (your best bet may be the apartments that are opening in November in the estate's dower house, a five-minute bike ride away).
Nonetheless, I reckon the hotel is excellent value. You need to take into account the fact that children sharing their parents' room pay only for meals and, bar the spa and horse-riding, all the facilities are included in the room rate - and you're invited to arrive before the official check-in time to use them.
Also, we reckoned that by using the hotel's supervised playroom and babylistening service, we had 'saved' as much as £80 in babysitting fees.
Sophistry? Possibly, but it may help us justify spending another fabulous weekend there.
The Ickworth Hotel: www.luxuryfamily hotels.com tel: 01284 735350
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| | Destination Guide : Suffolk |
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| | | Chocolate-box villages |  | Why go on holiday to Suffolk?
To see quaint "olde-worlde" British charm in action. Peaceful chocolate-box villages, thatched cottages and ornate churches perch prettily in rolling countryside.
Famous locals include the artists John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough, who were both inspired by the scenery.
The area also boasts 45 miles of unspoilt coastline and a host of popular tourist spots, such as Lavenham, seaside resort Southwold, and Aldeburgh - home to an annual music festival founded by composer Benjamin Britten.
How much does it cost?
As ever, prices for accommodation and meals vary according to the level of luxury. However, you can stay in a pretty B&B from around £17 a night and at campsites or caravan parks from £4 to £6 a night respectively.
An average three-course meal costs from about £20 a head. A pint of beer is around £2. Rail fares from London to Ipswich cost from £18 return depending on how far in advance you book and when you want to go. Return coach fares cost around £18 to Bury St Edmunds and £14 to Ipswich from London.
Fares can vary greatly and you should always check with the operator for exact prices.
How do I get there?
By train - A direct, hourly service runs from London Liverpool Street station to Ipswich, and takes just over an hour. Connecting rail services serve the rest of the county.
From the north of England/Midlands change at Peterborough for trains to Bury St Edmunds, and Ipswich, via Norwich.
By coach - Ipswich coach station is right in the city centre. Bury St Edmunds coach station is north-west of the city centre - about a 15-20-minute walk from the Buttermarket itself.
By air - Stansted is the nearest airport for destinations in Suffolk. JetLink coach services are available to and from the airport from many Suffolk destinations.
By car - From London, use the M25 and M11 to get to western Suffolk, and the A12 to get to the east of the county. Visitors from the south-west of England should also use the M25 to reach the M11/A12.
If you're coming from the Midlands or the North, use the M6, M1 and A1, then take the A14.
When should I go?
The county stages several well-known events every year between Easter and September, so the area is liveliest during these months. Summer is the best time for a visit, as the weather should be warmer.
Don't despair, though, if you just want peace and quiet - even when festivals or special events are being held. Suffolk has many beauty spots to explore, which are tucked away off the beaten track.
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| | | Horse-lover's dream | | What should I do when I'm there?
The list is long. Try walking, cycling, sailing, watersports, golf and sampling locally-made food and drink, for starters.
Major events worth a visit are the Aldeburgh music festival every June - set in a seaside town - and Bury St Edmunds festival in May. Coastal resort Southwold is an attractive option for holidaymakers and beer drinkers as it's home to Adnams brewery.
For a glimpse back in time, go to Lavenham. The former wool-making town has changed little over the centuries and still has original 15th-century timber-framed houses.
If you fancied actor Colin Firth as Mr Darcy (who didn't?) in the BBC adaptation of Pride And Prejudice, a pair of breeches he wore in the series is displayed at Manor House Museum in Bury St Edmunds.
What should I see?
The Stour Valley runs along the border between Suffolk and Essex. Explore it on foot or bicycle and prepare to sigh in awe at the scenery, or drive along its many quiet country lanes.
Places of interest include Flatford Mill, immortalised in a painting by Constable; Tudor mansion Melford Hall in Long Melford; the painter Gainsborough's house in Sudbury; and famous archaeological site Sutton Hoo.
Not to be missed is a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village and Anglo-Saxon centre in West Stow Country Park.
Is the going good at Newmarket?
This town west of Bury St Edmunds is a horse-lover's dream. A visit there doesn't begin and end at the races either.
You can pop into the National Horse Racing Museum in High Street, and the National Stud - tour its stables and exercise areas for a peek into the racing world. Equine paintings by Alfred Munnings, another Suffolk painter, hang in the museum.
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| | | Fresh smoked oysters | | Where's good for nightlife?
Clubbers and hard-core partiers will be disappointed, but real-ale fans won't. Nightlife in Suffolk focuses mainly on the county's many pubs.
Bury St Edmunds, Beccles, Bungay, South Elmham, Laxfield and Ipswich all have recommended public houses or breweries. Alternatively, for a bit of cultural stimulation, why not take in a play at the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds.
What's the food like?
Seafood and fish are good bets. Otherwise, expect traditional British home-cooking and dishes. There are two smokehouses in Orford which sell smoked fish, fresh oysters and smoked meats.
What should I buy?
Constable and Gainsborough prints are inevitable and you can buy locally-made pottery at a number of centres. Fine art and handicrafts are also commonly sold.
Good starting points include Aldringham craft market, Kersey, Blythburgh, Butley and Debenham.
What is there for children to do?
Ickworth House, Park and Gardens in Horringer has clearly thought about how to involve younger visitors. It has an adventure playground, offers free hands-on 'touch' tours for kids and has a large picnic area.
Grown-ups can marvel at the building's unusual oval architecture and works of art by Titian, Gainsborough and Velasquez.
Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park in Lowestoft (Britain's most easterly town) is also popular with families.
If watching animals is more up your child's street, take them along to Country World in Fritton or Suffolk Wildlife Park in Kessingland.
Tourist office
Suffolk County Council (Tourism), St Edmund House, County Hall, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 1LZ. Tel. 01473 584349.
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| | Available rental properties in Suffolk |
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