Nashoba, Base Green, Suffolk

Another has day ticked by, marking time on one level, and on another slipping back into the family. Today a wedding invitation which we were bound to decline, but were delighted to receive all the same, some help offered to an elderly relative, and the build up to a family reunion scheduled for next Sunday. Meanwhile the camp here at Nashoba has filled up to capacity, such that my husband had to wait for a free shower tonight, a first and a cautionary tale for the rest of the summer. With the weather improving and the summer closing in, this will become more common. 

This morning we packed up our lunch and after calling on Chris’s sister, we set off toward Suffolk’s east coast, or more particularly, Orford, travelling for half an hour across a now well-travelled B-road, through the charming villages of Coddenham, Clopton and Grundisburgh. We pulled into Sutton Hoo to lunch, erroneously believing that we might be able to access the River Denham and Woodridge. Realising our error, we pressed on to Orford on the coast after lunch, and found our way to the English Heritage administered Orwell Castle.

Orford was the only completely new castle built in England by King Henry II and belonged to the kings of England for over one hundred and fifty years. Building of the castle started in 1165 and was finished in eight short years, and from then on Orford grew and flourished. It was well situated between Framlington owned by the belligerent Hugh Bigod and the sea where mercenaries may well arrive at any time.

Before Henry decided to build a castle here, there was a market and a causeway leading over the marshy coastal ground to the river. Orford is sited on the lower part of the Rivers Alde and Ore (one river with two names). The Alde turns abruptly south at Aldeburgh, then confined by a long shingle spit called Orford Ness, the river finally arrives at the sea after a further fifteen kilometres. For centuries Orford has been protected from the direct action of the sea by Orford Ness.

About 1170, King Henry II drained the marshes to create grazing land on Orford Ness opposite Orford, and then in 1336 King Edward III sold it to Robert of Ufford, Earl of Suffolk. The curtain walls were systematically robbed but the keep survived as a landmark for shipping and today is one of the best preserved keeps in the country.

When Orford acquired its charter in 1579 the town was said to be in “the greatest state of ruin and decay”.  The town’s loss of prosperity from the end of the 16^th century was due to the downturn in the fishing industry and in 1722, novelist Daniel Defoe described Orford as “once a good town, but now decayed”.

In 1886 Orford lost its mayor and corporation, the Orford Town Trust was created in 1889 to hold and administer the property of the old corporation. In 1996 the New Orford Town Trust was formed and it is they who are responsible for the manicured lawns about the absolutely charming village and clean facilities ready for the onslaught of the summer visitors.

The last private owner, Sir Arthur Churchman, bought the castle in 1928 and presented it to the nation. It was vested in the Official Trustee of Charitable Funds but controlled by the Orford Town Trust.

In 1929 the Orford Town Trust raised funds for repairs. Many of the furnishings remained in the castle until the Second World War when it was requisitioned by the military and radar equipment installed on the roof.

In 1962 the Orford Town Trust transferred the castle and responsibility for its upkeep to the Ministry of Works (later the Department of the Environment). Since 1984 it has been in the guardianship of English Heritage.

Today, armed with audio guides, we found our way around the maze of rooms, up and down the stairwells, and up on to the roof, from where we enjoyed splendid views over Orford Ness and to pagoda-like concrete structures, the remains of atomic bomb detonator testing, evidence of military investment here spanning most of the twentieth century, up the coast to distant views of the Sizewell nuclear power station, south to the hazy skeletons of Felixstowe’s container cranes, east  to the Orfordness station which transmits the BBC World service in English around the clock,  and over the village of Orford.  

Back down at ground level, after emerging from the cool confines of the thick walled castle, we walked down to the Quay, from where one can catch a ferry across the river to Orford Ness to bird watch and explore the nature reserve that the National Trust looks after. As we returned to the car we walked up through the church yard and checked out the large Parish Church of St Bartholomew, a grade one listed building standing grandly in the middle of the village. The church was first built between 1170 and 1220 and there are some fine Norman remains from that period outside the east end of the church.

Apparently it has excellent musical acoustics and was much loved by the composer Benjamin Britten, who came from just up the coast. Even today, the chairs were arranged in a manner more fitting for a concert than a Sunday service; this in readiness for a Choir and Brass concert tomorrow.

Needless to say, we had found Orford a pleasant surprise, and the plan to visit the castle was only formed over lunch with our travel bibles on our laps. However there was still some of the afternoon left, and we had yet to explore Woodbridge which had been our Plan A for the day.

We travelled back toward the A12, back past massive pig farms where small families of swine gathered contentedly around their mini Nissan Hut accommodation, oblivious that they were en route to our table, through the Rendlesham Forest in which we wanted to park and wander but were through before the right opportunity arrived, and found our way to a car park near the riverside, this the River Deben, just across from Sutton Hoo.

Woodbridge has spent most of its existence offering boat building services and rope and sail making. Both Edward III in the 14^th century, and Francis Drake in the 16^th century, had their fighting ships built here. These days boat building is again flourishing as is evidenced by the many shipwrights advertising their existence  and the town has developed into a yachting centre.

We walked up the main street, appropriately named “Thoroughfare”, and found most of the shops quaint and independent of the regular national chains. Down on the riverside, we discovered the Tide Mill, a living museum which demonstrates how the natural phenomenon of tidal power fills and ponds which in turn turns the mill to make the grain. We left our appreciation to the exterior of the building rather than further internal examination. And then it was time to come home, to discover new neighbours, a slow trip back caught in the rush hour traffic near Ipswich.