step back in time in Suffolk
SALLY SHALAM CONTINUES HER TRAVELS AROUND THE UK BY CAR, WITH THE HELP OF LEADING CAR HIRE COMPANY HERTZ. THIS MONTH, SHE FINDS HER INNER DOCTOR WHO…
SALLY SHALAM
ATTITUDE + HERTZ
There is no need of a Tardis for time travel in Suffolk, a car will do. Some 18 miles or so from Ipswich, Lavenham is perhaps the best example of a medieval English wool town, a place that wears its antiquity on its sleeve. Gabled shops and timbered houses of mustardy ochre, deep coral or pink render lean into its thoroughfares, strangers to a straight line, testament to a time of wealth when wool and cloth were very big business indeed.
Squeezing the car into a narrow gap off the High Street, I instinctively breathed in, as though that would help me negotiate such a skinny lane, before being deposited into the wide open space of the Market Square. Here, shiny 4x4s swallowed up parking spaces in front of the medieval Guildhall, its pale timbers silvered with time to frosty beauty. The centuries collided in a single scene.