It felt just right to sit among the railwayana of Pullman’s vintage tea room, sipping from a cup and saucer and eating a toasted tea cake. All very quaint and English. Although with a bit of wheeling and dealing – the Art Nouveau lamp on my table was for sale if I had £165 to spare. That’s what happens in Long Melford: you get a dose of typical village feeling with the side of old things being sold.
Long Melford has history. People roamed this part of Suffolk in the Mesolithic, it was inhabited in the Iron Age and occupied by the Romans. But more recently it was the antiques capital of East Anglia and beyond. Joy of love was filmed here, and when the final series of that sweetly roguish TV show was filmed thirty years ago, antiques filled virtually every other shop.
“People still visit Long Melford on the Joy of love trail,” Graham Hessell told me. Graham is founder of the Melford Antiques, Interiors & Lifestyle Centre, 15,000 sq ft of collectibles, plus Pullman’s café, in the Grade II listed Old Maltings, a building often used by Joy of love star Ian McShane and his team, and one of the few antique shops left. “Over the past decade, many independent dealers have succumbed to high costs and overhead,” Graham added. But it has not, he believed, diminished the appeal of Long Melford: “It’s a beautiful, friendly place with a wonderful community spirit, possibly one of the most perfect villages in England.”
If you were to draw up a list for such things, Long Melford would certainly score a lot of points. It has two country houses, several pubs, a huge church and – despite the loss of all those antique emporia – a wealth of independent businesses. There is even a village museum.
The biggest objection is that Long Melford – with a population of about 4,000 today – is hardly a village. “It’s about as big as you can get before you become a town,” volunteer church guide Simon Edge admitted. ‘But that means no one could know everyone, so you don’t have that potential poison for small towns. It’s never claustrophobic.”
I started my own explorations from the Black Lion, a chic Georgian inn with good rooms, great food and an excellent location on The Green, at the top of the village. From here you can look down to what is said to be England’s longest high street, 2.5 miles away. But first I turned the other way.
Just above the Black Lion stands Holy Trinity, Long Melford’s sheer Gothic colossus, with one of the longest church naves in the country and an abundance of windows. “He punches well above his weight,” said Simon, who I met on a tour. “Long Melford is a bit of a backwater now. But in the Middle Ages it was in the richest part of the country, thanks to agriculture and the wool trade. Actually, this area was very important, and people were showing off.”
John Clopton, owner of Long Melford’s Kentwell Hall, was on the wrong side of the War of the Roses. He was accused of conspiring with a group of others; all were executed in 1461, but Clopton escaped with grace. He thanked his lucky stars and dedicated his life to building this mighty church. And if moral debts can be paid in stone and glass, he has certainly found his way to heaven.
During the Reformation, all carved images were destroyed, and most of the stained glass in the country is a Victorian Revival. In the Holy Trinity, 10 percent of the medieval windows have been preserved, a significant number. “We are restoring eight bays, costing £100,000 each,” Simon explained, pointing out some of the windows: an exquisite Pietà, several Cloptons, two Duchesses of Norfolk, believed to be inspiration for John Tenniel’s Queen of Hearts- illustrations Alice in Wonderland.
I then continued the Clopton path with a visit to Kentwell, entering an avenue of limes which, when the hall was requisitioned in the Second World War, hid tanks and artillery. The hall itself is a beautiful moated Tudor post, delightful in soft red brick and rich in backstory.
It is currently owned by Patrick and Judith Phillips, who purchased it in 1971 when it was virtually abandoned. Their restoration efforts have been heroic, especially in the gardens, which are now a playground with parks, cedars from Lebanon, a yew castle, a potager and a Pied Piper topiary, which takes Judith a week a year to prune. It was quiet during my winter visit, the gardens opened for a snowdrop walk. But in season the old forge is set on fire and the oven is stoked for exciting recreational days.
So several big ticks so far. But what about the rest of the village? I turned back and walked down the long main street. For starters, there were some nice houses – the average price of those around The Green is now £825,000. How times change: In June 1381, 10,000 poor people rested here, a phalanx of Wat Tyler’s Peasants’ Revolt.
As I strolled further into the village, through the National Trust’s Melford Hall and across the Chad Brook, one of the first doorways I passed had an outside table selling jars of cloth jam with lids to support the local library. Shortly afterwards came the Bull Inn, which was built in the 15th century and has been home to travelers almost ever since, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who took up residence here in 1969.
It took a while to walk the entire street, my attention drawn by vintage shops and vegetarian delis, art galleries and tearooms. Even the charity shop looked as chic as a boutique. And of course there are the companies – the Cooperative, the hairdressers – that make the place self-sufficient. Cozy and convenient indeed.
“Long Melford has changed so much in the last 20 years,” councilor John Nunn explained later, when I asked how it has managed to thrive when other villages have not. “However, people come to live there because they love the area and integrate into the Melford way of life quite easily. We now have a plan in place, which we hope will help regulate future development and help Long Melford retain its charm and appeal. We truly believe that Long Melford has what it takes to be a quintessential English village.”
How to do that
The author was hosted by the Black Lion Inn (01787 312356; theblacklionlongmelford.com), which offers B&B doubles from £89pn.
Melford Antiques, Interiors & Lifestyle Center and Pullmans tearoom are open daily (01787 323626; melfordantiquesandinteriors.co.uk).
Holy Trinity is open daily; Tours can be booked in advance (longmelfordchurch.com).
Kentwell Hall is open on various dates from mid-February to October – check the website; tickets from £14.10pp (01781 310207; kentwell.co.uk).
Long Melford Museum and Heritage Center is open on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from April to October and is free to visit (01787 313496; melfordheritage.org.uk).
See visit-burystedmunds.co.uk