Grade II Listed Suffolk Country Cottage

Welcome to Tow Cottage, the perfect country escape in an idyllic, rural location - a short peddle to National Cycle Route 1. Our one-bedroom cottage boasts original features, vintage styling, its own garden and terrace - nestled the heart of our pretty village with plenty of local walks and an excellent village pub. Conveniently located 3.2 miles from Framilngham, 16 miles from the coastal town of Aldeburgh and only 11 miles from the market town of Woodbridge. Relax, cycle + explore Suffolk Formerly The Old Wheelwrights, this quirky Suffolk Pink property is steeped in history. Your private terrace faces the old barns with original circular wooden floors and reed-lined roofs. Despite being around 400 years old, our timber & lath framed cottage has a few modern benefits such as the underfloor heating in the sitting room, a wet room and a roaring wood-burner for you to enjoy cosy fire-side evenings. You will find the bathroom on the ground floor: with sink, toilet, heated towel rail and shower/wet room where you can freshen you up after a restful nights sleep upstairs in your 400 thread count Egyptian cotton bedding. The kitchen is compact but has everything you need, should you choose to eat at home. A combi-counter -top cooker/microwave, double hob, kettle, toaster, sink and under counter fridge. The sitting room has a scrubbed pine breakfast table and two chairs by the window where you can eat or work or simply watch the world go by. The area has been highly recommended by several of our previous guests who are keen cyclists. Tow Cottage is ideally situated close to the NCR1 and many other great cycle routes - Suffolk is famously flat and dry after all. So after an exciting day exploring our huge variety of local haunts - all listed in our on-line Tow Cottage Local Guide Book; beaches, forests, market towns, castles, churches, various fayres (from food to vintage), country walks, even a concert hall at Snape. Relax on the double sofa and cosy armchair, watch TV on the 24 inch Sony Bravia with Freeview channels, browse the internet, read books or playboard games provided - and subject to availability, enjoy a home cooked meal by Sam . PETS: £5 p/p/n cash payable on arrival. We are always happy to welcome one well-behaved, quiet, friendly dog to the cottage. However please note the garden is not secure and we do operate a strictly "no pets on the furniture or upstairs" rule - this is in consideration of our future guests who may not be pet lovers. We do also expect them to be out during the day with you and not left here on their own. NO CATS, SORRY (for the reasons above) . If you would like to bring any other types of pet, do just check with us first before booking. Thanks. About us: We live in the main house at the end of the drive @towhousebrandeston with a teenager - and two big friendly dogs who would like to come and greet you with a loud bark if you allow but they are fenced into our garden if you don't. Sam is a Suffolk girl that spent 20 years as a former fashion editor in London. She is a keen gardener and home cook. Mike is a Yorkshire man, who also worked in London and loves to bake. We have a vegetable patch and love to cook local ingredients, so subject to availability, we'll happily whizz you up something delicious by arrangement, as well as suggest the best walks, pubs, restaurants and days out. We are also passionate about vintage and run the @no1eastlane shop from home, many of the ethically sourced pieces you'll find in the cottage are for sale and we have provided many books on the local area to help you navigate your way round - as well as a few vintage board games just in case you wish to stay in. Country-side disclaimer: This is rural Suffolk, as such, the television signal can sometimes suffer from interference a little at times, depending on the weather and the mobile phone signal in the village is utterly terrible. Conversely, our WIFI is brilliant, BT Fibre-Optic direct to the house - and beamed across to the cottage. There is off-street parking for one car (only), in our drive, just outside the cottage. Their is also a cart lodge where you can store your bikes. The cottage stands alone from the house and has it's own private entrance. It is semi-detached to our neighbours thatched cottage. We live in the main house at the end of the drive @towhousebrandeston . Sam is a Suffolk girl that spent 20 years as a former fashion editor in London. She is a keen gardener and home cook. Mike is a Yorkshire man, who also worked in London and loves to bake. We have a vegetable patch, so subject to availability, we'll happily whizz you up something delicious by arrangement, as well as suggest the best walks, pubs, restaurants and days out. We are also passionate about vintage and run the @no1eastlane shop from home, many of the ethically sourced pieces used in the cottage are for sale and we have provided a lot of books on the local area to help you navigate your way round - as well as a few vintage board games just in case you wish to stay in. Brandeston is a village in Suffolk on the River Deben 11 miles northeast of Ipswich. Brandeston is west of Kettleburgh, northwest of Hoo Green and just off NCR1. The village is picture postcard pretty, surrounded by bucolic farm land, fields and pastures filled with horses, cows and sheep - but not together. Village pub: The Queen is 350 yards up the road and hosts a great many events including the annual Plant Sale and later in the year our glorious Village Fete. Brandeston Hall (Framlingham Prep School) is less than half a mile away by car. Closer as the crow flies! The Village Hall has a wonderful tennis court for village residents - the court is free to play anytime but you do need to book. There are a great many footpaths to enjoy and walk around in the local area December is pretty magical in Brandeston : The village is known - throughout Suffolk and who knows, maybe even beyond - for its traditional Christmas light display and is well worth a jolly festive visit, a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine or two We are less than four miles from Framlingham, famous for it's castle (on the hill) and more recently, Ed Sheeran. There are a number of independent shops, a Co-operative supermarket with off-license, a pharmacy, several pubs and a choice of garages for fuel. There is small market on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. History: In the 1600's at the height of the Civil War, our 80-year-old Brandeston vicar John Lowes, who had preached at All Saints Church in the village for almost 50 years, was accused of witchcraft by Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, who came from nearby Great Wenham. After intense interrogation, the elderly vicar had his 'confession' tortured out of him – deprived of sleep for nights on end and then forcibly run up and down his cell. In his delirious state, he confessed to a number of strange crimes, claiming that he had bewitched cattle and caused a ship to sink off Harwich harbour on a calm day, worked in league with Satan and had committed 'most heinous, wicked and accursed acts' with the help of six imps who visited him daily. He also confessed to bewitching Mary Cooke to death, attempting to poison a son of the local gentry, being the accomplice to a female witch who committed murder, raising storms, frequenting with familiars and imps and preaching 60 sermons after his covenant with the Devil. Despite retracting his confession as soon as he was out of the clutches of Hopkins, Lowes was sentenced to death at the assizes in Bury St Edmunds and was brought to the gallows on August 27 1645, protesting his innocence In fiction: This story also features prominently in Ronald Bassett's 1966 novel Witchfinder General and in the 1968 film of the same name, although the latter was not filmed in the village. This area of Suffolk is extremely popular with cyclists