Woodbridge

Woodbridge is a historic market town set on the tidal River Deben in east Suffolk, around eight miles north-east of Ipswich. Its sloping streets are lined with timber-framed buildings, Georgian frontages and independent shops, antique dealers, galleries and cafes, with the elegant Shire Hall standing at the top of Market Hill. The Church of St Mary the Virgin, with its tall flint tower, dominates the skyline above the rooftops.

Down at the waterfront, the white weatherboarded Woodbridge Tide Mill is the town's signature landmark, one of the few working tide mills in the country and still milling flour on selected days. The quayside is a working boatyard area with yachts and sailing barges moored along the Deben, and walks lead north along the river towards Melton or south past Kyson Point and on to Martlesham Creek.

Woodbridge is also the gateway to Sutton Hoo, the internationally famous Anglo-Saxon ship burial site cared for by the National Trust just across the river. With its train station on the East Suffolk Line offering direct connections to Ipswich and London, the town makes an easy and rewarding stop for a day of riverside walking, history and good food.