A pub, a walk, and some rare pigs on holiday in Suffolk
This blog post started out life as a means of telling you about a great, refurbed dog-friendly pub just down the road but then it occurred to me that there was also a beautiful riverside country walk and one of my favourite local attractions near it too so it’s almost turned into one of our Grand Days Out! Actually, let’s just go with that! So, here’s The Crown at Stowupland, The River Gipping Walk, and The Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm; A Grand Day Out from your luxury Suffolk Holiday Cottage!
The Crown in Stowupland; just ten minutes away from Woodfarm Barns
The Crown in Stowupland was a pub I only ever went in once, when I first bought Woodfarm. It was dark and not very welcoming and they sort of laughed when we asked if they were serving food. One ropey coffee later, we left. never to return. Until they closed it in 2014, sold it and then underwent a major (and I mean major!) refurbishment and was brought kicking and screaming back into life in August 2015! This is how it used to look!
The result is superb! Now a very welcoming, airy and pleasant, very dog-friendly pub restaurant, with not one but several extensive menus!
The new owners describe it as a traditional Suffolk pub with a twist. Like us, it is on the A1120 tourist route in mid-Suffolk so dead easy to get to from here, just ten minutes away and you can’t miss it. Complete with a new thatched roof and wonderful slate floors, Robert and Emily Shelley used local tradesmen, which I really like to hear, and have totally re-vitalised this 14th-century pub.
It now feels like a great Suffolk country pub, with freshly prepared food and they’ve also incorporated the spectacle of a stonebaked pizza oven, where you can watch your dinner cooking.
Open all day, seven days a week, you can pop in and enjoy a great range of cask ales, guest beers, lagers, local Cyder (Aspalls is literally everywhere these days, which is another exciting local success story) cocktails and a wide selection of wines. Food is served lunchtime and evenings from Tuesday to Saturday, as well as Sunday lunchtimes. No food on Mondays (it’s a Suffolk thing)
One of the major plus points for our holiday cottage guests is that they a very dog-friendly so they welcome well-behaved K9’s. Dogs are allowed in the bar and garden, just not the separate main restaurant area, but the bar is plenty big enough. They also have doggie treats behind the bar and you will always find a fresh bowl of water outside.
In addition to their full menu, they also have a dedicated bar menu, children’s menu, the full Neapolitan pizza menu, AND a pudding menu!
Their pizzas are handmade using authentic Italian methods and ingredients so check out their website for full details, or better still, get yourself down there when you’re staying here. They are cooked at 400 degrees and take just a minute and a half. Just how it should be done!
They have offered a discount for Woodfarm guests so I’m just trying to sort that out at the mo. Details will be in your cottage when you come.
You can call them to book a table on 01449 490490 or email them at Info@thecrownstowupland.co.uk
Phew! Now to walk it all off!
The River Gipping; so good we named a luxury Suffolk holiday cottage after it!
This great walk along the River Gipping takes you past Needham Lake, from Needham Market to Stowmarket and is just to the South of the Crown in Stowupland. It’s produced by MARPA, who have a whole series of railway station to station walks across the country. You can download and print the PDF from their site by clicking on the map below and we do have copies of these in the welcome folders in every one of our holiday cottages.
4.5 miles or 6.5 miles, so a 2.5 hour or a 3-hour option for you but of course you can just look at the map and take a shorter chunk of it if you simply fancy stretching your legs after a great pub lunch!
The Combs (don’t pronounce it wrong or the locals will march you outta town!) stretch also allows you to go off at a tangent into Combs Wood, which is part of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust
The walk takes you through some beautiful countryside around here and finishes near the Museum of East Anglian Life
There is loads to see and do at the museum too, so perhaps allow some time for that as well?
Anyway, click below to see the maps and feel free to print them out.
If you’re feeling really energetic and want to make a full day of it then there is a longer version still, taking you all the way to Ipswich. This is 11.5 miles and will take around 6 hours
I do hope you’ve enjoyed reading this Blog Post and hope that you can come and try out some or all of the ideas with us soon. If you’d like to check out availability then just click on this button below:
