Kersey: Surely the Prettiest Village in Suffolk!

I have found the prettiest village in Suffolk! Maybe one of the prettiest villages in England!  Read on for why you need to visit Kersey!

 

 

Suffolk is a beautiful county in England. It has an amazing coastline, lovely little villages and towns, and it has so much to do and see.  

Suffolk borders the counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex and is part of East Anglia on the east coast of England.  It is easy to reach by road or train.

I recently discovered the little village of Kersey in Suffolk, and I do believe that it is surely the most prettiest village in Suffolk, and must be one of the prettiest villages in the UK.

Kersey is about two miles from Hadleigh in Suffolk and is also close to Ipswich. It is a tiny village with just a population of around 350 people currently (and that probably hasn’t changed much over the centuries).

In addition to the main village of kersey, it also includes 4 hamlets, Kersey Tye, Kersey Upland, Wickerstreet Green and William’s Green.

Kersey, just like the nearby village of Lavenham in Suffolk is famous for its timber-framed medieval houses and buildings.  Remarkably these houses and buildings are still standing today, a tribute to their medieval craftmanship. 

Kersey is also one of the wool towns of East Anglia. Kersey was known for its coarse twill broadcloth, Kersey Cloth.  There is a particular green color known as Kersey Green that is related to the cloth.

 

 

What to do in Kersey, Suffolk

Kersey is a very small village and therefore doesn’t have a ton of things to do with a wide variety. But you can still find multiple things to do in Kersey, these include:

Walk Around & Take Photographs
There are so many beautiful buildings in Kersey, and the entire village is small enough to walk around in just a hour or so.  Take a walk along the main street, and the back smaller streets and admire the buildings and take lots of photographs.

Photo tip: At the village church along the side graveyard there is a black metal archway (well it is actually square shaped but I would still refer to it as an archway!)

Walk down the little path towards it and you will have a great view over the village below – which makes for perfect photographs looking out onto the entire village!

 

Visit the Bell Inn for Refreshments

The Bell Inn is a large medieval timber building that dates back to the 13th century in the heart of Kersey on the main street, which is helpfully called The Street!  It is open every day (hours can vary).

The Bell has a luxurious dining lounge, bar and garden.  It serves all kinds of drinks, including lunch and dinner, and also bar snacks.  We had a lovely afternoon coffee in the Bell Inn. It is very comfortable inside, and the staff were all so friendly and welcoming.

Visit the Church

The village church in Kersey is St Mary’s Church. It sits spectacularly at the top of a hill with views all over the village.  We were able to go in and explore the church in the middle of a weekday, and it appears to be left open especially for visitors.

Drive Through the Ford

Like a lot of villages in East Anglia, Kersey has a ford, known to the locals as “the Splash!”.  In order to go further along down the main street in Kersey you will need to navigate and drive through the ford.  But the ford is very shallow and it is actually a really fun experience to drive through it!

 

Look out over the Village from the Church

The side part of the church overlooks the village entirely through an iron archway. Here you can really see the village in detail, and you can get the most amazing photographs too! I wish the weather had been better when I took the photo below – but well that’s England!

 

 

See Thatched Cottages

If thatched cottages are your thing, there are a few thatched cottages in the village itself, which make for great photographs and a real glimpse of past lives. They are all privately owned, so take a look but try not to trespass.

 

Take a Walk

You can walk around the village itself, but there are also two routed walks – the Copse and the Tye routes which are about two hours each in the countryside around the village. There is also a longer walk – the Kersey Upland Route, which takes around 3 hours.

Walking around the village itself doesn’t take very long, and it is really lovely to view all the beautiful buildings.

Visit Kersey Mill

I didn’t get to actually see Kersey Mill myself, but it is a complex that is home to a number of shops, including a florist and craft shops, a barber, and also a cafe.

Kersey’s History is not just it’s Buildings!

Being a history buff I was intrigued by a story about Kersey I came across!  The story is that in 1957 three navy cadets visited Kersey. They were taking part in a map reading exercise that would take them across 4 or 5 miles of countryside, which included Kersey.

The Three cadets had quite an unpleasant encounter in Kersey – in what has been dubbed a slip of time, the official term for it being Retrorecognition.  Experts in this science believe that the cadets experienced Kersey that day for a short while as it had previously looked centuries earlier. You can read all about the curious timeslip case here.

 

The only thing that spoiled walking around the pretty village were all the modern day cars! Essential travel items as they are, as Kersey doesn’t have a bus service and is accessible by small twisting country roads.  The cars ruined what would otherwise have been amazing photographs!

 

 

I have found the prettiest village in Suffolk! Maybe one of the prettiest villages in England!  Read on for why you need to visit Kersey!