Lavenham Priory

I could spend hours sitting in Lavenham Priory’s old Great Hall just soaking up the atmosphere of this impressive Elizabethan merchant’s home which began life in the 13th century as a Benedictine priory. It’s an absolutely superb room with its stone-flagged floor, huge sofas drawn round the massive inglenook fireplace, and beams patterning the simple white walls rising to the rafters. Bedrooms enjoy the same airy spaciousness and are furnished to utter perfection. Whether you choose the Great Chamber with its ornately draped bed; the Painted Chamber with its four-poster bed and Elizabethan wall paintings; or the snugger quarters of the twin-bedded Garden Chamber, you will be completely charmed by your room. Breakfast is the only meal served but there is no shortage of places to walk to for dinner. Because of the popularity of this exceptional home it is advisable to make reservations well in advance. Lavenham, in Tudor times one of England’s wealthiest towns, is now a picturesque village with leaning timbered houses lining its streets and continuing into its market square where the Guildhall presents displays of local history and the medieval wool industry.