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Published: February 19th 2024
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The Old Post Office
Work area of the Old Post Office Visit to Higham, the Old Post Office We received an email from Steve at mid January and asked us if we both could take one of the weekends off in February to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday. I realised that 12
th to 16
th will be the half term and it would be best for me to take the weekend off between 16
th to 18
th and young students would spend the time with their family and friends on 17
th February. I arranged for a couple of adult volunteers to cover for me on 17
th and ensure that the shop would run on 17
th and 18
th without me.
Both Mark and I worked on Friday morning, 16
th February and went to Liverpool Street to catch the train around 4 o’clock. The train took us to Manningtree station around 17.12. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a taxi driver who would go to Higham at that time and we were asked to wait till 17.50. And then, the taxi driver took us to the Old Post Office, Higham. It was quite dark when we reached the destination, but light was on at the Old Post Office – we were able to
recognise the building. We let ourselves into the house. Inside was kept warm and the music was played… I thought Mary was already there and said, ‘Happy Birthday, Mary!’ But, she wasn’t there. She said she was on the way when I called her. We looked round the house and confirmed there were a number of old fashioned, atmospheric pieces of furniture including old chest-of drawers, postal sack and the post rack used by the old post staff and timber framed drawing and bedrooms, but were functioned by modern amenities. The caretakers left the comprehensive guide of facilities in the Old Post Office and sightseeing places around the Old Post Office.
Mary, Steve, Rhiannon and Bryn arrived at the same time. Steve & Rhiannon brought a lot of food – and he cooked lovely spaghetti bolonese with wheat spaghetti and beetroot, served with homemade garlic bread. We sat on the atmospheric dinner table and chairs which wobbled a bit. We found the lemon drizzle cake on the hamper, which was offered by the caretaker and sliced them.
It was agreed that Steve, Rhiannon, Mary and Bryn were sleeping upstairs of the main house and we would
sleep in the annex house. This lovely bedroom has modern central heating and en-suite facilities.
We got up around 9 o’clock on 17
th February. This was quite unusual for me as I have to get up very early on the normal Saturday. It was sun shining; we decided to walk around the house to take the photos of façade. This 17
th century cottage had some interesting decorations – old door bell used by the clients of the old post office, several doors – which would have been accessible from the post room, drawing room, and kitchen. Steve and Rhiannon offered us French style toast breads – we topped with maple syrup, cream, fruits.
We found the village walk introduced in the caretaker’s guide. It said that we were able to access to the park from the back of the building. This walk led us to the surroundings of historic manor houses and church and idyllic countryside. We saw a number of snowdrops and crocuses blooming on the foot of the trees by the brooks.
Steve & Rhiannon offered us a great selection of cheese and biscuits, pickles and fruits for lunch. I thought this lunch was continuation
of the Christmas meals.
They took us to Flatford in the afternoon. It was quite a while ago the last time we visited Flatford – nothing or little has been changed – we recognised most of the historic buildings such as Bridge Cottage, Flatford Mill, Willy Lott’s House and the river and footpath. These buildings and scenery were drawn by John Constable and its masterpieces have been displayed at the National Gallery in London and have been taken care by the National Trust. We saw farm animals grazing on the grass, but it was a bit too wet to walk on the pasture land in the mid February.
We went to the ‘Crown’, the pub restaurant in Nayland for dinner. This restaurant looked very busy on 17
th February – all the tables were occupied between 7 and 9 o’clock in the evening and all the kitchen staff were busy with serving and collecting dishes, etc. I had trout and prawns with fried vegetables and Mark had pork with apple & sage pie and had carrots and mashed potatoes. We all had dessert – I had plum crumble with custard and Mark had salted caramel tart.
It rained
continuously from night on 17
th February to the mid morning on 18
th February. We stayed in the cottage in the morning. In the meantime, I realised that it would be wise for us to pack up our luggage in the morning and brought our stuff to the main house as we were leaving for London in the evening.
A blue sky appeared in Higham in the lunch time. As planned, Steve & Rhiannon took us to the ‘Anchor’ Inn Stoke by Nayland. This restaurant was located by Stour River and it looked very picturesque. Having arrived at the lunch time on Sunday, Sunday roast meal dishes were available – I had no hesitation to choose roast beef with roast vegetables and Yorkshire pudding as I don’t have it these days. I had a very delicious dessert, Pina Colada Pana Cotta.
Afterwards, they took us to Dedham, another Constable village. I remembered these distinctive, timber- framed historic buildings – Marlborough Inn, Tiptree Café, Dedham Church, etc which John & Mary took us several years ago. The tourist map near the church showed us a number of historic buildings. We walked past former grammar school and walked towards Summerfield house
and popped in the Arts & Craft shop.
We went back to the cottage and had cheese & biscuits for supper before leaving the cottage. Rhiannon and Bryn kindly gave us a lift to Wanstead – it made it easier for us to go back to Wood Green in the evening.
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