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Best Places to Live 2022
East
Take your pick from estuary living, cities
old and new, or welcoming picturesque
villages to put down roots
AVERAGE HOUSE PRICE
£318,000
A fine city
Dr Steph
Makins in
Norwich. Below
left: St Mary’s
Church, Great
Massingham.
Below: toast
estuary life in
Leigh-on-SeaBOXFORD, SUFFOLK A
With its wonky, timber-
framed houses and
meandering river, this
picturesque village seems an
unlikely setting for motorbike
stunts and pet lions. Yet
Boxford was the home of
George “Tornado” Smith,
whose best-known trick was
the Wall of Death, but who
was better known locally for
walking his lioness around the
village on a lead in the 1930s.
Life today is much tamer —
you’ll only find lions on the
door knockers, or 15 miles
away at the zoo in Colchester,
where you can also catch the
fast train to London Liverpool
Street (45 minutes).
The community spirit,
however, is fierce. Pick up
your newspaper, grocery
essentials and herbs and
spices that could cope with
most Ottolenghi recipes at
Boxford Stores, trading since
the 1400s. The shop also has
post office facilities, while the
village has an outstanding C of
E VC primary school, a
family-run butcher (who
delivers), a hairdresser, a
doctors’ surgery, a beauty
clinic and what claims to be
the world’s oldest working
automotive garage.
There are groups for all
ages: Boxford Rovers football
club; Scouts and Guides; and
the amateur Boxford Bike
Club; and there is always a
festival, a farmers’ market or
fireworks. Thanks to a cohort
of volunteers, there is help
when it’s needed (the
community car scheme allows
residents to get to medical
appointments, and the
15th-century church runs a
community pantry); and, in
Primrose Wood, a nature
reserve — established by local
families in 1998.
More recently, a
neighbourhood plan has been
put together to address the
lack of affordable housing and
dearth of smaller properties,such as starter homes and
those suitable for downsizers.
Best place to live if.. .You
want a thriving village where
there’s always something to
sink your teeth into.
Best address One of the
pretty pastel-coloured houses
in the conservation area.
£480,000*GREAT MASSINGHAM,
NORFOLK BMuch of the action in this
ancient but far from
antiquated village — full-fibre
broadband is being rolled out
— takes place on a scenic
green with its flinty church
and ponds full of ducks, geeseAKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES; ALEXEY FEDOREN/GETTY IMAGES; ANDRENLANCESTER; NATHANIEL NOIR/ALAMY*Source: Halifax using Land Registry data
and moorhens. Great
Massingham is half an hour
from the coast, but remains a
proper, 365-days-a-year village
rather than a second-home
Shoreditch-on-Sea. It’s
well-appointed for a
population of fewer than
1,000 people. There’s a
doctors’ surgery, while a
change of ownership has
breathed award-winning life
into the village shop and post
office. Massingham Stores
stocks a wide range of local
products, plus they sell fishing
permits, kindling and offer a
drop-off and pick-up service
for dry cleaning.
“People really muck in and
help each other out,” says12 April 10, 2022