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DRIVE 10: The River Cam and Constable Country
PLAN YOUR DRIVE
Start/finish: Cambridge to East
Bergholt.
Number of days: 3–4 days, allowing
at least a half day in Cambridge.
Distance: About 177 km (110 miles).
Road conditions: Good, well-paved
and signposted. Off the main roads,
lanes are narrow and can be busy.
When to go: Best from April to
October as the weather is generally
more pleasant and the countryside
green and blooming.
Opening times: Museums and
attractions are generally open 10am–
5pm, but close earlier (or are closed
altogether) Nov–Easter. Shop times
are longer. Churches are usually open
until dusk.
Main market days: Cambridge:
Farmers’ Market, Sun; Saffron Walden:
Market (crafts, farm produce, etc), Tue &
Sat; Thaxted: Market, Fri am; Sudbury:
Market Thu & Sat; Long Melford:
Farmers’ Market, 3rd Sat of month.
Shopping: Long Melford is famous for
its antiques, arts and crafts shops.
Major festivals: Cambridge: Summer
Music Festival, mid-Jul to early Aug;
Folk Festival, end Jul/Aug; Thaxted:
Music Festival, end June/early July;
Sudbury: Festival of Music, Speech
and Dance, last week Feb & Mar.
Above View across the graveyard to the windmill at Thaxted, built by local farmer
John Webb at the turn of the 19th century, see p114
DAY TRIP OPTIONS
Cambridge merits the best part of a day
to tour its colleges, galleries, churches
and picnic on a punt, then head to
pretty Grantchester for tea. For
quintessential England, see Saffron
Walden with its quirky museum, then
tour the grand mansion Audley End,
the church of Thaxted, Finchingfield
village green and the ruins of
Hedingham Castle. Sources of artistic
inspiration abound here, from Long
Melford, with its two great halls linked
to children’s books, to the charming
villages of Constable Country, which,
with their cottages, churches, galleries
and beautiful scenery, have all been
immortalized in Constable’s paintings.
For full details, see p117.
Below The Bridge of Sighs built in 1831, St John’s
College, Cambridge, see pp112–13