Suffolk Escape to the Country

This is one of the best preserved medieval towns in the country.

500 years ago, it was famed for its cloth making.

But which county am I in? Find out in just a moment.

On today's show, I'm with a couple of beekeepers who are aiming to escape the hectic buzz of London

to the peace of the countryside.

As one of them is a plumber, there's an unusual question at our first property.

Throughout my eight-year television career,

I have never been asked to find out what the water pressure is like.

Thank you very much - that is a first for me.

But by the mystery house, it's a routine request.

-And can you check the water pressure on the taps for us please, Jonnie?

-Unbelievable!

Today, I'm in Suffolk and this is the Guildhall in historic Lavenham.

In the 1370s, things weren't going well for Edward III.

The Hundred Years' War had wreaked havoc on the royal coffers.

So he decided to impose a heavy export tax on the textile industry

meaning that soon, it was confined to British shores.

By the 16th century, the whole area was one of the most prosperous in the country for weaving cloth.

Unfortunately, its fall was as rapid as its rise.

New techniques from the continent and increased competition from the north

meant that Lavenham was hung out to dry.

But, as you can see from the beautiful architecture it left behind,

Suffolk certainly wears its heritage on its sleeve.

Set in the east of England, Suffolk stretches from the great waters of the North Sea

to the gallops of Newmarket.

Its neighbours include Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south.

The coastline is home to Britain's most easterly point at Lowestoft Ness.

And with over 45 miles of golden beaches and shingle islands,

it's a haven for bird life with over 50 nature reserves.

To the west, Newmarket, the centre of British horseracing,

has always been synonymous with equine excellence.

Boudicca, Britain's ancient warrior queen, used the heath here

to prepare her warrior chariots before facing the Romans.

Nowadays, you are more likely to see men in silk rather than women in woad.

But they'll still be out in the world's longest horseracing straight

preparing their charges for action.

If you're looking for your dream country property, a move to Suffolk could be a great bet.

The average price for a detached house is around £241,000.

That's a massive £19,000 less than the national figure.

But if you have equine aspirations,

then the properties around Newmarket are considerably more expensive.

Expect to pay around £450,000 for a character home there

but if you're prepared to ride the extra mile,

the land closer to Norfolk is a whole lot cheaper.

Historically, the major industry in Suffolk was weaving

and the traditional housing of the wealthy wool traders was Tudor-style wood-framed properties.

Fine examples can be seen in the old walled towns such as Sudbury and Lavenham

where this charming three-bedroom terraced house is on the market for £465,000.

The Suffolk pink house is one of the most attractive styles in the county.

Rather than using traditional whitewash,

the pink colour was originally achieved by using pig's blood.

This two-bed thatched pink-wash cottage, outside Sudbury,

is grade II listed and priced at just under £300,000.

From the 16th century, Suffolk red brick was produced at local kilns.

Examples of brick housing can be seen all over the county

but particularly around the walled towns.

This three-bedroom Victorian cottage

in the village of Shelley could be yours for £285,000.

Some stunning Suffolk properties there

but what are today's buyers looking for? Time to meet them and find out.

Paul and Elaine have been married for 10 years

and live in a ground floor flat in the North London borough of Haringey.

For the past few years, they've been yearning for the space and peace that country life can offer.

I've just retired from the London Fire Brigade

so I've no need to be living in London any more.

I'd like a quieter life, more open space.

Most importantly, we want country walks on our doorstep

-because we want to get a dog and go out there and enjoy it.

-Yeah.

I've never had a dog, I want a dog.

So, apart from realising the dream of owning a dog,

Paul will be working as a plumber with help from former veterinary nurse, Elaine.

They've thought carefully about which county they're hoping to live in.

The important things for us is that we needed to be

within an hour and a half to two hours' drive of our parents.

Mine are in North London and Paul's are still in Hertfordshire.

We wanted to be somewhere fairly rural but also near good market towns

where there was activity and amenities but still have that lovely rural feeling.

-Suffolk did fit the bill for us.

-Yeah.

When he's not working or walking his dog,

Paul will be joining Elaine in expanding their shared interest in beekeeping.

We're beekeepers. We belong to an association in North London.

This is another reason why we want to move

because we haven't really got room in here to keep bees with the neighbours so close.

So, when we move out to the country, we can have our own hives, probably about three or four.

It would be great, wouldn't it? We've got a different interest with regard to the bees.

Paul's very interested in the honey side of wanting to keep bees

and I'm much more interested in pollination

because I want to grow vegetables and plants.

We both have that interest in looking after the hive. It's fascinating.

Elaine is also keen on getting more creative with woollen crafts.

One pastime I do quite a lot of is knitting.

One thing I would like to do, if I had the space and the time to do it,

is learn how to start spinning and dye my own yarn.

That would be a really nice thing to look at for the future.

So, with an offer already accepted on their flat, their finances are in place and they're ready to go.

The budget for our move is £400,000.

Paul and Elaine's search area is dictated by the distance

from that parents in North London and Hertfordshire.

They would like to live no further than the town of Stowmarket, about a two hours' drive.

I met up with them to hear what they are looking for in their new rural home.

Welcome to Suffolk. Beautiful county. What is the attraction of moving to the countryside?

We've been planning it for a few years. London's so busy.

It's a great place to live but as you get older, you want a bit more to relax and chill out,

-and beautiful scenery and peace, really, isn't it?

-Yeah.

What are you after - what is the shopping list?

Minimum of a quarter of an acre.

What does this house look like?

Three bedrooms if we can.

It needs to have a good garage because Paul's still got a plumbing business

and we need to put the van and tools somewhere.

-So, three bedrooms.

-Not a square box.

I have always lived in older houses

and I think to move into a modern square box is soulless.

-So, something with character by the sounds of it.

-Yes, it's got its own soul, it's its own house.

Are you keen cooks, do you entertain?

Yes. It would be great to have a big kitchen.

Everybody wants a kitchen they can put a table in and have their friends round.

We're adaptable. It's where the house is. You can always move the inside about.

You sound quite open-minded, which means you might not know what you want

and we might find it on the way.

It also means I could show you a whole range of properties.

I want to show you a complete range of properties.

We have only got three opportunities so they're all going to be very different.

-Let's start.

-Thank you.

-Just this way.

We've found three fantastic properties to show them.

At each one, I'll be asking them to guess the price before I reveal it.

One of them will be the mystery house, which comes with compromises attached.

But first, we're hitting the road to property number one.

We've travelled to the village of Wickhambrook, 10 miles south-east of Newmarket.

So, we're within that two-hour range for those parental visits.

It's a community of around 1,000 people scattered around 11 greens.

Amenities include a general store, a pub which serves real ale

and a centre that hosts WI meetings as well as the monthly farmers' market.

A couple of miles outside the village, we find our first property.

A traditional cottage, part of which dates back to the 17th century

with a Norfolk reed thatched roof.

Here is the first house.

-That is very, very pretty, isn't it? Gorgeous position.

-It is. It is. Lovely.

You are escaping the madness that is London to potentially this.

-Is this what you had in mind?

-I tried not to picture anything

-and keep an open mind but this is fabulous.

-Looking good.

-Follow me.

So, it's a great first response to the exterior of this cottage.

I think they'll be surprised by how much space inside offers

since been modernised in recent years.

I'm going to start the tour with the most important room for Elaine, the kitchen-diner.

So, this is where we find out how big your kitchen needs to be.

-Big enough?

-Absolutely.

-It's great.

-Absolutely big enough.

-It's twice the size of our one at home.

-Is it?

-Yes!

You've got the table in here, the chair,

-always wanted to have a little read in the kitchen. It's lovely.

-It's quite light.

Would you mind turning the tap on to see what the water pressure is like?

-Ever the plumber.

-Yes, mains pressure.

Well done, Paul! This is a first. Throughout my eight-year television career,

I've never been asked to find out what the water pressure is like.

-Thank you very much. It's a first for me.

-I'm going to test the toilet in a minute.

I don't want to be there when that happens. Could you live in this house?

Yes, it's got a lovely feel to it, this kitchen.

This could be a short working day for me. Come on!

So now from the new to the old.

As we enter the 17th century part of the house,

I'm going to show them a reception room with real character.

-Oh, look at that!

-I like it.

-Fabulous hearth.

-Did you get through the door?

-I've still got some hair left.

This is the old part of the building,

16th or 17th century part of the house.

-Do you like this sort of feel?

-Yes, it's nice and cosy. It's lovely.

-Great character.

-Good.

Reception rooms, you've got an office next door or music room.

Whilst you could eat in the kitchen, if you wanted to entertain, you do that through here.

-Mind your head!

-Thank you, Jonnie.

Now, separate dining room. Quite a treat in an old property like this.

A separate reception room. A wonderful feature behind you.

Very, very, lovely stove, that one.

And you have got a conservatory beyond plus you've got just there, a utility,

which means you can keep all those white goods out of the kitchen.

-So, impressed so far?

-Yes.

-Very - this is lovely.

It's got all the character. It's got the old and the new. It's good.

Bedroom is next. Follow me. Mind your head again, Paul.

As well as giving them a raft of reception rooms downstairs,

this extended cottage gives them a total of four bedrooms upstairs.

When their friends come to stay, there's a choice of two double rooms as well as a single.

These all share the modern family bathroom with roll-top bath.

But we're heading for the largest of the bedrooms.

Up on the first floor, this is the new part of the building again.

Right over the top of the kitchen. The master bedroom.

-Master because you've got the en-suite as well.

-It's lovely.

-Good, isn't it?

-That is good.

-It's enormous.

-You do have a walk-in wardrobe there.

I was wondering where the wardrobes were.

-But with four bedrooms, maybe you'd just have a dressing room.

-Yeah.

-We haven't got that many friends. We would never use four in one go.

-No, I haven't got that many clothes.

-I like it.

-It's really nicely done.

-As we head back downstairs, this all seems to be going rather well.

Mind your head, Paul!

But the grounds are as important as the house

because they want to keep bees and chickens, not to mention getting a rescue dog.

The gardens amount to about a quarter of an acre and feature a large pond.

For Paul's workshop, there is a double garage with two adjoining sheds.

Now then. Elaine, you're the gardener, aren't you?

-What would you do with this garden?

-It's a project. It's a big old plot.

We would need to sit and think and do some planning to see

how we could best adapt it to the way we want to live.

How much is this house on the market for?

It's really difficult.

Four bedrooms, I'd say, hopefully, 390, but I think it's probably a bit more than that.

-Really?

-Yes.

-What do you think, Paul?

-At a guess, I reckon 375.

This house is on the market for offers around £415,000.

-That makes sense.

-Yeah?

-I'm not surprised.

The good news is, I've spoken to the owners direct and they're looking to settle

at around the £400,000 mark, which means you could buy this house.

-It's crazy.

-Did you think you could buy this house?

-It's mad.

-No.

But that's why we are here.

-Why don't you go and have a look around the house and I'll catch you in a bit.

-Thanks.

-Bye.

Priced at £415,000, this beautiful cottage is £15,000 over their budget.

But a lesser offer may well be accepted.

It seems to offer them everything they've asked for,

including a large kitchen-diner, plenty of living space,

four bedrooms, a garage with workshop potential and a large garden

with vegetable plot that would be

perfect for keeping those bees.

Soon as I saw this house, this first house,

I was very pleased from what I could see from the outside.

It's detached, on its own, surrounded by fields... Marvellous!

Exactly the kind of thing I wanted.

The garden space is actually quite deceptive.

At first I thought "I don't think there's enough. How would it all work?"

But the more I've looked around, the more I've seen it, there's

so much that you can do with it and it is quite adaptable.

And you could really set yourself some fabulous growing projects here.

I don't know who's leading who up the garden path,

but are you happy with what you've seen?

-Very much so.

-Yeah!

-Time to look at another house?

-Absolutely. Yeah.

A large part of Suffolk's industrial heritage is bound up

in its wool towns.

Places such as Lavenham, Hadleigh

and Sudbury were renowned for their woollen textile production and grew

to be some of England's wealthiest towns in the 14th century.

By the 1800s, it had become Britain's main centre for the silk trade,

with the introduction of the Spitalfields Act, bringing

the Flemish silk-weavers from London to Suffolk to escape the new tax levied on them.

The town's silk tradition is being kept alive today

by Richard Humphries, who has been weaving silk for the last 40 years.

As Elaine has such a keen interest in textiles, we arranged for her

and Paul to meet him at his design studio

to see some old-style weaving in action.

OK, well, this is a Jacquard loom and

if you look at the top here you'll see Jacquard's invention of 1803.

He unwittingly was the creator of the world's first programmable

machine and everything that you can relate to the computer age

comes from this granddaddy of the whole idea.

So you punch the programme in the cards,

the cards here are fed into the machine around the cylinder

and the hooks and needles react

to the message in the punched programme.

Where you have a hole, you lift the threads up -

where you don't have a hole in the cards, the threads stay down.

And so on a loom you've got warp and weft.

The warp threads run up the length of the material,

the weft threads go across, and the Jacquard decides,

through your design, which threads are going to be lifted up

and which threads will stay down.

The Jacquard loom revolutionised textile manufacturing,

moving it from a cottage industry to the factory mills.

For the first time, intricate patterns could be produced

by a mechanised process, which increased output to a mass scale.

Richard makes his own Jacquard cards for designs here, as these looms are

still the perfect tool for the sample stage or to produce

small amounts of specialist fabrics.

What is this cloth you've got on the loom here?

This is really unique, because we are the country's last carriage lace

hand-weavers, and carriage lace was the decorative edge to be

put around your horse-drawn carriage.

In the interior this would be sumptuously upholstered with

satins and velvets.

And this is the trim which goes on the edge,

like the piping around the cushions and the edges of the doors.

Richard's work can be seen in the upholstery

of the state landau carriage used for royal weddings,

as well as furnishings for historic properties including

Windsor Castle, Alnwick Castle and Chatsworth House.

Sudbury is still the silk-weaving capital of England, with around

110 metric tonnes of China silk imported to the town every year.

Wow.

Well, yes, this particular design is unique to Alnwick Castle

and this is the raw material,

so this is pure silk in its raw state,

-and if you feel the wiriness of it...

-Strong, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

-Really strong.

-It's a beautiful, lustrous fibre.

-It's like your hair!

-It WAS!

-This is how we process it.

Here we've got a dye pack

which shows the same yarn once it's been dyed,

and there you can see the single strand of the silk.

And that's about 21 silk cocoons,

so 21 silkworms just to make that single thread.

So strong, isn't it?

-I love all the really bright colours. Just fantastic.

-Yes.

-The shiny stuff's always exciting, isn't it?

-Oh, yes, lovely.

With Elaine and Paul getting a real feel of Suffolk's heritage,

it's time to weave our way back to their house search.

For our second house we're still in the Sudbury area,

just over 33 miles southeast of Newmarket, in the Stour Valley.

And we're around two hours' drive away from North London

for those parental visits.

Surrounded by beautiful countryside, often painted by Constable

and Gainsborough, Sudbury hosts a twice-weekly market

and is a hub for shopping and entertainment.

A couple of miles out of town is our second property.

While it's detached, as Paul and Elaine requested,

it's also modern, built in 1976, and a bungalow, to boot.

But as they currently live in a ground-floor flat,

I'm hoping that might not be an issue.

Now, this place...

..is the antithesis of the house we've just been to.

Wow, yeah!

-Here we go!

-Modern. Very modern. Most unexpected.

-It's quite big too, isn't it?

-Do you like it? Do you mind how it looks?

-Do you LIKE the way it looks?

-Yeah, it looks nice, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it looks good.

-Good!

Inside, again, it's totally different to what we've seen so far.

-Let's see what you think.

-Right.

So open minds at the moment.

And we're about to find out whether Paul

and Elaine will contemplate a modern interior in their future home.

Let's start with the newest part of this building.

Yeah.

-Wow.

-It is a bit of a wow room, isn't it?

-It is!

-It's so bright, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's massive, absolutely massive.

Come on then, Paul. The last one was... "Good. Good."

PAUL LAUGHS

So how is this one?

-This is modern good.

-Oh, right, OK!

Yeah, I mean, it's got high ceilings,

-cos you can hear it's echoing, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's very modern, so you've taken us from a really old place straight to a modern.

We've gone up hundreds of years.

On one side of this living space are three bedrooms,

which could be used for visiting friends and family.

All are a reasonable size and share a modern family bathroom

so the whole area could be used as a guest wing

but our next stop is the kitchen on the opposite side of the house

and, whilst they love the rustic style of the one at the last

property, this is a whole different proposition.

So, staying with the modern theme.

Well, ultramodern, actually, this kitchen, isn't it?

-It is incredibly modern, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is.

-I do like it.

I like it very much

but it does feel as if I'm on holiday abroad somewhere.

-Really?

-Yeah, it's all the tiles and the clean surfaces.

It's just that you haven't got the additional space in this one.

That other kitchen had that little bit of table and chairs

so you could be together and chill out in this space together.

-You can't do that in here.

-It's too square and modern for me, I feel.

-Remember I told you some of the bedrooms are that way?

-Yeah.

The master, as they have it at the moment,

is just through the utility.

-Excellent. Past the fridge on the way to the bed?

-Yeah.

-Fantastic.

While Elaine is looking on the positive side, we have now

got a clear idea of the way Paul feels about modern properties.

He didn't even ask to test the water pressure.

-Now then, no falling up the stairs to bed in this house.

-Oh.

Nice-sized room. Very light.

Plenty of room to get round the bed on both sides,

which is what you've always wanted.

-We can't do that now.

-It's true. Yeah.

It's got a small en-suite there.

Can't see much character to it, if you know what I mean.

-But whatever rocks your boat.

-It's only 30 years old, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Let's go outside to the garden, have a look around

and see what possibilities there are for your veggies

and your chickens and try and price this one.

It will not be easy.

Perhaps the outdoor space will change their view.

The established garden comes in at a quarter of an acre

with apple and pear trees and room for the bees.

There's also a large double garage,

giving Paul an option for his workshop.

How much do you think this house is on the market for?

-402,000.

-OK. 402,000.

-Elaine, how much?

-398.

Well, this house is on the market for offers around £395,000.

So you weren't a million miles away, pricewise.

I think you should go back into the house, have a quick scoot around

-and I will meet you where we came in.

-Thank you.

-See you in a mo.

So, not for them by the sounds of it

but when you look at the two houses we have seen today,

I think I know where we should be heading for the mystery property.

Under budget at £395,000, this property delivers

many of the elements on their wish list but with a modern twist.

It features a sleek kitchen,

a light open-plan living area,

four bedrooms

and a quarter of an acre of land,

which caters for vegetable-growing and beehives,

along with a double garage for Paul's workshop.

The inside of the house was light and it was airy.

I thought I would really like it but I think I have changed my mind.

Through seeing the houses, I think I really like the older properties.

Definitely. It's not for me.

There is the compromise.

This house is nearer to the town but the payoff is the road noise.

I think I always knew that I needed the quiet

and this visit has absolutely cemented that for me.

-All right.

-Here they are. All done inside? Good look around?

-Good look around.

-Good. Quite an eventful day.

-Yeah.

Let's finish it there, shall we. Let's go back.

As dusk falls over the spectacular Suffolk countryside,

it marks the end of a day of contrasts for our property search.

Armed with £400,000,

Paul and Elaine want to leave London far behind

and, with a stream of income from a plumbing business,

set up home in rural Suffolk.

A traditional cottage had them positively gushing

but there was just a trickle of enthusiasm at our second property.

Coming up, the mystery house puts them under the cosh

but with some pleasing results.

-It's great, isn't it?

-I didn't bash my head.

And I meet the endangered breed of heavy horse that

for centuries has called this county home.

So, Elaine and Paul started off yesterday telling me that they

weren't really sure what they are after but after looking at two very

different houses and getting two very different sets of reactions,

I think we are a lot closer to finding out exactly what they do want.

So, today, well, look at it.

It's an absolutely stunning morning

and we are off to see the mystery house.

Now, I think we should look at something that sits

somewhere in between the two we saw yesterday but, just

like anything in the middle ground, it does come with a compromise.

We have made the journey close to the historic market town

of Hadleigh, not far from the Essex border,

so the trip back to London will take just over two hours.

The town is full of fine examples

of timber and brick listed buildings,

some dating back to the 15th century.

There are plenty of independent shops selling local produce

and as Elaine has green-fingered aspirations, we are stopping off

en route to meet local gardening enthusiast Ruth Allen.

You're head of the local garden club, is that right?

-What is it called?

-Hadleigh District Garden Club.

Right, OK. Now, what does that do?

Well, it looks after all the local gardeners who are mad enough

to want to spend all their hours digging around in the mud.

I think we have got one here.

-Do you eat your own produce, I would imagine?

-Some of it, yes.

That sounds fantastic. So, this garden club,

it sounds like it's a forum as much as anything else,

to share ideas,

to share issues you might have throughout the season.

Well, it's really to educate anybody who wants to be educated

on any specific matter but what happens tends to be

that you find most information out from other people. Other gardeners.

Sounds like an absolute wealth of knowledge and you can't miss out

on that. When you are starting a garden, you need everything.

-It sounds fantastic.

-In that case, you may well meet again.

-Well, I hope we shall meet again.

-I hope so.

-I would like to see you both actually.

-Thank you very much.

Our mystery house is around three miles south of the town,

just outside the pretty village of Shelley.

While Paul and Elaine had their hearts set on a detached property,

I've got a feeling that this end-of-terrace Victorian cottage

could change their minds.

This is our final offering.

-It's really cute. Really, really nice-looking house.

-Good.

And one thing you said you would prefer it to be, Paul, is detached.

-I did.

-And it's not.

-No.

But this, I think you will see it still feels pretty private.

Yeah, it's lovely.

Originally three cottages built as farm cottages, built around 1891.

It is about the age of our property that we got at the moment so it

has got that familiar feeling.

Good. Let's look inside.

'So, we know we have got the character of this one right for them

'and the semi-detached aspect doesn't seem to be a problem

'so far, which is great news.'

OK. First reception room.

-It's lovely.

-It's good.

Now, Paul, when you say, "It's good."

-It's clean, it's all decorated nicely.

-It's got the ceiling height.

-It's really nice.

-It's great, isn't it.

-I didn't bash my head.

Let's go straight to the kitchen

-cos that is a fundamental part of your search, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Well, pragmatic Paul has given it the thumbs up so far.

Let's see if we can turn up the pressure in the kitchen.

-Lovely. Really nice.

-Yeah?

-It is lovely, yes.

-Excellent.

You got a "lovely" - did you hear that?

-Lovely? Did he say lovely?

-Lovely. Good. Lovely.

-Wow.

-Dropped back to good.

-It's all clean. It's all new.

It's really great.

-It's got a downstairs loo there, which doubles as a utility.

-OK.

And can you check the water pressure on the taps for us, please, Jonnie?

Unbelievable.

-Ready, Mr Plumber?

-Yeah.

I haven't checked this already so please don't let me down.

That's the cold. Shall we try the hot?

So, with the water passing the test,

it's time to gauge their reactions to the main sitting room.

Now, this, I think, is a glorious room.

-It's a fantastic lounge, isn't it?

-Oh, yeah.

Really lovely living space.

It almost feels quite Georgian, this room, doesn't it?

It's got that elegance about it, definitely.

Have you seen anything you would want to change so far?

-Maybe, actually, now you say it.

-Go on.

-Knocking through, making one big kitchen diner through there.

-Wow.

We haven't even seen the upstairs yet, have we?

-We haven't, we haven't.

-Let's go and take a look now.

Living in a ground-floor flat,

Paul and Elaine haven't had their own stairs for a while.

Up on the first floor,

our semi-detached mystery house gives them four bedrooms.

A generously sized double room which has a Gothic-style window

along with two further bright single rooms,

one of which comes with built-in storage.

And these all share the large,

light family bathroom which has a shower and roll-top bath.

But we're heading for the master.

OK, so on this floor you have four bedrooms.

-What do you think of this one?

-It's a stunning room.

-It is stunning, yeah.

-Really, really lovely, peaceful room.

And, look, you can walk around the bed, both sides.

That means I haven't got to scramble over the bed in the morning.

A little Victorian fireplace.

-Sweet, isn't it?

-It's got character, hasn't it?

-Real character.

-Liking what I see.

-You are?

-Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.

If they can overcome the semi-detached issue,

there is no denying that our mystery property gives them

the character and space they're after.

'But, critically, the garden has to deliver

'and give Paul that workshop.

'Outside, there is around a quarter of an acre of land, laid largely

'to lawn and with plenty of scope for growing veg and the beehives.

'What's more, there is a summer house which is currently

'used as a TV lounge but could be useful for Paul.'

Would you use that as some sort of work-shop or is it...?

I can do, yeah. I could just develop it and turn it into what I need.

There is an access road for these other cottages going right round

the back of this so there may be an option to play around with that

and get vehicular access to the back here.

That would be handy. We'd have to look into that.

How much do you think the estate agents are marketing this place at?

Well, it's attached, it doesn't have a garage.

It is a very nice house but I'm going to go for 375.

OK. Paul?

I would go for 385.

Well, this house is on the market for offers around £399,500.

But I spoke to the estate agent

and he reckons they may well settle somewhere around your guesses.

-Maybe somewhere in between the both of you.

-That sounds promising.

-Doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-It does.

I think we have had pretty good reactions in this house

from both of you but it's time for you to go inside,

have a look around everywhere you haven't yet seen

and I'll meet you...

Tell you what, I'll meet you somewhere in the sun. How's that?

-All right?

-All right.

-See you in a mo.

-Thank you.

Well, at last, I genuinely think we have got a house

that challenges the first property that Paul and Elaine looked at.

A very different proposition but great reactions nonetheless.

Priced at just under £400,000,

our end-of-terrace mystery property definitely seems to be in the frame.

It has a country kitchen,

two reception rooms with character features, four bedrooms

and outside there is a ready-made building for Paul's workshop,

all wrapped up in the quarter of an acre of gardens with

space for Elaine's vegetable plot, chickens and, of course, the bees.

-Oh, my word.

-Look at this.

Wow, this is somewhere to keep the guests, isn't it? Excellent idea.

I could use this as a storage workshop.

-Office, anything, couldn't you?

-Yeah.

I was, ideally, after a detached house. Obviously this one is not.

It is semi-detached but it has got

so many good things going for it I'm willing to overlook that.

When I first saw the mystery house,

I thought it was a very, very nice looking house.

The garden does work for me.

It is pretty much a fairly blank canvas.

You can work your way and do the various bits,

make little rooms for various areas - vegetables, herbs, chickens, etc.

Yeah, good garden.

So, have you planned any knock-throughs from dining room walls

into kitchens or anything like that?

-Just talking about it now.

-Were you?

-Yeah, yeah.

Well, I'm glad this has given you something to discuss

and maybe something to compare against the first property.

Why don't you go and have a bit of time amongst yourselves

-and we will meet up later on, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Thank you. Cheers.

Suffolk's heritage has been shaped by a range of industries

including fisheries, textiles and agriculture.

And on the farms, it was man alongside beast that

contributed to the county's prosperity.

One animal that historically played a vital role was a native

breed of heavy horse called the Suffolk Punch.

As well as being used as a draught horse for pulling carts,

it ploughed the fields in the days before mechanised farming.

Since the 1960s, however, their numbers have declined

and these gentle animals are now

on the critical list of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Less than 450 purebred Punches of potential breeding

capability are left in the world. To see some for myself,

I met with Chris Kennedy of the Suffolk Punch Trust

at a stud farm that has been breeding this endangered horse since 1887.

So, there has been a stud here for over 100 years.

Yeah, so there is a long tradition of breeding Suffolk Punches here.

Wow. Now, back then,

these huge horses would have proliferated the Suffolk landscape.

-These were the tractors.

-They were the workhorses of Suffolk

and that's why they are such an iconic emblem of Suffolk.

Most of the farms would have had between 15 and 20 of them.

So why should we save then?

Because they are part of the heritage of farming

and agriculture in Suffolk and, like a lot of things, you know,

if we don't try and maintain our heritage,

we have actually got nothing to leave to our children

and grandchildren. They will never know what a working horse

looked like and that's why we take them to a lot of shows.

They are shown in hand.

We have horses broken to harness that we take for pulling wagons.

We do weddings. We do the odd funeral with them.

So, you know, we do have a role for them and because of their

temperament and things and their strength,

they are a good working horse.

Every Suffolk Punch alive today can trace its ancestry back to

one stallion foaled in 1768 that belonged to Thomas Crisp of Ufford.

The breed tends to mature early and live a long life.

Unusually, they need less food than other draught horses

and so are economical to keep.

Typically, the Suffolk Punch always is chestnut in colour.

As a breed, they have a particularly short cannon bone.

This is the bone from the knee down to the fetlock joint.

And al have quite a short pastern, which is this here.

Compared to a lot of the other heavy horses, they are relatively small.

What you want is a compact animal, fairly close action so that when

they're in the furrows,

you don't want the legs going all over the place.

Nice, low centre of gravity then.

Because the lower you're down, the stronger you are.

They may be perfectly suited to their work

but thanks to Suffolk's rurally isolated position,

the Punch never reached the popularity of the Shire horse.

Mechanisation may have sealed their fate but these animals are still

trained as working horses, as I am going to see for myself.

So how do we get going then?

-Right, now, you just ask the horse to walk on.

-Walk on. Go on, boy.

Talk me through the directions, if you like, then, Chris.

There's sort of traditional calls for left and right.

So if you're asking the horse to turn to the right, you say, "Wish."

If you ask for the horse to go to the left you say, "Cup."

OK, let's try wish then. Wish.

And then you straighten him up. That's it.

-The voice is very, very important.

-So I want to go left now then. Cup.

Just a little pressure on the bit. That's it.

-Wow.

-You're doing an excellent job for your first time.

Well, I think it's the tail wagging the dog, if you like.

'These traditional commands have been passed down by generations

'of Suffolk farmers and they still work just as well today.'

-Wish.

-He is getting used to your voice now so it's going well.

Well, it's great to see Suffolk looking after the heritage of

not only its wonderful architecture but also these beautiful horses.

Time to meet up with today's buyers to see if we have found them

the perfect home here.

You've found a nice spot, haven't you?

Now than, let's talk about the houses.

The first property we went to, we majored on character.

A 17th, maybe even 16th century thatched cottage.

Good initial reactions from you, Paul.

I thought, "How can a fireman have a thatched-roof house?"

-It was a bit of a risk, wasn't it?

-It certainly was.

I thought, "No fireworks around here." Definitely.

We didn't have fireworks inside the house

but you both seemed to enjoy looking around the house outside and inside.

There were some absolutely lovely parts to the house.

The kitchen was gorgeous and that opened out into the garden.

And a nice master bedroom. Really nice areas of the house. Definitely.

Now, that outside space, you want it to have

function as well as, you know, nice aesthetics, don't you?

Yeah, I think it would be a bit of a struggle to get it to

how I want it to be. Definitely.

Well, the next property, completely the other end of the spectrum.

-You said you're open-minded so I went modern.

-Very modern.

From the outside, you said you quite liked the look of this

-avant-garde looking house, didn't you?

-Yes, I did.

And then as I went inside, the more I saw inside,

it was too modern for me.

That's fair enough. You know, it's each to their own, isn't it?

So, moving on from there.

Now, the mystery property, you both had great first reactions.

-Paul, you especially.

-Yeah, I did.

I mean, obviously, I told you I'd liked to have had a detached house

and this was not but it felt right, it looked right,

it was in a great location.

I think there was a lot of potential with that house.

As great as it is, it's a really nice house,

but it is the sort of house that could grow with you as you

-change and you want different things from it.

-Has it taken your heart?

I think it may. It may be worming its way in there.

-You don't like to admit it, do you?

-Yeah, go on then. It's a yes.

Neither of you are that cold. I know.

So what is the next step for you then?

I think we will come back, see it again.

We need to find out a bit more.

We need to measure the travel distances

-and the facilities. It is looking good.

-Yeah, it's looking promising.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, definitely.

Well, very best of luck.

We'll give you all the estate agent's details

and hopefully your second viewing of not only the house but the area

goes according to plan and you make your escape to the country.

-Thank you. Thank you ever so much.

-Thank you very much.

So, for a couple of Londoners who said yesterday

they weren't really sure what they're after,

it sounds like they made the decision fairly easily.

Even more surprising then when you consider that Paul said

he was only really after a detached house.

But it just goes to show, doesn't it,

if you get the big things right,

the right property in what they deem is the ideal location,

well, it's quite easy to overlook the small things.

Paul and Elaine did go back to the mystery house and -

cue those waterworks - their offer on it has been accepted.

So they will soon be living and plumbing in the Suffolk countryside.

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