BY SUFFOLK SHORES

Living Next To The North Sea

England’s eastern counties have many beautiful sights, among the most loved of these being along the stretch of coast that’s centred on the popular seaside town of Southwold, in Suffolk.

Here, visitors come to view traditional seaside attractions that include a pier, a lighthouse, arts and crafts, antiques and books, and various foodie haunts that offer a wide range of local produce.

Tourism may be a prime income generator here, but fishing and light industry are strong too, so beaches have their share of fishing boats and the assorted tackle (right) that goes with them.

O ffshore, shipping in these North Sea waters consists primarily of modern commercial vessels. However, the handsome 1916-built herring lugger Gallant at right now operates as a sail-training ship that is also sometimes entered in tall-ship races. The Gallant sails under the Dutch flag, but her home port is in France, the port of Douarnenez, in Brittany.

The Minsmere nature reserve lies a short distance from Southwold. Marsh birds, such as avocet and bittern, are common sights among (above) the whispering reed beds, waving grasses, shingle vegetation, and lowland heath.

Minsmere has a long history, which includes being deliberately flooded in World War II, against possible invasion.

Many concrete and barbed-wire defences were erected at the time, some of them still being visible today.

The remains of Greyfriars monastery are here silhouetted against the sky at Dunwich, a few miles from Southwold.

Franciscan monks founded the site in the 1200s, when Dunwich was a major port. Today, there are ruins, but the monastery itself is long gone.

A shaft of late afternoon sunlight makes these Southwold beach huts glow with colour before the day turns into a cool March evening. In the town, visitors come to view traditional seaside attractions that include a unusual pier that’s packed with amusing automata, games and machines, the creations of inventor-cartoonist, Tim Hunkin.

These nautical details were captured at Southwold harbour, a fascinating place that is about 20 minutes walk from the town itself. It’s an easy stroll there, and our recommendation is to eat fish and chips from the Sole Bay Fish Company. If the weather is good, you can sit in the sun, next to the harbour’s long line of tarred wooden buildings, seen here at bottom right.

Fishing boats lined up after a day spent hard at work in the chill waters of the North Sea. Catches brought to shore range from sole and crab to whiting and flounder. Further up the coast, Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, was once known as the ‘bloater capital of the world,’ though finding these salted and lightly-smoked herrings on a restaurant menu is an unusual choice today.

Today’s East Anglian fishing industry is a shadow of its former self. Yet new jobs and boats could lead to big future increases in catch levels. The boat here stands ready for the next day’s fishing, pulled up high on the shingle beach at Pakefield.

A visit to Southwold should include a look at the lighthouse. Situated in the middle of town, its warning flash can be seen from ships up to 44 km away. The lighthouse was first used in 1890, and today is an automatic device.

Adnams Brewery, which operates an excellent outlet in Southwold, has named one of its ales after the lighthouse.