Bellway At Fonnereau Village

Ipswich is Suffolk's county town and one of the oldest continuously settled towns in England, and the garden-suburb setting north of the centre is among its greenest corners — wide verges, mature trees and quiet residential roads that give way to open countryside surprisingly quickly. Christchurch Park, with its Tudor mansion and free-to-enter collection of Gainsborough and Constable paintings, is the town's best-loved open space and the setting for its summer events. The regenerated Waterfront around the Wet Dock has become the social heart of Ipswich, lined with independent cafés, bars and the university campus, while the main shopping streets and a traditional market sit a short distance inland. For drivers, the A14 skirts the north of town and links west towards Cambridge and east to Felixstowe, with the A12 running south to Colchester and London. Head out and you reach Dedham Vale and Constable Country within half an hour, and the Suffolk Heritage Coast at Aldeburgh and Southwold not much beyond. Match days at Portman Road still set the town's rhythm.