Dedham & Flatford

On Thursday we headed out to Dedham, which is right on the Essex and Suffolk border.  I had heard about it before, but after seeing some photos taken by Lissy Lou I just knew I needed to check it out for myself and boy am I glad I did.

Once we arrived we decided to take a walk down to the riverside to take a look at the boats and the lock.  It was beautiful.  I actually felt as though I could have been on holiday elsewhere in the UK, let alone only being about half hour away from home.

The boats looked so inviting.

I would love to live in the lo0ck keepers cottage, it looks beautiful.

This reminded me of The Notebook.  It looks so romantic.

As lunchtime drew nearer we popped into the Essex Rose Tea Room which is owned by Tiptree Tea Rooms.

Wow.  It was a beautiful building with wooden beams and beautiful surroundings.  The windows were beautiful.  sadly the tea room was very busy and so i felt a little rude taking photos of people while they were eating and drinking, the website has a few pictures but if I'm honest it really doesn't do it any justice.

We ordered high tea which came with your own choice of three sandwich fillings on either white or granary bread, 2 fruit scones with jam and clotted cream and 6 cakes  between the two of us, and a pot of tea of course.  It came served on a beautiful cake stand.

In fairness the scone wasn't as nice as the one we had at Blackmoore but it all still tasted delicious.  The sandwiches were lovely and the cakes, well who doesn't love a cake :) we were unable to finish them all so they boxed them up for us to take away. 

I loved everything about this place the building, the staff the food and most importantly the atmosphere.

After lunch we took a walk down the high street, albeit a very small high street but it is a very lovely one.

Once we had wandered around we drove on to Flatford.  On the way the heavens opened but we thought as we were so close we would stop by anyway.

Another beautiful village.

The houses are gorgeous.  I could see myself living somewhere like this.

Both of these place are definitely somewhere I will be returning to once the summer finally arrives.

~ Gem x