Woodbridge – Nancy Blackett’s winter home – has been named as the best place to live in the East of England by The Sunday Times in its newly-published Best Places to Live Guide – and the Shotley Peninsula, Nancy’s summer base, also features in the list.
Woodbridge, described as “arty, creative and historic” contains several traditional boatyards, including Robertsons, which takes care of Nancy Blackett’s maintenance and refurbishment in the winter.
Nancy Blackett at a Woodbridge Maritime Festival. Photo: NBT Archives.
It is also the home to the Nancy Blackett Trust’s President, Peter Willis, trustee Neil Brooks – who is her boat manager, and our in-house artist Claudia Myatt, as well as several other enthusiastic and active members.
The River Deben is an essential part of Woodbridge’s charm. Photo: NBT Archives.
The Shotley Peninsula – between the Rivers Orwell and Stour, where Nancy Blackett is based in the summer – is justly famous for Pin Mill, with its waterside pub The Butt and Oyster, which was Arthur Ransome’s local when he lived in the area, and was featured by him in We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea.
Pin Mill. Photo: Peter Willis.
The Guide calls it the area’s ‘prettiest village’ and the peninsula as a whole as “a slice of prime Suffolk countryside where you can enjoy laid-back village life and Swallows-and-Amazons-style fun in the water”.
Nancy Blackett passes Pin Mill. Photo: Bill Wallace-King,
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