Lavenham, Suffolk

Mike and I were lucky enough to have the use of a friend's car today, so took advantage to check out the medieval town of Lavenham. It was a prosperous wool town in the 13th and 14th centuries, and is still full of half-timbered buildings and old world charm.

This building was used as the Potter home in Godric's Hollow in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm not sure how easy it would be to identify in the movie, as they said it was altered for the movies with CGI. Some other buildings in Lavenham were also used as part of Godric's Hollow, but I'm not sure which ones.

 "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house."
I had this rhyme stuck in my head today, and lo and behold, when I got home and looked it up on Wikipedia, it says it was said to be inspired by the town of Lavenham!

We have this sort of running joke in our house about the auberge du Cheval Blanc, or White Horse Inn, because Mike claims the only thing he learned in high school French was how to ask, "Where is the White Horse Inn?". As we finally found it, we had to take this picture.

There are many, many opportunities to take picture of crooked houses.

I love the look of the winter vines on English buildings. The bare branches look even more fairy tale-like to me than when they're full and green.

Yes, we took a picture through a window of one of the houses. Before you judge us too creepy, know that it was empty and for sale. 

I'm a little bit disappointed that hedgehogs are apparently difficult to spot in the wild. For now, I'm settling for spotting the Hedgehog Cottage. 

And lastly, I like the leaded windows.

There's a lovely 3.5 mile country walk around the town of Lavenham. We didn't have time to do the whole thing, but the part we did walk was so pretty.

Mike and I are already fretting about giving up our English country walks. So pretty, and so plentiful.