market town of Woodbridge recently topped an annual survey to be named Britain’s “happiest place to live” by property website Rightmove. Situated along a bank of the River Deben, Woodbridge is a 10-minute drive fromand around eight miles from the coast.
Cynics and curmudgeons may already be flocking to Woodbridge in the hope of finding its inhabitants to be just as miserable as they are. They’ll be disappointed, as I discovered during my visit last week.on the main square. It was filled with busy chatter over coffee and pastries. Here, theories percolated over what makes Woodbridge so content. One suggestion was that, sandwiched between the A12 and the River Deben, it has limited space to expand, meaning it has retained a sense of community.
Woodbridge feels self-sufficient, yet there’s also little countryside between here and Suffolk’s County Town, Ipswich . Indeed, the smaller town feels like it’s Ipswich’s most gentrified suburb, home to its best shops, cafés and restaurants., a café and shop on Woodbridge’s New Street. It is set in the former stables of the Bull Inn and hosts pop-ups in its Canteen, including prix-fixe lunches from chef Robbie Grantham-Wise.
During my visit, I begin to agree that Woodbridge has everything you’d want from a small town, including a cinema, which opened in 1915. Stuart Saunders is its custodian, and he combines the lure of silver screen withis a terrific pub run by Vernon Blackmore, who used to oversee the quirky Captain’s Table just up the street. Culinary folk might also want to try the menu at, just outside town, which has a well-deserved reputation for high-end gastropub fare.