Sudbury Area Guide
Set in the heart of the Stour Valley, an area of outstanding natural beauty, the market town of Sudbury is an ideal centre for both business and pleasure trips to East Anglia. Sudbury is an ancient market town dating back to Saxon times. There are many cultural and sporting facilities, fine inns and hotels, making Sudbury an excellent place to live.
Sudbury has been used for television locations, most significantly for BBC's Lovejoy. It is surrounded by the attractive countryside so often painted by Constable and Gainsborough and by quintessentially English villages. It is an ideal base for people who enjoy walking or hiking.
The main shopping area centres on Market Hill and the streets radiating from it, particularly North Street. Market Hill itself is a fine public space, although perhaps its architecture is best appreciated on a Sunday morning when it is quieter and there are fewer cars about.
On Thursdays and Saturdays Market Hill is crowded with stalls for the long established markets which attract shoppers from the town and the surrounding villages and communities. A short walk down Gainsborough Street is Gainsborough's House, the painter's birthplace, now an excellent museum and gallery. From Friars Street, with its elegant Georgian facades, you may turn down Quay Lane to reach another of Sudbury's special features, the area around The Quay.
In terms of education, the main secondary school in the area is Ormiston Sudbury Academy. If you need primary schools then Tudor Church of England, Woodhall Primary or St Gregory’s are all centrally located and have good reputations.
Part of the explanation for Sudbury’s historic wealth relates to its location – near to the coast for shipping wool exports via the River Stour, and near to London & Colchester for domestic transport. Sudbury is only fifteen miles from Colchester and has good road and rail links with the rest of the UK, especially London. In terms of rail there is a frequent service to Colchester where you can get to London directly in just over an hour.
London Stansted Airport (STN) is approximately 32 miles away.