We’re on holiday this week and did what we often fo on holiday and headed off to Aldeburgh for lunch. This time we decided to visit Thorpeness, just up the coast as we have seen Aldeburgh so many times. Well, we weren’t disappointed, what a wonderful small coastal town.
In 1910, Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie, a Scottish barrister who had made his money building railways around the world bought and developed Thorpeness into a private fantasy holiday village, to which he invited his friends’ and colleagues’ families during the summer months. A country club with tennis courts, a swimming pool, a golf course and clubhouse, and many holiday homes, were built in Jacobean and Tudor Revival styles.
To hide the eyesore of having a water tower in the village, the tank built in 1923 was clad in wood to make it look like a small house on top of a five-storey tower, with a separate mill next to it, which pumped water to it. It is known as the “House in the Clouds“, and after mains water was installed in the village, the old tank was transformed into a huge games room with views over the land from Aldeburgh to Sizewell – it’s a holiday “cottage” now available for booking.
So the main image is of the House in the Clouds. Below you can see a shot of the water pump along with a number of the other buildings that caught my eye.
