O

ne glimpse of the wonky old cottages lining the main street is enough to convince you that this village has hardly changed in centuries.

Aside from being one of England’s most amusingly-named places (try saying it when you’ve got a toothbrush in your mouth; it sounds no different), Walberswick is also one of the prettiest.

Stroll along the imaginatively titled The Street, and you’ll pass rickety old shops, and impossibly pretty cottages, where the gardens are ablaze with pink, purple and red flowers. Eventually you arrive at the harbour, where brown clapboard fishermen’s huts keep watch on the flotilla of little boats bobbing about.

There’s a chain ferry here, too, which will take you across to neighbouring Southwold – home to Mark’s Fish Shop. It serves some of the best cod and chips in England (seriously, you should try them).

All that is yet to come, though, because you haven’t even checked out the beach yet – a stretch of golden sand where you can stretch out, splosh about in the waves or go for a long stroll. Come here in early August and you can take part in the British Open Crabbing Championship, where competitors have 90 minutes to catch the finest crabs they can – all in aid of local charities, of course.

And at the end of a sun-kissed day in the fresh sea air, why not stop in at The Potter’s Wheel teashop on the village green for a cuppa – or friendly local pub, The Anchor, which has a huge beer garden?