Boxford is one of the beautiful villages of Suffolk. Yet at times it looks just slovenly. Lying snugly and compact about its 15th Century church in the valley of the Box, it has domestic buildings of sufficient beauty to elicit from Norman Scarfe the description 'perfect village'. It also has dome fine properties that are shabby and neglected, some of them by absentee landlords.

If the fluttering papers and wrappings and the tin cans thrown into the river Box are anything to go by there's a sad lack of local pride.

Yet walk through this village one is aware not only of its unassuming sense of history but also of the warmth and friendliness of its people. It is something so real you can feel it. There is nowhere I would rather live.

I like to walk along the road from Sudbury high above the village. The land dips and rises falls away in great fields that in the spring and early summer are green with barley. This undulating landscape with views to Edwardstone and Groton is characteristic of this part of Suffolk.

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