Great excitement – we are opening the Barn for the day for our first Wedding Fair – come and see us at the end of May

Sunday 27th May 10.00am to 4.00pm

Come and be inspired –  decorations and dresses, cakes and champagne, limos and luxury

Nina and Aaron

September 3rd 2011 was a glorious late summer’s day for Nina and Aaron’s wedding party at the Barn,  and the party arrived from Church to an enticing welcome ………..

The kissing booth

The kissing booth was open for business from the start, and in the glorious early September sunshine little excuse for romantic behaviour was needed. The booth was built by the groom himself, and the candyfloss theme worked perfectly throughout.

Guests enjoyed drinks in the courtyard before going through to the Barn for the wedding breakfast.

A tantalising glimpse through the roses

Looking through the Barn door

And down from the balcony

Birds eye view

Traditional Suffolk barns make great perfomance spaces but these buildings have been transformed by owner Jane Stevensen into something very special.

Light pours in to the main space through a huge glazed (and insulated) entrance, the acoustics are good, there is cosy underfloor heating, courtyard space outside in which to run through lines or just take a much neeed coffee break, a kitchen area, toilets, parking and even a minstrels gallery.

For our purposes it was a perfect solution; the costume designer could live ‘above the shop’ in the equally smart hayloft conversion and when Jane offered use of the adjacent old chapel, no less, as the production wardrobe, we felt we had really taken over.

Highly recommended as a quality and practical working space for artists, musicians and actors. Dancers will need a harlequin floor or equivalent over the – very expensive – stone!

The daily dog walk is now a foraging expedition; and much in mind are next month’s events in the Barn, including the world’s Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillan Cancer Support – so some homemade Barn produce will help the fund-raising along. Put Friday 30th September in your diary now, and come along to the barn for coffee, cake and blackberry jam.

Blackberry picking by Seamus Heaney

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

The Knot Garden

Finding a good place to write is a very personal thing; for Virginia Woolf it was of course a room of of her own, J K Rowling chose a busy cafe, Thomas Mann needed a wicker chair by the sea. Here at the Barn there’s not only the interior space with all it has to offer, but also wonderful gardens where you will come across benches and seats in shady corners and sunny spots, perhaps beside a quiet pool or in the Elizabethan knot garden, providing a place to sit and contemplate, to nurture the muse and find inspiration.

Literary festivals and author events are popping up everywhere – Suffolk of course has its own annual Aldeburgh Literary Festival in March each year, and the Ip-Art Festival is currently in full swing with all sorts of writers events and showcasing its prestigious New Angle Literary Award which focuses on writing inspired by East Anglia. This year’s shortlisted authors include Ronald Blythe, Maggi Hambling and Blake Morrison (www.ip-art.com).

The Barn is a superb venue for all things creative; why not book it for your next gathering?

To whet your appetite just a few of the events taking place include the world renowned Aldeburgh Music Festival, well underway for this year and running until 26th June – www.aldeburgh.co.uk.; the Ipswich Arts festival 24th June-10th July showcasing visual and performing arts, literary events, and music for all tastes – www.ip-art.com; and of course Latitude 14th-17th July – much more than just a music festival with something for everyone, from the Radio 4 tent and the Archers to KT Tunstall and Paolo Nutini via top stand up acts, poetry readings, film, theatre and literature gatherings – www.latitudefestival.co.uk.

What are you waiting for?

For Geoff Witts, owner of Re+New, it was his best show yet, and we look forward to welcoming him back next year for what is becoming an annual event at the Barn.

This a wedding to remember, the barn was the perfect setting for this small intimate celebration.

A moment captured during rehearsals

Enjoying the paintings

A collaboration with the re+New gallery in Woodbridge was a great success