Three half-timbered medieval houses and a coaching inn have combined to create the irresistibly historic Swan at Lavenham Hotel, creaking through the last six centuries in what is often described as England’s finest medieval village.

The Swan Hotel features timbered beams, undulating floors, exposed brickwork, roaring fires, and a great dollop of history. Even the bar’s brick flooring is ballast from ships that had once exported the town’s famed woollen cloth.

But is Lavenham a town? A market charter from 1257 confers town status, though as it covers less than a square mile an Ordnance Survey criterion classifies Lavenham as a village.

Since Lavenham’s wool-rich heydays in the 15th and 16th centuries, the quiet town has remained remarkably well-preserved. There are over 300 listed buildings. Wonkily idiosyncratic, The Crooked House was probably the inspiration for the “There was a Crooked Man” nursery rhyme. No surprise then that film-set quaint Lavenham modelled as Harry Potter’s birthplace in The Deathly Hallows.

The Swan is perfectly positioned for exploring Suffolk from the Sunrise Coast, through both Constable country and Gainsborough territory, to meandering slow travel amongst Suffolk’s 500 hundred medieval churches.

The welcome

Fortunately in a town of narrow medieval lanes, The Swan has two large car-parks, one code-protected from parking poachers.

After reception has issued a traditional large metal-tagged room key and checked restaurant reservations, a porter takes our luggage and guides us on a labyrinthine journey to our suite, warning us to mind our head on staircases built for more Lilliputian folk.

The room

In contrast, the timbers of our suite loftily rise to a high-ceiling. Built in an era when glass was…

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