Thorpeness and Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast are really special places with a host of history. Thorpeness itself is quite literally a fairytale holiday village created from scratch by railway engineer and visionary Alexander Ogilvie, it was the birthplace of Pete Pan and has a stunning beach with coastal cottages and mock Tudor/Jacobean houses. Sound good? Let’s check out Alicia & Greg’s wedding videography!

Thorpeness COUNTRY CLUB IN Suffolk - a SPECIAL PLACE STEEPED IN history for ALICIA & GREG’S Wedding Videography

Described as ‘Neverland’, Thorpeness is a true fairy tale holiday village and was created quite literally by one man’s vision. When I speak to many of my friends and I mention Thorpeness they look at me blankly. It seems Aldeburgh, its sister town is the better known and even to this day Thorpeness is one of those best-kept Suffolk secrets! I implore you to take a visit there when you can. Hopefully, after watching Alicia and Greg’s wedding video you will see why they and so many people find this little Suffolk coastal town so delightful and unique.

So some history? The story of Thorpeness goes back to 1859 when a Scottish railway engineer - Alexander Ogilvie purchased Sizewell House as a holiday home on the coast of Suffolk. Over four decades Ogilvie extended his holiday home to include a huge amount of land on the Suffolk coast, stretching from Thorpe to Dunwich and inland as well. Ogilvie's estates covered some 6000 acres by the time he died in 1908.

In 1910 severe storms flooded the area around the mansion at Thorpe village, now called Sizewell Hall. After the flooding he had an idea to keep it and then blocked in the river permanently which in turn created a holiday village around it. He changed the name of the village from Thorpe to Thorpeness to differentiate it from other villages in East Anglia by the same name and created a fantasy holiday village for the upper middle classes. The lake was also only 3 feet deep, making it safe for children to be able to learn sailing and rowing etc.

Thorpeness was a place for people to live in harmony with nature, to grow and learn in a healthy natural environment. In order to make his holiday village successful, Ogilvie needed rail access. In 1914 Thorpeness Halt was opened on a branch line from Saxmundham. The 'station' was created using disused Great Eastern Railway coaches. The station was later closed in 1966. The Peter Pan theme of the village was more than just a marketing concept. The creator of the Peter Pan KM Barrie, was a close friend of the Ogilvies and visited the area on numerous occasions.

Thorpeness - the history behind this fairy tale location that makes for great Wedding Videography!

If you haven’t been to Thorpeness or Aldeburgh you are certainly missing out! In the late 19th century, the Thorpeness we know today was a tiny fishing hamlet on the East Coast, buffeted by the merciless North Sea and home to only a few houses that had not been taken into the waves by erosion. A couple of decades later, it would be transformed into a fantastical holiday village, with a beautiful boating lake, complete with Peter Pan islands, a 70ft fairytale cottage on stilts, mock-tudor homes and a luxury country club.

Thorpe was renamed Thorpeness to distinguish it from the many ‘Thorpes’ in the country and Ogilvie’s plan, to create a fantasy, holiday haven for the upper middle classes, was put into action. Work began promptly and the new country club, known as The Kursaal, with an 18 hole golf course and tennis courts, opened in May 1912, the same year that the first properties were leased in the village. Development was interrupted by the First World War, but the construction of more accommodation and other planned facilities continued in the years afterwards. A concrete-brick-making machine was imported from Australia and used to make blocks out of shingle from the beach, making Thorpeness one of the first enterprises in Britain to utilise the potential of concrete. 

The House in the Clouds - Thorpeness

One of the most striking features of Thorpeness, one that can be seen sitting atop the horizon from the nearby beaches at Aldeburgh, is the 70ft house on stilts, commonly known as ‘The House in the Clouds’ which was included in the wedding film for Paige & Amy.

When Ogilvie set about making his quaint, ornate village, the huge and unsightly water tower to the North of the Meare proved a problematic blemish in his idealistic vision. Originally intended to provide an adequate storage capacity for the village’s basic water supply, the tank at the top of the water tower was designed to look like a fairytale cottage, with accommodation in the stalk below. It had a capacity of 50,000 gallons and was capable of pumping 1800 gallons of water an hour from a well in the re-erected Aldringham Mill, with sufficient wind or a petrol engine used as an auxiliary power source in periods of calm.

An English Bofors shell, intended for a low-flying V1 flying bomb, passed through the tank in 1943, causing extensive damage. At the time, two Miss Humphreys were asleep below, but neither lady woke up. Due to careful and mindful preservation, Thorpeness is little changed today; the Meare remains just as magical, and the original postcard buildings still stand. In summer, the population swells, as visitors arrive to fill the holiday accommodation and day trippers join to take a boat out on the water, dip in the sea, or feed the swans. A unique place, it is one of only two purpose-built holiday villages in the UK, the other being Portmerion in Wales. Now if any of your are old enough to remember or a a bit of a geek like me, you will know that Portmerion doubled as ‘The Village’ is the fictional setting of the 1960s UK television series The Prisoner where the main character, Number Six, is held with other former spies and operatives from various countries.

Wedding videography in Aldeburgh Suffolk

Thorpeness is just north of its more well-known ‘sister’ town Aldeburgh, yes, yes the place with the shell thing? You’ve got it! While we are also on some history lessons, Aldeburgh’s prominence began in the early 19th century when it started to become a great haunt and holiday destination for the wealthy. Also going back even further and still standing now is a Martello tower which was erected due to Napoleon’s threatened invasion! Many of the buildings along the coast in Aldeburgh have Dutch gables and traditional seaside colourings.

Aldeburgh also has a lot of artists’ connections to it as well. Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears lived in Aldeburgh from 1942 until their deaths. They founded the Aldeburgh Festival which still is in existence to this day and is famous around the world! Britten and Pears were famous for educating and supporting young artists.

So in summary, if you are getting married in Suffolk and love this stretch of coastline, it really is a special place to get married and Thorpeness Country Club is definitely worth a look! I can also help answer all of your wedding videography questions if you are thinking about a wedding videographer for your Suffolk Wedding as I offer couples a FREE Wedding Videography Q&A on ZOOM More info here