A best kept secret

■ Distance: 8¾ miles/14km ■ Time: ...

These four glorious properties need only a modicum of tender loving care and offer great rewards to the far-sighted

Buying a property that includes a ruin carries undoubted romance, but there are caveats, reminds Lucy Denton, who advises on the help at hand

Built on the wealth of the wool industry, picture-perfect Lavenham in Suffolk is lined with colourful timbered buildings and has a close-knit community at its heart

These three East Anglian houses include a medieval moated manor once owned by the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Falstaff, the home of a sculptor and a converted watermill

With its honey-hued villages, rolling hills and dramatic castles, the picturesque Cotswolds region is in many ways the ultimate English getaway. Spanning an area of almost 800 square miles across the