Steeple Bumpstead:
Buna steda
‘The place of sweet-smelling flowers’
(An Old English description of the locality)

Steeple Bumpstead is situated in the county of Essex, has a postal address of ‘Haverhill, Suffolk’, and is also near the border with Cambridgeshire. Hence the postal address comes under Haverhill and the postcode under Cambridge. It is ideally situated also to visit the historic and quaint villages of Clare, Long Melford, Lavenham, and larger towns of Sudbury, Halstead, and Braintree. What a wonderful base to explore from and to come back to the warm, friendly and comfortable accommodation offered at Orchard House. There are plenty of local country walks, too!

There are two village pubs for hot meals, a local village store, sub post office and petrol forecourt. The village has a monthly farmers market where there is a variety of interesting stalls. You can follow local footpaths across the surrounding farmland as these are well marked. Steeple Bumpstead has an interesting history too.

The town of Haverhill is the nearest to the village being only 3 miles away. It has various eating places, shops, a cinema, ten-pin bowling alley, 18 hole golf course, and large leisure centre offering swimming, gym and various classes and sauna/steam facilities. There is a soft-play area and a climbing wall.

The market town of Saffron Walden is 20 minutes’ drive away and has a twice weekly open market and lots of shops/restaurants and supermarkets.

The city of Cambridge is about 30 minutes’ drive and offers lots to see and do: from punting on the Cam to having a historic tour of the city, seeing a show or visiting a theatre. In the city is a variety of restaurants including 'Jamies', as well as cafes and two large shopping arcades with all the big brand names. Nearby are the National Trust properties of Anglesey Abbey & Mill and Ickworth House park & gardens.  Other local popular attractions are Hedingham Castle, Headingham steam trains, Kentwell Hall, Duxford Aircraft Museum, Audley End House and Linton Zoo.

We are about 30 minutes’ drive from Cambridge, 30 minutes’ drive from London Stansted Airport, and 25 minutes’ from Audley End railway station (with local trains, trains to London and wider national & international connections, and to Cambridge and regional connections), and London Stansted Airport. We are an hour’s drive (or less) from other regional centres such as Ipswich, Braintree, and the City of Chelmsford (county town of Essex and home of Essex Cricket).