Back when I was a kid before I discovered punk rock, the family drove to this wonderful place a lot. I would chase grasshoppers and throw flea darts at my brother, dad birdwatched across the wetlands through his U-boat binoculars and mum would sit down and rest after carrying the picnic all the way from the car through the woods, over stiles and down to the riverside on her own. There was usually a whole roast chicken on a plate wrapped in tin foil and we all had our own plates and cutlery too.
The fact that a world famous homosexual composer of opera came from my home town frequently gives me pleasure and optimism. Like The Borough’s Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten also sought solace from all the wagging tongues and pointed fingers.
In 1966 he found it just up the river Alde at Snape in a disused maltings complex that within a year he had expensively converted into a purpose-built concert hall in which he and his lover, singer Peter Peers, could hang out in privacy whilst rehearsing, developing and performing new works. The hugely popular Aldeburgh festival has been held here since its completion in 1967.
