Stowmarket station in Suffolk offers a picturesque welcome to an ancient market town. The Ipswich & Bury Railway opened the station in 1846, and the original red brick building, designed in the idiosyncratic Jacobean style, was restored in 1987 and is Grade II listed. Lying 80 miles from London Liverpool Street, Stowmarket sits between Needham Market to the south and Diss to the north - the journey to the capital takes about 90 minutes.
Visitors to Stowmarket should make a beeline for the town's medieval heart, found around the St. Peter and St. Mary Church - to reach it, head over the River Gipping and down Tavern Street. On your way, see how many of the 131 buildings listed by the Department of National Heritage you can spot. The town centre is also worth a peek, particularly Bury Street and the Old Fox Yard. Edward III granted the town a market charter in 1347 and markets continue to this day, running on Thursdays and Saturdays.