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My husband and I lived there for four years when we were first married and our elder son was born there. We moved away in 1976 but often return to visit friends, to shop, walk around the beautiful Mere (the 33 acre lake that, since 1988, has been leased to Suffolk Wildlife Trust as a nature reserve) or to attend performances of the Framlingham Amateur Dramatic Society.Ìý

Framlingham Castle

My memories of our time in Framlingham include picking blackberries in the autumn, cheering the street parade at the annual summer Gala, learning my lines for the plays that FADS produced and going onÌýwalks around the castle ramparts after family tea parties.

To return to talk to local people about life in the town over 30 years later would be interesting, especially because in 2006 'Country Life' magazine voted Framlingham, with a population of about 2,700, the number one place to live in the country.

Market Hill in Framlingham

Dominated by its conservation area, the town centre’s central area, Market Hill, was looking as a market town should in the week before Christmas. The decorated shops lured people in as they bustled around doing their gift and food shopping.Ìý

My guide to the town was Stephanie Bennell, chairman of the town council and editor of FramFare, a free non-profit making monthly community newsletter.Ìý

Stephanie showed Rachel around Framlingham

"When I started it people said ‘Oh you will never find enough to put in it– it’s 24 pages’. And the difficulty more is squeezing it all in," she laughed.

As well as the drama group there is a thriving annual arts festival, a very busy sports club, the St John Ambulance Brigade, WI and numerous other organisations.

"There are non-stop cultural and social events here, if the TV was switched off I don’t think Framlingham people would notice," she said.

Framlingham is a busy market town and is lucky that so many of its long established independent retailers are still in business, including the grocers Carley and Webb and the hardware store Bridges and Garrod. You can buy just about anything you want, except ladies underwear and white goods, according to Stephanie!

Peter & Simon Merrin at the Art and Framing shop

At the Art and Framing shop in Well Close Square father and son, Peter and Simon Merrin made a great double act as they told me how they never know what will come through the door next.

"A lady came into the shop with a couple of prints which she had had in her attic for a long time and she said ‘I’ve got these prints here and they are nothing special just a couple of bird prints and I wonder if you can stick some new glass in. They are not worth anything’.

"I turned them around and they turned out to be Archibald Thornburn originals, market value about £7,000 each and she had no idea. I told her, replaced the glass, charged her about twenty pounds and she went away truly happy," they said.

As the shoppers filled their baskets and checked their lists the schools in Framlingham were busy rehearsing for end of term concerts and carol services.

Jenny Elphick, Graham Owen & pupils

The three schools are the independent Framlingham College, the ever popular Thomas Mills High School and Sir Robert Hitcham Primary School.

At the primary school I chatted to Ronnie, Zac, Tessa, Callum, Anna, Annie and Sam about the Christmas story, gifts and Santa Claus.

I sympathised with Headteacher, Jenny Elphick, about the amount of work involved in preparing over-excited children for concerts, carol services and class parties.

"I can’t think of a better place to be at Christmas than in a primary school. I love Christmas and still get excited like a little girl. The children wind themselves up, and wind us up, and we just love it together," said Jenny.

I also met the chairman of the school governors and rector of St Michael’s church, Graham Owen, but he was reluctant to talk about the big news story in the town-the cancellation of a project to replace St Michael’s rooms, the church hall, with a new community centre for the town.

In September the trustees of the appeal heard they would have to hand back nearly £600,000 of grants and return money to hundreds of local donors, because the details could not be agreed before the clock ran out on the grants.

The project began in 1999 when the vicar at the time offered the land to the town for a community centre to be built. With a later change of personnel, concerns over the size of the car parking area and other disagreements, the plans have had to be abandoned.Ìý

Vic Stanbrook at the St Michael’s rooms

The situation has left tensions in the church and the town, so I asked one of the trustees, Vic Stanbrook, if he regretted ever getting involved.

"No, I am very pleased to have worked with the trustees. We had a very, very qualified team and it must have been a qualified team because we put in bids and got £300,000 and £290,000. They don’t give money away unless it’s right," he said.

Meanwhile the St Michaels Rooms still stand, an eyesore in a beautiful historic town centre and the groups that used to meet there have found new venues.

There are several other churches in Framlingham. There is St Clare’s, the Catholic church, the Unitarian Meeting House, the Christian Science Society and the Framlingham United Free Church, which, when I lived in the town was the Methodist church.

Andrew Lovejoy with a listed Victorian post box

Framlingham has a lot going for it, but what makes it so special to visit? Well, apart from the antique and gift shops, lots of cafés and restaurants, it has a lot of history for a small town.

With everything from two listed Victorian post boxes, a historic church organ and a 12th century English Heritage castle a visitor can spend a day here very happily.