Accessible Britain

THE EAST MIDLANDS AND EAST ANGLIA
IWM Duxford
are connected to each other by good, level paths and most have automatic doors.
There’s a wheelchair lift up to the 1940 Operations Room (from where RAF fighter
planes were directed during the Battle of Britain), with a help point alongside to call
for staff assistance. In addition, visitors with visual impairments are allowed to touch
the aircraft and free audio guides for AirSpace and the Historic Duxford exhibition
are available: the audio guide should be reserved in advance on 01223 499314 or email
duxford@iwm.org.uk. All audio-visual presentations have subtitles, and many have
BSL interpretation, while most audio exhibits have the support of induction loops.
Guide and assistance dogs are welcome.
FOOD & DRINK aa IWM Duxford has a restaurant and a café, both self-service. Hot meals
are available as well as sandwiches, snacks, soft drinks, teas and coffees.
075 An Artistic Drive through East Anglia
Driving distance: 26 miles Approx time without stops: 1 hour
East Anglia’s Stour Valley and Dedham Vale are famous as “Constable Country”, for it
was here that the great nineteenth-century landscape artist, John Constable, painted
some of his best-known canvasses. But he wasn’t the only English artist associated with
this area, as the following scenic drive reveals.
Our route begins in the pretty village of Long Melford, the location of Melford Hall, a
red-brick Elizabethan pile set in 130 acres of parkland (01787 379228, www.nationaltrust.
org.uk). The property was formerly owned by relatives of the author-illustrator Beatrix
Potter, who frequently came to stay: you can visit her bedroom and admire a collection
of her charming watercolours and sketches in the Beatrix Potter Room. Melford Hall has
disabled parking, ramped access and two accessible toilets. A stair lift takes wheelchair
users to the first floor, though only one wheelchair at a time is permitted upstairs.
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