Handyman Eye

Eye is one of those English places that punches well above its weight. The name comes from the Old English for an island — the town sat on slightly raised ground in the marshes between two branches of the River Dove. Soon after the Conquest a great Norman motte was raised here, and Eye became the head of an enormous honour, controlling more than two hundred manors across East Anglia. The motte still rises sharply behind the church and is now topped by a small Victorian folly built in flint.

Eye received its market charter in the twelfth century and was granted borough status in the fifteenth — a status it kept until 1885. The parish church of St Peter and St Paul has one of the very finest church towers in Suffolk, more than 100 feet high, with delicate flushwork in knapped flint that is among the best examples of the local technique. Inside, the painted rood screen survives in remarkable condition. The cherry-pink Town Hall in the marketplace was designed by E. B. Lamb in 1857 and is gloriously eccentric, with steep gables and odd windows. Modern Eye is a quiet country town of around two thousand people; it has a primary school, a good butcher and a couple of pubs. The mix of Tudor timber framing, Georgian brick and Victorian brickwork keeps me coming back here for everything from window-sash repairs to flashing replacements.