Handyman Mildenhall

Mildenhall sits on the Fen edge in the western fingers of Suffolk, where chalk meets peat. The river Lark is now barely navigable but was once an important route inland from the Great Ouse. Mildenhall's name goes back at least to the eleventh century, and the parish church of St Mary's is large and very fine, with a hammerbeam roof and a dramatic seven-light east window. In 1942, ploughing in West Row turned up the spectacular Mildenhall Treasure — a hoard of fourth-century Roman silver that is now one of the prize possessions of the British Museum.

For most people in eastern England, however, Mildenhall means aircraft. RAF Mildenhall opened in 1934 and has been continuously in operation ever since; since the late 1950s it has been a major USAF base, and the Stars and Stripes flying alongside the Union Flag is a familiar sight on the edge of town. The base, together with neighbouring RAF Lakenheath, has shaped the local economy and population profile for generations, with American servicemen and their families adding a particular flavour to the town. The market square has a fine sixteenth-century Market Cross. Modern Mildenhall is a busy, slightly sprawling place with plenty of family homes, both older cottages near the river and big late-twentieth-century estates. Garages, fences, kitchens and bathrooms keep me coming back here regularly.