Walk along the mere from Diss Park and out over the water on the boardwalk

Walk the timber-framed streets up to St Mary's church

Walk a stretch of the Waveney valley below the town

Diss is built round a six-acre mere whose origin nobody knows for sure, perhaps a glacial hollow, perhaps a sunken pocket in the chalk; the town slopes down to it in timber and Georgian brick, and John Betjeman made a short film about it, Something about Diss, in 1964. The Waveney runs along the valley below towards the Broads.

Diss and the Waveney Valley

Mountain bike the trails at High Lodge in Thetford Forest, the largest lowland pine forest in Britain

Climb the treetops on the Go Ape course at High Lodge

Climb 9 metres down a shaft at Grime's Graves, the Neolithic flint mines dug from about 2600 BC, when the site is open

Find the statue of Captain Mainwaring in Thetford, where most of Dad's Army's outdoor scenes were filmed

Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain, with mountain-bike trails and a Go Ape course at High Lodge. At Grime's Graves, Neolithic miners dug for flint from about 2600 BC, and you can climb 9 metres down a shaft when the site is open. In Thetford, where most of Dad's Army's outdoor scenes were filmed, Captain Mainwaring has his own statue.

Thetford Forest and Grime's Graves

Visit St Edmundsbury Cathedral, the Gothic cathedral with its Millennium Tower completed in 2005

Walk the ruins of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the Abbey Gardens, where the barons are believed to have sworn their oath in 1214

Tour the Greene King Brewery, founded in Bury in 1799

Have a drink in the Nutshell on the Traverse, one of several pubs that claim to be Britain's smallest

In the Abbey Gardens at Bury St Edmunds stand the ruins of the abbey where, by tradition, the barons swore in 1214 to force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties, which influenced Magna Carta. St Edmundsbury Cathedral's Millennium Tower was only completed in 2005. Greene King has brewed in the town since 1799, and the Nutshell on the Traverse is one of several pubs that claim to be Britain's smallest.

Bury St Edmunds: The Abbey Gardens and the Nutshell

Visit Norwich Cathedral, begun in 1096 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga, with its 96m spire, the second tallest in England, and its cloisters begun in 1297

Explore Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery in the Norman keep

Walk down Elm Hill, the cobbled lane of Tudor houses, rebuilt after a fire in 1507

Walk the Norwich Lanes, the old streets around Elm Hill in the city centre

Bishop Herbert de Losinga began Norwich Cathedral in 1096; its spire, 96m, is the second tallest in England, and its cloisters were begun in 1297. The Norman keep of the castle is now the Castle Museum & Art Gallery, and Elm Hill is a cobbled lane of Tudor houses rebuilt after a fire in 1507, in the middle of the Norwich Lanes.

Norwich: The Cathedral, the Castle and Elm Hill

Go inside the reconstructed timber halls and sunken huts

See the finds from the original excavation in the museum

Walk the Breckland heath and the Lark in the country park

A real Anglo-Saxon settlement stood at West Stow from the 5th to the 7th century, and it was excavated and then rebuilt on the same ground: timber halls and sunken huts put up as an experiment, using only the tools and techniques the Anglo-Saxons had, to learn how they were built. The country park around it runs along the Lark through Breckland heath.

West Stow: The Anglo-Saxon Village Rebuilt on Its Own Site

Visit Sutton Hoo, the Anglo-Saxon burial ground where Basil Brown uncovered the ship burial in 1939

Walk out to the burial mounds above the River Deben

See the reconstruction of the burial chamber and the replica finds in the exhibition hall

Walk the estuary path along the Deben below the mounds

Under a mound above the Deben, Basil Brown found the print of a 27m ship in the sand in 1939, with a burial chamber most likely made for an East Anglian king, probably Rædwald — helmet, shoulder clasps, gold buckle, silver from Byzantium — one of the most significant archaeological finds ever made in England. The ship itself had rotted away, leaving only its shape and its rivets.

Sutton Hoo: The Ship Burial Under the Mounds

Watch avocets at RSPB Minsmere, where the species returned to breed in Britain in 1947

Walk Aldeburgh's shingle beach to Maggi Hambling's steel Scallop sculpture, made in 2003 as a tribute to Benjamin Britten

Take the ferry from Orford Quay to Orford Ness National Nature Reserve, the shingle spit that was a secret military test site until the 1970s, and see its pagodas

Climb Orford Castle, the Henry II keep built in 1165–1173

Avocets returned to breed in Britain in 1947 at Minsmere, now the RSPB's reserve. On Aldeburgh's shingle beach stands Maggi Hambling's steel Scallop of 2003, a tribute to Benjamin Britten. At Orford, Henry II's keep was built in 1165–73, and a ferry crosses from the quay to Orford Ness, a shingle spit that was a secret military test site until the 1970s, with its pagodas still standing.

The Suffolk Coast: Minsmere, Aldeburgh and Orford Ness

Walk among the veteran pollarded hornbeams

Visit Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, the grandstand built for Henry VIII's hunts in 1543

Find the Iron Age earthwork at Ambresbury Banks

Walk to Connaught Water and look for the fallow deer

Epping Forest runs twelve miles from the edge of London into Essex, saved when public outcry pushed the City of London Corporation to buy it — the first big win of the environmental movement in Europe — and the Corporation owns it still. It holds thousands of veteran pollarded hornbeams and oaks, the Iron Age earthworks of Loughton Camp and Ambresbury Banks, and the Tudor building now called Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge.

Epping Forest: Twelve Miles of Ancient Pollards

Walk the four baroque terraces under the castle

Look up at the giant clipped yews on the terrace faces

See the Clive Museum collection of Indian art

Powis began as a border fortress and was turned by the Herberts into a country house, with terraces cut into the rock below it in the late 17th century — one of the very few British baroque gardens left, hung with enormous clipped yews. The Clive Museum inside holds Indian treasures brought back by Clive of India and by his son Edward, later Governor of Madras, and the castle looks out over the Severn valley.