Beekeeper’s Cottage is a delightful Grade II-listed two-bedroom cottage in bucolic Mellis Common, Suffolk, close to both Diss and Eye. It is a house that bridges two eras: the older timber-framed section is of 17th-century origin and is characterised by its white-painted exposed timber, pamment floors and warming wood-burning fires, while the more recent kitchen extension melds the colour and materiality of modernism with vernacular sensibilities. Ensconced by common land and mature trees, the house’s grounds extend to around three-quarters of an acre and comprise cut flower beds, an orchard, herbaceous borders and vegetable beds, as well as a happy colony of bees that supply the current owners with honey. There is also a summerhouse (sometimes used as a guest bedroom), a workshop, a large patchwork-tin shed and a fecund polytunnel.

The village of Mellis is an ancient one, recorded in Domesday variously as ‘Melles’, ‘Metles’ and ‘Mellel’. It borders an expansive 150-acre grazing common where the houses are set far back from the road down individual lanes, almost invisible when the trees and hedges come into leaf. The common is protected from further development and has had many well-known residents over the years, including the naturalist and “father of the wild swimming movement” Roger Deakin, whose former dwelling, Walnut Tree Farm, is nearby.

Beekeeper’s Cottage, like many of the houses on the common, began as a simple early modern hall house, later converted to a pair of humble workers’ cottages in the 18th century. Recent history has seen the cottages reunited and the addition of an airy kitchen extension complete with underfloor heating throughout the ground floor. With no near neighbours, there is an abundance of peace and space, but when company is desired, the popular local, The Railway Tavern, is a short walk away.