One almost expects a dynasty like the Fiennes family to live in a long-forgotten palace surrounded by a huge forest. But the centre of their world for the past decade has been a blushing pink town house in one of the prettiest towns in Suffolk. The area was once inhabited by cloth workers and sheep farmers. Huge churches were built on the proceeds of the wool trade, and the houses are ancient and often lopsided.

Caroline Fiennes opens the door with an easy friendliness and a sharply observant artist’s eye. She has a shock of white hair and cuts a tiny figure in this large house that unfolds like a magic box. There is a crimson, book-lined sitting room, a hall with an inglenook fireplace, brick-floored passageways leading hither and thither, and hidden rooms where jobs like laundry are done. “It is a unique house, a one-off,” says Caroline. “It was probably three workers’ cottages. Then they put on a Georgian front, and at the back were lots of outbuildings which we have converted.”

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