Bed & Breakfast The Mill (Thetford, United Kingdom)

Situated in Suffolk between Bury St Edmunds and Thetford, this is a home away from home for travelling professionals, nature lovers and outdoor sports junkies. The property was built as farm laborers’ cottages in the 1850s by the Fitzroy family on their country estate at Euston. When looking for a suitable name, they settled on New Zealand Cottages, as the then head of the family, the Duke of Grafton, was the first Governor of the recently colonized New Zealand. The cottages were, perhaps coincidentally, located on the extreme edge of the estate, just as New Zealand found itself on the far edges of the empire. The barns and cottages that make up the property were lived in by farm workers for nearly 120 years. Home to four families, at one stage we know that nearly 30 children were living at New Zealand Cottages, and it was a favorite haunt not just for them, but also children from neighboring farms. If you listen carefully, you can still sometimes catch the sound of giggling from the rafters.