Britten in Suffolk: Festival years

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Britten returned to Suffolk from London in 1937, and bought an old mill in the village of Snape.  Here he hosted many guests, including composers Aaron Copland, and Lennox Berkeley, and the tenor Peter Pears.  Pears later became his lifelong partner.   

In 1939, Britten and Pears set off on what was intended as a short visit to the United States.  Both were firm pacifists, and when the Second World War broke out in Europe, they decided to stay in America.  Britten’s letters reveal how much he missed home: ‘It pleases me to hear you talk about Snape and Suffolk like that…I’ve been horribly home-sick for it recently!’

Britten and Pears returned to England in 1942.  As conscientious objectors, they spent much of their time giving concerts around the country to support the war effort.  Britten kept the Old Mill at Snape as a rural retreat until 1947, when he bought Crag House on the sea front in Aldeburgh.  Ten years later, to escape the attention of inquisitive passers-by, Britten swapped houses with the artist Mary Potter and moved a mile inland to the Red House. Britten and Pears lived here until the end of their lives.

Britten and Pears set up the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in 1948, using local venues such as the Jubilee Hall and the Baptist Church.  The Festival attracted many world-famous musicians, and soon needed more space.  In 1966, work began to convert the old maltings at Snape into a large concert hall.  It was ready for the 1967 Aldeburgh Festival, and was formally opened by the Queen.  In 1969, on the opening night of the Festival, the hall was gutted by fire, but rebuilt in time for the following year.