Aldeburgh is a small fishing town on the Suffolk coast, though it does get a bit more touristy in the summer. My gran lived there, and it's where I spent most of my childhood summer holidays, as well as living there for a year when I was 9.

It's still one of my favourite places. A very unspoilt coastline (shingle rather than sand), a quiet high street now somewhat yuppified, lots of delightful little cottages and the best fish-and-chips in the world. Fishing is still a significant part of the town's life.

There is no harbour, so the fishing boats are pulled up the steep shingle beach over wooden batons by winches.

You can buy the fish from beach huts within minutes of the catch being landed.

Fishing is a dangerous occupation, and Aldeburgh has its own lifeboat station. The lifeboat was originally stored in the open, on a tilting platform with a roller-runway down into the sea. The latest lifeboat is kept in a boathouse and towed down to the sea on a trailer.

The sea-wall is needed to keep the sea at bay. A large part of the original town is now under the sea.

The beach is very much the heart of the town.

At the Brudenell, the town's main hotel, table numbers are marked by numbers painted onto pebbles.

The yachtpond was my introduction to sailing! This was followed by sailing lessons on the River Alde with a guy called Jumbo who was about 200 years old.

This is next to the Moot Hall, still used today as the town hall.

Also next to the yacht-pond is this memorial.

Once billed as Britain's smallest cottage, this one-up, one-down seafront cottage called Fantasia can be yours for £175k.

There are two old coastguard towers. This one has been converted into a small art gallery.

I assume this was a navigational aid of some kind - a warning of the shingle banking some way off the beach, perhaps? If you know more about it, please let me know.

A series of alleyways lead from the coastal path to a backstreet, and then on to the high-street.

You can also cut through the office of the world-famous Aldeburgh Festival, a series of concerts mostly actually held at the nearby Snape Maltings.

Picture-postcard cottages abound.

Many of the shops I remember from my childhood have now been turned into touristy affairs, but mostly of the non-tacky variety.

The sailing theme is a constant refrain in pretty much all of the shops and bars.

The tea-shop run by the Cragg sisters is still there, though as they must have been 70 or 80 when I was a kid, I don't know who runs it now.

This is located opposite the town steps.

Aldeburgh is easily accessible from London - just take the A12, and from Ipswich follow signs to Lowestoft before turning right to Aldeburgh.