Ardleigh Today
Ardleigh has long been seen as a desirable location for house buyers.
- It offers village living, yet retains easy access to local towns such as Colchester and Ipswich and easy access by train to London
- It is not seen as a tourist attraction like Dedham, but it is on the very edge of the beautifual Stour valley
- It has its commuting population, yet it retains its character as a working village.
Ardleigh houses a surprisingly large number of small and not so small businesses, related to a wide range of activities including farming and market gardening, engineering, the timber trade and leisure pursuits. Some of the smaller businesses are based unobtrusively in redundant farm buildings. There is a large enterprise to the south of the village which has been extracting sand and gravel for the past three generations.
There are three shops in the village centre, one of which is also the Village Post Office. Also in the centre are a public house and a fish-and-chip shop - and food is also served by several of the public houses outside the centre of the village.
The village centre is surrounded by agricultural land, but within the centre there are several enclosed spaces which add to the visual quality of the village environment and to the amenities. These are St Mary's churchyard, the grounds of Ardleigh Court, the village cemetary, the village allotments, the open space within Church View/Chapel Croft, the recreation ground and the Millennium Green.
