A Suffolk estate which this year opened up to visitors all year round is celebrating a Muddy Stilettos award as more visitors flock to the site.

Rougham Estate off the A14 near Bury St Edmunds scooped the Best Lifestyle Store in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire accolade just three months after launching its Garden Room store earlier this year.

It's the latest in a string of achievements for the estate - which is owned by George Agnew who has been keen to open it up for public enjoyment and quiet recreation.

George Agnew and Ady White (Image: Sarah Chambers) He and partner Ady White along with visual merchandiser and buyer Suzy Wright expanded the retail side of the business this year.

Having created a Christmas shop some years ago, they launched a Garden Room featuring carefully selected - and non-plastic - gifts and homewares for gardens and homes.

The new shop followed the launch of Roots Café towards the end of last year. A terraced garden for visitors was added this year.

Muddy Stilettos awards are chosen by public vote. A delighted Ady White said: "It's not only the products we source here but it's the customer base. We have gone to that old way of shopping. 

"Our staff are very good at chatting to customers about what they want. It's really a customer sort of shop - the staff all enjoy working here."

The 3,000 acre estate - which has been in George's family for the past 120 years - has been given a new lease of life through what began back in 1991 with an urgent need to restore the estate's ancient Blackthorpe Barn.

(Image: Sarah Chambers) The crumbling building was re-thatched at a cost of £55k - including a £15k grant.

"We cleared the whole thing out and started to create an indoor space," explained George.

Other outbuildings followed. A woodman's hut was restored 10 years and became Meadow Room - a crafts and events space. Transforming and restoring the entire space has cost "a lot of money", admitted George.

"I think we were very lucky to have this very old set of buildings with absolutely no modern farm buildings here," he said.

Next year, eight thatchers from the same company which originally restored the roof of Blackthorpe Barn - Dobson Bros of Huntingdon - will return for six weeks to begin the process of thatching it again.

Suzy Wright, Ady White and George Agnew in Roots Café (Image: Sarah Chambers)

George and Ady decided the barn needed a purpose and started a Christmas shop as the estate already sold Christmas trees grown on its plantation.

From there the business grew with George setting up a café at the Christmas shop which he ran initially as a one-man band.

"We operated in here on an incredibly low budget for decades but we passionately believed in this place," he said. "It's only in the last three or four years since we decided to do the café we have given ourselves permission to spend some money."

A new junction entry point off the A14 created around a decade ago started to gave better access to the site which made the retail side more viable.

Suzy - who joined the retail side last year - said they are very careful about sourcing and tried to stock local products too. They wanted to create a traditional shopping experience as an antidote to online shopping, she explained.

Suzy Wright  (Image: Sarah Chambers)

"People like coming here and like chatting to us. We are very passionate about the stock - would we like this in our home."

The hall - which lies in ruins after it was bombed by the Luftwaffe during World War Two - is also being slowly and carefully restored as an idyllic backdrop.

The late Georgian brick building dated from around 1820 and while the hall itself will never be habitable it makes a "fantastic ruin", said George.

"We are trying in a subtle way to restore the gardens so they will be a wild but beautiful space," he explained.

Today the business employs 35 people and is going strong. "There are issues with growing but it's all rather exciting and we are thrilled," said George.