Benjamin Britten village of Snape, six miles inland, became available for hire, Britten realised that the largest of them could be converted into a concert hall and opera house. The 830-seat Snape Maltings hall was opened by the Queen at the start of the twentieth Aldeburgh Festival on 2 June 1967; it was immediately hailed as one of the best concert halls in the country. The hall was destroyed by fire in 1969, but Britten was determined that it would be rebuilt in time for the following year's festival, which it was. The Queen again attended the opening performance in 1970. The
Snape branch line the support of the owner of Snape Maltings, Newsom Garrett, and as a way of securing malted barley traffic for the burgeoning brewery trade in London. The line was built by the East Suffolk Railway, but on opening was taken over and operated by the Eastern Counties Railway. A passenger station at Snape Junction on the East Suffolk Junction was proposed and indeed appeared in public timetables for some years during the 1860s. It was never built, although a road leading to the site was. Although no passenger trains ever operated on the branch, a building still known as 'Station