Snape is a small village in the English county of Suffolk, on the River Alde close to Aldeburgh.
The book also mentions a church, standing in eight acres, and valued at sixteen pence (a larger sum than it now sounds).
Snape Priory was founded in 1155[citation needed] downriver from the village, by William Martell, a local landowner, who was about to set off as part of the Third Crusade.
As a result of fertiliser, sugar beet, and malted barley, Snape had become a very busy inland port by the end of the 19th century.
The Maltings, with its fine brick buildings and riverside position, was ideally suited for redevelopment as a tourist centre when it closed as a going concern in 1960, and now constitutes the main industry in the village.