Scenic Heights and Saintly Sites

This is the second of the weekend Suffolk Walking Festival walks I found on Friday morning.  This one was in a another part of Suffolk we had never been walking in before, in the area around Bungay.

This was our route...

The Saints,are a group of villages in Suffolk,  between the rivers Blyth and Waveney near to the border with Norfolk. The villages are all named after a saint (that of their parish church).

We started in the centre of Bungay...



..heading generally  south to Ilkeshall St. Margaret. We had with us some experts from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust who informed us about the wildflowers and trees. Here we were being told about Ash die-back and Dutch Elm disease...



Along the way, way took in Shoe Devil Lane. Our leaders gave an interesting narrative on the origins of the name and the various theories.



Along the lane we came to the Grade II Listed Shoe Devil Lane Farmhouse.



It dates from the late 16th/earlyy 17th century and was much admired by all the walkers.From here it was onwards to the end of the and into Ilketshall St. Margeret. And here is the eponymous church.

Our guide told us about the controversy over English Heritage's rendering of the tower. To quote (as our guide did) from the site linked to above... "One of their so-called experts insisted that flint towers had originally been finished like this. As the guide to the church observes, complaints poured in from local people and specialist historians alike. The historians called it an act of vandalism; the locals who had to help fund the project felt, not unreasonably, that their money was being wasted. After many protests, English Heritage agreed that they had been wrong, and offered to remove the dubious grey cement and repoint the tower to its original form at no cost to the parish. The parish, after much heart-searching, declined the offer, feeling that the £20,000 of public money required could be better spent elsewhere. The guide concludes that the white tower remains, a unique symbol, to remind us all of the need for more study, more co-operation and a sharing of knowledge, leading, hopefully, to a greater awareness and more careful restoration of our ancient churches. This indictment of English Heritage is all the more damning, of course, for being so carefully understated."

From here it was onward to our lunch stop at St. Peter's Brewery. The brewery shop...



...could wait while we had lunch in the Hall...



"St. Peter’s Hall dates from around 1280 (the Library Bar area) but was extended in 1539 using 14th and 15th Century ‘architectural salvage’ taken from Flixton Priory, a monastic establishment dissolved by Cardinal Wolsey in the 1520’s.". Read more via the link above.

Alas they were short-staffed as someone had phoned in sick, but we got our food eventually... and then to visit the brewery shop.

Then it was onwards back to Bungay and our first view of the Waveney River...



..and Bungay itself.



From here we descended to the road and walked back to the carpark.

And here is what made my rucksack a bit heavier for the latter part of the walk..



Yummy! Another great walk. And it even got an article in the local paper! See if you can spot me in the group photograph. You can find more details of the route in my Map My Walk log and more of my photos of it on Flickr

3 Churches Walk

It was Friday morning and I looked to see what Suffolk Walking Festival walks were still available for the weekend. This one was in a part of Suffolk we had never been walking in before, close to Newmarket.

This was our route...

We met at Moulton Community Centre and Joyce Crawford was our leader.



We set off along the River Kennet past St. Peter's Church (which would be our 3rd to visit later) towards Dalham. It was a bit drizzly at first but the weather soon cleared up. We walked past some pretty cottages in Dalham..




...and passed an old kiln, about which there was some debate : was it a lime kiln or malt kiln?

Well the house next door is called Malt Kiln House, so I vote for that!

From here we followed a footpath up to the Grade II Listed Dalham Hall. Joyce asked us to guess what the Hall and its 3,300-acre estate sold for in 2009. Have a guess before clicking the link above to find out!

Next door to the Hall was our first Church, St. Mary's, Dalham..



Unfortunately it was locked so we couldn't visit inside.

From here we made our way across fields with magnificent trees and hedgerows towards Gazeley. Part of our route had some interesting signposts.



Joyce saw me looking and asked if I had heard of the Great Barrow Challenge. I coinfessed I hadn't, so she told me about it. 10 marathons in 10 days? This is serious endurance sport! Joyce herself is quite an endurance walker and is a member of the Centurions. To qualify for this you have to complete a 100-mile course in 24 hours! I think I'll stick to less extreme sorts of walking, but Joyce did persuade me to sign up for the Orwell Walk on 17th June. Come back here some time after then to find out how I got on.

Meanwhile, our 3 Churches walk approached Gazeley, so called, because from the heights on a clear day you can see all the way to Ely and spot the cathedral. No such luck today.



In the village we visited our All Saints, our second church...



...which we could go inside and even have a cup of tea. By now the sum was shining and it was getting quite warm.

And so it was on to our last leg back to Moulton, and our third Church, St. Peter's.




Then, on our way back to the community centre, we came across our final point of interest, the old packhorse bridge, dating from the 14th or 15th century.



...followed by a drink at the eponymous pub.

A great walk. You can find more details of the route in my Map My Walk log and more of my photos of it on Flickr

The Dime Notes

My final outing of the Bury St. Edmunds Festival was to a lunchtime concert from The Dime Notes at the APEX today. It was pretty well attended. We were treated to a repertoire of hot swinging jazz, stomps, blueses, and forgotten gems of the era by musicians such as Jelly Roll Morton and James P Johnson.

The group features Chris Barber’s long-time clarinettist David Horniblow, U.S pianist and Morton specialist Andrew Oliver, and the unstoppable pulse of London’s knockout rhythm section, guitarist Dave Kelbie of Evan Christopher’s Django a la Creole fame, and bassist Tom Wheatley.


Great clarinet playing from David and rollocking piano playing from Andrew, who also acted as our guide to the music. They are well-worth listening to if they pass your way on tour.

QC Blogging Day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1099 by Joker

I'm doing this with a bit of a woozy head this morning after a visit to the Cambridge Beer Festival last night. Fortunately, we have quite a straightforward puzzle from Joker today; one for our less experienced solvers to get their teeth into, I think. But it was no less enjoyable for an experienced solver for that, as there are plenty of lovely surfaces and teasing clues. I liked the first crossword cuckoo of spring at 14a and the international collaboration at 17a, for example - and the image conjured by 21a, my COD. Thank-you Joker. What did you all make of it?

Read all about it here

Cambridge Beer Festival

I had a first visit last night and was on the train again today for a second helping tonight... to celebrate the end to another 2-day working week..

Lots of lovely beers!. And I was able to use my new CAMRA membership to avoid the queues to get in both days. Favourite was the St. Peters Bloomin' Marvelous.

Stour Valley Dragon Walk

This was a delightful walk through a part of Suffolk (and Essex) I'd not visited before. Here is a map of our route...

It is an adapted version of the Dragon Country Walk published by the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project
What a great day for it! Described as "An Outstanding Landscape - And A Dragon!", it was both and was well led by Emma Black, Countryside Officer with the project.

We started and finished in Suffolk at the community "centr" (see my photos) in Bures and walked uphill to get to St. Stephen's Chapel. dedicated in 1218 and built on the site of the coronation of King Edmund in Ad 876.



It also provides a good view of the Olde Bures Dragon and a rather charming plaque explaining the legend...



And here it is!



We carried on across the (relatively speaking) highlands with great views of the landscape, such as this...



.before descending to the valley and crossing into Essex. Here, as we were passing, we encountered the present owner of Smallbridge Hall, Mike Hargrove, and, as an added bonus, we were given an impromptu tour by him of the grounds and the history of the place, including the scandal that led to it being repossessed by HMRC.

What a magnificent building!



We were shown all the renovation work that had been done including new lead work, complete with signature elephant motifs.

From here we crossed the River Stour and headed back to Bures via someone's croquet lawn and the rather splendid Bures Mill...



You can see more details of the route of our walk here in my Map My Walk log and see more of my photos taken along the way on Flickr .

Bury St. Edmunds Festival 2018

The Bury St. Edmunds Festival is on!

Starting on Friday lunchtime with a recital by Amanda Heath and James Racknell, and a concert by the Cathedral Choir on Sunday, yesterday was another lunchtime concert from Sara Dowling, singing Gerschwin.  Fabulous voice and great performer. Check out her videos on her site and see for yourself. She even signed the sleeve of the copy of her CD that I bought!

 You can also find Sara on Facebook here.

Tassel Nanobrewery reopens

Look what else I've been up to! ... bottled yesterday and labelled today, the 23 bottles are to remain untouched for at least 2 months to condition before I can try them...

Times National Crossword Championships

I've qualified again for the Finals day!

Jumbo Blogging Day

Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1322 - 7th May

A fairly gentle Jumbo for the Bank Holiday Monday after the rather trickier Saturday pachyderm. Nothing too difficult or obscure today - I even knew the ice skating twizzle at 1d, but one or two clues are nicely devious. It helps to know your Shakespeare plots to parse 32a and the phrase at 21d may be unknown to some, but the wordplay is helpful. A good half dozen clues have a tick of approval on my paper copy. I liked the transformation of CONSOLATION at 35d and the SCOOTER, but my COD goes to BOW LEGS for the cheeky defintion that reminds me that I haven't been 10-pin bowling with the family for a while. A post-exam treat in a few weeks time, perhaps.... Yes it's GCSE and 'A' levels in the Interred household this month and next! Thanks to our setter for an entertaining and satisfying puzzle. How did you all find it?

Read all about it here.

Outstanding Landscapes: Peninsula Ramble

This was much more of a walk than yesterday's... going over 8 1/2 miles. This was our route...

Some of it was a bit agricultural, including finding our way through a filed of oil-seed rape...

 

 But also through some ancient woodlands, where the bluebells were still out...

 

This was all through part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB that is increasingly under pressure of expanding population and modern agricultural practices. But there are still plenty of ancient hedgerows with plenty of hawthorn flowers...

We stopped at Woolverstone church part way round..

..and we eventually got a lovely view of the River Orwell from a high point.

As the sun came out, it got quite warm and we were all glad of our afternoon cream tea at Suffolk Food Hall at the end!

See more details of the route in my Map My Walk log and more of my photos on Flickr.
 

East Anglia's Valley of the Kings

This was the first of my walks from the 2018 Suffolk Walking Festival. More of a guided tour than a walk, we trod the route of what will be a new walk when the Sutton Hoo site is redeveloped over the winter.

Angus gave us a fascinating insight into the landscape and ancient settlements. We learnt that Hoo is an Old English word for spur of land. The new walk will go down into the valley between the Hoo the visitor centre is on and up the next one to the ancient burial mounds...

...or whatever's left of them. We also got to visit the exhibition and replicas of the treasure...

It will be interesting to see how they redevelop the site and exhibition centre. Must go back next year and do more of the walks!

Suffolk Walking Festival

The Suffolk Walking Festival is an annual event that is growing in size and popularity, with over 120 walks and events to choose from. Unfortunately I missed out on some I wanted to go on as they were fully booked... or on my working days - Wednesdays and Thursdays. Must book earlier next year... and maybe retire fully by then?

More posts about the walks I did get to go on to follow.