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
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