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 .