.
Park by the church. But how do you get to it? I should have paid attention as Keith was standing there to direct people and I didn't stop... until I drove through the estate, failing to find the way to the church car park and came round again. Lol.
This was our route.
I was a bit of a windy day so we were all wrapped up even though it wasn't too cold. Keith introduced us to the walk...
He said there are some stiles. And quite big ones. "Will there be step ladders to get over them?", someone asked in jest. "Yes", he said. And he wasn't kidding! As we shall see.
Crossing the bridge we set off across the park....
...with the impressive Helmingham Hall, home of the Tollemache dynasty since the 15th century, in front of us. "When John Tollemache first started work on Helmingham in 1480, it was built in traditional half-timbered style with an overhang to the upper floor both out and inside the courtyard. Since then there have been a number of changes in external appearance, but the basic form of a courtyard manor house still remains, as do many of the original brick chimneys". Read more about it here. We didn't get close enough to see it, but the Hall has 60' moat and two drawbridges which "have been pulled up every night since 1510, making Helmingham Hall an island by night".
We walked through the 400 acre park. There are some amazing trees, up to 900 years old.
It was lovely to see all the deer. Some got spooked by us and ran away, but some just watched.
And then we got to the stile. Yes. As I said, Keith wasn't kidding! about 7 ft high with, yes, a step ladder! As you can imagine, it took a little while for the 30+ of us to get over it. Someone suggested there ought to be a chute to slide down from the top. Now that would be fun!
We walked off into the countryside. There were lost of autumn berries.
After we got back to the park, and crossed that stile again, we headed for the obelisk. Some people climbed up to it to see if there was anything on it to explain...
...but there wasn't. So I had to look it up after. Here is what I found on the hall website... "In the archives there are reports of the Mound being used by the Helmingham Volunteers to practise their musketry during the Napoleonic Wars, but the Monument itself was constructed in about 1860, from the bricks of an ornamental seventeenth-century walled arboretum on the site, which had fallen into disrepair." ..and, from here, "Obelisk, c.1860. About 20m high and standing on a mound about 7m high. Red brick. A square plinth about 2.5m high has a square sinking in each face. The needle-formed obelisk rises without interruption, tapering to a width of 0.5m at the head. A prominent landscape feature in the centre of Helmingham Park. The mound was part of an C18 wilderness garden; a summerhouse of c.1760, together with a brick wall, was demolished and the bricks reused in the obelisk. Included as Grade I in the H.B.M.C. Register of Historic Parks and Gardens."
Then it was past the Hall...
...and more deer...
...over more stiles, with an encounter with some fruits that were not sloes, but damsons.
.Past the impressive gatehouses...
..and on to Helmingham Church.
There are, of course, several impressive monuments to the Tollmarches, like this..
Well. That was a selection of my photos. Here is a slide show of all of them. (Flash required).
You see them all individually on Flickr and more details of the route on MapMyWalk.
What a lovely morning's walk and an amazing place with bags of history. Thanks Keith!
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