"The weather forecast is for mild, dry conditions this week so let's go and explore Flatford and the delights of Constable Country this Friday (March 29th). We will car share from Skyliner Way Sports Centre, Bury St Edmunds at 9.15am or meet us at East Bergholt free car park at 10am (postcode CO7 6TB). There are public toilets here. We will walk a circular route of about 9 miles. We will have a lunch stop in Flatford meadows - bring something to sit on and a picnic/flask of coffee as we won't be having a coffee shop visit on this occasion! The walk is simply a 10/10 walk with some ascent and descent and beautiful views over the Dedham Vale.", said the invite from Joyce.
That sounded great. It was indeed a lovely day and I didn't even need to drive as our meeting point was just 15 minutes walk and there would be enough cars without mine. We arrived at the car park in East Bergholt to find plenty others waiting for us and raring to go. There were 19 of us in all, which was a pretty good turnout.
This was our route.
And here are some of my pictures of what we saw and did. Joyce explained the plan, and that there would be an option extra 2 miles, while those you didn't want to do it could have a cup of tea in Dedham.
We passed some lovely houses and gardens, including one with a plaque marking that it was John Constable's early studio, purchased in 1802. You can read more about him here and find a site showing all of his paintings here. I liked this garden.
Soon we started descending into the Stour valley, with a view of Dedham church.
We passed a field with some lambs....
..and shortly afterwards found a great spot for a group photo.
It was lovely walking along the river, and Bella the dog enjoyed splashing about in the water.
All the while we had Dedham church in sight.
Looking back towards East Bergholt we could see the Old Hall (on the right), home to the Old Hall Community, and other fine buildings.
We reached the bridge over the river on the outskirts of Dedham.
Anyone for a boat trip? This gets very busy in the summer, as we found on our ramblers walk in the area in June last year. Read all about that walk here.
Here we left some of the group to have a cup of tea while continued along the river and under the A12 and then across the river to Stratford St. Mary.
Le Talbooth restaurant looks very impressive.
...but we never went up it into the village... another time perhaps.
We returned along the Essex side of the River to Denham, where we collected the rest of our party before heading on to Flatford This was in a bunch of fritillaries by a rather nice garden as we left Stratford St. Mary....
...near an impressive Redwood.
There was, what looked like the remains of a stile in the field by the river.
As we neared Dedham, we passed the pumping station and this rather odd folly...
...before entering the village, base of teh famous architect Quinlan Terry.
This is where we found the rest of the walking group, suitably refreshed.
On we went to Flatford, passing some lovely daffodils and a swan and with lovely river views.
The sights here are famous. When I came here before in 2006, I tried out some image processing of my photos to give an artistic impression. You can see them here. The one of the bridge sort of works, I think. Here are some of today's.
From here it was back to East Bergholt, trying not to fall off a log at one point, seeing and unidentified hunting bird, some lovely forsythia and grape hyacinths and getting some nice views again...
Over the stile here and across the road....
...for teh classic view of Dedham Vale.
...before arriving at East Bergholt Church and the unusual arrangement of the bells... a "temporary measure" that was made in 1531!
You can see a video of them being played here.
Then it was through the village and back to the car park.
A lovely walk of nearly 10 miles on a beautiful spring day. Yes. 10/10 it is. Thanks Joyce for treating us to it and the rest of the group for the enjoyable company.
...and you can see them all here on Flickr. You can also see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.
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