Mid-Suffolk Footpath - Part 2

This was a follow-up to our walk last week, when we did the first half. I enjoyed that a lot, so when Joyce asked me if I'd like to do the rest of the walk, I decided to use up my last day of carried-over leave from last year to do it. This week we were joined by Jane and Miranda, so our logistics were a little more complicated. I pointed out to my fellow walkers on accepting the invitation, "It sounds like a great expedition and even includes a form of goat, wolf, cabbage river crossing puzzle getting everyone home->there->back successfully."

To save you going back to part 1, here is a repeat of the introduction.... There is a brochure for the walk that you can download from here. So I did and printed it out, the writing on the nice maps is a bit small for me to read without my reading glasses, but I took it along anyway.

The introduction says...

"The Mid Suffolk Footpath is over 20 miles in length and is Mid Suffolk District Council's first long distance route. It links Hoxne in the north of the district with Stowmarket in the south....

The path runs through the heart of Mid Suffolk, meandering across a landscape of river valleys and farmland punctuated by scenic towns and villages....

The poppy can be found along the Whole length of the route especially within areas of farmland and it is for this reason that it has been chosen as the symbol marking the route."

Today we did the last 2  1/2 of the 5  stages, from Thwaite to Stowmarket.

This was our route...

We took 2 cars from our rendezvous point at Skyliner Sports Centre and drove to the TotHill BP garage near the end of the path. Leaving my car there, Joyce took the 4 of us in hers to  the Walnut Tree pub at Thwaite, where we met Hilary (as we had done last week). Good start. That was all 5 of us at the start of the walk. We set off just after 9a.m.

From here it was a short walk to the centre of the village to rejoin the path. As we set out past the church we met up again with the chicks we had seen last week. Haven't they grown?

We passed a cottage with a lovely colourful garden full of spring flowers...

...including these rather pretty tulips.

Our next village was Mendlesham.

The fish & chip shop would have been tempting if it was open, but it was a bit early for that!

The brochure says in the introduction to Map 3. "At St. Mary's Church Mendlesham... Look out for the 'wood wose' - wild green men of the woods, armed with cudgels, above the north porch of the church.

Well we spotted the gargoyles but didn't recognise them as the wood wose as we were expecting them to be made of wood.

I thought maybe they had been removed from those empty niches, but no, they are the stone figures on the roof.



You can read more about them here.

After a brief pause in the churchyard...

...we carried on south towards Tan Office and Mendlesham Green.Whereas last week it was wind turbines, this week it was a view of the Mendlesham Transmitter that was our constant companion. At 1000' tall, today its head was in the clouds.

There were plenty of nice houses and wild primroses .

 At Tan Office, the path took us through someone's garden, full of lovely flowers.

We met the lady owner and her well-named dog Puff. She had lived in the house since 1968! She told us about some of the history of the place. As the Estate Agent's description of another nearby property says..

"Tan Office is an unusual name given to this small hamlet just outside Mendlesham Green which is thought to have been a former Quaker settlement where there was also a tannery. In the middle ages a place of work was referred to as an office where it is believed the rather unusual shortened name Tan Office has arisen."

At Mendlesham Green we came across this original use of an old telephone box.

Crossing the fields, through the hedge we spotted a couple of deer.

and some nice views.

We had a very pleasant stretch alongside the River Gipping.

 As we approached Stowmarket we could see the railway and A14. Not far to go now.

We reached the end of the path and had a short walk along the road back to the BP garage (and building site!) and my car.

And now the final part of the logistics puzzle solution. "Oh dear, I think I left my keys in your car, Joyce", I teased. But I hadn't. The 5 of us got in my car and we drove back to the Walnut Tree to reunite Joyce and Hilary with their cars and have a celebratory drink before heading back to Skyline Sports Centre, to reunite Jane and Miranda with theirs.

Well that was another lovely walk, even without last week's sunshine. Thanks Hilary for showing us the way and the rest for the convivial company.

There was room for only some of my photos in this write-up.  Here is a slideshow of more my photos (Flash required).

You can also see them all here on Flickr, and see more details of our route (apart from the first 1/2 mile) here on MapMyWalk.