Ramblers Nowton Walk

Today is St. Edmunds day eve, with the anniversary of his death in AD 869 being tomorrow, so we had a special Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers walk to mark the event, taking in part of the St. Edmunds Way. It was also an inaugural walk of the new Discover Suffolk leaflet "Nowton Walks", sponsored by the Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers. They should be available in tourist information centres soon, but Rosie had plenty to hand out to those who wanted one. It is delightful!

This was the listing for today's walk.

It was a lovely crisp, sunny late autumn morning and we had a great turnout of 52 walkers (!).

No MapMyWalk track today as I forgot to bring my smartphone, but this was our route (the red one) as shown in the new leaflet...

Here are a few of my photos.

Assembling at the start in Nowton Park.

We set off through the avenue of lime trees.

By the school pond is one of the wolves from the Wolf Trail in 2015

Ron told us that the folly nearby was originally the South porch of St. Mary's Church and was removed and moved here in the 1840s.

As the route instructions said we  kept straight ahead and said hello to the panda....

...where we had a group photo.

After passing The Friendly Loaf artisan bakery (which I had previously visited on this Suffolk Walking Festival walk) we were out in the open countryside with some nice views and friendly horses.

Our drinks break was at Nowton Church.

Rosie had arranged with the keyholder to have the church open for us to visit. Inside, she told us a bit about the history.






You can read more about the church here on Simon Knott's wonderful Suffolk Churches website. Here is some of the stained glass.

We continued past Nowton Hall.

As this article on Nowton says, "the Grade 2 listed former farmhouse is dated 1595 on the chimney-stack, with the initials A.P. for Anthony Payne (d.1606). The house stands on the remains of a roughly E-shaped moated site. Prior to the Dissolution, the manor belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Edmundsbury"

These lovely almshouses, built in 1877, get a mention and photo in the leaflet.

We passed a thatched house with two hares on the roof. Rosie was able to tell us they are called Harriet and Horatio.
Well we have learned some things today!

We crossed the bridge funded by Bury Ramblers.

We were now heading back towards Nowton Park

And here we are back at the car park.

Thanks Ron and Rosie for a lovely morning walk in great weather. My turn to lead next week. I hope I get as good weather... (Watch this space).

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr.