"I'd like to offer a long walk (for 5 others) next Tuesday June 23rd of 12 miles starting from near The Old Cow Shed in Barrow (park on the road) Colethorpe Road, Barrow Suffolk IP29 5AU at 10am- no toilets or coffee shop open here 'til July. We will then make our way over to Moulton where the village store is fully open for coffees, ice cream, bakery items and we will have a break on the green before continuing onto the rest of the 3 churches walk and back via Denham."
This encompassed the 3 Churches Walk from the Suffolk Walking Festival two years ago, where I first met Joyce as well as the extra loop from Barrow. Interestingly, I've seen a lot of visits to my blog entry for the 3 Churches Walk over the last month or two. I hope that others are enjoying it as a result. It also overlaps with another walk we did from Barrow in October last year and, I realised, eventually, an almost identical walk, but starting at a different point, to the Moulton Walk of April last year.
This was our route, although there's an extra 1/4 mile or so at the end in my car as I forgot to switch my tracker off.
Here are a few of my photos.
The country pursuits shop was open but the cafe was not.
We had a rather overgrown path near the start. Somehow Joyce managed to avoid getting the nettle stings the rest of us got.
Just like yesterday, we disturbed a nearby deer.
More golden fields.
I liked these rambling roses.
We had a view all the way to the radar domes at RAF Feltwell.
We arrived at Gazeley and the first of the 3 churches - All Saints' Gazeley....
...passing the village sign.
Here we enjoyed a drinks break but didn't go into the church which was just closing so, sadly, did not get to see the window of the hacksaw-wielding St Faith, described by Simon Knott in his eloquent write-up of the church.
Onwards towards Moulton. Flower of the day was the field scabious, just coming into bloom, of which we saw plenty.
Just before crossing a field we came across this message in flint .
Who is the message directed at, I wonder? We were pretty high up again and the path was quite chalky.
And then I spotted it... in the distance we could just make out the ship of the fens Ely Cathedral, about 18 miles away as the crow flies.
It was getting really rather warm now - later, on the way home, my car told me it was 28 degrees. We were glad of the shade as we descended towards Moulton....
...and our second church - St Peter's Moulton with its array of characterful grotesques and carvings in the frieze around the battlements.. But we didn't have a chance to investigate them today.
Joyce explained that she had been doing this walk wrong for several years and took us the correct way into Moulton past a garden with these strange statues at the top of it.
The was no water in ford today by the famous packhorse bridge, dating from the 14th or 15th century.
There are some pretty cottage gardens in the village. I liked this rose.
We stopped at the green for lunch and visited the shop for additional refreshments.
We walked along the trickle of the river Kennet and re-crossed via the next bridge...
...and passed the church again.
On towards to Dalham. We got a view of the sail-less windmill for a while.
There are pretty cottages in this village too.
Passing the olf malt kiln we went up the hill through the avenue of trees to reach the Grade II Listed Dalham Hall....
...and our 3rd church - St. Mary's Dalham.
And now it was back towards Barrow. Ann and I thought the barley had got even riper since we passed the other way on the other side of this field.
And then, treat of the day, we came across the deer of Denham Estate.
One last field of oil-seed rape before we finished.
Pizza was coming, but not today.
What I really needed was more to drink. We agreed that it was too hot to walk any further.
So thanks, Joyce. for another lovely walk and to Ann and Roland for the company.
You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.
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