"This Thursday, I'm trialling a walk with 3 others to test if we all feel comfortable with the social distancing aspect and we can maintain a safe distance for the whole walk. I'd like to walk from Clare Country Park on Thursday at 10am so please meet me there. The popular Clare to Cavendish is 7 miles but I've got another route I'd like to try as well. Bring lunch etc with you, Lets hope for Sunshine!"
No sunshine last Thursday morning, but we had rather better weather for it today! This was our two walks together...
The "another route" we did was from Clare to Stoke-by-Clare and back, largely via the Stour Valley Path. We did that in the morning and had our lunch back at Clare Country Park. In the afternoon we did the circular walk to Cavendish and back. At first I didn't remember doing it, but I found the route familiar. Was it a Ramblers walk I had done it on? No it was this walk we did in June last year, but in the opposite direction.
Here are a few of my photos.
Joyce used the map at the Country Park Car Park, our starting and finishing point for each walk to show us where we were going.
Ir was already quite warm as we set out along the river.
I spotted a couple of ducklings, but they had reach the cover of the far bank before I could train my camera on them. Can you see them?
These two neighbouring scarecrows didn't appear to be correctly social-distancing.
We saw plenty of flowers beaming in the sun, like these daisies.
Our path climbed up from the river and went through fields. We soon got a view of Stoke-by-Clare church, which we would visit later.
Back down at the river we crossed the weir and were in Suffolk once again.
We passed gardens on our way into the village....
...and stopped for a drinks break at the village green.
With a population of 460, Stoke-by-Clare has a church, village hall, pub, tennis club, bowls club and football team. It also has a community shop and post office which is run by volunteers. Although the village primary school closed in 1986, the village is home to the Stoke College independent school which provides day and boarding education for pupils up to the age of sixteen from a wide area and a nursery for pre-school aged children.
In 1124 Richard de Clare, 1st Earl of Hertford, moved the Benedictine Priory that had been established at his castle in Clare to Stoke-by-Clare. The Priory, which was controlled by the monastery of Bec in Normandy, enjoyed by 1291 rents from 17 parishes in Suffolk. During the Hundred Years' War the Prior's revenues were in part diverted to the English crown and in 1415 the Priory was replaced by Stoke College, intended to support a small community of priests and choristers under the patronage of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March,who was also buried here.
There are traditional pargeted thatched cottages in a variety of colours. This has the delightful name of "Beans Cottage"
I liked these poppies by the brick wall.
We reached the village centre and the church.
The Church of St. John the Baptist was open so we were able to visit. As Simon Knott's site says...
"Like many industrial places, Stoke by Clare was a hotbed of Protestantism by the early years of the 16th century. The Dean of the college was Matthew Parker; later, as an advisor to the brief but furious fundamentalist regime of Edward VI, and Archbishop of Canterbury under Elizabeth I, he was such a ruthless investigator and rooter out of Catholic practices, he earned the epithet 'nosy' Parker. For the moment, however, he was a major power-player in the struggle that would ultimately take England out of Europe. Parker's influence fell heavily on St John the Baptist, and it was one of the flagship preaching houses of the reformers. His pulpit is still in situ, a 15th century wineglass affair, barely 20" across inside."
We tried it. It was indeed a snug fit.
Now we were on our way back to Clare, retracing our steps after an initial loop and finishing by going along the river and through Clare back to the Country Park.
There were plenty of fluffy white clouds, reminding me of The Simpsons Opening Credits.
There were brimstone butterflies flitting about the path by the river, but I didn't manage to photograph any.
Soon we got a view of Clare Church and the Castle.
We walked thriugh the streets past the village sign...
...and lunched in the park by the castle mound.
Heading to Cavendish on the Essex side of the river, we hadn't gone far before we found this swan on her nest with her 4 cygnets.
The footpaths through the fields were straight and well-tended.
We passed the Grade II listed Bower Hall and these little dogs came to chase us.
We passed the impressive Pentlow Mill was just before we crossed the Stour once again back into Suffolk and into Cavendish.
Along the Suffolk side of the river we came across these cute sheep.
Our third village sign of the day.
The Old Forge Shop was preparing for opening tomorrow, but still served Jane and Roland with ice-cream.
Another lovely village green.
As we started off back to Clare once more, we checked out The Five Bells. Not open today, (shame), but it looked like they were preparing for it with their widely-spaced outdoor tables.
Joyce had hoped to give us a "big reveal" as we passed through a hedge to this field.
It is linseed and now gone all to seed so we were too late to see the field full of blue flowers like this one...
Never mind, it still was quite a sight with the bubbly clouds.
Entering Clare Country Park we passed the tree with bracket fungus I had photographed last year. Even more impressive now, I think.
We didn't remember seeing this before, though.
And finally we were back where we started again.
So thanks for two lovely walks, Joyce, and to Jane and Roland for their company. At a total of over 14 miles it was the furthest I had walked for a while. Much better weather than last Thursday, or June last year when we did part 2, for that matter. It was really quite warm and I wished I had more liquid with me. I was glad of some cold drinks from the fridge when I got home!
You can see more of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.
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