Denston Walk

Another walk today... that makes 6 in the last 7 days! This was the invite from Joyce...

"Wednesday 29th July: An afternoon 12-13 mile circular walk from the village of Denston to Wickhambrook. Lots of undulating views along the way and some other interesting features. No pubs/toilets on this walk so pls bring food/drinks. We will park at Denston Village Hall Lower Green Denston CB8 8PN for a 12pm start. Lunch stop at 12.30pm at Denston Church."

Alas I had mis-filed a later email which said...

"Dear all We will have 2 groups walking next Wednesday (5 mins apart). Jane W will lead one group and myself the other group. Pls stick to the group you are in during the whole walk so we 'look' like separate groups. People seem to be very happy with this arrangement. We will meet/park at Denston Village Hall at midday and immediately walk to the church to have our picnic lunch. If you want to skip lunch then join us at 12.45pm at the church as we start the walk from here. The circular walk is 12ish miles (I'll try not to go over) and it will have some lovely Suffolk views. Pls be aware that harvesting may be taking place so those face masks could be useful! We could bump into long grass and hidden nettles too. If the weather remains fine then I'll be heading over to The Queens Head, Hawkedon for a takeaway pizza on the green 6pm. Pls join me/us."

...and hadn't twigged I could arrive at 12:45 instead. So there I was at Denston Village Hall at 11:58 with just Ann there already and we were wondering where everyone was! No matter. Joyce arrived shortly after and explained that some wouldn't be joining us until the start of the walk.

This was our route. When Joyce and Jane did this previously they went clockwise. Today we went the other way round.

Here are a few of my photos...

Our starting point and parking lot was Denston Village Hall....

...but we had lunch and assembled at St. Nicholas, Denston Church. "Begun 1474" says the sign. Can you see the similarity to the bigger church a few miles away at Long Melford?

I loved the gargoyle water spouts.

So here is Joyce giving us our pre-walk briefing.

We were walking in two groups. I was with Jane in the second group. Our plan was simple. Keep the group in front in sight and follow them and we wouldn't need to map-read....

...which was fine until they went wrong and we ended up the wrong side of this hedge!

This bit was familiar - we had walked it 2 weeks ago on this walk.

We saw and heard plenty of birds of prey today. We think this was a kite with its forked tail.

Alongside the road up from Gifford Hall we came across a string of trees laden with damsons. Yum!

We admired this peacock sculpture....

...in the extensive garden of this house.

Passing through Ashfield Green we gawked at a number of lovely new houses. One even had a swimming pool in the garden.

Heading further north we passed this odd water tower. We wondered why it was clad in white. Very strange.

This is one of a pair or maybe 3 buzzards who flew over us.

Turning south again we passes some amazing sculptures from LCB Sculpture. Look closely and you will see the sculpture is made from horseshoes.

We headed downhill to the outskirts of Wickhambrook....

...and did a little loop around All Saints, Wickhambrook Church....

..passing these topiary birds....

...just before this ford. Most of us used the bridge, but Aidan and Roland showed they could walk on water.

We peeked through the gate of Maynard House to admire the house and garden.

Soon we were approaching Denston Church again.

But before returning to our cars we took a visit to the estate of Denston Hall. Lovely gates... and there was a path that took us around them.

We got a glimpse of the Hall across the lake.

Then it was a brisk stroll back to our cars at the village hall.

Another lovely walk. Thanks, Joyce and Jane for leading us round and everyone else for their company too.

You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.