Hargrave Ramblers Walk

The Bury St Edmunds Ramblers have restarted walks with "pop-up" walks of up to 6 walkers. I decided to volunteer a few and this was my first.

This was my listing...
"A Hargrave and Chevington Amble.  Park at Hargrave Village Hall, Bury Road, Hargrave. A circular walk from Hargrave stopping for a drinks break at Chevington church about half way round and passing some lovely cottage gardens and Hargrave church.
Start Place: Hargrave Village Hall

Time: 10am
Distance: 6.5 miles 10.5km"

Due to a communications mix-up I ended up with only two other walkers. No need to wear my hi-vis vest today!

This walk was a repeat of one I had done previously - see here. It is based on is this walk by Roger Medley on the Whickhambrook Village site. Our route today was slightly different - I offered Lisa and Gary an option as we approached Chevington of going across the fields to the church, as the 'official' route has it, or through the village - we chose the latter.

This was our route, which we travelled clockwise.

 Here are a few of my photos today.

There are only a handful of parking spaces at the village hall. Fine for a pop-up walk, though.

This sculpture in a pond in the village is odd.

This lady was not expecting any walkers and had just let her puppy off its lead. It was very friendly!

At Tan Office green we were impressed by this apple tree with its dark red apples. I picked one and tried it when I got home. It was quite sour. Maybe good for cider, though? We wondered what the locals did with them.

Church cottage in Church Rd Chevington is very picturesque and has a lovely garden.

We stopped at All Saints, Chevington Church for our drinks break.

Time for some fun facts...

Chevington was part of the Saxon estate of Britulf and was given over to the Abbey of St. Edmund after the norman conquest.

The Little Domesday Book  describes it as "... a manor of 6 caracutes (about 800 acres)12 villeins (tied tenants), 6 slaves, 140 sheep, 40 goats and 3 hives of bees. 1 soakmen (free tenant) farmed 30 acres."

All Saints, Chevington Church was mentioned in the Domeday book but was replaced by a norman stone building in about the 12th century. The Bell tower was added kin the 16th century.

The top of the tower has no roof. That's because it is an extension... the tower was extended by the 1st Marquess of Bristol Frederick William Hervey so it could be seen from the Ickworth Esate.

We headed on towards Hargrave church over the fields. This one had oil-seed rape earlier, now harvested....

 ...and in this one, the maize was now well over head height tall! At least the path through it was intact. Amaizing! The last time I did that path it was only waist high.

At Hargrave Church we came upon some other walkers. "We are actually two groups of six", explained one of them.

One last field edge and we were back at the village hall.

Once again, a very pleasant walk.Thanks Gary and Lisa for joining me. You can see more of my photos from this walk previously here and here and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.