Badwell Ash Walks

 

Joyce had asked me if I would lead a walk for the group next week. I suggested my recent two-part Badwell Ash and Hunston Walk. She was due to walk with Jane today and asked if I would like to do the walk with her and Jane... and she also suggested a possible extension using some of the ancient Hundred Lanes based on this walk. But then Lockdown 2.0 was announced and this walk was to be the last group walk for the duration, so I suggest she invite some others. So we were 6!

This was our route, with a stop in Badwell Ash for our picnic lunches.

We had a perfect day for it with blue skies and light winds. Here are some of my photos.

We met in Badwell Ash Village Hall car park.

I attempted to find the path across the field I had missed last time, but it wasn't there so we walked along the field edge as I did last time and then down the road to Great Ashfield...

...passing some field scabious still in bloom.

All Saints church.,Great Ashfield still had a ford on the road to it.

Soon we were on the wide lanes that were the main feature of the walk with plenty of room to walk side-by-side and chat.

Doing the extra loop via Long Thurlow and Badwell Green we came to the "Rainbow Cottages", dating from Victorian times. Would they still be called that if they all painted their houses white? Or was their something in their titel deeds that stipulated they had to be multi-coloured?, we mused.

In Badwell Green we passed the traditional pink Suffolk timber-framed Badwell Green Farmhouse...

...and joined Kiln Lane.

We saw plenty of fungi. This pair of funnel caps were quite striking

We  came to a crossroads of paths and turned south onto the Hundreds Lane, so named as it was a a boundary between two of the Hundreds. Today it is still the boundary between Badwell Ash and Wyverstone parishes.

We stopped for our drinks break here in a sunny spot just over half-way round our morning walk.

We enjoyed a stretch of quite country road. My planned route back into Badwell Ash was via the Back Lane, but we weren't wearing waders so had to stick to the road.

While some visited the shop we tried  St. Mary's church for our lunchstop and Roland and Julian chose a wall to sit on...

...but I found some seats by the village sign that were ideal.

So on to our afternoon walk.

We had some pleasant country paths.

But then there was a loud cry of "Ow" and some muttered expletives. Julian had been looking down and walked straight into this overhanging branch - here is Roland approaching it, but he isn't as tall as Julian.

We passed by St. Mary Langham Church and Langham Hall. They have a walled garden  you can visit - worth remembering for the summer. Jane said she would happily live there.

We crossed the weak bridge towards Hunston.

Our fourth and last church of the day was St. Michael's, Hunston.

Instead of the planned slightly longer route we followed the route I had taken before along the field edge to Parkers Grove.

Oo look. Some bullace plums. Very tasty.

We went along the wrong side of the hedge shortly after which meant we missed a rather nice lane I had done last time, but that meant we had some views I didn't get then. Here we could see Langham Church we had passed earlier....

...and soon after we spied Badwell Ash church....

...and arrived back in the village.

Well that was a lovely day's walking. It's just a shame the pub wasn't opening until 4:30 otherwise we could have had a celberatory beer afterwards. Thanks to all for their company.. and see you again the other side of lockdown! And I hope the bump on the head doesn't still hurt, Julian.

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