Rattlesden Walk

It was my turn to lead a walk with Jane. I know she enjoys seeing desirable country residences, so I thought I'd take her on my 4 Halls walk from Rattlesden as she had missed that when I led it for the group last September, which you can read about here. I thought I'd add in a bit to make it a bit longer and pass a 5th Hall.

My joining instructions mistakenly referred to the Village Hall, when actually I meant The Pavilion. Sorry Jane. My mistake. But no matter; we were parked just a short distance apart and we met outside the actual Village Hall. 

This was our route today...

Here are a few of my photos.

It was still a bit frosty in the shade at the recreation ground where I parked.

The start of the walk was uphill and directly into the low late-autumn sun.

Our first Hall was Cockerells Hall, complete with swimming pool. You can holiday here.

Nearby, they has this odd signpost. I don't think I believe the direction indicators. The green sign, by the way, says "Happy hour" and points towards the house.

My previous walk didn't go here, but bypassed Mill Green.

Today we went into Mill Green and passed Buxham Mill. We weren't sure it looked lived in, but it is a residential property these days according to this.

We passed the Buxhall Crown. Not open, of course, but it might have been a bit early for a beer there anyway.

Here we had a view of our second Hall, Fenn Hall, but my camera failed to focus. We could also see Buxhall Church...

...and Great Finborough Church.

We visited a fishing pond.

Heading towards Fenn Hall, we got an even better view of Great Finborough church.

And then, as we passed Fenn Hall, I realised we had joined up with another of my walks - from Great Finborough. This one. But after passing the hall we turned left and rejoined the previous Rattlesden walk. We stopped for a drinks break in the sun with a view of Wood Hall.

Jane was unimpressed. In the distance we could see Clopton Hall which we would pass later. We descended to the River Rat and crossed it here to join Gypsy Lane.

Passing Clopton Hall (see photo at the top of the post) we passed though Clopton Green. Previously we had stoppd here for a lunch break, but we would have got wet bottoms sitting on  the grass to do that today.

We headed on towards Drinkstone Green. Here we could see Woolpit church in the distance. And we were overlapping with another walk - this one from Woolpit.

I had hoped we might find a seat for our lunch by the village sign, bit no.

Jane took some of the local honey and, as instructed, wrapped her £5 note in an elastic band before dropping her payment through the tube.

We took a detour back into the village to find somewhere to stop for lunch. Hooray! A playpark with picnic tables. Not before time. I was getting a little peckish (and I guess Jane was too).

Form here it was back on the track and not far back to Rattlesden, emerging at the church.

We passed the Five Bells pub a little frustrated we couldn't stop for a pint of beer. Next time, perhaps.

I left Jane at the Village Hall where she had parked and returned to the Pavilion. One last photo of the lovely village.

So thanks Jane for joining me. I'm not sure I would have done it all without you. A lovely sunny, if a bit chilly, day for a walk and we got to see some lovely countryside. Looking forward to walking with you again soon.

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