Lavenham Walk

It isn't quite Joyce's mini walking festival yet (it starts tomorrow), but it might as well have been part of it.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"The morning group will meet outside The Cock Horse Pub opposite Lavenham Church at 9am. There is a free car park here but please note it may be busy with Covid Vaccine traffic.  There are also free public toilets.

The morning group will head over to Brent Eleigh for coffee/cake at Cafe Como about 10am. Then we will head over to Preston St Mary and a speedy return to Lavenham via Clay Hill. The circular walk will be 9.5 miles and we will be back by 1pm.

The afternoon group will leave at 1pm from The Cock Horse for a longer walk (13 miles) and an afternoon drinks stop at the 6 Bells pub , Preston St Mary.

Expect to be back at Lavenham about 5.30pm"

I was in the afternoon group, and we were all there in good time. But where were the others? They had enjoyed themselves at the coffee stop so much that they didn't get back until 12:55, so Joyce didn't get much of a respite before starting walking again.

It was beautiful sunny afternoon for it. This was our route...

Here are a few of my photos.

Roland and I had our lunch on the bench opposite the village hall before the start.

It was straight out into the countryside. There are lots of cowslips and primulas out but we also saw some rarer oxlips.

Okay, I cheated - that was one of my photos from Bradfield Woods last Sunday as today's was a bit over-exposed. We loved the cottage garden of this thatched house.

There was a great show of frittilaries.

We saw a few hares. Here is one in the distance.

At the back of Preston Hall, we found these rheas.

Our drinks stop was at the Six Bells in Preston St. Mary.

Jane and I both had a beer.

Our route differed from the morning one and took in another visit to Down Hall, which we passed on last week's walk.

We still had occasional views for Lavenham Church.

We also had the moon for company in the lovely blue skies.

Going past Preston Hall again, we spotted some rhea's eggs.

We didn't have to worry about getting chased by this bull.

Oo look. Some deer. We saw some more on the other side of this hedge too.

One of several churches we saw from a distance today, this is, I think St Mary Magdalene,  Bildeston

Our route back to Lavenham took us through the picturesque village of Brent Eleigh.

Colman's almshouses were built in 1731.

We spotted a cow and tiny calf.

In the last stretch we passed this in a field. Was it a trig point? No. According to the OS Explorer map, it is a well.

That was a lovely afternoon walk of just under 12 1/2 miles, and I was home in time to cook the evening meal for Dawn coming home. Thanks Joyce for organising it and leading us round and the others for the company. See you all again soon on the mini walking festival!

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