Quarries Quest Walk

Today it was Glen's turn to lead a walk for the group, walking from Claydon around Little Blakenham, and also taking in Nettlestead and Somersham.... and several quarries.

This was the invite from him...

"Let’s meet at 10.00 on Friday for a prompt 10.15 hours start please.  Exit the A14 Junction 52 for Claydon. Very shortly after leaving the roundabout under the A14 and turning left towards Claydon  village, take the first right into Old Ipswich Road. The postcode for Orchard Grove, the second junction along, is IP6 0BZ, if that helps! Just park in Old Ipswich Road as near as you can to Orchard Grove. Please bring packed lunch."

This was our route, a figure of 8 going anti-clockwise....

We met as planned and set off a couple of minutes ahead of schedule. Here are a few of my photos.

Off we go on a circuit around Claydon.

St. Peter, Claydon church has what looks like a crown on top, but it doesn't get a mention Simon Knott's referenced description, which is nonetheless very enlightening as always.

 

We went under the A14 and turned south along the River Gipping.

Here we came across a profusion of bushy plants. The flowers were only just coming out so it was hard to say, but I thought they were maybe a form of comfrey in the borage family... check this out.

Out in the country now, after a brief climb, we paused to have a drink and remove a layer of clothing alongside a field with some sheep with their lambs on the other side.

Constant companions on the walk were electricity pylons, as they were on our recent Hintlesham walk, which was only a few miles south.

We came to an impressive old limestone quarry.

There were holes in the cliff face where birds were maybe nesting and even trees growing out of the cliff. Here is the view looking back as we got to the end. It was a pretty big quarry in its time!

We passed through Little Blakenham village and arrived at St. Mary, Little Blakenham church nestling among the trees.

A little further on we came to some goats?... no, rare breed sheep as the owner informed us.

We liked the spooky guardians at the entrance to this garage.

Our lunch stop just over the brow of a hill gave us shelter and good views. "Do we want to head on back or add an extra couple of miles", asked Glen. It was still quite early... we agreed to add on the extra loop.

Onward, then, to St. Mary, Nettlestead church, another nestling among the trees.

It was open, so we were able to visit. Charming.

Now it was on to the village of Somersham.

On our way back now, we passed this, that we had seen from our lunch stop. I said I thought it was a hop bine farm and that sooner or later the plants would climb over the trellises. Read all about it here.

 We skirted Little Blakenham village again and ascended towards the Blakenham Woodland Garden.

Walking along the outskirts we found some lovely scented lilacs growing through the hedge. Here is some of the white variety.

Looking into the woodlands we could see  a lovely patch of bluebells.

We enjoyed this treehouse in need of some repair.

A field we passed had quite a few black sheep and lambs.

Looking down towards the huge Column Field Quarry.

We descended and crossed underneath the A14 again to return to Claydon, where we saw a young lady dent her front bumper parking her car in The Greyhound pub car park. Oops.

 Then it was back to our cars amid the flood of schoolchildren heading for home... at 2:45pm? Gosh. They finish early!

The weather was mostly dull, but it was a very interesting walk. I had no idea there were all these chalk quarries in this area of Suffolk. Some nice villages and countryside walking too. Thank-you Glen! And thank-you to the others for their company too.

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