Needham Market Walk

Today we did a repeat of this Needham Market walk we did a few weeks ago.This was the invite from Joyce.

"Saturday June 19th.  A glorious walk that is worth repeating. Please park and meet at Needham Lakes free car park (toilets here too). IP6 8AU is the postcode I can find. Our start time is 10am. We will head towards Barking Church, and then to Baylham church for lunch stop (toilet here) , Darmsden and Pipps Ford. Lots of great views on this walk and the River Gipping at the beginning and end. Mileage is 9.75 miles." 

We did almost the same route, but added a little detour to visit Darmsden Church. This was today's version.

Here are a few of my photos.

There were plenty of birds on Needham Lake at the start,

Today there were six of us. I hadn't seen Anna for a while so it was good to catch up with her.

As before we looped around through Needham Market, seeing some of the ancient houses. This one dates from 1480.

This flag on display is the Suffolk Flag, being shown in honour of Suffolk Day on Monday.

As before we followed the the "Corpse Way" aka the "Coffin Trail" to St. Mary, Barking Church. As Simon says.. "Until the 20th century, it was also one of the county's more populous parishes, including as it did the whole of the town of Needham Market, where St John the Baptist church was just a chapel of ease. All the dead of Needham Market came here to be buried, conveyed the mile up the hill on a bier along the Causeway. This is a journey you can still make today, albeit under your own steam. Local legend has it that the word 'causeway' is a corruption of 'corpseway'."

They've got some building work under way now, repairing the roof.

The path down the hill from the church has got quite overgrown. I could just about see Steve in front of me.

In Priestley Wood we saw plenty of elderflowers. Joyce challenged me to make a non-alcoholic drink with some. Hmm. Must remember to bring a bag and my secateurs in forthcoming walks to collect some.

As I had looked it up after last time, I could point out to the others that this was Grade II listed 17th Century Baylham Hall...

...and this was Shrubland Hall. 

We reached St. Peter's, Baylham Church  where we had our lunch stop again.

There were a couple of pairs of overshoes in the porch. Here is Joyce wearing one pair. "Very fetching", I said.

Onwards towards Darmsden via Holverhill Covert and Chalkpit Wood. The foxgloves are coming our now.

Between the two woods the path is rather better defined than some we've found recently.

There is a miscellany of vehicles parked at Roebuck Farm including this old US Army truck.

We revisited the Mobile phone mast to admire the electronics

I last visited St. Andrews Church, Darmsden in May last year with Dawn and Sarah on this walk.

 

 

In the churchyard is the gravestone of the writer Michael Watkins, author of The East Anglian Book among others, of  nearby Tarston Hall.

We passed Kiln Cottage before heading out the village down towards the river.

Crossing the railway line we saw masses of Viper's Bugloss brightening up the banks

At Pipp's Ford there's a replica of the mathematical bridge.

I saw the real one just a few days earlier with Kirsty and David on this meander around Cambridge.

We followed the path along the River Gipping even though there were notices discouraging us. The bridge that needs repair, though, wasn't blocked off so we could still use it.

Soon we were back at Bosmere Mill...

...and Needham Lake where we started.

Well that was interesting doing it again and see how much has changed since we did it three weeks or so ago. No goslings today, but we did see some cute cygnets. Thank-you Joyce... and to the others for the company.

You can see more of my photos from today here and here (from last time) on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk