Norton Sunset Walk

Last night we had an evening walk from Norton. This was the invite.

"We are risking a Sunset walk this Thursday evening (24th June)  from Norton Village and heading to the villages of Hunston and Langham. We have permission to park at Norton Church, Church Lane, Norton Suffolk IP31 3NB. We will be ready to walk at 6.30pm and be done by 9.30pm. The walk is about 7 miles. There is some quiet road walking and field walking. We are walking by Hunston Church, Langham Church and Norton Church. Some wide paths and Suffolk scenery and (hopefully) a setting sun. The next couple of days look dry but expect some muddy parts and long grass. Please bring a snack. The Norton Dog pub is a great pub if that appeals to you...meal/drinks before or after." 

Well it was raining about 5pm, but that stopped, so the walk went ahead. Would we see a sunset? This was our route.

It joined up with both our walk from Norton last Sunday (see here), this walk I did last December from Stowlangtoft and this walk I led for the group from Badwell Ash last October. Lovely!

Here are a few of my photos. There were 9 of us yesterday evening, including Nick, who's birthday it was. Many happy returns, Nick.

We started at St. Andrew's Church, Norton, but didn't visit.

I was pretty sure I recognised the medieval hunting lodge, Manor Farm, at Norton Little Green but can't find the walk on which I passed it before.

It was a bit of a murky evening lending a misty atmosphere to the views of the countryside.

But we did get the occasional break in the clouds.

We reached St. Michael's, Hunston and had a look around. As before, there were some containers hanging in the porch. To catch insects, perhaps? Nick remarked on the unusual shape of the church. Here's what Simon Knott says... "The exterior aspect is interesting and not a little odd. For a start, this is basically a small Norman church, but it has a massive south transept. The effect is something like two separate churches which have got stuck together at right angles."

Someone spotted a pyramidal orchid. I'd photographed one in Mount Road earlier in the week.

We approached the hamlet of Langham via the weak bridge (yet another one)

We had a view of St. Mary Langham church, but walked to it the way I had done last time.

We passed Langham Hall and reached the walled garden, closed, of course, but it is open Thursday to Saturdays from 9am to 4ish. We then  did a loop back on myself past Garden Cottage and round the outside of the walled garden to the church with a good view of the Hall on the way....

...and some friendly horses.

Retraced our steps to Hunston Church...

...but then went the other way, across the field.

Ooo a glimmer through another break in the clouds.

What was this bird we saw perched at the top of a dead tree? It was too hard to make out.

And now, yey! We saw a glimpse of the sun setting.

Just before the end we passed a field of sainfoin....

...and reached Norton church and our cars again at about 9:25 pm

A lovely evening walk. Thank-you Joyce.

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