This was another of Joyce's summer days out. Today we did a leisurely circular walk from St.Ives via the delightful villages of Houghton (and its mill), Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey. It was very similar to the walk I did with Kirsty and David here in June (see here), but with a little detour to explore Houghton village. This was the invite...
"Wednesday August 18th an 8 mile loop in St Ives and the beautiful Hemingfords. We will meet at St Ives park n ride free car park PE27 4LG at 10am and enjoy the town of St Ives for coffee first thing before heading to Houghton Mill and the Hemingfords. The area is just delightful and involves walking alongside the Great Ouse. Pleases bring a picnic as we will stop en route. "
My phone had put itself into power-saving mode, so my tracker didn't work, but our route was something like this (although how we went around Houghton may be a bit approximate!).
Here are a few of my photos.
We started with a coffee stop at the River Terrace Cafe, although we sat inside as it was still a little chilly for sitting on the terrace.
The flower beds at The Waits were looking very colourful.
Along the Ouse Valley way through St. Ives thicket we saw lots of lords and ladies plants (also known as the Cuckoo pint). Read about them here, and the origins of the name here.
As we neared the Houghton Mill. National Trust property, we saw a sign for one of their "50 activities to do before you are 11 3/4".
We took a little trip around the village of Houghton, which had many lovely houses.
The village pump is in the square by the 3 Horseshoes pub and the Community=owned shop.
Returning to the mill we crossed the rover at the lock. There was a boat in the lock but they didn't seem in much of a hurry to move so we left them to it.
The Hemingford villages have some lovely houses too. We liked the hydrangeas in this garden.
We visited St. Margaret of Antioch church in Hemingford Abbots...
...and admired the stonework, some of which dates from 1190.
We met the river again and walked along the path to Hemingford Grey passing where we watched the regatta in July 2019 (see here).
Our lunch stop was at St James' church....
...which has several seats with views along the river.
Then it was back to St. Ives across Hemingford Grey meadow. We saw plenty of spires today. This one is the Parish Church, which we passed early in our walk.
Back in St.Ives, the terrace at the cafe was busy now that the sun had come out.
We walked along the quayside avoiding the aggressive swans....
...before returning through the back streets past the old court house and police station.
Well that was a lovely day out. Thank-you Joyce for organising it and leading us round and the others for the company.
You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.
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