Ickworth Park Walk

Today we did a familiar walk at Ickworth House starting and finishing at Chevington Church.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"Thursday Oct 14th : We will meet in the small village of Chevington. Please park considerately down Church Road IP29 5QH and gather at Chevington Church for a 11am start. We will venture into Ickworth Park for a lively 9-10 mile walk. We will make a stop at The Porters Lodge for coffee and your home made lunch."

This was our route today...

Here are a few fun facts about our starting point, dug up for a previous walk I led for the Ramblers last year.

Chevington was part of the Saxon estate of Britulf and was given over to the Abbey of St. Edmund after the Norman conquest. The Little Domesday Book  describes it as "... a manor of 6 caracutes (about 800 acres)12 villeins (tied tenants), 6 slaves, 140 sheep, 40 goats and 3 hives of bees. 1 soakmen (free tenant) farmed 30 acres."  

All Saints, Chevington Church was mentioned in the Domeday book but was replaced by a Norman stone building in about the 12th century. The Bell tower was added kin the 16th century. The top of the tower has no roof. That's because it is an extension... the tower was extended by the 1st Marquess of Bristol Frederick William Hervey so it could be seen from the Ickworth Esate.

Here are a few of my photos - I didn't take many as it was rather a grey day and I had plenty from previous visits (which you can see via these links :   November 2020,  January 2020, December 2019, February 2019 and  June 2018)

We met by Church Cottage.

As we climbed the hill from Chevington Joyce asked which way round we should go - clockwise or anticlockwise. I suggested deosil rather than widdershins, and clockwise we went.

We emerged from the Downter's Wood and admired the view...

...before descending to the river Linnet.

I do like this cottage just by the path along the river.

We reached the Porter's Lodge. But no drinks here today...

...so we headed for the cafe in the house.

It's good to see it without the scaffolding.

In the orangery the queue for the cafe was quite long....

...so we just went outside to eat our packed lunches.

There is still some colour in the flower beds....

...from these pretty michaelmas daisies in particular.

We didn't see any deer roaming in the park, but we did see these by the West Wing. We saw them harnessed to Santa's sleigh in December 2018.

We walked up to the entrance and then back around the perimeter of the park through the trees. There was some autumn colour to be seen.

Once clear of the trees on our right we got a view of the house and then the church....

...before descending once more to Chevington Church.

It didn't feel like we had walked more than 9 miles, but that's maybe because it was so familiar. Thank you Joyce for leading us round and thanks to her and the others for the company. Next week it's my turn to lead a walk... weather permitting!

You can find more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.

P.S. I forgot... At the end of the walk I asked if anyone would like some of my padron and/or cayenne peppers and got some takers... and Joyce provided this photo.... 

I hope they enjoyed them!