Saffron Walden Walk

Today we had a walk in and around Saffron Walden. I thought I'd been there more than once before, but it seems it was only this Ramblers walk from September 2018.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"Tuesday 26th October: a day out in Saffron Walden, this is definitely worth the trip. You can park at Swan Meadow Car Park CB10 1DA on New Pond Ln  for £2.50 (6 hours ) or 'for free' down Little Walden Road CB10 2DJ. We will meet at St Marys Church at 10.30am and after a look around Bridge End Gardens and the Maze , we will head for a coffee in the town. Then a circular walk of approx 6 miles (expect some mud). We pass through the grounds of Audley End and climb a little for views. Please bring your packed lunch. "

Dawn came too. We parked at the Swan Meadow and headed for the church, where we met up with the others. After admiring the church, we set off for the gardens and maze as planned before coffee and then our 6 mile walk. This was our route....

...including the meandering about in the maze.

Here are a few of my photos.

St. Mary's Church is the largest non-cathedral church in Essex.

The building dates predominately from 1250 - 1258 with a further rebuilding in the Perpendicular style begun in about 1450.

With a tower of 12 bells, St Mary’s has a Society of Bellringers, who ring for Sunday services and weddings. Read more about the bells here.

But highlight for me was the magnificent organ with its spectacular  Trompeta Réal pipes en chamade. You can read more about the organ here.

On to the Bridge End Gardens.

We admired the citrus in the greenhouse. 

Then it was on to the maze.

From the middle you can look out over the maze. Here comes Roland.

And this is Joyce's photo of the rest of us safely in the middle.

Into town, we stopped at The Curious Goat for coffee/tea....

...and had a look around the market....

...and shops.

Heading off for our walk now, we passed the King Edward VI almshouses....

...before crossing the grounds of Audley End.

We followed some of the Harcamlow Way and the Saffron Trail....

...going by these pretty cottages.

Out in the country we found rolling hills and stopped here for our lunch.

There are some impressive houses on Seven Devils Lane.

Looking down towards the little airfield, we saw some people crossing a field and spreading out - it was a shoot.

We returned to town via The Battle Ditches.

After the end of the walk, Dawn wanted to visit the shops for a bit. We liked this cushion....

...and this bollard.

Well that was a lovely day out. Thank-you Joyce for organising it and leading us round and also to everyone else for the company.

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

P.S. Joyce held another competition on "guess how many photos John will take". The guesses were:

Dawn  56  Joyce 156  Ann  142 Roland  176 Teresa. 188 The actual number was 146 - so Ann is the winner! Only 4 out - well done!"