Lavenham to Long Melford Walk

Today we did a circular walk from Lavenham to Long Melford and back. It was based on this walk, although we didn't follow the route exactly, avoiding the St. Edmunds Way at the start. This was the invite from Joyce.

"Monday 8th November. Lavenham to Long Melford and back. A different 10 mile circular walk.  Please bring lunch as we will stop en route to eat/drink our coffee. We will meet at Lavenham public car park next to the Cock Horse Inn CO10 9SA at 10.30am. You might like to have a drink at the pub on your return and/or walk some more of the railway line if the weather is fine. "

This was our actual route...

We met as planned on a bright sunny morning. A good turnout today with 10 on the walk. Here are a few of my photos.

I don't know why I parked so far down the car park - there were plenty of spaces.

We passed through the churchyard and out the side gate. We paused briefly to admire the gardens of Lavenham Hall.

Soon we were out in the country. There is still a surprising amount of green on the trees.

The paths were dry and pleasant for walking side-by-side to chat.

We could see Long Melford Church in the distance ahead. 

We saw plenty of mistletoe.

As we got to Kentwell Hall estate, there were some tricky stiles to cross.

We could see the ticket office, but didn't go up the driveway to the Hall.

We could see the sun shining through the windows of Long Melford church. I think this is the last time the group had been this way, led by Steve that day. Holy Trinity Church. Long Melford is very impressive. According to this article, "The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure."

There was more mistletoe on the trees lining the drive to Kentwell Hall. This was the bushiest.

My camera had been playing up so I was left a bit behind, but this gave me the chance of a photo of the rest of the group up ahead.

We stopped for lunch in the sun outside  Trinity Hospital. It was originally built in 1573, but was largely reconstructed in 1847.

On our return leg, we visited Cherry Lane garden centre...

...and its cafe.

We liked these trees.

We took a slight detour to miss out some road walking by visiting Bassetts Farm.

We were surprised to find that we were most of the way back before we could see Lavenham church.

We had a stretch crossing a couple of fields. Fortunately it wasn't muddy.

Now we could see the church properly as we headed towards its west end.

Soon we were back where we started by the Cock Horse Inn.

What lovely weather we had for a lovely walk. Thank-you Joyce for organisaing and leading it and also to everyone else for the company.

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