Drizzly Long Melford

Yesterday as Laura was visiting, I thought it would be good to take her (and her brother and sister) out for a bit of a walk. I decided a repeat of this walk in Long Melford would do the trick.

In the end we only did half of it, but it was after 1 pm and we were getting hungry so returned home for lunch when we got back to where the car was parked. This was our route.

Here are a few photos.

We started by going north rather than south at first. We approached Holy Trinity Church through the graveyard. According to this article about the church "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."

Some of the graves had been well decorated and had this little chap keeping an eye on them.

As the church was open we went in and spent some time exploring. The reredos above the altar is made 

from Caen stone. It is based on Albrecht Dürer's painting of the Crucifixion. 

We were fascinated by the tomb of Sir William Clopton. Note the red rose. There is a sign that explains...

"In 1436. William Clopton, Lord of Toppesfield Manor, granted a guildhall and land for a market to the town of Hadleigh, the rent to be one red rose per annum. Each year. the payment of a red rose is made by the Mayor of Hadleigh who places the rose on the tomb of Sir William Clopton. 

It is considered to be the oldest rent still paid anywhere in the United Kingdom." 

We left he church and carried on to Kentwell Hall. There is a profusion of mistletoe in the trees along the driveway and plenty of berries.

The Hall is closed for Christmas now.

We returned down the other side of Melford Green....

...and William headed for the car. I took the hint and we went home. But at least we had had a bit of a walk and enjoyed visiting the church.

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