Steeple Bumpstead Walk

Today it was Steve's turn to lead a walk for Joyce's Weekly Walks. He coaxed us over the border into Essex to walk from Steeple Bumpstead. 

This was the invite.

"Wednesday Mar 16th. Please join Steve P for a new walk from Steeple Bumpstead . Parking at BACK of Steeple Bumpstead village hall  (off Bower Hall Drive ) postcode CB9 7EA for 10.30 am start . This is a lovely area and should be full of spring flowers.

10 miles via Moyns Park , Birdbrook and Stambourne . Packed lunch and drink needed - possible pub refreshments at the end . Transport available from mine." 

Just the 4 of us today and this was our route...

Sadly we were missing the sunshine of recent and the forecast was for some rain later on, but we only got a brief sprinkle towards the end of our walk.

Here are a few photos. At Steeple Bumpstead Village hall we had a nice view across the playing field to the church, but we weren't going to visit it today.

We climbed up from the village through vast fields. Here is a view looking back. It was a shame it was so murky today as the vista was rather good.

Soon we arrived at the impressive Grade I listed Moyns Park, an Elizabethan country house.

Here is Steve telling us all about the history of the place, including that the author Ian Fleming stayed there while writing one of his James Bond novels.

At the delightful village of Birdbrook, we were surprised when Steve told us that this house is a Community House. "The Community House was build in 1958, designed by Michael Tapper & J. Anthony Lewis with the interior by David Hicks and funded by Mr. & Mrs. Bryces of Moyns Park.  It was designed to be in keeping with the rest of the village with its Norfolk thatched roof and plastered walls, and consisted of hall, reading room and caretaker's flat.  Mr. & Mrs Bryce set up an investment trust to fund the running and maintanence of the house." Read more about it here. The village bowling green is behind it.

We admired the colourful village sign and the daffodils beneath it.

St Augustine Of Canterbury's Church was open so we visited inside.

It has beautifully carved pew ends in the nave and the arm rests in the choir stalls. They are carved in oak, by Ken Mabbit of the firm of H&K Mabbit, and were installed in the 1960s and 1970s. See more pictures of them here.

Now on towards Stambourne. We spotted this solitary deer in a field as we approached the village

The parish church of St Peter and St Thomas was also open.

Dating back to Norman times, the church tower was built in 1104 while the main church grew around it in the 14th and 15th centuries. 

You can read more about the church here on the village website. We had our lunch at the pavilion next to the church.

On our way back we passed this colourful house, called, unsurprisingly, The Green House.

We had our waterproofs on by the time we walked past Moyns Park again, this time behind the house.

We wondered what this was for.

It would appear to be a water pipeline bringing water from the Stour at Wixoe to the outfall at Great Sampford (see here).

Then it was back down the hill to the village and our cars.

Thank-you Steve for a lovely walk to some interesting places, and to Gavin and Joyce for the company.

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