Stutton Walk

Today is the first Thursday of the month, so the day for the monthly U3A Bury St Edmunds Longer Walks group walk. This month it's my turn to lead and I decided to join up a few favourite walks on the Stour side of the Shotley peninsula. 

We met up at the Community Hall and delightful Community Shop in Stutton and set off at 9:30 am as planned.

This was our route. We went in a clockwise direction to Tattingstone village first then along the edge of Alton Water, across the dam and into Holbrook Village. Then it was down to Holbrook Bay and along to Stutton Church and Lower Street before another stretch along the shore to Stutton Mill.

Here are a few of my photos.

Everyone ready to go. There were 8 of us today. The weather forecast was good and the sun was shining - much better than the previous couple of days of drizzly rain.

Soon we were in Tattingstone. We visited  St. Mary's Church, which was open.

Simon Knott tells us that the architect Henry Hall, who restored the church in the 19th century, uncovered and restored the 15th Century double hammer beam roof.

We didn't go across the bridge to the rest of the village the other side of the reservoir, so never got to the telephone box with the dial-up stories. Another day, perhaps, but our walk today was going to be plenty long enough as it was. Instead we carried on past the school and down to Alton Water. The reservoir was built to supply the growing demand as Ipswich expanded. It was started in 1973 and took 13 years to fill. It was opened in 1987.

And now the Tattingstone Wonder. As we headed towards it there was some discussion of what we would like the wonder to be. One idea was an everlasting cake that changed flavours to whatever you fancied at the time. Another was a well giving an endless supply of free beer. Alas, the actual wonder is somewhat more prosaic. As described on the village website here... "Tattingstone is renowned for its folly, The Wonder. This listed building was originally two workers’ cottages but was transformed in 1790 by local squire, Thomas White, who lived at Tattingstone Place. He added a third cottage, a fake tower and a flint façade to complete the illusion that it was a church he could see from his estate.

So well known was the building that it featured in Shell Petroleum’s advertising campaign “To visit Britain’s Landmarks” with artist W J Steggles producing a poster featuring the building in 1937. Historian and broadcaster, Lucinda Lambton also featured it in her 1980’s television programme exploring follies in England and it features in her book Album of Curious Houses."

We continued on along Alton Water and said hello to the highland cattle....

...before stopping for drinks and toilets at the Watersports Centre. Wendy's husband Pater hadn't come out today so Ros took a photo of Wendy to show him what he was missing.

Over the dam we went...

...and up into Holbrook Village. I liked this patch of crocuses by the main street.

And so to our second church,  All Saints, Holbrook and our lunch stop.

The pebble prayer bowl was on a rather smaller scale than the one we saw in Kersey Church on our walk last month,

Now who's idea was it to get Dave to pose like this? Behind him is the Clench Memorial. As the church guide says... "The imposing Clench Memorial. set in the corner of the south aisle is a silent reminder of the stirring days of the first Elizabeth. When Margaret Clitheroe, one-time Yorkshire wife and mother, was canonised on 25th October 1970: Holbrook's church came into the news, for Judge John Clench, who very reluctantly condemned her to death in 1589, lies buried in this church. As the Law then stood, 

she could not escape the death penalty, she being a devout practising Catholic. Judge Clench gave her 

every opportunity to recant, but she refused even to plead for fear of incriminating others. The tomb 

carries the recumbent effigies of the Judge and his daughter-in-law Margerie, as the inscription 

beneath them shows."

We descended to the creek and followed it to Holbrook Bay via a boardwalk in places.

It was lovely walking along the shore path in the sun.

Looking inland we could see the impressive buildings and grounds of the Royal Hospital School. Historically nicknamed "The Cradle of the Navy", it is a co-educational independent day and boarding school with naval traditions. The Royal Hospital School was established by a Royal Charter in 1712. It was originally located at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich. The school moved in 1933 to East Anglia. It is the only UK independent boarding school to have ever been continuously granted the Queen's Banner and it flies its own Admiralty-approved Royal Hospital School Blue Ensign. It is one of only two UK schools whose students have the privilege of wearing Royal Navy uniforms, the other being Pangbourne College in Berkshire.

We stopped to admire the alpacas in their paddock, but they found the grass more interesting than us.

Shortly afterwards we passed the picturesque Markwell's Farmhouse.

Up the hill we stopped at the church of St. Peter, Stutton. A final drinks break as we admired the view (see the top of this post) and then had a look inside the church.

The altar panel was parked behind some chairs at the side. "The Church sponsored a ceramics artist, Caroline Fish, to spend a week in Stutton Primary School, working with the children on a whole school project. The protect led to the St Peter Altar panel which is used as a frontal whenever there are services in the church involving children. Every child in the school produced a tile. These tiles were then  assembled to make the panel. As well as the fish, which are always associated with St Peter. the fisherman, the top features a cockerel, remanding us oi Peter's denial Of Christ. The prawns were the result of someone's fertile imagination which thought that ordinary fish were not sophisticated enough for St Peter! "

We walked through Lower Street which has some lovely houses. This is the pargeted Ancient House.

Decision time came shortly after. Did we want go straight back to the cars, or should we do the extra 3 mile loop I had planned down to the shore again and along more of the estuary? The vote was unanimous... let's do the extra loop.

When I did my recce on Monday I could see the cranes at Felixstowe docks here, but it was too hazy today.

Our last building of interest - the lovely Stutton Mill House, where we saw the black swans and guinea fowl.

One final look across the water towards Mistley and Manningtree in Essex, and then it was back up the hill to the Community Centre, and a welcome cup of tea in the café.

Well that was a cracking walk of, in the end, over 14 1/2 miles. What lovely weather we had for it too!

It's Dave's turn next month.

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