The Scenic Stour Walk

Today we joined Joyce in doing a recce for her Walk 38 on this year's Suffolk Walking Festival - The Scenic Stour. And very scenic it was too on a day of lovely Spring sunshine. So if you are planning on joining the walk and don't want a spoiler don't read on!

This was the invite.

"Thursday Mar 24th a long walk from Stutton to Woolverstone and Pin Mill 15 miles. This is my Risk Assessment walk for the SWF so I'll be brisker than normal. There will be stops of course. We will meet at Stutton Community Hall Car Park at 9.30am.

There is a Community Shop here that sells hot drinks etc. We will make our way over to Alton Water and make use of their toilets. We then head towards Woolverstone and Pin Mill . Expect to see a lot of wildlife and spring flowers and a couple of donkeys. I will certainly build in some rest stops so bring drinks/lunch."

It is based on this previous walk, but with an extra loop to Pin Mill. That sounded great! This was our route today....

There were 6 of us and, despite the "brisker than normal" indication in the invite we weren't really any quicker than usual. Here are just some of the highlights.

Our starting point, the delightful community shop.

Alton Water was very calm.

We had a quick stop for toilets and takeaway drinks at the watersports centre..

...before heading on over the dam..

...and on to All Saints, Holbrook church, visited as a lunch stop only 3 weeks ago on this walk.

Onwards now across towards the river Orwell.

Ann and I  paused to enjoy this silhouette which reminded us the trees are not all in leaf yet.

We admired this house with its rhododendrons coming into bloom, which is right next to...

...St. Michael, Wolverstone, Church - our drinks stop.

As before, we crossed the impressive daffodil-lined drive leading to Ipswich High School, based in Wolverstone Hall and founded in 1878. It was based originally in the Assembly Rooms in Northgate Street and then Westerfield Rd before moving to Wolverstone Hall in 1992. Originally a girls' school, it transitioned to co-educational in 2018. Famous alumnae include Enid Blyton.

At Pin Mill we stopped for a quick drink at the Butt and Oyster, a favourite place of mine to visit. My first Adnams Broadside of the year. Thank-you, Jane!

Now it was back across the peninsula to Harkstead. We stopped at St. Mary Harkstead church and basked in the sun as we had our lunch.

We had a few paths today across fields, but it has been so dry recently there was no mud.

We had been teasing Joyce about when we would get to the Scenic Stour, and here we were at last.

We went by the impressive 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 enjoyed seeing the alpacas...

...and a wonderful swathe of daffodils in the next field...

...and leading up to the pretty  Markwell's Farmhouse.

This is my favourite view of the walk, from St. Peter, Stutton Church.

One last daffodil picture from the churchyard.

Then it was on through Lower Street and back to the Community Hall.

Lovely! I'm sure the walkers on the festival with enjoy it. Thank-you Joyce...and the others too for the company.

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