Mildenhall Walk and The Ark

Today we had, for a change, a linear walk... well some of us did, anyway and others returned to the start on foot. We started at Mildenhall Hub and walked to Isleham and the amazing new church, The Ark.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"Monday April 11th Please park at The Mildenhall Hub, Sheldricks Way, MildenhallIP28 7JX for 9am. An early start but toilets and coffee are available at The Hub. We will walk about 6.5-7 miles over to the village of Islehamalong The River Lark. It’s an easy and pretty walk up to the marina where my sister lives. Once in the village, we will walk to The Ark Church where Nick will be waiting to give us a tour of the Green Oak self-build . I am hoping hot drinks will be available? After the tour (approx. 12.30pm) Nick will drop those that wish, back to their cars,  in Mildenhall,  while others will continue their way back in a slightly different fashion to give a longer walk of about 14-15 miles."

Well I had Sarah and William with me and that full distance was a bit far for them so I took the offer of a lift back from Nick and drove back to collect them from the church.

This was our route.

A lot of it was familiar from a previous walks,  see here, but I'd never been to Isleham before... or The Ark.

Here are a few of my photos.

We met at The Hub. I remember walking here before on this walk when it was still being built.

We walked along the River Lark for a stretch. We stopped here to admire Worlington Hall, which, from being rather run down has now been refurtbished. It has a lovely frontage on the river.

Soon we were in West Row, where we were joined by Kim. This is St. Peter's church, but this is not the church we were going to visit today.

We had a drinks stop at a pleasant spot with a bench by the river.

In a filed over the other side of the river we spotted a deer... and there are a couple more nestled down too. Can you see them?

We passed this stone on the other side commemorating the baptism in the river, as was common hereabouts, of the famous baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. I'm afraid I had never heard of him, but I'm not a baptist.

Further along we started to see boats moored at the side of the river....

...and some geese with some cute little goslings.

We came to the idyllic looking Riverside Island Marina. Here I spotted a boat reminding me of a walker who wasn't with us today.

We re-crossed the river here at the weir.

In Isleham we passed the former chapel...

...the Frances Peytons Almshouses, endowed as a hospital in about 1575...

...and some lovely flowers in the chrchyard...

...before arriving at our destination, The Ark church.

What an amazing building!

Kathy made use of the catering facilities to provide the coffees...

...before Nick gave us a tour.

A rather nice feature upstairs is this beam where local children carved their names.

It is well fitted with high tech, including these impressive halo lights.

I rather liked the cloisters.

We finished by viewing the church from the upstairs balcony...

...before descending the grand bespoke spiral staircase.

What an amazing place! It is well worth a visit.

Thank-you Joyce for the walk and Nick for the tour and lift back.

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