Kentford Walk

Today we did a summery linear walk from Kentford back to Bury St. Edmunds (with lifts from Kennet Station to the start). Mostly out in the countryside it was a peaceful route through straw-coloured fields - some already harvested and some not and it felt quite a contrast when we got to urban Bury St. Edmunds at the end.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Friday July 22nd   Kennett to Bury – a linear walk from train station to station. 18 miles with 3 refreshment stops. An early and much cooler start.  The 6.56am train from Ipswich calls at Stowmarket 7.10am and Bury At 7.32am. It then arrives at Kennett train station at 7.42am. We will have 2 cars waiting to transport everyone the 1.5 miles to the starting point where there are toilets.   

We then start our dry, dusty and friendly route over to Bury! We will have a stop at St Edmund Church in Hargrave, a lunch stop at Chevington Church and a coffee stop at Ickworth House (12 miles). Then it's the final few miles back into Bury.  

If you are driving from Ipswich you could park near Raynham Road/Northgate Avenue IP32 6EA which is reached via the Tesco's Interchange off the A14. Then you walk over the blue bridge to train station. If you are being 'dropped' off then pls wait for us at Phoenix Cycleworks, Bury Road, Kentford CB8 7PZ and we will be there about 7.50am. 

I suspect that we will finish about 3.30pm so you will have time for an ice-cream with me on The Angel Hill after all that hard work. "

This was our route...

We made good time and finished in the Abbey Gardens over 3/4 hour earlier than expected, but my tracker tells me we were doing sub-20 minute miles most of the time.

Here are a few of my photos.

Assembled at the start....

...Glen pointed out the state of his shoes. Would he get to the end still shod? Someone reminded me it was similar to me on our Flower of Suffolk walk 2 years ago (see here), where I had a flapping sole well before the end.

We were soon out in the yellow and dark green countryside.. our main colour palette of the day.

It wasn't far to Gazeley...

...so it was too early to stop at All Saints church, which I first encountered on my first walk with Joyce in the 2018 Suffolk Walking Festival (see here).

We brushed past this lovely bush of lavender as we walked through the village releasing a heady scent.

Crossing a field we were rewarded with the sight of a red kite flying over us.

I recognised this trig point, 103m above sea level, from several walks. We were nearing Barrow now. I last encountered it on this walk from Barrow.

I looked in vain for a sight of Ely cathedral on the horizon, but I didn't try for long as I was getting left behind and hurried to catch up.

We got a glimpse of Denham church as we tracked southwards to the west of the village.

W crossed many a filed with views like this.

We stopped at Hargrave church, marvelling at the 16th century red-bricked tower. I recognised it from this walk.

Inside, they have an interesting exhibition about censuses of the area through the ages and the history of the village.

There was some talk of a hundred year census, but I think that may have been a misunderstanding. As this blog post explains, the detailed records of a census are made available only after a hundred years.

I stopped to enjoy the church ceiling and carved rood screen.

We passed through some barley looking ready to harvest.

Our next stop was at  All Saints, Chevington Church, but we decided it was too early for lunch.

We did go inside though.

Chevington was part of the Saxon estate of Britulf and was given over to the Abbey of St. Edmund after the norman conquest.  The Little Domesday Book  describes it as "... a manor of 6 caracutes (about 800 acres)12 villeins (tied tenants), 6 slaves, 140 sheep, 40 goats and 3 hives of bees. 1 soakmen (free tenant) farmed 30 acres." All Saints, Chevington Church was mentioned in the Domeday book but was replaced by a norman stone building in about the 12th century. The Bell tower was added kin the 16th century.  The top of the tower has no roof. That's because it is an extension... the tower was extended by the 1st Marquess of Bristol Frederick William Hervey so it could be seen from the Ickworth Esate.

As shown at the top of this post too, the garden at Church Cottage was looking as beautiful as ever.

Now it was on to the Ickworth House  estate.. This was our first glimpse of the rotunda.

We passed the church as the clock struck 12 noon....

..and stopped at the picnic area behind the porter's lodge for out lunch.

One of our group was christened at Horringer church just outside the estate gates.

We were glad of the leafy lane.

I stopped to photograph some of the group going through this field.

We entered Bury St. Edmunds via Hardwick Heath....

...and found this ice cream van on Angel Hill. We were surprised to find a bride and groom join the queue behind us and follow us into the Abbey Gardens.

Here we dispersed with some heading for the station for trains, while I had just to get to Ram Meadow for my car and the short drive home.

Thanks Joyce for organising and leading the walk and to Nick and Kim for the ferrying., and also to our fellow walkers for the companionship along the way.

Oh... and did Glen's shoe last out? Yes it did 😀

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