East Bergholt Walk

Today we did a walk in Constable Country. My sister Kirsty and her husband David joined us again.

This was the invite:

"Wednesday October 26th East Bergholt. Fen Bridge is open so we will visit the new bridge.  We will meet at East Bergholt free car park at 10.30am(postcode CO7 6TB). There are public toilets here. We will walk a couple of miles to morning refreshments in Dedham. We will also visit the Church at Dedham. We will walk a circular route of about 10 miles using The Essex Way to Langham Church and St Edmund Way to return to the water meadows. Expect muddy bits." 

This was our route:

Here are a few of my photos:

At the start.

We started by visiting St. Mary's Church and its extraordinary cage of bells.

Simon Knott tells us..."There are five bells, pleasingly viewable at close quarters. This bell cage dates from 1531, and it is all the more remarkable because it was probably intended as a temporary structure. There are a couple of bell cages across the river in Essex at Wrabness and Wix, though on nothing like the scale of this one. The bells are the heaviest ring of five in the world, and were rung by hand, until there was an accident in 1999. Because of this, the bells were among the few Suffolk peals not to ring in the millennium. But they have since been returned to use, after a project to make them safer. Beside the bell cage, the rood turret rises like a castle keep. The star of the De Veres is bold upon it." 

We headed for Dedham. Before we descended to the river Stour, we got the classic Dedham Church and Dedham Vale view.

We crossed the river into Essex via the refurbished Fen Bridge, where the group photo at the top of this post was taken.

Into the lovely village of Dedham.

We stopped at the Dedham Art and Craft Centre for coffee (and, for some, shopping).

We took a little detour to explore St. Mary's Church.

As we left the village we passed a cheerful patch of cyclamen,

We followed the river westwards....

...passing Milsoms Hotel....

...and heading towards St. Mary's, Langham Church....

...which was our lunch stop.

We descend towards he river again, this time getting view of Suffolk on the other side,

We came across some of the track for Higham races.

We crossed the River Stour back into Suffolk at Stratford St. Mary.

We paused to admire The Talbooth restaurant...

..before recrossing the A12 and heading back along the river.

I took a little detour to see Dedham lock....

...and mill...

,,,before hurrying to catch everyone else up.

Soon we were back where we started.

But then I took the car to Flatford so Kirsty and David could see the sights.... the bridge and Bridge Cottage....

...and the mill and Willy Lott's house.

Thank-you again Joyce for a lovely walk and to the others for the company. I think Kirsty and David will be back to explore more.

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