Angles Way - Part 2

Today we did the second stage of our mission to walk the entirety of the 93 mile Angles Way.  

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Friday Feb 17th. The second stage will be from  Knettishall Heath  to Denmark Street, Diss which is around 15 miles. It takes in a lot of watery fens like Hopton Fen, Hinderclay, Redgrave and Lopham. There is a diversion at Redgrave and we might need further diversions if it's too water-logged.

Public transport is an issue as the trains go to Norwich before coming back to Thetford so I propose that we park/meet at the Knettishall Heath 'free' car park . This is the car park where the signposts to the Icknield Way, Peddars Way are. The main car park costs £3 and of course you are welcome to park there too. We then walk down the road to the toilets and continue towards Diss.

We will have a stop at The Well, in Hopton for takeaway drinks/cakes (they open at 10.30am and know that we are coming). Finish time in Diss ETA 3.30pm.  Nick will then collect us from Diss and drive people back to Knettishall Heath (11 miles) and do a second run if necessary. Patience will be an asset. John is happy to offer car share from Bury....book in asap." 

This was our route. 

Here are a few of my photos. I forgot to bring my camera today so used my phone which ran out of charge before the end, but I've added a couple of photos from when we've walked the last bit before.

Seven of us at the start at Knettishall Heath, and here's the signpost.

As we headed for the main carpark Joyce's phone rang - we'd left before Sara arrived, so she went back to meet her. But we were stopping at the toilets in the car park anyway, where we met Wendy and Teri and we were soon a group of 10, now starting from the point  where we finished last time.

The first few miles up to our drink stop in Hopton were very familiar. See this walk, for example. We also did the first bit in reverse just a few weeks ago (see here)..

We passed  Riddlesworth Hall School, which Princess Diana attended between 1970 and 1974. Read more about her time there here.

We found some snowdrops here. They have been good this year.

A little further on we came to the Old School House, originally built to educate the children of the workers on the Riddlesworth estate which remained in use as a school until 1951.

We came to Gasthorpe village, from where Bill Gates' ancestors originated.

Shortly before Lodge Farm we turned right and re-crossed the River Little Ouse into Suffolk.

Passing Hopton Fen we climbed up into Hopton village. As we approached Hopton we came across, and overtook, another walking group so as to get to The Well coffee shop first (although it turned out they weren't going there).

We arrived at The Well just after it opened.

The crocuses are out!

The next stage, from Hopton to Redgrave, was new to me. We passed  Thelnetham Windmill. Dating from 1819, it is one of only four preserved tower mills in Suffolk. 

It stands at the edge of Thelnetham Fen. Despite Joyce's worries, we had no problem with mud here, or indeed anywehere else on our route today.

We came next to Hinderclay Fen. Some discs on a carved bench gave information about the fen, its history and wildlife. The site is managed by the Little Ouse Headwaters Project, a volunteer charity, dedicated to the conservation and enjoyment of the wildlife, walks, and landscape of Little Ouse valley on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. 

This bridge was a bit bouncy.

We reached Redgrave and Lopham Fen, and, for a while, followed the part of the Angles Way that was part of this walk. But rather than just follow the path we took a brief detour to find the literal watershed of our route... On the other side of the road here, forming the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk from its start here for much of its length of 37 miles, is the source of the River Little Ouse. Here we are at a height of 25m above sea level.

Through the trees looking in the opposite direction we could see the small lake that is fed by a ditch just round the corner that is the source of the River Waveney. It too forms the border between Suffolk and Norfolk and we would be following it for the rest of the Angles Way.

We returned to the path which now passes along the Waveney Trail through the Nature Reserve (a diversion because of hazardous trees has now been made permanent). Here we got a glimpse of the Polish Konik ponies.

We took another short detour off the path to the Visitor Centre for our picnic lunch.

We were certainly seeing plenty of fenland today!

After another short stretch that was new to me we came to St. Mary's Wortham Church. Simon Knott tells us that it has the biggest round tower in England, "fully 10 metres across". Now we were again on paths the group had walked before (see here).

The bench ends carved by Albert Bartrum, builder and churchwarden at the end of the 19th century. They are supposedly inspired by the words of Psalm 104. Here is one of the "things  creeping innumerable" in the great wide sea (v25).

The stained glass windows are interesting too.

We also admired the tower before heading on. You can't get into it, though. As Simon says, "Although you can't go inside the tower, you can see the inside of it from the west. It probably dates from the early 12th Century. It is open to the sky now after the roof collapsed in the 1780s, but you can make out where the internal floors were, and what looks like it might have been a fireplace.The perky little bellcote was added at the end of the 18th Century."

We went by this charming thatched cottage...

...shortly before reaching Wortham Ling, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It features in this Discover Suffolk leaflet of circular walks from Wortham and Burgate.

We came to Fair Green. As their site says... "An important aspect of the history of Diss was its great Fair, an annual event for nearly 700 years. For 400 years, it was held on Fair Green, where various fairs and public events are still held today."

And just over the other side of the green was the end of our walk for today. 

Thank-you Joyce for leading us, the others for the company and Nick and John for the lifts back to the start. You can find more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.

You can read more about today's stage here:

Angles Way L6

You can read more about the Angles way using these resources:

Discover Suffolk Ramblers Guide

Norfolk County Council Angles Way site.

Norfolk County Council Angles Way Points of Interest