Bardwell Walk

Unlike Friday, it was lovely weather this morning, so we went for a walk.

I thought I'd do a shortened version on the Three Mills Walk I had done with Joyce's group a few weeks ago (see here).

This was our route today...

The Grumpy Goat Car Park was full as there were football matches on, so we parked in the overflow Car Park.

Here are a few of my photos.

We had a bit of road-walking to start. When there was a gap in the hedge we got a view back to Bardwell.

Over the course of the walk we crossed the CLH pipeline system several times. 

As the article on Wikipedia says..."The network at one time consisted of over 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) of pipeline and 46 other facilities. As part of the planning and preparations for World War II, the Air Ministry realised that the ability to distribute aviation fuel to the Royal Air Force (RAF)'s aircraft and petrol to its ground support vehicles was essential to sustaining any battle, in which superiority would be gained mainly in the air. 

Concern as to the vulnerability of the fuel import facilities, led to the construction in 1942 of a pipeline linking the import facilities in the Stanlow area with those at Avonmouth.This was followed by the construction of a pipeline running from off the A/T pipeline to the Southampton area for the stockpiling of fuel for the possible second front (R/H pipeline). During 1943 an entire ring-main linking the River Mersey, the Avonmouth area, the River Thames and up to the Humber area, was constructed. This was later extended into East Anglia to supply both the RAF and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF)."

We soon reached the outskirts of Sapiston...

...passing some lingering clumps of snowdrops and cricuses.

Here on Clay Lane we came to our only muddy bit of path. It was just a short stretch so our walking shoes didn't get mucky.

We headed for St. Andrew's Church, Sapiston, pausing to look back at the impressive rectory....

...and the colourful Grange House.

We visited the church.

Simon Knott says of the Norman doorway... "Within the south porch is quite the best Norman doorway in Suffolk, elaborate and beautiful. The extent of the convoluted arches is accentuated by the smallness of the doorway. It takes the breath away. There is nothing like a Norman doorway for restoring ones sense of proportion. It has stood there for nearly 800 years, which kind of puts your own troubles into perspective, don't you think? The blocks are set together in pairs, each one reflecting the scoop of its partner. Those in the inner arch are slightly larger than those in the outer arch, and the illusion is of a peacock displaying its tail feathers. A medieval head looks down from above it. At either end is a mass dial, from the days before the 14th century porch was built."

Dawn was intrigued by the little door in the north wall, a stairway entrance to the rood loft.

Simon explains.. "Above the alcove of a former tomb recess in the north wall, a wall painting can just about be discerned as showing the martyrdom of St Edmund as at Troston across the fields."

We passed the black sheep, some of which have more than 2 horns. I said in my blog last time that I thought they could be Hebridean Sheep, and no-one has contradicted me.

This time I managed to photograph the (disused) Sapiston watermill before we passed it.

We crossed the Black Bourne

It was looking rather full.

Under the birch trees...

...we saw some pretty white crocuses.

Just before we got to Ixworth Thorpe, we turned onto Bardwell road to head back towards Bardwell, passing Lynton Cottages and Barn. 

Across the fields we got a view of Sapiston Church.

We were impressed by Holms Barn.

Shortly afterwards we decided to chance the permissive path which ran towards and then followed the river when it turned south rather than stick to the road.

The ford that looked just about fordable last month didn't look it today.

But the path past our second mill, a watermill, now called Mill Farm, was fine.

Reaching the road we turned towards Bardwell with a view of the church... and a bird of some kind  flew across my shot. Dawn pointed out when we looked at the the photo that it was a hen pheasant.

This handsome male pheasant took no notice of us.

We passed a sign saying "permissive path through field closed", which I ignored as we were following a public footpath, but...

...maybe I should have taken notice of the map below.

We crossed the Black Bourne again at Harling Bridge. The river looks high here too.

We crossed the meadows to St. Peter and St. Paul's church.

We stopped to visit the interior, admiring the kneelers and

wall paintings. Simon Knotts says "One fortunate outcome of the 19th Century restoration was the unearthing of a series of late medieval wall paintings, some of which were recorded and then plastered over, but a few can still be seen. Judging by the Deposition of Christ from the Cross and the Three Marys at the Empty Tomb, which must both be part of a Passion sequence, they are of a high quality."

The stained glass is also rather interesting. Read more about it in Simon's post about the church (here).

It wasn't open today, but we visited the entrance to our third mill, the Grade II listed Bardwell Windmill. You can follow progress of the restoration and events there via their Facebook page here.

Then it was back round the outskirts of the village to the Grumpy Goat.

A lovely mornings walk and we were glad we had spent time exploring the churches. Then it was home for lunch.

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