Iken Church Walk

After our morning walk from Snape Maltings to Campsea Ashe, Joyce took Jane and me to Iken Cliff Car Park (where we first munched out lunch) for a short afternoon walk to Iken Church and back.

This was our route.

Here are a few photos.

Our atart was at Iken Cliff. The name "Iken" deriving from the word Icanho, or headland. During the 19th Century, Iken was an important fishing village, and the marshland in the area was drained to provide farmland. However, the river breached the banks between Iken and Snape in 1953 and the Alde mudflats were created.

The picnic site has an unusual arrangement of benches in a horseshoe shape. From here we descended to walk along the edge of the River Alde. We had a view of our destination all along the shore, which was quite slippery in places at first.

But then we got to a sandy bit along Troublesome Reach.

Eventually we turned inland  up to the road. At the T-junction we turned left towards the church. Here we got the extraordinary sight of a white deer. My camera batteries had run our by now so I just had my camera phone to catch it.

St. Botolph's Church is on the headland known as The Anchorage. Simon Knott tells us... "The site of St Botolph really is ancient; you are looking at a place where there has been a church for almost 1350 years. This is almost certainly the spot where St Botolph came ashore in AD 654, and founded his monastery. Some people will claim the same honour for Boston in Lincolnshire, but don't listen to them. This place was then Icanho, and St Botolph and his monks set out across east Suffolk to evangelise the pagans under the direction of Felix, first Bishop of East Anglia, from his Cathedral at Dumnoc, probably Walton Castle. Botolph died at or near Burgh, where he was buried, probably in an attempt to exorcise evil spirits. There is a case made for Burgh being the setting for the dragon's lair in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, probably written in Suffolk. The corpse was later translated to Bury, where the monks knew a pilgrimage opportunity when they saw one."

Inside there are low benches and a fairly spartan look. The church was completely burned out by a fire in 1968 and it took twenty years to repair. Read more about it in Simon's excellent description.

These it a display in the porch that explains some of the history.

And here we found the answer to the meaning of the monument in the car park, which we wondered about this morning is. It is a replica of a Saxon cross.

It says Stanley West, then county archaeologist, made an exciting discovery in 1977. A large piece of stone built into the base of the church tower was a piece of an early stone cross. It is decorated with Anglo-Saxon interlace patterns and a mythical beast.

We returned to the car park via the road and got further views across the mudflats. The tide was out now. The church on the headland is quite prominent and visible for quite a distance. The view from the tower must be quite something.

And here is the replica cross, made of wood.

Thank-you Joyce. That was well worth a visit.

You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.