Martlesham Creek and Woodbridge Walk

Today it was my turn to lead the Bury St Edmunds U3A Longer Walks Group.

This was my invite...

"I have planned a walk from Martlesham Church that will take us via Martlesham Creek and the River Deben path to Woodbridge. Here, after about 3 miles, we will stop for coffee at Coffeelink on the Quayside and pay a quick visit to The Longshed to view the longboat under construction. Our onward journey takes us further along the estuary to Melton and a lunch stop at Foxburrow Nature Reserve. Bring a packed lunch for that. We then head back a different way into Woodbridge and walk through the town along the Thoroughfare before returning to our start point along the river and creek. It totals about 11 ½ miles. Afterwards I propose heading down the road to The Maybush for restorative refreshments of your choice.

We can park in Martlesham Church Car Park, Church Lane, Martlesham IP12 4PQ, https://w3w.co/tangible.wrenching.nurses. The car park is free, but there is a box for donations. It is possible that some contraflow will be in place for the A14 roadworks, so I’m allowing an extra 15 minutes before we start from last month. We will start walking at 10am. If anyone would like a lift from Skyliner Sports Centre car park, please email."

It was based on this walk done in October last year. This was our route today, which was almost identical.

Here are some of my photos.

We paid a little visit to Martlesham Church first. As the display in the porch says, there has been a centre of Christian Worship here since at least 1086. 

The crocuses and snowdrops in the churchyard were lovely, but coming to an end.

Simon Knott tells us... "The Jacobean pulpit is dated 1614, but the real survivals of this church are both medieval. On the north wall are the substantial remains of a St Christopher wall painting, the Christ child's halo still bearing gilt. The little votive niche beneath might be original. Before the Reformation, the Faithful could offer a prayer here at the start of the day, calling for protection on their activities during the day ahead. It was uncovered in 1902, and has recently been restored." 

We followed a path from the church...

...down to Martlesham Creek where there is a boatyard..

We crossed the creek just west of the boatyard and continued along towards the River Deben. The tide was on its way out.

As we joined the river we got a view of Woodbridge in the distance. Not too far to the coffee stop then.

We paused by the public toilets next to Everson's Woodbridge Boatyard., which has been in business since 1889.

They have a number of boats being maintained.

On display is the traditional dinghy ‘La Mouette’ which has been shortlisted for “New Sailing Vessel of the Year” 2023 Award. Built last Spring, it is based on the design of the boats the yard used to build many years ago.

 

The Tide Mill is an iconic landmark.

As we approached Woodbridge we came across this interesting sculpture revealed by the low tide. 

It was installed in 2020 and you can read about it here. We decided the poor sisters needed a bit of a clean and commiserated with their fate of being drowned by the rising tide twice a day.

We stopped at Coffeelink at Whisstocks Place for some excellent coffee.

We took some time to visit  The Longshed and view the longboat under construction - a full-size reconstruction of the 7th century Sutton Hoo ship.

We could see the craftsmen at work.

Upstairs they have a wonderful exhibition centred on The King's River Tapestry. The tapestry will eventually be over 90 feet long and produced on 30 or more panels. The story it tells begins in about 400 AD with an acorn buried in the soil by a Jay. Over the next 200 years that acorn grows into a magnificent tree, standing among many others in the forest. King Raedwald sees the tree and wants it, and several of the other trees, for his new royal ship. That ship that is eventually used as a burial chamber for the King at Sutton Hoo.  The story runs on through time and the tapestry depicts events that include the Kings’ baptism by Augustine at Canterbury, The Battle of the River Idle when Raedwald became High King,  Elizabeth 1st and the grave robbers, and images from her time as queen. Then in 1939 Basil Brown excavating the burial mound that unearthed the ghost of the Great Ship.

Here's another piece of artwork at the quay.

We continued along the river towards Melton.

Now we turned inland, passing this fishing lake...

...and Melton Park...

...before entering Foxburrow Farm Nature reserve via Asylum Wood.

We passed through a field full of black sheep, only to find all the exits padlocked.

In the end we had to climb over this gate. It's a good job we are all spry.

And now we had our lunch stop, at the picnic tables with slippery seats.

On our way back now we came across this large monkey puzzle tree with its unusual looking fruits. We passed this on another walk in 2020  (see here). The owner was in his drive as we passed then and told us the tree was about 40 years old. He said they exploded with a bang and scattered their seeds, but they weren't fertile as you need a  male tree as well for pollination..

We returned via the backstreets and then shopping streets of Woodbridge.

Kingston Park has some exercise devices. Sheila and Phil had a go with this one.

Back across the railway...

...and we were on a path on the other side of the marsh from the riverbank path we followed earlier.

We rejoined the path we came along just before Kyson Point, where we had our final drinks stop.

Then it was back along the creek to our starting point.

I think we deserved some refreshments after our 11 1/2 mile walk. We all went to The Maybush for them.

Weren't we lucky with the weather? A super walk, I think. Thank-you all who came for joining me. 

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