Reinterred: Nowton Park to Hawstead Walk

Yesterday Dawn and I joined Joyce for a repeat of a previous walk (see here), from Nowton Park to Hawstead, but in the opposite direction.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Saturday 4th March. The lovely Hawstead walk including Daffodils at Nowton Park. A stop at The Friendly Loaf first thing for coffee and baked treats.The walk is 11.5 miles Please park on Mayfield Road, Bury for a 10am start. We will head into Nowton Park for toilets straight away and then the bakery. Pls bring lunch for Hawstead (or you may wish to go to Maglia Rosso)."

This was our route yesterday:

Here are a few of my photos.

Seven of us met as planned and we started walking promptly at 10am.

We came to Nowton Park, but the daffodils are not out yet... another couple of weeks yet, I reckon.

We passed the hibernating maze. I'm not sure the lack of leaves would make it any easier to solve.

We left Nowton Park via a sneaky path...

...that to took us to a point just across the road from our Friendly Loaf stop.

Whilst some succumbed to the sweet bakery treats...

...I got myself and Dawn a shared coffee and sausage roll.

Hmm. Sausage rolls seem to becoming a habit. Maybe I should start a register with scores as others in the group do with scones?

We decided to start walking again with drinks in hand.

There is a nice path here that takes us out into the countryside.

|We saw plenty of hares today. Here are a couple of them.

We arrived at Sicklesmere...

....passing the Rushbrooke Arms.

I wondered what these white birds on the power lines were.

We could see Nowton Church across the fields, but we weren't going there today.

Now we had a stretch along the old Bury St. Edmunds to Long Melford railway line.

We passed a clump of old mana's beard.

Then we turned off the old railway line to head for Brook Green.

We passed the impressive barn conversion, with the end wall of glass just by Great Whelnetham Hall.

Next we came to Great Whelnetham Cygnets pre-school...

...and St. Thomas' Church, which, according to Simon, is in the style of Essex churches, but we didn't stop to explore.

We got some great views. Here we can see the iconic sugar factory,

We paused to admire the impressive Old Rectory

...before heading on to our lunch stop at Hawstead Green.

Off we go again.

The village sign is in front of the impressive Metcalfe Almshouses. There is a rather nice article about East Anglian almshouses, featuring photos of several I have seen, here.

We came to this Y-plan house, Cullum House, which was originally the village school. We recognised the crest from the village sign,

We stopped at All Saints, Hawstead Church.

In the churchyard Joyce directed us to this monument to the family of William Biddell. It commemorates William, his wife Ellen, 4 of their children who dies young and their son Percy, who's sad epitaph reads "I was dumb. I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it". There was also a younger daughter Bertha, who was a painter.

Dawn spotted a swan depicted in the stonework of the tower. Another reference to the Cullum's perhaps?

As we walked up the road towards Hawstead lodge...

...we were passed by a car that stopped beside us. The driver informed us that there was an illegal hunt taking place from the farm at the top of the hill.

A few minutes later we caught up with them. They were hunt saboteurs.

They had a little drone.

I wonder if they were from this group?

We came to the second of the two very similar Y-plan houses, Parklane Cottage formerly the estate cottage for Revd. Sir Thomas Cullum in the 1840s. It is GradeII listed - see here. Each wing has a chimney at the meeting point in the middle. It was restored in c1980.