Arger Fen Bluebells and the 3 Dragons Walk

Today it was my turn to lead a walk for Joyce's Weekly Walks. Joyce asked me if I could again lead this walk I took the group on a year ago today from Bures St. Mary.

In the end Joyce herself couldn't make it due to an unanticipated diary clash. She missed a treat! This was the invite...

"Thursday April 27th Bluebells at Arger Fen led by John. A 12 mile walk visiting Arger Fen for bluebells, Assington Mill and three dragons. We will start from Bures Community Centre, Nayland Rd, Bures CO8 5BX at 10:15 am. Please bring refreshments and a packed lunch as there are no facilities along the route. We will stop for drinks by the lake at Assington Mill and lunch at Wissington church. Expect plenty of ups and downs and lovely views. Lifts available from Dobbies, Bury St Eds at 9.15am. Contact John to book a lift"

There were just 4 of us today. Dawn and I collected Lin from outside Dobbies and Roland joined us at the start. This was our route.

Here are a few of my photos.

Meeting at the start.

After climbing up from Bures St. Mary, we got a good view back down to the village. Or is it a town? We weren't sure. This suggests it is a village.

We stopped at  St. Stephen's Chapel, dedicated in 1218 and allegedly built on the site of the coronation of King Edmund on Christmas Day in AD 876.

Dawn hadn't been here before and was amazed by the dragon. 

I hadn't noticed this statue outside the church before.

I pointed out this strangely out of place sign to the others when we came to it....

...just before this stile.

We arrived at Tiger's Hill wood...

..and our first big display of bluebells.

Crossing the hill we passed among a flock of sheep. The lambs are looking quite big now.

We stopped at Assington Mill for drinks.

These little primulas are pretty.

As we neared Arger Fen we could a see a whole palette of green colours in the trees.

And now we were in  Spouse's Grove  where we found another fabulous display of bluebells.

We returned to the St. Edmunds Way. I remembered this "Cat crossing" sign from before.

And here is that cat!

There were some pretty snakes head fritillaries in the garden.

We had our lunch stop at St. Mary's church, Wissington (pronounced and often spelt Wiston), which dates from 1135 or even earlier.

Here we found our second dragon. Simon Knott's site describes the other paintings, which date from 1280, and that the dragon is a later addition. "Being a later addition of the 15th Century, he is quite out of scale with the other images, and in quite a different style."

Soon after, we crossed the River Stour into Essex.

Our final stop was at at St. Andrew's Church, Wormingford. You can read all about its history here.

Here we found out third dragon. This was Sarah finding it last year.

There is a framed document by it telling the story. I loved the bits "...swimming, crawling, ravaging it found its way to that small settlement on the banks of the Stour called Withermundford. The few natives were terrified at the new arrival and a rumour spread among them that it could only be pacified with human sacrifice and so long as the supply lasted they fed the creature with virgins. Doubtless the temporary prodigality of food kept the  cocodrille well and happy but the supply of food gave out and the natives, at their wits end sent to sir George Of layer de la Haye, son of Eustice Earl Of Boulogne telling the gallant knight that their was a fierce dragon which had settled with them and which they had tried, in vain to slay with arrows which bounce from its hide and then had pacified it with virgins but, alas, there were no more virgins in the hundred."

You can read the full story here.

We discovered there was a toilet in the church. I was amused to find it was "twinned" with one in Malawi.

As we left the church we went through our last bluebell wood of the day.

If you look at the map of our route, you will see we took a wrong path at some point a little later. After backtracking the route became familiar again with a drop down from the hill towards the river.

We crossed the River Stour again back into Suffolk at the picturesque Bures Mill, currently clad in scaffolding.

This boat which we had seen before has been burnt since we were last here.

Not far to go now. We passed some donkeys.

And here we are back at the community centre where we started.

A lovely walk. Dawn said they were the best bluebell woods she had seen. Sorry about taking the wrong path at one point, which added over 1/2 mile to make the walk nearly 13 1/2 miles rather than the 12 advertised. Thanks to all for joining me.

You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk (and a GPX file of our route here) and see more of my pictures here on Flickr.