Today was the second day of the 4-day Wool Towns Challenge Walk as part of the 2023 Suffolk Walking Festival.
This is the description of the walk from the Festival brochure.
We met in Hadleigh at the end point of our walk and were bussed to Sudbury where our walk today started.
This is the description of today's walk...
...and this was our route. The first part of it was familiar both from the walking festival's perennial Walk 'n Water walk done in 2019 and this circular walk from Sudbury to Bures
Here are some of my photos.
The buses met us in Hadleigh and took us to the car park in Sudbury where we had finished yesterday.
Here is David giving us our briefing before we started.
We set out across Friar's meadow to walk along the River Stour towards Great Cornard.
we stopped to admire the new bench commissioned to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the
Sudbury Ramblers in May 1970. It is actually in the parish of Great Cornard but, as someone remarked, it is only right that you have to do a little ramble from Sudbury to get to it.
We left the river and stopped at the renovated old
Cornard Mill...
...to enjoy the peaceful millpond.
We climbed through Great Cornard Country Park, established in 1986 and opened by naturalist David Bellamy. We got a view back down towards Sudbury.
We didn't need the marquee for shelter.
The church wasn't open, so we couldn't visit. inside.We continued towards the Television masts at Yorley Farm....
..passing through the grounds of the cute Yorley Farm nursery.
Wait there. There's a van coming.
Now we were on paths I hadn't walked before through the delightful Assington Thicks, an ancient woodland of approximately 52ha (128 acres), privately owned but with public access.
We saw plenty of pretty may blossom today.
You can read
here about the history of this early 15th century which was renovated in 1863. I rather liked this painting inside.
As we left the church across a field with stiles on each side we passed a sheep and her lambs posing for a photograph.
We continued along paths I hadn't walked before towards Boxford. I can't identify this church seen in the distance off to the side of our route. [Update: A commenter has suggested it might be
St. Bartholemew, Groton church, and I think that's right.]
We came across some bags of meadow flower seeds. Would these be used to make a field like we passed yesterday?
We had a bit of up and down along field edges...
...before we reached our lunch stop at
Boxford.
We were able to use the commodious village hall, where we were served with hot drinks and biscuits.
We passed through the churchyard of
St. Mary's church, but it was locked so we couldn't go in. "
The church dates from the early fifteenth century, but there was certainly a church on the site in 1190, and parts of that church may have been incorporated in the present building. The tower which is 74 feet high, is surmounted by a little leaden spire or lantern which originally contained the 'clockbelle', now placed with the other bells.", says the
village site.
The River Box flows through the village. From the
village site... "
Not a lot is known of the early history of the village. It was certainly an important centre of the woollen industry which flourished in this part of East Anglia between 1400 and 1800, and had a far greater population then than it has now, reaching its peak in the 17th Century. In the 20th Century the legendary 'Tornado Smith' , who was the son of the landlord of the White Hart public house, developed his 'Wall of Death' act."
There are many splendid buildings.
The
village site says.. "
In 1828, the examination by the magistrates took place of Thomas Corder, perpetrator of the Red Barn murder, in the public bar of The Fleece, which is lined with panelling originally in the Parish Church. Corder was afterwards found guilty and hanged for the murder of Maria Marten in The Red Barn at Polstead. It is also recorded that he was imprisoned for the night in the Boxford Village lock-up, which was later the Fire Station, and is now a bus shelter. It still retains the initials 'B.G.' - Boxford Gaol - above its doorways."
Onwards now to Hadleigh, through a field of barley waving gently in the breeze....
...and some countryside including a few more little ups and downs.
I knew where we were when we got here, descending past Holbecks.
We reached the River Brett at the river at Toppesfield Bridge, "
built in the 14th century and widened in 1812, said to be the oldest working bridge in the county".
We walked along the river and crossed at this new bridge.
We finished with a short walk through the town...
...back to our cars.
Thanks to Sudbury Ramblers and Clare Walkers for creating and hosting the walk, David and his team for the support and my fellow walkers for the company. Day 3 tomorrow!
You can see more details of our 15.1 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.
You can find the following related walks on my blog:
Groton Church?
ReplyDeleteThanks. I think you are right. Blog updated.
Delete