Tattingstone Walk

It was a lovely sunny but frosty wintery day again today so Dawn and I thought we'd get out and enjoy it before the weather turned. I thought it would be a good opportunity to do a recce for the walk I am leading for Joyce's Weekly Walks on Tues 5th February; so that's what we did.

This was our route. We went clockwise along Alton Water first before visiting Stutton Community Shop; and then heading for the Stour Estuary.

Here are a few photos.

We parked just around the corner from the church and walked past it at the start, checking the door, but it wasn't open.

Soon we wer walking along the path round Alton Water.

It was funny seeing a duck walking on the ice.

We passed the Tattingstone Wonder.

As described on the village website here... "Tattingstone is renowned for its folly, The Wonder. This listed building was originally two workers’ cottages but was transformed in 1790 by local squire, Thomas White, who lived at Tattingstone Place. He added a third cottage, a fake tower and a flint façade to complete the illusion that it was a church he could see from his estate.

So well known was the building that it featured in Shell Petroleum’s advertising campaign “To visit Britain’s Landmarks” with artist W J Steggles producing a poster featuring the building in 1937. Historian and broadcaster, Lucinda Lambton also featured it in her 1980’s television programme exploring follies in England and it features in her book Album of Curious Houses."

We took a short diversion from the path to these bird hides.

Cormorants had commandeered this island.

Further on, we got site of the Royal Hospital School belltower across the lake,

Dawn thought it funny that the information board was completely frosted over so we couldn't see what it said.

We turned away from Alton Water hear and headed towards Stutton, passing the Baker's Almshouses, built in the second half of the 19th century, on the way...

...to the Community Shop, where we stopped for our lunch on the bench outside.

Suitably refreshed, we continued on towards the Stour Estuary passing Crepping Hall on the way.

The path downhill had wheel ruts on either side, rather prettily filled with ice, and water running underneath it.

We reached the estuary. The tide was out. This is the view towards Felixstowe.

We continued a way along the beach before climbing up to the path, which was a little overgrown in places. We found that, with the tide out, we could have stayed on the beach quite a bit longer. That reminded me to check tide times for 5th February. High tide then is about 8:10 am, so we should be fine to walk along the beach around 12-1om that day.

We had wonderful views all along. As you can see there was some ice on the beach above the high water line.

Of course there were birds in abundance on the mudflats and in the shallows.

A look back towards Felixstowe.

We turned inshore past Stutton Mill.

We found the black swan that lives in the grounds in the pond.

We went up the drive from Stutton Park....

...to the main road, close to the Gardener's Arms.

"How much further is it?", asked Dawn. It was about 2 miles. But Dawn had a blister, so I sent her to the Community Shop just along the road to wait for me.

I walked on passing these rows of pampas grass...

...and this pond in the valley..

...before climbing up past Vale Farm. As I had feared, the field leading up tot eh farmhouse was rather soggy even with the frost. I think I will have to take an alternative route in 2 1/2 weeks time.

I arrived back at the start...

..and drove to Stutton Community Centre to pick Dawn up and head for home. A lovely walk in the sunshine and frost. I hope we get as good a day when we do it again soon.

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our 9.8mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here).

You can read about a previous version of this walk from when we did it in December 2022 here.