Today's Walk was on the Suffolk/Norfolk border - a circular walk from Wortham via Diss.
This was the invite from Joyce. We were due to be walking on the south side of the Stour estuary today, but that was maybe going to be too muddy. So...
"Weds Jan 24th change of plan. Please join me at Wortham for a circular walk of about 13 miles (This can be shortened to 11 miles if you prefer to take that option) to Diss. We will meet at Wortham Village Hall, Willow Corner, IP22 1PS (what3words///unions.redefined.fastening) at 10am. Wortham has a small tea room if you wish to get a takeaway or ask to use a toilet before we start. Otherwise our longer lunch stop will be in Diss. There are lots of options available here and we have enjoyed the Corn Hall before or bring a packed lunch. Currently the forecast is looking very favourable but dress accordingly."
The last time Joyce led this walk, in Nov 2022, I was unable to go on it so she and Tania put together this blog post, but I had done a similar one earlier in 2022 (see here) and some of our route today followed the Angles Way - a section we covered in Part 2 of our walk last February (see here).
This was our route, going clockwise from Wortham.
Just six of us today and Glen was only with us for the first mile or so before he set of in search of paths he hadn't walked, so then we were down to five.
Here are a few of my photos.
Meeting at the Car Park.
Glen remarked how the ladies all had pristine footwear...
...showed evidence of previous muddy walks. We were pleased when Roland kept the side up by having a bit of dirt on his too.
Glen had his map with him with the paths he had already walked marked off. He was to bag a few more unmarked ones today.
We set off along the edge of Wortham Green passing some rather nice houses.
Soon were in the countryside crossing a stubbly field.
We passed The Grove at Magpie Green. It has a lovely large garden.
Walking on a path along the edge of this field I saw some deer and stopped to photograph them. Unusually, Joyce hadn't spotted them.
We were now on The Angles Way for a short stretch - a familiar path from a year ago.
We stopped a Wortham Ling for a drinks break.
I recognised the sight of
St. Remegius, Roydon which has an interesting tower with an octagonal top on a round base. We weren't visiting it today, though.
Some of the land by the fledgling River Waveney was a bit soggy, but we had dry paths for most of our walk.
Snowdrops are starting to appear in greater abundance now.
At
Fair Green we visited this memorial. As their site says... "
An important aspect of the history of Diss was its great Fair,
an annual event for nearly 700 years. For 400 years, it was held on
Fair Green, where various fairs and public events are still held
today."
We crossed the green...
...and came to the
Angel café, where we had assembled at the start of
Part 3 of our Angles Way walk last February. As we discovered last time, it was formerly the counting house for Baldry's Yard.
Fair Green website explains all.... "
Baldry’s Yard is a former brewery, known once as the Lower Brewery. The Brewery was fed by water from a pit called The Liquor Pit in Croft Lane (this pit continued in use until 1948). Several
of the brewery buildings survive, including the malthouses (now
converted into houses) and the Counting House (now The Angel Café). The
associated large house was originally a Medieval hall house, and was
converted into a gothic villa in the early 19th century."
We continued to the centre of Diss. This is
Diss Mere,
which gave the town its name. Diss is the only market town in England
built around a large lake. It is 6 acres in size and an important
example of a natural lake basin with the water level maintained by a number of underground springs. The sediments of Diss Mere have been used to investigate the past environment of Norfolk and the Mere is an important site in the development of this science.
A
thriving and bustling town has grown up around the Mere and retains a
great sense of history. Diss lies on the Norfolk – Suffolk border.
Mentioned in the Domesday Book as a moderately sized Royal Manor, the
importance of Diss increased when a market was established which brought
wealth to the town. Flemish weavers came across the Channel and
throughout the 16th and 17th centuries wool, hemp and linen were the
chief industries.
By the colourful town sign,,,
...we stopped to admire this sculpture, which is new since we were last here. It is called Flock and is by
toyStudio. When it was installed in May last year it caused some consternation among townsfolk. Read about the sculpture
here... and what the locals said about it
here.
We walked along the High Street for a bit...
...and then headed for the boardwalk along the edge of the mere.
It led us to the Garden of Delights and this proudly displayed champion iron plough.
We were in the "heritage triangle" of Diss now. I enjoyed seeing this map again. Roland was a little concerned about the houses that appeared to be tipping or had fallen over.
Image of the map reproduced by kind permission of the artist Daisy Fearns
Our lunch stop was at the
Corn Hall.
The café was rather busy. A number of people had been to the film that morning and stayed on for lunch.
But we didn't mind sitting outside and having our lunch at the tables there.
Joyce took us on a tour of parts of Diss, including these water towers, old and new...
and Quaker Wood (although we didn't go in)....
...before arriving back at Fair Green.
Our route back to Wortham took us through these woods...
..and across a number of fields.
We were somewhat unimpressed with what had been done with the footpath we were following here.
We decided not to follow our intended route through this mud to get to the bridge over the main road and crossed it by the path underneath instead.
I liked the stark silhouette of this old tree.
We got a distant view of Burgate church, but that was as close as we got to it.
We were soon back at Wortham Green. These cheerful winter aconites are just outside the post office.
Across the green passing this pond...
..and we were back where we started. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to the rest for the company. Just before we left were rejoined by Glen who had got all the way to Redgrave and done lots of paths around there.
You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our 12.6 mile route on MapMyWalk here (or download a GPX file here)
Other related walks you can find on my blog include:
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