Today I led a walk for Joyce's group from Tattingstone.
It was a version of
this walk we did in December 2022. This was the invite from Joyce.
"Tuesday February 6th. Please join John at Tattingstonefor a 9ish mile circular walk starting from Green Lane in Tattingstone (IP9 2NB) at 10am.We will stop for a morning drink at Alton Water and then again at Stutton Community Centre for those that wish for good cake! Lifts available from Bury etc so please get in touch with John."
I was joined at the start by Roland, Caroline, Dan and Dru and we set off in good time. It was a bit windy but stayed dry. Our "9ish" mile distance was a bit of an underestimated and I told everyone at the start that it might be more than 10 1/2, but no-one was too worried.
Here are some of my photos.
We parked in Green Lane as before with a view of St Mary's Tattingstone church across the playing field.
We started our walk by this house called Windy Alley. It was indeed windy today.
The church wasn't open but we stopped to look at the door.
On it was chalked "20 + C + M + B + 24".
We wondered what it meant. I looked it up later. As described
here, it is done at Epiphany... "
The marking of the door, of course, evokes the blood on the doorposts in the Passover story (see Exodus 12) — a sign that a dwelling place belongs to the covenant people of God. The “C M B” stands both for “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” — “Christ this house bless” — but also the names tradition gives to the wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. And just as the wise men brought gifts to the feet of Jesus, we offer up our homes and all who dwell there to the service and praise of God." The 20 at the start and 24 at the end complete the message with the year 2024.
We were soon walking along Alton Water. Here was our first view of the Royal Hospital School bell tower.
Our route took us past 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."
The path around Alton Water was dry and leaf-littered.
Nearing the visitor centre...
...we encountered the fold of Highland Cattle.
But when we got to the Watersports centre, we found that the café was closed for staff training today. Plan B for our drinks stop then!.
Heading back towards the path to Stutton, we bumped into Shaun. He hadn't told me he was coming and arrived at the start after we left as he had been delayed in traffic. He had already been to Stutton, so rather than continue with us, he set out to do the circuit of Alton Water instead. Sorry Shaun! If I'd known you were coming we would have waited for you.
Shortly afterwards I realised I had dropped my phone. Dan went back with me to find it while the others carried on and had a pleasant cuppa out of the wind in the warmth of the Community shop (seen here in a photo from my
recce with Dawn a couple of weeks ago).
It turned out I had dropped at about the time we met Shaun. Somebidy had just picked it up when Dan tried phoning it and the finder kindly agreed to wait a few minutes for us to meet at the swings by the visitor centre.
Back at the Community shop I spotted some snowdrops in the garden before dragging everyone out of the shop to continue our walk.
Down to the Stour estuary now via Crepping Hall...
...and The Old Piggery, which you can rent via Airbnb.
We arrived at the shoreline at Graham's Wharf - or what remains of it. Here we had a view of Felixstowe docks in the distance.
We had our lunch here trying to shelter from the wind.
If we had stopped a hundred yards or so further along we would have had more shelter, but never mind.
We continued for a distance along the shore. It was just after low tide so we had plenty of beach to walk on.
Coming off the beach and onto the path we got a view down to this boat that always seems to be there.
We got a glimpse of Stutton Park...
.and views across the Stour to Essex...
...before arriving at Stutton Mill where we would head inland again.
We didn't spot the black swan today, but here is my photo of it from last time...
Round the other side of Stutton Park we took the driveway up to the main road close to the
Gardener's Arms....
Here we saw a weather vane just like one we had seen in Finningham on our recent
Bacton walk.
Deviating from my original plan to avoid the muddy bank at Vale farm we took this pleasant wide and dry path.
When we met the road we turned onto a footpath with a view of Tattingstone Church across the fields.
The footpath didn't go across the field as the map told us it should, but we were diverted along the filed edge and then round the farmhouse. The path appeared to carry on, but we should rejoined the road after the farmhouse. Instead we found ourselves in a vineyard... with some sheep grazing between the lrows of Pinot Noir vines!
At the far end we ended up having to climb over a gate to get back to the road. Back on track we followed the footpath back towards Tattingstone and joined the Back Lane. Here we got a good view of the converted
Methodist chapel.
Soon we were back at the start.
Thanks to all for joining me. You can find more details of our 11ish mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include:
No comments:
Post a Comment