Following on from the fun we had last year doing the Angles Way (see here), today we continued this year's expedition - to walk the 79 mile St Edmund Way.
Today's fourth stage took us from Sicklesmere to Lavenham. This was the invite from Joyce.
"Wednesday March 13th Rushbrooke Arms to Lavenham 11.5 miles. We have permission to park at The Rushbrooke Arms, Sicklesmere IP30 0BU so please park in the top car park for our earlier 10.05amstart. This will allow those who wish to park in Lavenham and catch the 9.45am bus to The Rushbrooke Arms to arrive at 10.02am. The pub is not open for toilets but lunch will be at AlphetonVillage Hall after 6.5 miles. The Village Hall will be open as a ‘community warm space’ and they are happy for us to use toilets and have drinks . Transport back to the Rushbrooke Arms will be on 753 bus and it’s a 20 minute trip. The 15.30 or 16.09 bus back to the Rushbrooke Arms is our aim"
This was our route today.
We started where we finished on Friday - at the Rushbrooke Arms in Sicklesmere. Here are a few of my photos.
There were 15 of us today. Here we are assembled and ready to go. It was to be quite an adventure.
Uphill at first towards the old
Bury St. Edmunds to Long Melford railway line.
Our first of several challenges of the day.
We crossed the A134 and climbed up along Cocks Green Lane
We passed some lovely anemones, aka winter windflowers.
Approaching Skippers Farm we passed this interesting building.
Here we had an early snack break. Maybe I should have had some of my coffee then as we didn't stop again until our lunch stop at Alpheton.
Looking back from where we stopped, I had thought this was Little Whelnetham Church, but no, it's Bradfield St George Church, which Dawn and I visited on a walk just 10 days ago (see
here)
Steve spotted this deer and I just managed to catch it with my camera as it ran off.
As the poem by ee cummings says... "In just-spring, when the world is puddle-wonderful..."
I somehow managed to get through with barely a couple of teaspoonfuls of water getting into my boots.
Soon after we passed Rookwood Hall...
...and then Stanningfield Hall Farm.
We've stopped here at Stanningfield village hall before.
The Grange is very impressive.
This bit of flooding even had rippling waves.
A little channel had been cut to drain it but there was plenty still to go.
We passed another familiar landmark -
Drake's Well at Lawshall Green.
This impressive house has been built recently. I remember when it was just a building site.
.
Not far to our lunch stop now.
And here it is - Alpheton village hall. We were made very welcome with teas and coffees for those who wanted them and a warm space indoors to sit. Thank-you to the people there for the hospitality.
Not far to go now. This was our first glimpse of Lavenham church.
One last bit of wonderful puddliness to navigate first, though.
But we were equal to the challenge.
It's just down the road to Lavenham isn't it?
Yes. But we'd missed an unmarked turning, so back everyone came.
The route took us in a little loop around through Dyehouse Field wood and past the village sign...
...and some new development.
We passed a colourful garden with more anamones...
Then it was through Lavenham...
...to the bus stop where we had about a 15 minute wait for our bus back to Sicklesmere.
A fun walk today even though I'd walked all of the paths before and despite the challenging conditions underfoot. Thank-you Joyce for organising and leading us and to the others for the additional company.
You can see more of my photos
here on Flickr and more details of our 11.5 mile route
here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file
here).
Other related walks on my blog include :
Puddliness! Brilliant
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