Bredfield Walks

Today we walked some new paths for the group from Bredfield, near Woodbridge

The longest walk in the Suffolk Walking Festival this year, of 7 miles - this  one, was from here, but it was fully booked barely minutes after bookings opened, so Joyce decided to do a version for the group, based on this Discover Suffolk leaflet. We did a combination of the 3 walks in the leaflet - the Fitzgerald Walk route and a slightly modified Medieval Bredfield Walk route in the morning and then the Over to Byng route in the afternoon.

This was the invitation from Joyce.

Monday Bank Holiday May 27th.  Bredfield : an explore in a new area - start time 10am. Parking at IP13 6AX. I am not sure if the village shop and loo will be open so be prepared for alfresco. I haven't walked here before so it is untested by me. I have literally looked at the Discover Suffolk leaflet and devised a figure of 8 walk. The morning mileage will be approx 7.5 miles and then we will be back near the village shop for lunch before we embark on the afternoon loop of 4.5 miles.  Lifts available from Skyliner at 9am - get in touch.  

These were our routes today.

(Morning)

(Afternoon)

Here are a few of my photos.

We met at the village hall as planned.

We would be mostly following the waymarked green, red then blue routes.

We were soon out in the fields.

We passed where the site of Bredfield House where the poet Edward Fitzgerald was born. Gavin read out what was in the leaflet...

"Edward Fitzgerald was born at Bredfield House in 1809 to one of the wealthiest families in England. 

He was close friends with Alfred Tennyson and William Makepeace Thackery and is famous for his 

translation of the poems of Omar Khayyam who lived in 12th century Persia and was known as the 

"'Astronomer-Poet of Persia ".

 

Omar Khayyam's poems became known after his death in 1131 and many centuries later achieved 

global fame when Edward Fitzgerald translated over 100 stanzas, publishing them as 'Rubaiyat of 

Omar Khayyam'. Here is a one stanza to read whilst standing in the shade of the oak tree: 

'"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou' 

The 'White House' as Bredfield House was also known, was demolished in 1950 after sustaining 

damage during the Second World War. The shaped gable ends of the stables and walled garden remain 

and can be seen on your left." 

...and I surprised everyone by completing the quoted stanza "...Beside me singing in the Wilderness and the Wilderness is Paradise enow". Almost right, but having checked I see I had an extra "the" before the second "Wilderness".

Here are the gable ended stables and walled garden.

We had some lovely quiet lanes to walk along.

We could see Boulge Hall with the decorative urn at the bottom of the garden as we passed. The original hall was a Queen Anne mansion that was demolished in 1955 due to dereliction.

We visited St. Michael's, Boulge Church. 

Here we found the Fitzgerald family mausoleum... 

...and Edward's grave,  with the 'Omar Khayyam' rose growing beside it. The original rose was planted in 1893 and grown at Kew Gardens from a seed brought from the grave of Omar Khayyam in Naishapur in Iran. We guessed this was a descendant of that one.

From the churchyard, Dawn spotted some deer in the distance but I didn't manage a good photo as they were a bit far away.

Onto the Medieval Bredfield walk now, with red waymarker signs. We were impressed with High House Farm....

...and the nearby Poplar Farm buildings.

We passed under the power lines.

In the distance we could see the spire of Wickham Market church. There is another Discover Suffolk walks leaflet of walks from there which we should do some day.

The entrance to this footpath through a hedge was rather overgrown, but Gavin came to the rescue with his secateurs.

We made our own path across the field on the other side.

Through the next hedge we came to a delightful field of buttercups...

...and early purple orchids.

Back in Bredfield...

...we stopped for lunch outside the village hall. The hall was open now so we were able to use the toilets as well as the picnic table.

Suitably refreshed, we continued with out afternoon Over to Byng walk. This is what the Suffolk Walking Festival walk was based on, although they went a bit further north to Pettistree.

The pylons were an ever-present sight today.

We had to take this rather nettly overgrown path.

At the end there was a green sign we didn't recognise... and I can't find out what it signifies. I jokingly suggested it meant beware of the nettles.

We passed Byng Hall. There were some lovely flowers here, including roses, foxgloves and irises.

Down towards the A12.

We then had a stretch running in parallel with it for 1/2 mile or so.

After turning right and passing through Town Grove we skirted Ufford Thicks.

We came to an intersection with the path we came along earlier in front of us, but we turned left rather than retrace our earlier steps.

A few more fields, including this beanfield and we were back in Bredfiled.

We finished by visiting St. Andrew's, Bredfield church.

What were these chalk markings on the outbuilding? 

I had seen them before on the church in Tattingstone when leading a walk for the group in February when Joyce was away. 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.

Back through the village to the village hall now, passing some lovely houses and gardens..

...and we were done. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to the others for the company.

You can find more details of our 7.7 and 4.6 mile routes here (am) and here (pm) on MapMyWalk (or download GPX files here (am) and here (pm) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other nearby walks on my blog include:

• Melton Walk (Jan 2023)
• The Melton Meander (Oct 2020)