Reinterred: St Edmund Way Part 7 - Nayland to Manningtree

Today we completed the St Edmund Way with our much postponed 7th stage, from Nayland to Manningtree.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Weds 5th June Section 7 of the St Edmund Way . We have community transport leaving at 9.30am from the bus stop near Family Pizza Co, Bergholt Road, Brantham CO11 1RG - you should find off road parking nearby. Upon arriving in Nayland, we will have coffee at The Deli, before we start walking. We then walk back to Manningtree (the end) and onto Brantham to our cars. This is a 14 mile day - we will take regular breaks. I have room for 2 more on the minibus. " and a subsequent update...

" Our pick up has changed to 9am at Brantham. There is plenty of street parking nearby so you shouldn't have any issues. We will stop at the Mill Deli in Nayland for early coffee and loo before we set off on the last epic stage. If I can offer a seat to anyone then I will be at Skyliner at 8am (ouch!).

Please note that the fare is £6.10 and cash only. "

This was our route today.

Here are some of my photos.

We caught our community bus just a few minutes later than planned thanks to the slow traffic through the A14 roadworks and had a coffee at The Mill deli in Nayland, but it was a bit early for ice-creams. Time to set off.

Nayland has some lovely old houses.

We were soon out in the countryside and passed a farm with a field of dog daisies.

We saw plenty of birds of prey today.

What a nice path.

We got views of St. Mary's .Stoke-by-Nayland church well before we got there.

Joyce had stayed at Poplar Farm B&B before.

Here we are coming into Stoke-by-Nayland. I've taken this phot before with different walkers in it.

We stopped at the church for a drinks break (and to use the toilets).

As always, we stopped to admire the garden opposite the church.

Foxgloves are in abundance at the moment.

While enjoying walking through the village and taking a few photos...

...I lost sight of the rest of the group. But I knew the way and turned along this path following the way-marking. It was rather nettly!

I got far enough to get a view of St. Mary's, Polstead, wondering why I hadn't caught up with the group, when I got a call from Joyce to say she had skipped this loop and just gone along the road.

So I retraced my steps and went along the road, catching up with the rest at Scotland Street. Here is the GradeII listed Scotland Place

We saw some red kites as we headed along the River Box towards Valley Farm....

...where we stopped to say hello to the donkeys.

We remembered this barn at Bobrights Farm.

We got some good views as we climbed up to Eastfields Farm. Was that flooding below? No I think it is just a small lake.

We descended along Snow Hill Lane towards the River Stour passing a few poppies.

We crossed the river to walk along the other side.

We stopped here for our lunch by the end of the track for Higham races....

...with a view of Langham Hall.

This old building in Stratford St. Mary is in a sorry state.

Now we were on the water meadows of the River Stour in Dedham Vale.

I took a short detour to photograph Dedham lock and Dedham Mill. Well I couldn't do a proper blog of the walk without showing those iconic sights painted by John Constable (see here).

On the river we came to a pair of swans with their cute cygnets.

But what was this? As we neared Flatford we found part of the water meadows flooded and a stream crossing our path flowing into the river. Although there was a precarious crossing via some wobbly logs and tree stumps, most of us just walked through it.

Joyce had to empyy her shoes, but I only got a bit of water in mine and they dried out by the end of the walk.

And so to Flatford. Here is the famous bridge with Bridge cottage behind. We had a group photo here (see the top of the post)...

...before visiting the tearooms.

I walked a little along the road to photograph two other sights made famous by John Constable - Willy Lott's Cottage...

...and Flatford Mill (although the famous painting is from the lock on the other side).

Back in the tearoom gardens some of the group had befriended a rather tame robin.

Not far to go now as the valley broadened out.

We were soon at Manningtree station and the official end of the St Edmund Way. We were a little bemused to finding nothing marking the end of the trail, so we made do with a photo un der the station entrance.