Today we had a lovely late autumn walk starting and ending in Suffolk, but mostly in Essex.
This was the invite from Joyce...
"So I am not feeling ultra organized for a walk tomorrow but the weather looks too good to miss. I have had a walking idea for a while around Great Cornard over to Essex so spurred on from John's recent walk there I thought we could explore a little. I can collect from Dobbies at 10am (John, Squints, Jane) and we can start walking around 10.30am. I intend on parking at Blackhouse Lane, Great Cornard CO10 0NL is the best postcode I can find.
I have mapped out a route of 8 miles but I suspect that with John's help we can extend that a bit. We will head to the Henny Swan for a morning cuppa (they open at 11am) and then cruise our way over to Great Henny, Twinstead and maybe drop down to Alphamstone and Lamarsh depending on weather and time.
Now the only thing I don't have any idea about is flooding and mud so come prepared to change shoes on the return journey home in the car. Bring a sandwich too. Thanks for being willing to join in . Joyce "
This was our route today.
Just five of us the walk today. Here are a few of my photos.
We parked at the allotments on Blackhouse Lane. I recognised it. I had walked past here before, but not with Joyce... it turned out to have been on the route of the Wool Towns walk in the 2022 Suffolk Walking Festival (see
here).
We went under the railway line...
...and crossed Shalford Meadow. Legend has it that Shalford Meadow was the site of a battle between Boudicca and a Roman army. No warring factions today, though.
This led to the bridge over the River Stour and we were soon in Essex.
We were soon at our drinks stop at the
Henny Swan.
We enjoyed sitting by the fire for a while...
...but we had a walk to walk so off we went.
We saw some lovely autumn colours in the sun today and had some paths with leaves to shuffle through.
We paused briefly at the church but it was too early for a lunch stop. A familiar place - I was last here only 2 weeks ago (see
here). Well it was that walk that prompted Joyce to offer this one.
We walked through the impressive Fenn Farm.
Downhill and back up again to get to Twinstead. We stopped at
St. John's Church for our lunch break. The porch was just big enough for the 5 of us.
The landscape is strewn with pylons and power lines. This one has lines in 3 directions!
More lovely paths and views as we headed eastwards back towards Suffolk.
We joined the Stour Valley path for a short stretch. These hay bales were familiar.
We walked by a number of variegated milk thistle plants.
We went by Daw's Hall on our way to our river crossing back into Suffolk.
Our shadows were starting to lengthen. Here is mine as I photograph the others crossing the water meadows by the river.
We passed Little Cornard Village Hall. It has a nice car park and a bus stop just across the main road... that got Joyce thinking of some walks to come... watch this space!
We climbed up to Workhouse Green before turning north to return to Great Cornard We got some great views of where we had been earlier in Essex; the spire is Great Henny church.
We also got a peek at Little Cornard church. We got close to it without visiting or getting a better view.
We did get a bit of a view of Sudbury...
...before we descended from Prospect Hill back to the car park as the sunlight began to fade.
Thank-you Joyce for organising and leading us round some great paths with lovely views and autumn colours. Thanks also to the others for the additional company. I hope you get rid of that nasty cold soon, Jane!
You can find more details of our 9.7 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