E is for Euston Walk

Today we reached E in our alphabet of walks with a linear walk from Euston back to the church at Ingham where we had parked our cars.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Thursday January 30^th E is for Euston Estate. We can park at Ingham church all day. Toilets, coffee and cake are available from 10am as the weekly coffee morning is on. We then catch the 10.38am 332 bus to Euston. This arrives at 11.05am approx so the walk will finish later than usual around 3.30pm. The linear walk is 11.5 miles and it’s an unusual landscape. Euston estate is sandy and vast and then it becomes quite watery and we visit a Ring Work. We then pass through 8 villages on our way back to Ingham . Most villages have a village sign (Euston, Fakenham Magna, Sapiston, Ixworth Thorpe, Troston, Great Livermere, Ampton, Ingham). Of course, you can catch the bus from Bury but you will need to have a plan to get back to Bury after the walk." 

This was our route today.

Here are a few of my photos.

At the coffee morning in Ingham Church, where we were made very welcome.

Our first village sign of the day.

Waiting for the bus.

And here it is!

Off we go in Euston.

The village sign.

Euston Hall.

St Genevieve, Euston church. We didn't try to visit.

The Temple. You can stay in it as a holiday let. 

The striking, ornate Temple is perfectly set within the scenic heart of the Estate… ideal for a luxurious and magical break away from it all.

Built in 1746, by the celebrated landscape architect and designer William Kent, the octagonal Temple was originally a banqueting house used by the 2nd Duke of Grafton. As such, the surrounding views are truly breath-taking; leading your gaze across lush parkland, the shimmering river Blackbourne, and Euston Hall itself. 

Continuing through the estate along the permissive paths.

Some winter aconites opening to the sun.

Fakenham Magna was our next village.

Crossing the Black Bourne.

We came to Burnthall Plantation.

There is a new sign about it since I was last here.

You can see the bank here.

The Historic England listing says...

"Ringworks are medieval fortifications built and occupied from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the later 12th century. They comprised a small defended area containing buildings which was surrounded or partly surrounded by a substantial ditch and a bank surmounted by a timber palisade or, rarely, a stone wall. Occasionally a more lightly defended embanked enclosure, the bailey, adjoined the ringwork. Ringworks acted as strongholds for military operations and in some cases as defended aristocratic or manorial settlements. They are rare nationally with only 200 recorded examples and less than 60 with baileys. As such, and as one of a limited number and very restricted range of Anglo-Saxon and Norman fortifications, ringworks are of particular significance to our understanding of the period.

The ringwork in Burnthall Plantation is one of only a small number of examples identified in Suffolk, and the site is typical of this type of fortification, although its position, close to a floodplain, is unusual. Ringworks tend to have been sited on higher ground, in a more commanding position. The earthwork survives well and the ditch and bank are likely to contain evidence for the construction and use of the site. Remains of features such as buildings are also likely to be preserved in the interior of the enclosure, and evidence for earlier land use and activities preceding the construction of the earthworks will survive in soils buried beneath the inner bank and counterscarp. "

We passed some terraced houses dating from 1867. Are they/were they almshouses? I can't find anything online about them.

The village sign.  The name has uncertain origins, but could mean "The village of soapmakers". Read more about it here.

We stopped at the Honington and Sapiston Village Hall for our lunch at the tables outside.

Crossing the Black Bourne again by Sapiston Mill. It looks a little full.

There is a stand of silver birch trees just outside the gate.

We passed through Ixworth Thorpe.

Look how black the soil is here!

We stopped to go into St. Mary, Troston Church.

As Simon Knott explains in his description linked to above...

"Troston has a fine fine group of wall paintings. Most prominent is the 15th century figure of St George on horseback, dispatching a dragon. He is a fine figure, and you can sense the force with which the lance is pushed home. Roughly contemporary with him is a stately St Christopher, familiar from a hundred other East Anglian churches of course, but here with a gravitas he sometimes lacks elsewhere.

There is another figure, a knight on horseback, who appears to be forcing his lance into a dragon-shaped space, almost certainly another St George. But the most interesting thing about him is that he is older than the two larger paintings, a reminder that wall paintings in churches were successively covered and repainted as artistic fashions and devotional priorities changed and developed. In many places, we find that by the later years of the 15th century they are being covered up, and the walls are being punched through with large windows, to illuminate the new arrangement of pulpit and benches, and the great rood above the chancel arch - this, a full half century before the Protestant Reformation.

The most memorable of the paintings here is perhaps the excerpt from what appears to be a 14th century martyrdom of St Edmund scheme. The saint leans back on a tree, his body already pierced by arrows, his attackers looking on. Troston is on the route between the probable site of that martyrdom in Hellesdon near Norwich and the saint's final resting place at Bury Abbey. These paintings are all on the north wall, but above them all, over the chancel arch, sits a 15th century Christ in Judgement, blood spurting from his wounds."

Upstairs in the bell tower something interesting was going on.

This Cumbria Clocks van was parked outside.

It would appear they were installing and testing a Carillon Controller for the church bells. While we were in the church they played "When the saints go marching in".

Karen,. Joyce and I took a short detour to the Troston village sign.

This is Troston Hall. "Troston Hall was home to Capel Lofft (1751- 1824). Lofft pursued many causes and was a controversial character. He was a classical scholar, skilled astronomer, botanist, author of many books and in Troston established a “Poors Estate” to help locals. He worked as a barrister in London, campaigning against slavery and wanting to see greater democracy in Britain. As a staunch republican he supported both the American and French revolutions. He sympathised with Napoleon until the very end: attempting to secure Napoleon a trial before exile. This left Lofft with few friends and he left Troston to travel extensively across Europe. Lofft died in 1824 in Italy where he is buried."

Great Livermere was our next village.

We walked through Livermere Park...

...exiting through these gates in Ampton.

At this point my phone switched itself off as it was low on battery and, by now, my camera, which had refused to load my SD card this morning, had its internal memory full so I could take no more photos.

In fact I think this will have been the last time my camera will be used as it says "memory card error" and wont take photos any more. Time for a new one!

That was a lovely walk in lovely winter sunshine again. Thank-you Joyce for organising it and to the others too for the additional company. You can find more details of our 11.6 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...

• Fornham St Genevieve Walk (May 2019)
• Ampton Water Walk (Jul 2019)
• Honington and Fakenham Magna Walk (Oct 2020)
• Ingham Walk (Feb 2022)
• Great Livermere Walk (Apr2022)
• Angles Way Part 1 (Jan 2023)