Joyce hadn't scheduled a walk for the group for this week, so on Alicia's Lynford Stag walk last Friday (see here), I said I would lead a walk today if people were interested... and they were!
This was the invite.
"Dear Joyce’s-Weekly-Walkers, We now have an extra walk on
the programme for Friday 28th February. John is leading a circular
country ramble of about 9 miles in the rolling landscape around Ixworth. The
route is mostly along bridleways and quiet country lanes, but we could get a
couple of muddy bits. On the way we will take in Pakenham Windmill,
Stowlangtoft Church and Pakenham Watermill. Meet at Ixworth
Village Hall free car park High Street, Ixworth IP31
2HH to start walking at 10am. Bring a drink and packed lunch with you
for a brief stop at Pakenham Windmill for drinks and Stowlangtoft Church for
lunch. Refreshments afterwards, for those who wish, at The Pykkerell."
In all there were 15 of us on the walk. As it was such a lovely day, when we got to the Bull Road where we could just walk along the road into Stowlangtoft, I asked if people would like to spend a bit more time walking in the sun, rather than finish our walk before 2pm. Everyone agreed, so I added in an extra 2 mile or so loop. This was our route.
Here are a few of my photos.
Assembling in the car park. It was very busy - it looked like there was a mother and toddlers group meeting on.
Of we go just after 10am.
We passed the Grade I listed
Ixworth Abbey house, which incorporates ruins of the 12th century Augustinian
Ixworth Priory and has its own cricket pitch.
We crossed the Black Bourne via the 16th century
Hempyard Bridge which was on an old
drovers route.
Stock (cattle, sheep, pigs, geese and even, later, turkeys) was
transported via this route from Diss to London. The journey took a week.
The bridge, was closed for about 6 months last year after our walk in March until the end of November for repairs. Nicely done, by the look of it.
Out into the countryside.
We finshed our loop out to the west of Ixworth and turned towards Pakenham Windmill.
We saw plenty of snowdrops today too.
We had a drinks stop by the windmill. The windmill is an impressive 5 story structure originally built in
1817. Pakenham had the distinction of being the
only village in England to have both a working windmill and a working
watermill, but the windmill is now not operational any more.
Just after crossing Fulmer bridge we spotted a muntjac that ran across the road behind us.
We saw some more deer here.
This was the bit running close to the Black Bourne I expected to be a bit soggy, but it wasn't too bad.
Off we go on our extra loop.
.
We got some lovely views...
...and pleasant paths. This one was new to me.
We crossed the Black Bourne at a new bridge parallel to this old one.
But then we found we had to cross a field. It wasn't muddy, though, so the rest of us didn't follow Dawn and Roland going round the edge of the field.
It was lovely sitting in the sun, though.
Less than 4 miles to go now.
Stowlangtoft Hall is now a care home.
We saw some goats opposite the house with the Dead Slow Children.
Emerging at the top of the hill we got good views to Pakenham Windmill...
...and Ixworth.
We took the road down to the Baileypool bridge to complete our loop that started just before it.
We stopped briefly at the hide overlooking
Mickle Mere spotting an egret and a heron. A chap in the hide told us that about a year ago he had seen a white-tailed eagle (aka sea eagle) here.... but not today.
There was a huge swathe of snowdrops in this garden, which I deemed "an avalanche of snowdrops".
Back to Ixworth now with the windmill sillhouetted above us.
We passed Artefact Brewery. I'd been to one of their Beer Festival days last July (see
here) .
One last time across the Black Bourne into Ixworth.
Last time we were here, Tessa, who has lived in Ixworth for about 30 years and was on our walk, told us about the
history of the village. She talked, in particular about the Home Guard
and the defences of the village in World War Two. The Ixworth history
group has published various articles on the
village website - including
this article about the Home Guard in Ixworth and
this article about the World War Two defences.
You can see more details of our 11.5 mile route
here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file
here) and more of my photos
here on Flickr.
The last day of winter - what a lovely day for the walk and we saw all sorts of wildlife. Thank-you to all for coming and joining me.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include
Another fabulous write up of a glorious day, thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks John, lovely day
ReplyDelete