Reinterred: U3A Rede Walk

Today is the first Thursday of the month so time for the U3A Bury St Edmunds Longer Walks Group to meet. This month it was Wendie's turn to lead the group walk.

This was her invite.

"I have chosen a route of about 10 miles around the lovely villages of Rede Somerton Stansfield and Hawkedon. We need to meet at 9.45am boots on and ready to go from Rede Village Hall at
The Green, Rede, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP29 4BE. What 3 Words unwanted.member.commuting.

This is a grassy area in front of what used to be the Plough pub - a very sorry state its in too , we just need to avoid blocking anyones driveway but there is plenty of space there and its very quiet.

Afterwards we can go to the White Horse at Whepsted which is just up the road, sadly the Plough is no longer functioning, and nor is the coffee shop at Depden . Please let me know if you are coming. Hope to see you next week."

We had a good turnout of nine walkers and we met in the mist by Rede Village Hall as planned.

This was our route. Wendie decided to miss out going through Hawkedon to avoid some muddy paths, but we still had a walk of just over 10 miles.

Here are a few of my photos.

Rede Village Hall used to be the school.

Off we go into the mist.

We came to a muddy path.

It was that horrible clingy mud that just builds up on itself and is hard to get off. Yuk!

I recognised where we were as we reached Somerton. The mist was lifting now and we were greeted by some cheerful snowdrops.

The house in yellow is Somerton House.

Our drinks stop was at St. Margaret's Church, Somerton; "one of the highest churches in Suffolk - geographically speaking, not ecclesiastically."

There were snowdrops in the churchyard.

On we went. This is looking back at the church.

Although we skirted round the village of Hawkedon, we could see the church of St. Mary Hawkedon, (See also the photo at the top of this post).

I recognised this crossing of River Glem.

Now we could see our next church, All Saints, Stansfield.

We paused here with all 3 churches in sight. It was rather pleasant in the sun now.

We carried on along the Glem valley. Here we could see he 5-story 1840 Stansfield tower mill, now bereft of its topknot as well as the church.

A photograph for sister Kirsty - she loves donkeys.

There were Christmas roses planted with the snowdrops at Stansfield Village Hall.

We passed the village sign and climbed the hill to the church.

We had our lunch stop here in the porch.

I'm still experimenting with my new camera.

Now we headed northwards back towards where we started. We didn't have to ford the river here...

...as there's a footbridge.

We headed uphill again to Purton Green Farmhouse, which is Grade I listed and possibly dates from 1250. It is owned by the Landmark Trust. It is available as a holiday let - "sleeps 4 from £320 for 4 nights". But there is no road to it, so you park here and use these wheelbarrows to transport your luggage to the house.

A heron flew across the field beside us and landed at the far side. Could I get a photo of it with my camera? Yes, I could.

Now we were heading uphill again. Rede's Great Wood Hill, where the radio mast is, is 128m above sea level, the highest point in Suffolk.

We passed a familiar series of lakes. A memorial stone says they were built by Jo Slater between 1968 and 1972 "for the enjoyment of his family and friends".... and walkers like us!

When we got to the radio mast...

...we found a building site. It is for a new reservoir, part of Anglian Water's project to build a pipeline from Bexhill to Bury St. Edmunds. Read all about it here.