Stratford St Andrew Walk

Today Joyce's Weekly Walks group were treated to a lovely walk around 6 villages and their churches led by Karen.

This was the invite.

"Wednesday May 14th Karen is leading a walk from The Riverside Centre, Stratford St Andrew IP17 1LF. Please park here at the back of the car park nearest the A12 road. Karen’s walk will take in 6 churches/6 villages in a circular 12 mile route. Villages include Great Glemham and Marlesford." 

This was our route.

Alas Sarah's bus didn't arrive so she wasn't able to join us, which meant there were just 7 of us today. Here are some of my photos.

The Riverside Centre was open as they have a coffee morning every Wednesday

It is just by the village sign.

We started walking at about 10:25 crossing the River Alde almost immediately and within 5 minutes were at our first church,  St Mary's Farnham with Stratford St. Andrew. The present building was erected in Norman times and is mainly built of flint and stone. The slit windows in both north and south walls are 12th century Norman. The interior remains simple and unspoiled with several original fitments. The chancel roof, although repaired in 1980, still retains the original 14th century oak rafters.

We noticed a lot of gravestones had a smaller stone next to the headstone.

At home I checked my copy of "A history of Suffolk Gravestones" by Robert Halliday, bought after an excellent talk he gave to the Bury St. Edmunds U3A. In it he says...

"During the twentieth century footstones were often moved westwards to stand against the headstone. This is due, in part, to the development of the mechanical lawnmower which is easier to manoeuvre around a single gravestone"

Inside, Karen pointed out these panels from the original rood screen, now mounted on the west wall.

The church was light and airy with its white walls and large window behind the altar letting in the spring sunshine.

As Simon Knott says, "The box pews are plain and simple 18th century affairs, and the roofs (19th century in the nave, earlier in the chancel) are also plain and simple."

You can read more about the church on the parish council website here.

Back outside, we noticed this benchmark on the walls. A "church benchmark" refers to a physical mark, typically cut into a church wall or structure, used as a reference point for elevation measurements by surveyors. These marks, often horizontal lines with an arrow, indicate a specific height above sea level, serving as a basis for measuring other locations in the area

Off into the countryside now, with some nice views.

We were surprised to see these stands of pampas grass.

Our paths today were mostly lovely, but we had to navigate some stinging nettles here. All of us in shorts got stung, I think.

We loved this meadow with its wild flowers.

We turned right up a lane to get to our second church... St. Andrew's Little Glemham. Simon Knott tells us the lane is actually one of the side entrances to the Glemham Hall estate, although we couldn't see the Hall from the church.

We put the lights on to see the interior better.

There is a nice two-manual organ.

Next to it I found the tuner's logbook, which like a car's logbook, contains entries for visits to maintain and tune it.

You can read more about the church from Simon Knott (using the link above) and from the parish council website here.

The church is set a little distance from Little Glemham village. The parish council site says of the entry in the Domesday Book 1086: Glaimham Parva – probably “a small enclosure, homestead or village noted for its revelry or games”. Going through the village took us back to the A12.

We crossed the road and continued towards our next village, Marlesford. Looking south I spotted the spire of Wickham Market, but we weren't going that far today..

Marlesford is a pretty village.

St Andrew's Marlesford was our third church of the day. As Simon Knott says, "James Bettley, revising the East Suffolk volume of the Buildings of England series, points to the arcade inside as evidence of the 12th Century church that was here, but otherwise it was entirely rebuilt in the late 14th and 15th Centuries, the nave and chancel first, then the tower. "

We stopped to read the story here. Simon tells us in more detail....

"Marlesford is probably best known these days for being the home village of Flora Sandes. She was born in Yorkshire in 1876, but her father moved to Marlesford to be rector here when she was nine. She spent almost the next thirty years living in this little backwater, where she seems to have made quite an impact, tearing around the local lanes in a French racing car which she had taught herself to drive. On the outbreak of World War One she joined the St John's Ambulance Brigade, and set sail with a group of other nurses to the Balkans. However, she became separated from them behind Serbian lines. For safety, she joined a Serbian regiment, and was soon promoted to the rank of Corporal. Shortly after her 40th birthday, she was seriously injured in a grenade attack, but recovered to reach the rank of Sergeant-Major and to be awarded the King George Star, the Serbian equivalent of the Victoria Cross. She retired from the Serbian Army in 1922 to run a hospital. At the start of World War Two she was interned by the invading Nazis, but then expelled, and she returned to Suffolk to spend the rest of her life. She undertook lecture tours in her Serbian Army uniform, and eventually died at the age of 80 in 1955. A small brass plaque in the chancel remembers her here, but her life is best known for being the subject of the book and film The Lovely Sergeant. It is the quite extraordinary tale of a remarkable woman."

We liked these etched glass windows.

There is a plaque commemorating a mammoth bell-ringing feat - a peal of 5040 changes.

I liked this gargoyle.

We wondered why the church need this extra little bell given they 6 in the tower.

You can read more about the church here.

Onward through the lovely spring sunshine once more.

It wasn't long before we reached our fourth church of the day - All Saints, Hacheston. From the outside it looks rather plain, I think.

Unusually, but like our next church at Parham, you enter the church through a west door under the tower.

You can read more about the church here, which tells us "The oldest part of the church that remains is part of the early C12 Norman former north wall and entrance that now forms the vestry. The rest of the nave and chancel is mediaeval (C13-16) ranging from Early English (C13 lancet window and the piscina and sedilia) through to the later Decorated/Perpendicular styles as shown by the East window. The tower and porch were added in the C14, the splendid hammer beam nave roof in the C15, and the south aisle with its roof with wonderful carved bosses (with two ‘green men’ and King David playing a harp) in the late C15/early C16." 

I wondered about a QR code that was by the organ pipes. Apparently it takes you to a site that gives you a guided tour of the church.

We liked this cork model of the church.

I think we'll have to go back. We missed the green men, David playing the harp and the damaged rood screens. Maybe we should go when they next have their Big English Breakfasts on at the village hall.

Next to the church this thatched cottage has a fox on the roof.

Just across the road was our lunch stop.

The woodwork was being stained and the doors were open so we were able to visit the toilets.

Suitably refreshed we carried on past the village sign...

...before turning off the busy Wickham Market to Framlingham road and crossing this stream.

We paused to enjoy some hares in this field. These two leverets were having fun chasing each other.

We came to an archway and were directed onto a path leading to the right.

This took us around the outside of the moat of Moat Hall. The Pevsner Suffolk site tells us...  "Moat Hall (early C16), gets special mention as “one of the most picturesque, thanks to its moat, but also thanks to the mixture of timber-framing and brickwork.”. It is surely one of the finest houses in Suffolk, if a little unloved these days.  Pevsner describes it as follows: "A wonderful survival. A moated early C16 timber-framed house with substantial brick parts. To the N two canted bays immediately above the moat and traces of a third. They have two- and three-light windows with arched lights, rather low on the ground floor, tall and with transom on the first floor. To the W a fine gable with brick-nogging and a lower brick-faced one. To the S another tall brick window and the traces of a staircase.""

Moving away from the hall we got a good view of Parham village from the top of this field full of sheep with their lambs.

And here we are approaching our fifth church of the day - St Mary the Virgin, Parham

Some of us had been here before on our K is for Kettleburgh walk last month. Simon Knott tells us "Parham has no pub, but it does have an interesting and in some ways an unusual church. The heart of the village, pronounced Parrum, the first syllable the same as the first syllable of the word parrot, is not far from the busy road which connects Framlingham to the A12, and the church is set in a little dip with ancient houses in attendance. The fields that rise to Parham Hall to the east were the setting for many of the outdoor scenes in the first series of the award-winning BBC television programme The Detectorists, and this church is one of several in Suffolk to make an appearance in that programme." Read more about the church via the link to Simon's description of it above.

We could see lots of activity at this bees' hive. It is hanging in the large niche on the western face of the tower, which probably held a rood group, the crucifixion in the middle, with St John and the Virgin Mary on either side.

As with our previous church in Hacheston,  you enter the church from the west, beneath the gallery.  It is another light and airy church.

The dado panels of the rood screen were removed in the 1880s, leaving just the tracery painted in a gay red and green.

The organ is in a loft and I was persuaded to take a selfie in the organist's mirror.

Out into the countryside once more. I spotted this church in the distance but can't identify it. [Update: Joyce commented that she thought it might be Campsea Ashe. Checking photos of it, I think she could be right, but having done a bit more searching, it looks more like the tower of Framlingham church to me and that might be a tower and chimneys of the school just to the right of the church and Framlingham Castle on the far right of my photo]

We liked the neat paths in this field. Look at the cracks in the ground!

We walked across some of  Parham airfield, the site of a former World War II United States Air Force station. It appeared to be being used as storage for all sorts of equipment and material.

Another nice path across a field...

...took us towards Great Glemham village...

...and our sixth and last church of the day - All Saints, Great Glemham. As Simon Knott says "although it has been heavily restored in just about every department in the last 150 years, it is still essentially a small 14th century church, with a slightly earlier chancel."

There is another plaque here to a feat of bellringing - A peal of 5040 Plain Bob doubles.

There is a grand coat of arms on the balcony.

Here is  the font. As Simon tells us, this is "...one of Suffolk's thirteen Seven Sacrament fonts, one of the best of its kind. The fonts date from the last few decades of the 15th Century and the first few of the 16th Century, and show the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, reminder that our medieval parish churches were built as Catholic churches, not as Anglican ones. The Catholic sacraments are Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Ordination, Confession, Last Rites and the Mass, or Eucharist. The fonts are eight-sided, each sacrament taking up a panel and the eighth panel featuring something else, most often the Baptism of Christ, but here at Great Glemham it is the Crucifixion."

"

We walked along a road with a wall along the side. It is the boundary of the estate of Glemham House, which has a landscape park, kitchen gardens and pleasure grounds.

We got just a glimpse of the house over the wall through the trees.

Our route took us through some more lovely scenery and paths. We liked the buttercups here....

...and the crops gently swaying in the breeze.

We came to our one and only boggy bit, which was easily traversed without feet getting wet...

...and a path through the woods and some nettles (I could hear cries of "Ouch" from behind me)...

...to get back to Riverside Centre.

Thank-you Karen for the lovely walk and everyone else for the additional company. So much to see that was new and some lovely paths. You can find more details of our 12.8 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other related walks you can find on my blog include

• Aldeburgh Walk (Apr 2024)
• K is for Kettleburgh Walk (Apr 2025)