Melton Walk

Today Kirsty and David joined Joyce's Weekly Walks group in a walk chosen to take them somewhere new for them in Suffolk - a walk from Melton via Woodbridge.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Thursday June 19th We welcome back John’s sister Kirsty, and her husband David, for today’s wander. We will park/meet at Melton Riverside car park opposite the Wilford Bridge pub. WhatThreeWords:  adopts.ironic.tools IP12 2PA at 10am. We will walk into Woodbridge for coffee and of course we will probably want to visit The Long Shed briefly to look at the rebuilding of the Sutton Hoo Saxon ship. We then continue towards Foxburrow and the beautiful village of Ufford. Hopefully the weather will be pleasant enough for an afternoon stop at The White Lion. The circular walk is about 10 miles." 

This was our route.

Here are some of my photos.

We gathered in the sun at the Melton picnic site.

We were soon walking along the west bank of the River Deben.

Approaching Woodbridge we came to the iconic Tide Mill. It has recently undergone repairs to its Hurst frame - a wooden frame which supports the machinery that harnesses the River Deben's tides to mill the grain.

Due to rising sea levels, the frame spends long periods submerged in salty river water and a timber survey recommended structural repairs. The lower sections have been replaced with brickwork. Read more about it here.

The Longshed has a full-size reconstruction of the 7th century Sutton Hoo ship under way.

They are making great progress.

Upstairs there is an exhibition which includes this wonderful piece - Sutton Hoo Impression by Robert Mallamphy.

There is also a display of part of  The King's River Tapestry 

The tapestry will eventually be over 90 feet long and produced on 30 or more panels. The story it tells begins in about 400 AD with an acorn buried in the soil by a Jay. Over the next 200 years that acorn grows into a magnificent tree, standing among many others in the forest. King Raedwald sees the tree and wants it, and several of the other trees, for his new royal ship. That ship that is eventually used as a burial chamber for the King at Sutton Hoo.  The story runs on through time and the tapestry depicts events that include the Kings’ baptism by Augustine at Canterbury, The Battle of the River Idle when Raedwald became High King,  Elizabeth 1st and the grave robbers, and images from her time as queen. Then in 1939 Basil Brown excavating the burial mound that unearthed the ghost of the Great Ship.

This was also our coffee stop.

Then it was across the railway line into Woodbridge.

The Hands sculpture by Rick Kirby at Woodbridge Quay church was a group photo opportunity not to be missed.

We had a walk along the High Street.

Continuing into Melton we passed this large monkey puzzle tree with its unusual looking fruits. 

We came this way on another walk in 2020  (see here). The owner was in his drive as we passed then and told us the tree was about 40 years old. He said they exploded with a bang and scattered their seeds, but they weren't self-fertile as you need a male tree as well for pollination.

We were a bit late in the year to see the wisteria on this cottage in flower.

We came to Foxburrow Farm Nature reserve where we found some rare breed sheep.

It was just a bit soon to stop for lunch here so we carried on a bit further.

Leaving the woods we could see the tower of the former St. Audry's Asylum, which closed in 1993. 

We stopped at St Audry's Club for our lunch.

Near the picnic tables were some cherry trees with lots of ripe little cherries. Yum!

We passed the outside of the former asylum but didn't see much of it.

Into Melton Woods...

...where we found the stump of a redwood with some lovely wood carvings... and another group photo opportunity.

Onward now to the village of Ufford.

We visited the church of the Assumption.

I admired the organ case and pipes.

This is the great 15th century font cover. As Simon Knott tells us, "It rises, six metres high, magnificent and stately, into the clerestory, enormous in its scale and presence. In all England, only the font cover at Southwold is taller. The cover is telescopic, and crocketting and arcading dances around it like waterfalls and forests. There are tiny niches, filled today with early 20th Century statuettes. At the top is a gilt pelican, plucking its breast." 

We loved the timer on the wall above the pulpit. I wonder long it allows a sermon to go on for?

I also spotted a picture of St George slaying the dragon.

As you can read in Simon's description, there is so much more to see that we didn't have time to explore. I think we need to visit it again.

But now it was time for our final drinks stop at The White Lion.

It has a microbrewery attached, but none of its beers were for sale in the bar today.

We crossed the river Deben at Ufford bridge.

We stopped on this footbridge over a tributary stream.

Great shadows!

And we saw some fish!

Not far to go now as we followed the riverside path...

...but remembering to stop to smell the roses.

Across Wilford Bridge...

...and we were back at our coars.

A lovely walk with lots to see along the way and Kirsty and David (and Dawn and I) thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to everyone else for the additional company.

You can find more details of our 10.3 mile walk 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

• Martlesham Meander (May 2023).
• Martlesham Creek, Woodbridge and Melton Walk (Apr 2023).
• Martlesham Creek and Woodbridge Walk (Mar 2023).
• Melton Walk (Jan 2023).
• Melton Meander (Oct 2020).