A trip to Essex today for a walk from Dedham.
This was the invite from Joyce...
"Thursday March 26th another attempt at a walk at Dedham. Karen and I have devised an 11-mile circular walk that heads out of Dedham to Manningtree Station, Lawford Church and then back to Dedham using some paths that are totally new to me. Parking in Dedham isn’t easy but there could be spaces in Crown Street CO7 6AG or use the village car park which is £5.20 for over 4 hours. I am heading to The Marlborough Dedham, Mill Lane, Dedham, Colchester, CO7 6DH for coffee from 10am and we will start walking at 10.30am promptly, if you wish to skip coffee/toilets. Please bring a packed lunch as we will be stopping mid walk."
This was our route...
Here are some of my photos.
We met at The Marlborough
There is a fun blue plaque on the wall outside.
We passed Dedham Church, but didn't visit - time to get on our walk!
Joyce gave us our briefing a the entrance to Dedham Hall Farm. There were 16 of us on the walk today.
We had lovely sunshine with fluffy blue clouds, green fields and dry paths (well mostly).
On the far side of the vale we got a glimpse of East Bergholt's
Old Hall Chapel. We weren't going that way today, but staying in Essex for the whole of our walk.
We found plenty of blackthorn in blossom. The sloes should be good here this year.
The oldest fabric in the church is in the south wall of the nave, dating
from 1200 or earlier. The chancel, the south porch and the first tower
were built in 1340. The tower was rebuilt in the 16th century, and again
in the following century. In 1826 the north wall of the nave and the
north aisle were added.
In the churchyard we saw the gravestones often had smaller stones next to them. We'd seen that before and when we did 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"
We joined the
Essex Way and followed if for quite a bit of our walk.
Here are some camellias with there bright flowers.
We crossed the railway line just before a train came.
There were three white ponies like this in a paddock.
We got a view over Dedham Vale.
Here we had a view of both Dedham Church and, a little firther away, Stratford St. Mary Church.
Are these flowers Oxlips or False Oxlips? I'm not sure.
We passed this memorial plaque. Trapalanda is a heaven for horses.
Gary and Gill kindly hosted us in their back garden for our lunch stop and supplied tea and cake. Thank-you Gary and Gill!
We contuned after our lunch stop. This was a particularly pretty camellia flower.
We followed Monk's Lane. It was muddy in places, but my shoes didn't get mucky.
At the bottom was a delightful stream and lakes.
There are several decorative statues.
No this is not a real heron, but we did see one shortly after we passed this.
We went round Boxhouse Farm and climbed to the road. Here we found a mirror.
A view of Stratford St. Mary church with the A12 running close by.
We were on familiar paths from here passing Milsoms and following the River Stour back to Dedham.
Some more lovely spring flowers here...
...including some fritillaries.
The cows had some calves in this field.
We arrived back in Dedham. Here we said goodbye to Gary and Gill who were heading back home.
Then it was through Dedham back to our cars.
Some of us were parked in the village car park just down the road from the mill and by the village sign.
Thanks Joyce and Karen for the walk, Gary and Gill for the hospitality for our lunch stop and the others for the additonal company.
You can find more details of our 10.5 mile route
here on MapMyWalk or
here on OSMaps (or download a GPX file
here) and more of my photos
here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include...
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