Circular walk around Kersey via Lindsey

5.5-mile / 8.8 kms circular walk around Kersey via Lindsey

Wednesday's circular walk started from the pretty village of Kersey, Suffolk's quaintest village, with its many medieval timber frame houses estimated to date from between the 12th and 15th centuries, and are one of the biggest collections preserved in Suffolk and East Anglia.

The village itself sits in one of Suffolk's crumpled valleys “where the landscape corrugates”, with its principal claim to fame, apart from one scene from Lovejoy being filmed there, is that a coarse woollen cloth called Kersey cloth takes its name from it.
Parking the car on church hill leaving the handbrake on the car firmly on! The first thing that catches your eye are the original road signs from the early days of motoring.

Getting to the walk start point meant a short walk up church hill then climbing some steep stone steps leading up to the medieval St Mary church that stands prominently at the top of the hill above the village street.

Before actually starting the walk, we took a good look around the church. We find it fantastic that inside the church's someone has gone to the trouble to create a leaflet telling you lots of information about the church, so we always make a point of looking for them. We learnt that this church was in medieval times an important site of pilgrimage and also in WW2 a bomber which Leading Aircraftman Dougie Vince was in, was attacked by a Bf 109 as they returned from a raid on western Germany. The navigation instruments were destroyed and a fire started toward the rear of the aircraft. The navigator had no positional fix and fuel was critically low. The RAF, however, had installed two searchlights in the churchyard of St Mary's which illuminated the church tower, giving the pilots a known navigational reference point. As a result, the church gained the nickname of the “Thank God Church”. Mr Vince's bomber fixed their position and landed at a nearby airfield. The tail gunner died in the fire and Leading Aircraftman Vince's hand was almost burnt away as he fought the flames using an extinguisher that had become red hot in the flames.

Leaving the church, we walked down the hill towards the ford known locally as "The Splash", then turning left, into a steep slog up the crumpled valleys. So much for a gentle start!

With the weather being a nice 16 deg’s and sunny the rewarding views were excellent, and we carried on along the tops of the valley before eventually heading down to follow the stream out onto a quiet B road. A short walk along the B road we came across St James’s Chapel at Lindsey, a pretty thatched 13th century chapel owned by English Heritage, but unfortunately it was closed due to repairs required on the roof, so we could only view it from the road side. Carrying along the road into Lindsey we then stopped and looked around St Peters Church, a 14-century small rustic church that’s in need of some tlc.

Leaving the church, we continued to follow the road, until joining the footpath which forms part of the Wool Towns Walk, and headed into the woods. The woods were in the lower valley and in places were still quite boggy, so we found ourselves leaving the path to find a good route through. Exiting the wood the track then took us across the fields and back into Kersey for a well-earned refreshment at the Bell Inn.

Distance: 5.5 miles / 8.8 kms
Weather 16 Deg’s and Sunny
Time: 2 hours
Start: Kersey - Church Hill (IP7 6EF)

#robandann

Coddenham and Hemingstone 4 mile circular walk

Coddenham and Hemingstone 4 mile circular walk

Approximately 8 miles north of Ipswich is Coddenham a small village which has a rich history dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period.

Having driven through the village of Coddenham many times over the years on my way to various car shows. I was aware that the road that passes through Coddenham, High Street road, is very narrow in places and I wasn't sure I could park safely along it. A quick google search showed that along school road was a parking area at the community centre, this turned out to be a great move, as the community centre looked to be only a few years old and it also had lots of free parking.

The weather today was a nice 15 degs and sunny, with the walk taking us along the gently rolling suffolk countryside, through woodland, along field edge paths and quiet roads but more importantly it had no major hills .

Walking through the woodland areas it was lovely to see the ground was still carpeted with the last of the snowdrops and in places you could see the bluebells getting ready to come out. The ground was easy going and surprisingly very dry, which was great as we didn't have to keep de clogging our boots.

Our first stop was Mill Hill, here you can still see some of the foundation stones of the old post mill which was constructed in 1810 before being dismantled in 1909.

Further along the walk crossing a farmers field, and just a short distance in front of us a herd of deer suddenly appeared, stopped, then ran off past us. Unfortunately we were not quick enough with our cameras to get any good shots, but still a very nice sight to see.

The walk then takes you passed Hemingstone, it's not a large village, but here we visited St Gregory's church. The church has a 14th century octagonal font, a rare 16th century rood beam roof and 17th century wall paintings discovered when the walls were cleaned in 1930. Turning left out of the church a short distance along the road we came across the Hemingstone Hut, which looked like it was the village hall, but it's back history was that it was once a WW1 hut located in Rendlesham Forest and was moved to the village in 1920.

A few hundred meters further along we turned off the quiet road, and followed along the field edge, heading now towards Hemingstone Hall. Hemingstone Hall is a magnificent red brick, Jacobean manor house with Dutch gables that was built around 1625 and is Grade 1 listed, we were only able to view it from the gates as the hall is privately owned.

Passing around the perimeter of Hemingstone hall, the walk then took us along the nature trail through Broom Hill, an area of grassland and woodland gifted to the village of Coddenham in 1988. The nature trail lead to a kissing gate and a narrow path which emerged into the churchyard of St Mary’s church. An impressive church that has a double hammer-beamed roof with carved angels and a raised Norman chancel. I didn't have a compass to check this, but to me the raised Norman chancel and the later extension appeared to be at slightly different angles to each other, as the step up into the chancel was tapering on its width.

A few metres away from the church and nearing the end of the walk we came across coddenham community shop and café. This village shop dates from 1696 and the stabling at the rear once accommodated horse and cart deliveries. It would have been rude to pass and not support the local community, cheese scone and chutney with a pot of tea for Ann, and for me a slice of homemade lemon cake.

4 mile easy going walk with stops took us 1.5 hrs

#robandann