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)

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