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Big Sky – Small Fry

Big Sky – Small Fry

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Another lovely day yesterday saw us arrive at the free car park in Dedham where we intended to walk around the area where John Constable used to paint. A short walk from the car park brought us here.

Just above the cattle you may see a horizontal line in the grass – that is the path we intend to take which follows the River Stour to Flatford.

After crossing the road bridge over the river we joined the footpath and set off beside the river. After only a short while we stopped to look at a small shoal of small fish, about five inches long, near the bank. We are no experts when it comes to identifying fish but we thought that they could be Gudgeon. The jury's out on that one.

This is the public footpath a little further on.

We soon reached a footbridge which we needed to take to get on the other side of the river where the path continued. We stopped again, by the river, and could see numerous bright blue damsel flies together with some powder blue dragon flies (Libellula) and some very small fry in the shallow water near the bank. We imagine that they are probably Minnows.

A little further on and we could see the bridge at Flatford in the distance with people leaning over looking at the river.

A very short time after there we were at the bridge with the thatched Bridge Cottage beyond.

From the bridge we could see, looking back, the path by which we had arrived.

The National Trust, who own most of the properties here, run a small tea room attached to Bridge Cottage where we had a short break and some coffee. One thing that can be said about National Trust tearooms is that they know how to charge (one pound and 45 pence for a cup of coffee).

After our break we walked past Granary Barn (thatched) and Flatford Mill, which John Constable's father used to own, to reach Willie Lott's Cottage.

There are other pictures of this area on the web site on the Dedham Vale pages.

After looking around Flatford we walked about a mile up the lane to East Bergholt where John Constable once had a studio. We had a look in the church and in one place we could hear a pitter-patter noise above our heads in the roof. We decided that, from the sound of it, it must be a rain shower. There had been a few clouds about and some of them, although small, were rather dark. I went outside to check and found that it was still brilliant sunshine and there was no sign of rain. We never did find out what that noise was.

This church does not have a tower because they ran out of money when it was being built so they decided to build a small wooden building on the ground to house the bells. Very unusual.

At least there is something to catch the water in if the roof ever leaks. smilies

We walked back to Dedham from East Bergholt for a late lunch, at about 2:00 PM, in the Marlborough Head which dates from medieval times.

After lunch we had a good look around Dedham starting with the church. Have a good look at the church door. Quite a nice bit of carving although it does look a little worn but then it should do as it's been in place since the church was built in the 15th century. There can't be many church doors around which are 400-500 years old.

Just opposite the church is the Sun Inn built in the 15th century and walking through the archway into the yard behind you see this.

That diagonal structure is an external staircase, with a separate roof, giving access to the upper storey. When this inn was built such staircases were commonplace but there are very few of them left.

Our last port of call was 'Southfields' the earliest parts of which date from the 14th century.

A wonderful old building built in quadrangular form with a courtyard in the centre. This is the view through the main doorway into the courtyard.

Time to call it a day. We thoroughly enjoyed our walk – I hope you did too.

Yellow Spikes and Purple Haze

Yellow Spikes and Purple Haze

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It was such a lovely morning with a clear blue sky we thought we’d push the old legs into motion and give them a whirl.

We followed a public footpath across some fields and through a wood with the sunlight streaming through the trees.

Out through the other side, through a farm and, just as we were leaving the farm, we caught a glimpse of a Munjac Deer crossing the lane into cover on the other side. A little way along the lane we came across a field of Borage. In the next picture you can see the lane with the field of Borage on the right and the wood on the hill at the back is the wood that we just walked through.

A little further along the lane and I was able to get a better picture of the field of Borage – the purple haze.

We took a right turn off the lane onto another public footpath which took us across two more fields. If you look carefully at the picture just underneath the outer part of the overhanging tree branch you can see the square shape of a church tower which is where we are heading.

It wasn’t long before we reached Layer Marney Tower. Layer Marney Tower is a Tudor gatehouse built for a proposed Tudor mansion although the mansion was never built. There is also a really delightful Tudor church which is part of the estate.

This church was built in the early part of the 16th century, on the foundations of an earlier church, by the first Lord Marney and is very interesting inside as well as out.

This is the tomb of one of the Lords Marney. How’s that for some fancy decorative stonework?

From the edge of the churchyard we caught this view of Layer Marney Tower.

We turned homeward and, on the way back, saw some spikes of Agrimony, of which this is one, that we had missed on the way out.

That little jaunt of just 3.5 miles turned out to be a lovely walk and here you have it hot off the press with us having returned home only 3 hours ago.

Towering over Tollesbury.

Towering over Tollesbury.

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We had a decent bit of sunny weather this afternoon which coincided with Tollesbury Church’s annual tower open day so off we toddled to Tollesbury.

We hadn’t been up this church tower before and it turned out to be a little tricky. The first part, a long set of wooden steps with a handrail as far as the floor below the belfry, was fairly straight forward. The next stage, in the belfry, was where it started to get tricky.

We had to go up another set of steps to the next floor then turn round and make our way, one by one, back across the hatch we had just come through. This was done by holding onto the the hefty frame that held the bells and shuffling sideways along a narrow plank, to one side of the open hatch, and thus reach the other side without falling through.

Finally up a few more very narrow stairways and out through the door at the top. It was worth it though.

The village square:

Some houses below:

The River Blackwater can be seen in the distance:

I hope the next one isn’t quite so tricky.

Heaven and Earth

Heaven and Earth

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Monday was an amazing day for February – clear sky, sunny and mild – just like an early spring day.

We started with ‘earth’ by visiting a derelict garden, near Brentwood in Essex, which is being partly restored and partly being turned into a wildlife reserve.

Lots of Snowdrops.

and lots of Daffodils.

It didn’t take us more than an hour to look round the garden and we set off for ‘heaven’ in the form of Waltham Abbey.

Waltham Abbey is a small town between Epping Forest and the outer edge of London. The current church was originally part of an abbey which was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540. The original abbey church was three times the size of the current one and the current structure is mostly Norman.

The tower can be seen here behind the 16th century Welsh Harp Inn.

This is the view from the East End. The wall with the large wheel window is actually Victorian and I don’t know what was there before or why that wall might have been rebuilt.

The tower was the only church tower built during the reign of Mary Tudor and was built to act as a buttress when the stability of the church was threatened.

This same tower can be seen from the high ground at High Beach in Epping Forest. Just above the centre line of this picture Waltham Abbey Church can just be distinguished – lit by the sun.

Inside the building it is obviously Norman.

Look at those wonderful Norman arches and that typical Norman Pillar with the helical groove decorations. The ceiling, part of which can be seen in the photograph of the Nave, is Victorian. Nonetheless it is a remarkable piece of work and a here is a close-up of that ceiling.

The Lady Chapel on the south side features a large Medieval wall painting of the Day of Judgement in remarkably good condition.

Not a bad trip for a February day.

Trans-Atlantic Friends – Part 2

Trans-Atlantic Friends – Part 2

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In May last year I wrote about our day trip, in the previous month of April, with Joe and Carolyn from Oregon. They have just sent us a CD of photographs which they took whilst they were here.

When we all arrived at Coggeshall the first thing we saw as we walked out of the car park was this Cercis tree which, whilst not native to this country, is pretty spectacular. Joe or Carolyn, I don’t remember which, took this photograph of Amanda and me under the tree.

Joe took this picture of Carolyn, Amanda and me outside one of the old (1560) buildings in Coggeshall.

This is Carolyn making friends with one of the locals. The abbey gatehouse chapel of St. Nicholas, built around 1220, is in the background.

Cups, Locks and Ducks

Cups, Locks and Ducks

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Yesterday was a bright sunny day, although a bit windy, so we decided to go to Heybridge Basin near Maldon and walk along the river wall. Having parked the car we walked the short distance along the Chelmsford and Blackwater Navigation (canal) to the Lock Tearooms where we had cups of coffee before we started our walk. This little tearoom provides good food albeit with a limited choice.

We set off on our walk going across the top of the lock gates

to be able to continue along the river wall. The stiff breeze, now that we were in the open on top of the river wall, turned into a strong wind although it wasn’t really cold. There were plenty of ducks and wading birds about – some walking across the exposed mud (it was low tide) and some gathered in small groups and some in large flocks on the mud banks out in the river.

Some were too far away, even with binoculars, for us to identify but we did see Curlew, Wigeon, Teal and Knot . I took this picture of Maldon on the other side of the river and the line of white birds on the water’s edge included Avocets and Shelduck. I have included a link to this photograph because it’s too large a picture to be included on the page. Picure link

Having walked nearly to Heybridge we changed tack, headed across to the canal and over the bridge onto the towpath on the other side. It was then just a matter of following the path, past a few people fishing and back to the car. A nice walk and a bit of exercise on a sunny December day.

Houses through the ages.

Houses through the ages.

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We went to Braintree in Essex recently to visit one particular street. Braintree was extensively damaged during the last war so that there are not that many old buildings in the centre but one street nearby appears to have survived unscathed.

Bradford Street has 65 timber-framed houses ranging from the 13th century up to the 20th century.

Three of the houses in the street are quite rare in that they date from around 1220. Of the 13th century buildings that do exist most are barns, halls and inns whereas these are domestic dwellings. I didn’t take a photograph of these because the frontage of these terraced cottages are very unprepossessing and you could be forgiven for ignoring them as Victorian dwellings.

However most of the other old house do look old. This group, for example, are 16th century and were once an inn called The Woolpack.

This house is 14th century with some later, 16th century, alterations.

The house next to it which looks like a Georgian building is actually a 15th century timber-framed house with a new facade added during Georgian times.

This demonstrates that you cannot take the appearence of a building at face value. There are some other buildings like this in the same street where the frontage conceals an older building.

This tudor house is not disguised in any way and what you see is what you get.

Altogether an interesting street.