BILLINGFORD TO THE REDGRAVE AND LOPHAM NATURE RESERVE
Summary - It was dry all day today but it was so sticky and humid one felt it would not be long before there was a thunderstorm. We left Billingford and walked the 12.5 miles to a car park in the Redgrave and Lopham Nature Reserve. Lots of field paths and all very pleasant but one could not describe the countryside as outstanding. Getting so fit that we did it in four hours of walking. We stopped at Diss for lunch - fish and chips and a cup of coffee. The walk finished through some marshy fens and the mosquitoes were all over the place - glad to get to the car.
Jim and I left the layby near Billingford on the A143 where we had finished the previous day. This meant returning along the main road buffeted by the draft of passing lorries back to the Angles Way. After a few hundred yards north along Kiln Lane it was west again along footpaths through Hall Farm and down to Norgate Lane where we had this view of Billingford Windmill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billingford_Windmill
Another field later we were looking at these remains of St Mary's Church. Judging by older pictures it is gradually reducing in size. http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/thorpeparva/thorpeparva.htm
We went by Hall Farm cottages and some fields to Lodge Farm and onto the old Norwich Road now quiet because of the new dual carriageway just to the west - A140. It is a straight alignment because it is an old Roman Road to Venta Icenorum and passes through Scole to the south. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venta_Icenorum
We continued west via Scole Common and Miller's Lane to Frenze where we found a redundant church, St Andrew's which was a surprising break in our walk. It is a Grade 1 listed building and contained a number of tombs with brass plaques (see photos above and below). http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/frenze/frenze.htm
This is the view from the pulpit down on to the manorial box pew. Prior to the Reformation, seating was not customary in churches and only accorded to the lord of the manor, civic dignitaries and finally churchwardens. After 1569 stools and seating were installed in Protestant Churches primarily because the congregation were expected to listen to sermons, and various types of seating were introduced including the box pew. Someone had left extracts of speeches on the pulpit so I read them out to the assembled audience of one.
No sooner had we left the church than we were faced with a ford. Just made it with fractions left before an inundation into the boots.
It was soon under a railway and along Frenze Hall Lane into Diss one of the larger towns on the Angles Way. Opposite the 14th-century parish church of St. Mary the Virgin stands a 16th-century building known as the Dolphin House (photo above). This was one of the most important buildings in the town. Its impressive dressed-oak beams denote it as an important building, possibly a wool merchant's house. Formerly a pub, the Dolphin, from the 1800s to the 1960s, the building now houses a number of small businesses. Extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diss
Time for lunch and nearby we found an excellent Fish and Chips shop and a bank to get some money out.
The Angles Way then goes down the main high street through all the shops, quite a change from where we had been lately
Turning right of the high street we walked around a mere (lake) that covers 6 acres (2.4 ha). The mere is up to 18 feet (5.5 m) deep, although there is another 51 feet (16 m) of mud. There was also a layer of green algae on the surface which according to notices was a danger to human health. We left town via Fair Green and along the side of Roydon Fen - a boggy wood. Heading west and then south we crossed Doit Bridge over the River Waveney again.
The route was along minor roads through Wortham Ling (photo above) an area of wild heathland owned and managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. It is 128.75 acres (51.5 hectares).
From there a pleasant path leads to Hall Farm next to which is this church. Another chance to take a break on a seat. The Church of St Mary has the largest round tower in England, ten metres across. http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/wortham.htm
The route was still west through a field of sugar beet and along this track to Woodhouse Farm where there was a nice path through the grounds. Then it was a track called Mill Lane north to Dashes Farm and Dashes Cottages after which it was a narrow path that led to a bridge over the River Waveney and into the Redgrave and Lopham Nature Reserve the largest fen in England where we had left a car in the Suffolk Wildlife Trust car park. I did not take any pictures of this nature reserve as the mosquitos were large numerous and biting. We were glad to get into the car away from them. http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/reserves/redgrave-lopham-fen
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