Clare to Steeple Bumpstead - Around Essex (8)

Complicated start to the day to make this a linear walk rather than a circular! Parked in Steeple Bumpstead, took one of their few buses to Haverhill & then caught another to Clare... all before I started walking!

Highlight of the Day: What? So soon?!! And on such a good day? Quite right!
Met a lady at the bus stop in Steeple Bumpstead who was able to tell me I was waiting in the correct place, despite the website telling me the bus left from Chapel Street in a completely different part of the village!
She'd been brought up in Braintree, lived on Coggeshall Road, & went to Alec Hunter! We spent 10 minutes or so chatting about John Jemison, Pete Youngman, Jean Wilson - people I worked with when I first came to Essex! Lovely start to the day

No football to rush back for today so spent a little time wandering around Clare
This is the old railway station, preserved as part of Clare Country Park: still on the Stour Valley Line & I would be rejoining it closer to Sturmer
Closed, like many others, by Beeching in 1967

The Country Park also embraces this 11th century Norman motte & bailey Castle - not a lot to see but in the 14th century this was the home of Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare, one of the richest women in England

Old Goods Shed at Clare Station, now the Park Visitors' Centre
The crane is authentic but it's not a Clare original! It spent its working life in the Goods Yard at Glemsford station, a couple of stops down the line, before being 'salvaged' by a local farmer!
Donated to the park by his son in 2004

Looks like Mum has been feeding these'ugly ducklings' from her own plate!
Shortage of early morning visitors so they made a bee-line for me!

         Clare Priory Church
The Priory is again home to a community of 7 Augustinian monks after over 400 years in private ownership, while the church is home to the tombs of Royalty!
Elizabeth de Clare was the grand-daughter of Edward I; Elizabeth de Burgh married Edward III's youngest son

Couldn't resist these mad-March boxing hares on top of 'Stable Cottage' in Stoke-by-Clare

Small village dominated by its Independent School, Stoke College
Originally named 'Grenville', it was founded in 1954 by 2 teacher-training lecturers from Bingley! In 1973 it assumed the name of the 15th century college for priests which once stood on the site

Unusual memorial in Stoke-by-Clare cemetery
I've photographed this before & it won't be long before the simple message is indecipherable

It reads:

NIKOLAI

SABLIN

Born in Russia

Dec 20th 1898

Died at Stoke

Easter Day 1969

A Beloved

Physician

Left & Below: Baythorne Park Estate
The house was built in the 17th century by the Pyke family & came into the hands of the intriguingly-named King Viall in the mid-19th



One of his tenants was farmer, George Jarvis Unwin, founder of the still-trading Unwin Grain Company whose family continue to live here!

'The Swan' at Baythorne End.... or so it was when we moved to Braintree
I remember stopping here on several food & flower foraging expeditions when collecting ingredients for home-made wine!
Was an antiques shop for many years but now appears to have retired completely!

Another fine old Baythorne building converted to a private house Baythorne Mill was built on the Stour in the 18th century, the steam engine house & chimney being added in the 19th

Now this offended my sensibilities a little! Why on earth was this quiet stretch of the Stour Valley, close to Boyton End's vineyard being carved up... & why didn't I know anything about it?!
Well, now I know - it's not a major new road after all but part of the Abberton Project to keep Essex supplied with fresh water!

Abberton Reservoir, close to Colchester, is being expanded & this is one of the pipelines to supply it with 'new' water, imported from Norfolk's Ouse river system
The water will enter the Stour at Wixoe, close to the lovely mill above, & flow all the way to the Wormingford pumping station.... which I'd seen under construction just before Bures
Northumbrian Water! Remember?!

       Momentous occasion
Crossing the Stour for the last time & leaving behind the river that has been my constant companion since I began this walk in Harwich
The Stour Valley Path can be followed northwards to Newmarket.... maybe another day!

Quick lunch at 'The Red Lion', Sturmer - long time since I stopped here, a row of 15th century cottages converted to a pub in the 19th
Very good bacon baguette but they were out of real ale so I settled for a fine pint of Aspalls Cider

Beer of the Day: a bottle of Crouch Vale's 'Brewers Gold' when I reached home! A favourite of mine from the South Woodham Brewery (I'll be there later on this walk!), sampled often both on draught & in bottles! Pale, hoppy & fruity - worth trying if you stumble across it!

In leaving Sturmer I was also leaving behind the Suffolk border; my next flirtation will be with Cambridgeshire!

This is the fishing-lake at Sturmer Hall; hotel, conference centre & popular wedding venue

Final approach to Steeple Bumpstead took me across wide open fields where way-finding was a little tricky... the scattering deer didn't seem to have much idea where they were going either!

Farewell to the Stour, the Suffolk border &, also, the network of disused railway lines I've wandered
No more, now, than a hump in the middle of farmland, this bridge once carried the Colne Valley & Halstead line into Haverhill: at its eastern end it linked with the still-operating Marks Tey to Sudbury line I used a few walks ago!

Ann: hadn't realised that about the Clare picture when I took it but I see what you mean!
The thing I'm enjoying about watching City at the moment (strictly as a neutral, you understand!) is how simple their football is; nothing over-elaborate but sharp & incisive - good stuff!