On Tuesday I took a slightly shorter walk than usual, only five miles. As usual, it was along a tidal stretch of river – not the Thames, the Stour that divides Essex from Suffolk and joins the North Sea at Harwich.
My cousin and I started from Wrabness, on the south (Essex) bank of the estuary and walked upstream along The Essex Way. If we had walked east we would have been in Harwich after six miles. Wrabness has a Norman church, a railway station, community shop and a population of about 400. A lane runs north from the village to the estuary passing by this unusual house.
Called Julie’s House, it was designed by Grayson Perry and architectural practice, FAT. It took them five years, was finished in 2015 and is rented out (two bedrooms, two bathrooms) to people who want to stay somewhere quirky.
There was plenty of bird life along the foreshore, a host of hardy windsurfers scudding at high-speed hither and thither and a dredger. Across on the Suffolk side the cranes and derricks of Felixstowe were prominent also a former naval college (now Royal Hospital School) and a Scottish baronial castle with flag fluttering. The path turns inland through agricultural land. This field of sugar beet was being harvested.
It came as a surprise to walk through these woods, more akin to the Chilterns than Essex.
Our destination was Mistley, now the last upstream working port on the Stour. It also has a railway station and an excellent hotel and restaurant, The Mistley Thorn. But before lunch we walked to the end of the village to look at these twin towers built by Robert Adam in 1776.
They are all that remains of a fine church that lay between the towers, demolished in 1870. Nevertheless they are a magnificent sight to come upon in this Essex village; as unexpected as Julie’s House, a great deal more beautiful and I guess they will still be standing in another 250 years. Here is what the church looked like, from an engraving of 1779.
Only five miles, but a walk punctuated by two arresting pieces of architecture with water, woods and fine views in between.
What a splendid walk on a beautiful day – thank you very much for informing us readers of this little piece of England; surely unknown to most of us until now………
It beats me why we go abroad when there is so much of the British Isles to explore.
It is the northern shorelines of these estuaries where the big houses are found. They face south and have lovely views of the water.
For many years, we rented a cottage on the south side of the Shotley peninsula. To our west, there was Stutton Hall and Little Hall. To the east, there was Crepping Hall and Crowe Hall. Being a small, semi-detached 2 bedroom, estate cottage in between these grand houses, we called it ‘Bugger ‘all’.
The nearest, wildest, least spoilt, part of England to the Big Smoke is here. Long may it continue.