Polstead Thatch

The Cobblers, Polstead, Suffolk  (Historic Grade II Listed Building)

I love a thatched roof and this one is a pure delight.  With the two levels and two doors I imagine it was once two cottages but today this 18th Century building is one.  Do you spot anything scampering across the top of the roof?

Well perhaps more a still life. From a distance I first thought this was a fox but of course only a squirrel would be at home on a roof top. 

Verdant Veg

 As I come from an area of heavy clay soil the Suffolk free draining sandy soil fascinates me. Half of the land in this corner of East England grows cereal in its light soil but sugar beet is often grown in rotation as it returns organic matter to the soil. I'm rather fond of crop lines following  the roll of a landscape so these verdant leaf lines were irresistible. This is also England's driest and sunniest corner so all sorts of vegetables can be found in the fields

along with a few interlopers. Who does not love the intense colour of a field of sunflowers but the surprise of finding

a bright yellow face shining out of a sea of green brings its own pleasure. With the changes of farming practises the unproductive (in farming terms) margins of fields have become an important habitat for

native flowers, grasses and fauna.  Larger fields often mean fewer margins but in

the case of this old footpath running down the middle of a field, the margin is also in the middle.  It is a way that must have been walked for hundreds of years through many seasons and rotations of crops to and from Orford's 12th century castle, church and the village.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at V here

   

Lets Zigzag

Smardale, Cumbria

Here is the letter Z in limestone gently zigzagging up the hill  or for our purposes zigzagging down also a good way for humans to come down a steep hill.   Now what else can I find, oh yes

Hodbarrow Point, Cumbria

a natural zigzag around a rock-pool.

Woodbridge Station, Suffolk

An ornate zigzagging awning on Woodbridge station, a pleasant place to wait for a train because one can watch the yachts bobbing about on the water to pass the time, a couple of these people are doing that very thing.  Getting dizzy with all this zigzagging perhaps I'll move to the zany

 A wall walking sheep.   The grass is always greener on the other side. 

Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria

And lastly a zany clown, at least I think that is what it is supposed to be.  The stall in front of the obelisk is doing a plant swap although there seemed to be more chatting than swapping.  The clown may have had something to do with the candy floss stall hidden at the back. I can never resist candy floss.  Phew that is the tricky letter Z over for another round of ABC.   

An entry to ABC Wednesday where the end of the alphabet has been reached. 

Are you in for the next round? 

Shingle Street

I mentioned when doing M for Martello Towers in this round of ABC Wednesday that my walks destination was Shingle Street and so here we are on the sweeping shingle beach.  The day was both showery and windy as can be seen

from the flag. The line of cottages that look out over on the beach are called Shingle Street so the beach takes the same name. During World War Two the beach was mined against invasion and the inhabitants evacuated. Someone was rather careless with explosives and the pub blew up, never to be rebuilt.  I hope its stock of beer was low.  Today it is just a quiet hamlet with holiday cottages and a lifeguard station

  which is at the end of the white cottages in the distance. My attention was on the sea kale

t

which grows here in profusion. The Victorians were also a lovers of sea kale but they dug it up and transplanted it into ornamental gardens and for a time it became rare on the coast. This beach is full of  both mature and

young plants just starting out in life. Many parts of the plant can be eaten but perhaps not on this beach for it is an area of special scientific interest for both its flora and fauna in the shingle and salt-marshes nearby.

It is thought that coastal erosion may mean that this shingle spit may not be here in twenty years time.Who knows but until then it felt firm under my feet. 

and I'm guessing the home owners are hoping the same.

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journey through the alphabet

  

Martello Towers

In the distance over the wheat field stands a Martello Tower, it is one of 29 on the Suffolk coast built between 1810-12. 

 Inspired by the Genovese round tower defences at Mortella Point in Corsica these, in the south east of England, were an addition to the 74 already in place on the south coast built to ward off a possible invasion by Napoleon, each housed a garrison of 15-25 men.

Martello Tower 'Z', Alderton

Getting closer to its 13 foot thick walls the windows of the upper floor can be seen, the entrance on the ground floor is on the other side. The 30 foot high structure had a basement, ground and upper floor with the cannon being placed on the roof.

and a nifty internal drainage system leading to the water storage tank.  The round walls were cannon resistant but with advances in artillery the Martello Towers soon became obsolete however some were once again pressed into service  in 20th century for the Second World War as observation towers or for anti-aircraft guns.  This particular tower is on English Heritage's  'at risk' register because 

 the outer brick skin is peeling away. For a look inside see an enthusiasts view here

Some of the towers get another use

Martello Tower, Shingle Street

 and this particular one caught my attention because of the obsolete postbox in its surrounding grounds

Now it is a holiday home with views out to sea by the side of the beach at Shingle Street, but more of that when we get to S.  As you can see from the photos it was one of those sunshine and showers days, with the accent on showers although being optimists we were dressed for sunshine!

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journey through the alphabet.

Dawdling by the Deben

This craft owner was enjoying the day on the River Deben.  Relaxing while watching his line, or perhaps having a doze.

Nearby the craft are chugging out of Woodbridge on the full tide.

Woodbridge is where the River Deben turns into a tidal estuary, in the background is the tidal mill which, as the name suggests, rus off the tide, and happily its water wheel still turns.

 One of our walks followed the river from Woodbridge, the rich mud and salt marsh  means that it is the perfect place to watch multifarious birds throughout the year I'll mention three that include the letter D which would be - dabchick,  shelduck and tufted duck. The treat of wintertime is the avocets who no doubt enjoy

 the mudflats. I'm not sure what this was originally but I liked their curious shape as they stood above the seaweed and mud to be eventually covered at full tide. 

 The docked boats at Martlesham Creek (an inlet to the Deben) that will float one hour each side of full tide.  As we passed the only thing that was floating was the flock of swans in the channel.  Now reaching the end of this

riverside walk I was about to turn inland leaving the sandy path and the  River Deben behind.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a walk through the alphabet which this week is stopping off at D

Aldeburgh Art Ancient and Modern

Amazingly another alphabet gone and we are at number 12 of the rounds of ABC Wednesday, so new year, new badge and new alphabet words. With no more ado let me take you to the south east of England to the coastal town of Aldeburgh in Suffolk and head for the beach, which may have snow on it at the moment, but what better time to dream of sunny summer days when you can wander along the beach picking up shells, but this one is not for picking but for admiring

"Scallop" by Maggi Hambling is dedicated to the composer Benjamin Britten who lived in Aldeburgh and used to walk along the beach in the afternoon.  The words written on the edge say "I hear those voices that will not be drowned" and are from his opera 'Peter Grimes' which was based on part of a poem by George Crabbe a native of Aldeburgh.  This year a beach performance of Peter Grimes will take place at Aldeburgh as part of the music festival.  East Anglia is the driest part of Britain so hopefully they get a day like the one in my photographs.

Mermaid on the Scallop

Maggi Hambling's idea was for the Scallop to be both visual and tactile. It proved controversial with some local people who said it spoilt the shingle beach.  I went to see for myself and loved it on the crest of the beach, it would seem that

visitors do too for every time I passed it was either being photographed or as in the previous photo sat on. Hambling thinks of it as a conversation with the sea

"An important part of my concept is that at the centre of the sculpture, where the sound of the waves and the winds are focused, a visitor may sit and contemplate the mysterious power of the sea,"

Maggi Hambling, before The Scallop, was probably most famous for being a portrait painter full of bold strokes and lots of paint.  She also became well known for appearing in the 1980s as captain of the TV quiz show "Gallery" where the panellists of the two teams used to identify and discuss works of art. Described as a "cerebral quiz show" I couldn't see it being made for today's television even discounting the fact that Hambling was rarely seen without a cigarette in her hand.

That is the modern (2003) part of Aldeburgh in my title but walk away from The Scallop and towards Aldeburgh to find the ancient

 Moot Hall built in 1520.  Moot Halls are local meeting places and this once this held local council meetings but today although the Town Clerk has an office here the rest is a museum, which as the sign says is "open".  The building was restored in 1854 hence its good condition.

 Going around the side and there is the sundial from the times before the railways when each part of England had a different time.  The coming of the railways meant that there had to be a standardised time for all the country otherwise the timetables would not make any sense.

Go around the back and a couple of cyclists have arrived, the relatively flat and rolling county of Suffolk being ideal for being active on a bike.

A Trip to Thorpeness

"The Headlands" built in 1937

Briefly stopping off late in the afternoon at Thorpeness on our Suffolk holiday we took a twirl around the village and of course being coastal dwellers the first stop was the beach coming in past these houses with the perfect sea view

The village of Thorpeness started life as a small fishing village and is reputed to have been the preferred smuggling route into East Anglia but it was about to change early in the 20th century when a Scottish barrister who had made his fortune from the railways bought up a huge tract of land along the coast and in 1910 started to build a holiday village for his friends.  He went on to develop a private fantasy holiday destination building golf course and club house, tennis courts, country club and homes in mock Jacobean and Tudor style sometimes described as 'Romantic Picturesque'

like these from a photograph taken in the 1930s

The Haven houses built c1914

In common with all Suffolk villages Thorpeness has a village sign and this shows its most famous features, the windmill and the House in the Clouds.  The latter was in fact built to hide the water tower whose tank was clad in wood to make it look like a small house on a 5 storey tower.  With mains water installed in the village it was turned into a huge games room and today is a holiday let with I imagine spectacular views and an ideal way to keep fit going up and down its 68 steps.

Three generations of the Ogilvie family owned these village amenities and when the last one dropped dead on the golf course many properties were sold to pay death duties.  Today 400 people live here permanently but the numbers swell to 1,600 in the holiday season

 We sat in the Dolphin Inn beer garden which is situated near the Almshouses built in the 1930s.  We had chosen our holiday weeks well because it encompassed the hottest day of the year just the excuse for a cold beer, if I needed one.

The House in the Clouds was not the only water tower. This is the Westbar a 'Norman' or medieval style building which also hid a water tower.  So there is my ten minute trip around Thorpeness with its countless building styles the last to be built the first of my photographs but there is lots more including a lake with Peter Pan associations but I will have to make a return journey to Suffolk to take pictures of those. 

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journey through the alphabet which today has stopped on the latter T