Bungay Re-visited.

27 Tue Feb 2024

Posted by Clare Pooley in architecture, churches, plants, Rural Diary, walking

Tags

Bungay, Chateaubriand, Elizabeth Jane Howard, mistletoe, Suffolk, town tour

This last autumn and winter have been especially wet, so walking from home has not often been possible because of the mud and deep puddles everywhere. In fact, I don’t think I have walked along our lanes since the autumn, though Richard has – he is a hardier soul than me! The field paths are probably very squelchy and much too difficult for me to walk on as well. Most of my recent walking has been town or city-based when I have driven to Norwich, Halesworth, Beccles, Harleston or Bungay to shop.

I have taken a few photos, mainly with my phone during my recents trips to Bungay and I thought I would share some of them with you.

When I first moved to East Anglia in the 80’s I was told that in former times there used to be lots of mistletoe here but it had virtually disappeared from this part of Suffolk. It had mainly grown on apple trees and when the fruit farmers decided that growing apples had become uneconomical because of cheap imports, many of the old orchards were grubbed up and the mistletoe went too. Recently, I have noticed mistletoe making a come-back, mainly in the towns rather than the countryside. Mistletoe is a partial parasite and makes it’s home on a variety of trees – apple, lime, hawthorn, poplar, maple and willow and the best time to see it is during the winter when the host trees have lost their leaves. There are many trees in Bungay with mistletoe but I have just included three examples.

The darker masses on this tree (I think it’s a hawthorn) opposite the Co-Op supermarket are mistletoe plants (Viscum album )

Balls of mistletoe on trees in-between where the Co-Op is situated and the centre of the town.

Mistletoe on trees at a road junction.

A little further on from the road junction and close to the centre of town is a road called Wharton Street and that is where the library is. On the opposite side of the road to the library is a house sporting a popular architectural feature seen on many houses in Suffolk; an oriel window.

House with oriel window.

Probably because parts of Bungay were owned by the Dukes of Norfolk who are Roman Catholic, Bungay has a fine Roman Catholic church and an attached Roman Catholic primary school.

A poor picture of the Roman Catholic church in Bungay taken from the church yard belonging to the redundant Church of England Priory Church of St Mary next door.

The Priory Church of St Mary. A redundant church looked after by a charity.

Holy Trinity church.

Holy Trinity church is the parish church in Bungay and is found behind the Abbey Church. It is a smaller building and so easier to look after than the enormous St Mary’s church. Holy Trinity was not damaged in the dreadful fire during the 1600’s whereas the Abbey church was; two of the people sheltering inside the Abbey church were killed by molten lead from the roof falling on them.

Here is the Butter Cross in the centre of Bungay. A market is held here once a week on a Thursday. Here is more information about the markets in Bungay.

Cork Bricks

This little passageway between houses is called Cork Bricks. A strange name for an alleyway but during the 1890’s the owner of the house on the left of the photo had the cobbles replaced by cork bricks when his wife was ill and was greatly disturbed by the noise of traffic clattering past the house. Read here for more information. If you look at the sign on the archway over the entrance you will see a running black dog on the top. The dog is ‘Black Shuck‘, a phantom hound that features quite heavily in East Anglian folklore.

Bridge Street

I walked down Bridge Street towards the River Waveney. The Waveney is the border between Suffolk and Norfolk and once the Falcon Bridge is crossed Bridge Street becomes Ditchingham Dam and we have entered Ditchingham in Norfolk.

Boroughwell Lane

Just a step or two down Bridge Street from the Market Place is a tiny lane off to the right. This is Boroughwell Lane where the town well was situated. The lane makes a sharp right turn further along and ends up near Holy Trinity church.

Bridge Street looking back up towards the Market Place with the cream-fronted Chequers Inn on the right.

Bridge Street is a one-way road for cars; drivers can only go down from the Market Place but cyclists, using the cycle lane marked on the left of the carriageway, are able to go up the hill to the market place.

Bridge Street looking down it in the direction of the bridge.

Further along Bridge Street looking towards the Market Place. The houses are painted so brightly and look very cheerful.

On the left of the photo is a red brick house called The Music House and just beyond it you can see an evergreen tree standing at the entrance to a courtyard.

The courtyard.

Both the houses you see here have had well-known people living in them. The red brick house on the left (The Music House) was once stayed in by the writer, politician, diplomat and historian François-René Vicomte de Chateaubriand. After being wounded during the Siege of Thionville in 1792 he was exiled to England and spent most of his time living in extreme poverty in London. For some reason, he came to Bungay and stayed at the house (now the Music House) of a Mr and Mrs Ives. He fell in love with their seventeen year-old daughter Charlotte but the romance came to an end when Charlotte’s parents discovered that the Vicomte was already married! The wedding ceremony had taken place shortly before he had gone off to war. It was a marriage arranged by his family and he had never met his bride before the ceremony. He was constantly unfaithful to his wife and also changed his allegiance a number of times. He was appointed to an official position by Napoleon on his return to France but he eventually resigned in disgust after Napoleon had Chateaubriand’s cousin executed. Chateaubriand published a strongly-worded criticism of Napoleon for which Napoleon threatened to have him sabred on the steps of the Tuileries Palace! In the end he was just banned from entering Paris. He eventually returned to England as Ambassador to France in the 1820’s where his personal chef created the Chateaubriand steak dish you might have heard of.

Chateaubriand – self-confessed greatest lover, greatest writer and greatest philosopher of his age! (Thanks to cdn.britannica.com for the image)

The white house in the courtyard, Bridge House, (look! it has an oriel window) was lived in by the writer and actress Elizabeth Jane Howard for the last twenty-four years of her life. She died in 2014 at the age of ninety. Abused by her father and unloved by her mother she looked for love all through her life and never found what she seeked, a stable, loving relationship. She was married three times firstly to Peter Scott the naturalist and son of Robert Falcon Scott the explorer, secondly to another writer James Douglas Henry and lastly to Kingsley Amis the novelist. She moved to Bungay after a friend, the artist Sargy Mann, said the house next-door was for sale and it would suit her. It did, and she bought it straight away. She loved the long garden which led down to the river and re-designed and re-planted it. Here is a wonderful obituary written by her friend Hilary Mantel. Elizabeth Jane Howard wrote the Cazalet Chronicles as well as a number of other superb novels. Her autobiography, Slipstream is one of the most honest I have ever read. She never glosses over anything she’d rather not admit to as other writers often do.

Elizabeth Jane Howard (with thanks to Babelio.com for the image)

More houses in Bridge Street

The last house before the bridge.

Here I am on the Norfolk side of the bridge looking towards Suffolk.

The River Waveney in its winter gloom.

I hope you have enjoyed this tour of a part of Bungay in Suffolk.

Bungay Castle

23 Thu Nov 2023

Posted by Clare Pooley in Historic Buildings, Rural Diary

≈ 62 Comments

Tags

Bigod, Bungay, Bungay Castle, castle ruins, castles, Suffolk

Bungay Castle gate towers

In my post about Mettingham Castle (https://asuffolklane.wordpress.com/2023/05/15/mettingham-castle/) I mentioned that I visited a cafe next to Bungay Castle and had a cup of tea there. For my first post in six months I thought that I would tell you about the ruins of Bungay Castle which are hidden behind the main shopping street in the town. Sadly, it is not possible to walk round them at present as they have become unsafe and the Bungay Castle Trust hasn’t yet made up it’s mind how best to deal with the problem.

Gate towers

The castle was originally built just after the conquest by a William de Noyers who constructed the motte and bailey and some stone fortifications. Roger Bigod who came over to England with William the Conqueror in 1066 was rewarded with a lot of land in England by King William and Bungay was included in this gift. Shortly after the year 1100 Roger began work on the castle which is almost surrounded by a curve in the River Waveney; a natural defence. Some say the name Bungay derives from the old French for ‘beautiful island’.

Curtain wall

The Bigods were troublesome barons! Roger’s son Hugh took part in the civil unrest of 1138-1154, a period in history known as the Anarchy when both Stephen and Matilda claimed they were heirs to the throne of England. Hugh’s loyalty to King Henry II (who was Matilda’s son) was called into question during the early years of his reign so Henry confiscated Bungay Castle but gave it back again in 1165. It was always thought best to placate powerful barons!

Bungay Castle – more of the curtain wall

Hugh was on the losing side in the revolt of 1173-1174 and his castle at Bungay was besieged, mined and slighted (purposely damaged in such a way as to reduce it’s value) by royal forces. The site was later restored to the Bigod family and Roger Bigod 5th Earl of Norfolk further developed it and probably built the huge gate towers. Roger had a falling out with Edward I and after Roger’s death the castle reverted to the Crown and was allowed to fall into disrepair and ruin. The Dukes of Norfolk re-acquired the castle in 1483 and retained ownership until the 20th century except for a short period in the 18th century. In 1766 the site was sold to Robert Mickleborough who quarried the keep and curtain walls for building materials. In the early 1790’s the castle remains were bought by Daniel Bonhôte, a local solicitor who sold them back to the Dukes of Norfolk in around 1800. A dwelling for the poor had at some time been built on the site and other than it’s removal very few repairs were done for several centuries. You can see the dwelling in the watercolour painting of the castle by the artist James Moore https://collections-test.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:57364

Bungay Castle

Daniel Bonhôte’s wife Elizabeth wrote a Gothic romance called ‘Bungay Castle’ which was published in 1797 a few years after her husband had acquired the site. I believe the reviews weren’t too good but reprints of the book can still be found on EBay and other second-hand book sites.

Remains of the earthworks which are in a small park next to the castle

The castle remains include the keep, the gatehouse, parts of the curtain wall and remnants of the inner bailey wall. Parts of the earthworks around the castle are also extant and the whole area was given to the townspeople of Bungay in 1987 by the Duke of Norfolk along with an endowment for its upkeep. The castle was scheduled in 1915 and was one of the first sites to be protected under the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act 1913. It was subsequently listed as a Grade 1 Monument in 1949.

More information about Bungay and its castle can be found here and here

Mettingham Castle

15 Mon May 2023

Posted by Clare Pooley in Historic Buildings, Rural Diary, walking

≈ 61 Comments

Tags

Bungay, Mettingham, Mettingham Castle, Suffolk, walking, Waveney Valley

Last May, just over a year ago, I had to take my car to the garage to have new brake discs and pads fitted. Instead of going back home to wait for the work to be done (which would have meant Richard having to get involved) I decided to stay in Bungay. Bungay is a pleasant market town but it doesn’t have enough to amuse me for two or three hours in the early morning. It has a couple of places where I could have a tea or coffee, a museum, a castle and a few useful shops none of which were open. I decided I would go for for a walk out of the town. Bungay is situated in the Waveney valley right at the border between Suffolk and Norfolk. It is surrounded by water meadows.

My route took me up Annis Hill towards Mettingham.

Annis Hill, looking down towards the town

The day was perfect; the first really warm day of spring last year. The birds were singing and everyone I met was smiling.

I took this photo of an oak tree on my walk (the 6th May 2022) and I can see that greening was more advanced then than it was on the 6th of May this year, which has been quite cold so far.

I loved this long narrow field, almost a ‘ride’ with high hedges on both sides.

Photo-bombed by a bee!

At the top of the hill the road is level and in places the views of the surrounding countryside are wonderful.

I looked over the Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) to the wheatfield beyond. Many people in Suffolk call Cow Parsley ‘Sheep’s Parsley’. My husband Richard, who grew up in rural Cheshire called it ‘Mothers Die’ as a boy.

I loved the Horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) full of ‘candles’ arching over the lane.

At the far end of this lane there is a bend in the road and I was soon at the place I had been aiming for; Mettingham Castle. Mettingham Castle is mostly a ruin and is in private hands so I was only able to look at it from a distance. I think the idea of owning a castle, even a ruined one appeals to many people but the responsiblities and costs are often overlooked. Here is a short history of the village, castle, college and church written by Alfred Suckling in 1846; the foundation deed of the castle is dated 21st August 1342. Here is the Wikipedia article. In the past the castle has been open to the public on three days during the year; I am not sure what the present arrangement is.

Mettingham Castle

Mettingham Castle – the gatehouse

Mettingham Castle

Plants growing on the ancient walls

I hadn’t the time to stay longer or walk further so I retraced my steps back to Bungay where I found the café next to Bungay Castle and had a refreshing cup of tea. I then walked back to the garage and sat for half-an-hour in a rather hot and airless waiting room until my car was ready.

I remember this walk very fondly.

2017 Revisited

12 Thu Apr 2018

Posted by Clare Pooley in Arts and Crafts, churches, Rural Diary

≈ 90 Comments

Tags

Bungay, Churches Conservation Trust, gargoyles, grotesques, H Rider Haggard, John Barber Scott, Priory Church of Saint Mary, Suffolk

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am writing a series of posts about a few places I visited last year but hadn’t the time then, to feature in my blog.

ooooOOoooo

The Priory Church of Saint Mary, Bungay, Suffolk

Last spring I went to see an exhibition of ancient and modern needlework and textiles at St. Mary’s Priory Church in Bungay. The exhibition was called ‘A Stitch in Time’ and the leaflet I was given as I entered the church stated that it “… offer(ed) the visitor the opportunity to explore Bungay through the textiles that have been left as legacies of its past and … (admire) textiles that, it is hoped, will become heirlooms for future generations”.

Star of Bethlehem

Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) were in flower in the churchyard.

I enjoyed the exhibition exceedingly but photography was not allowed because many of the exhibits were extremely old and precious and all were unique and beautiful. I spent some time admiring the needlework and also watching as some of the members of the ‘Sew on Sunday’ group worked on their current projects.

St. Mary’s Church tower

St. Mary’s Church began its life as part of a Benedictine Priory, its Parochial Nave, which was founded in the 12th century (about 1160) byGundreda wife of Roger de Glanville. The nuns who resided in the priory were skilled needlewomen and made beautifully embroidered wall-hangings, altar cloths and other textiles used in church and chapel. They probably also made embroidered vestments for the clergy. The leaflet told me that after the Reformation in 1536 the Priory was closed and according to the parish accounts and local wills, “some of the church embroideries and vestments were cut up and made into elaborate theatrical costumes for the plays forming part of the annual Ale-Games in the churchyards during the Whitsun period!” Don’t ask me about Ale-Games, because I can’t tell you a thing about them! On display were some exquisite vestments and other church textiles. Local churches, the Community of All Hallows and the Museum in Bungay had contributed some items for display, as had a number of local people.

St. Mary’s Church, built in the 15th century

Also on display were some needlework samplers dating from the late 17th century. These were made by the female ancestors of John Barber Scott (1792 – 1862) who was a wealthy local gentleman, diarist, philanthropist and Town Reeve.

I particularly enjoyed the display of work by the All Hallows Embroidery School which used to be part of the Community of All Hallows in Ditchingham.

The Barber Scott memorials and grave stones in the churchyard

I returned to the church a week later once the exhibition had finished, and took some more photographs of the church, inside and out. This church is now redundant and is cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.

Carving over north door. A knight and a lion.

Carving over north door. A lion and a mouse. There is also a man’s head to the right of the lion.

An arch-stop with oak leaves and acorns

The north wall of the church.

I enjoy looking out for grotesques and gargoyles on churches.

Dog grotesque on north side of the church

What looks like a pig with a crown and long hair on north side of the church

Man with a toothache on north side of the church

Grotesque on north side of the church

These are the ruins of the 13th and 14th century priory buildings at the east end of the church

Priory ruins

Churchyard with the Barber Scott graves in the middle distance

Look at the beautiful open-work cresting on the top of the north aisle! What skilled masons they were to have carved this!

I love this tiny figure of a knock-kneed kneeling knight in armour!

These niches on the buttresses would have contained figures of saints which were probably destroyed when the priory was dissolved.

More grotesque faces!

A chained begging monkey

A hound with folded paws

I’m not sure what this creature is!

I like the pinnacles on top of the tower. More fine carving here too.

Carving and flushwork on the West Front

Note the crowned ‘M’s above the West window. The emblem incorporates all the letters of the name ‘Maria’.

Opposite the West Door is this stone known as ‘The Druid’s Stone’ which has probably been there since the Ice Age.

The inside of the church is less interesting than the outside. Damage was done to the church in the Bungay Great Fire of 1688 when most of the roof timbers were destroyed and again during the Second World War when most of the glass was lost.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The slideshow above is of the windows and the stained glass in the church, most of which had to be replaced after the Second World War.

The High Altar

Some of the modern needlework that adorns the church

Carved ivy

One of the bosses in the roof. I apologise for it being out of focus.

Some of the original 15th century woodwork was saved. I have no idea if this might be one of the older carvings. Most of the roof dates from the restoration after the fire which was completed in 1699.

Another blurred boss

The font is 18th century and decorated with cherubs and roses.

Behind and to the right of the font is a stone bowl thought to be part of a Saxon or Norman font which was found near the Staithe in the town.

This is a dole cupboard where bread and other scraps of food were placed for the poor to collect.

The cupboard was restored in the 19th century but it is dated 1675. Or, it may be a fake and made in the 19th century. Who knows! There is a rebus on the lower front of the cupboard; a large Q with a rat inside it (Curate) and his initials. There are also mitred bishops being pulled downwards by hands. Hmmm! Bishops can’t have been rated very highly here!

I like the studded door.

The studded panels came from a 16th century house in the town.

The War Memorial Chapel in the church has this 17th century Flemish carving of the Resurrection as the central panel of the reredos.

This beautiful carving was the gift of Sir H Rider Haggard of ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ and ‘She’ fame, who lived in Ditchingham House nearby.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this long post!

Two Short Walks

03 Sat Jan 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, walking

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

Bridge Street Bungay, Bungay, Dunwich, Dunwich beach, walking

After three days of glorious blue sky and sunshine, the sun not powerful enough to melt the thick frost and ice in shady places, we woke yesterday morning, the first of the new year, to gloom and cloud and increasing wind. Richard and I had hoped to go to Minsmere with Elinor, walk round the bird reserve and have lunch in the café. However, after her late night seeing in the new year Elinor didn’t get up til midday by which time it was too late to get there for lunch. We decided we would try to get to Minsmere at the weekend and drove to Dunwich and had a short walk there instead.

Rough sea at Dunwich beach

No matter what the weather, there are always at least two tents belonging to sea fishermen on this beach. I only had my phone with me so these photos aren’t too good.

We found it difficult walking on the beach because of the strong, cold wind and Elinor who hasn’t been very well recently decided to return to the warmth of the car.

The coast here is being eroded away very quickly and there are frequent land-slips.

I am glad I don’t live in the house whose chimneys you can see at the top of the picture.

Dunwich, in the 13th century was a port city equal in size to London (as it was then). It had six churches, two monasteries and its own mint. In 1286 a storm washed away many houses into the sea and this was followed by three further storm surges in quick succession until almost all of Dunwich was lost to the sea with only a tiny fragment of the city remaining. There is a legend that the church bells can still be heard tolling beneath the waves on quiet days. The port and river mouth became silted up and the trade went away. The storm surge we had in December 2013 caused a lot of damage all along this coast and many people are still in danger of losing their homes.

Archaeologists have been working in recent years to map the sea floor across the entire area of the town. A lot of ruins have been discovered and stones with lime mortar attached dating back to the early medieval times. This is the largest medieval underwater site in Europe.

The huts contain winching gear to help pull the boats back up the beach.

The ‘must-have’ gear of a fisherman

About ten days before Christmas I went shopping in Bungay and, as it was a nice day and I wasn’t in a hurry I decided to walk down Bridge Street to the river and see how high the water was.

The colourful houses in Bridge Street.

Looking back up the street towards the Buttercross in the Market Place

More colourful houses

And yet more!

The white heap is two Mute Swans. I didn’t have my camera with the zoom lens and this is the best I could do.

The River Waveney seen from the bridge.

Looking at the River Waveney from the other side of the bridge.

If you would like to hear more about Bridge Street please click here to listen to local historians and residents talk about the area. Turn up the volume on your phone/computer. In the recording you will hear about Nursey’s the sheepskin shop. Unfortunately, since this recording was made the shop has had to close as they couldn’t find a buyer.

I hope you enjoy listening to this audio tour.

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Better Late Than Never

26 Wed Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

aubretia, birch catkins, bluetit, Bungay, daffodils, Eye, Lent course, narcissus, pheasant, raw milk, roadworks, women drivers, woodpigeon

I don’t seem to have had the time to write a post for days and have got all behind. So, instead of trying to catch up I will start with today and if I have the time will add in some of the things I have done/noticed during the past week at a later date.

This morning was mainly taken up with housework – boring but necessary. The weather here, unlike the rest of the country it seems, was lovely. Bright, hazy sunshine and light winds which dried my washing very nicely. The wind was a little chilly as it came from the east but nothing to complain about. I had to go to Bungay in the early afternoon to do some shopping and post a couple of letters. The improvements to the town’s pavements and road system are coming along nicely and I was able to drive into the centre for the first time in weeks. When the work is finished there will be fewer traffic jams (I hope!) and the absence of kerbs will mean that those with prams and pushchairs or in wheelchairs or mobility scooters will be able to get about more easily. The town will look very different and in some ways that is a little sad. Bungay will have lost it’s timeless look; it will no longer look quaint and old-fashioned but like all other towns with the regulation one-way streets and easy-access shops.

On my way home I nearly collided with another car. All the lanes are mainly single track with a few passing places. The lanes are also windy so it is always best not to go too fast. The driver of the other car came shooting round a corner towards me and had to swerve to avoid me. She was on the phone. I am very sorry to say that a lot of the really bad driving I see these days is done by women. Women used to be reliable, sensible drivers but not any more it seems. The worst ones are the young girls who appear to be unable to drive at less than 50mph. They are also the ones using phones: twice in recent weeks I have been stuck in a queue at a junction behind young women who thought it would be a good moment to sent a text or instant message. One girl had stopped a couple of yards from the junction to message someone and had opened the driver’s door and was hanging her leg out! She may have broken down but it didn’t look like it. Many women don’t know how to reverse and won’t pull into a passing place and to be followed by a woman on the school run in the morning is a terrifying experience! They are always late and have cars full of children.

My route home was along the road from Bungay to Flixton which has water-meadows on one side of it. It has been pleasing to see the cows out on the meadows again after their winter stay in the cattle sheds. The farmer here is one of the few remaining dairy farmers around. He has recently started selling raw (unpasteurized/unhomogenized) milk from a little stall in the farmyard and this has been exceedingly popular. Every time I drive past there is always someone there in the little shop.

I took a few photos this afternoon. This first one (which I actually took this morning) is from an upstairs window and is of a couple of woodpigeons feasting on leaf and flower buds on the top of our hedge. What is not obvious is that they weren’t the only pigeons on the hedge at that moment and they spent most of the day there too!

Birch catkins and new leaves. Our horrible, tumbledown summerhouse is in the background!

A bluetit in the birch tree.

Scented narcissus

Aubretia

Scented daffodils. These have come out extremely early and have rather thick petals, almost as if fashioned out of wax.

A male pheasant. I took this photo through the kitchen window which accounts for the vague haziness.

I drove to Mum’s house this evening at 6.45pm and there was still a lot of light in the sky. We attended her Lent course lecture in Eye, the subject being Prayer for Healing and Wholeness and given by the Sub-Dean and Canon Pastor from the cathedral at Bury St Edmunds. A very interesting talk indeed.

A starry drive home with the temperature just above freezing at 1 degree centigrade.

Spring is Nearly Here!

27 Thu Feb 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, Rural Diary, wild birds

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Tags

Beccles, blackbird, blackthorn, Bungay, butterfly, Dunwich, free-range pigs, greylags, mallards, Muscovy duck, rood screen, skylark, spring weather, St Peter South Elmham

A windy,cloudy morning on Sunday. R and I decided to go to the early service of Morning Prayer at St. Peter’s church as we were going out for lunch. There were only seven of us there, including Maurice who took the service and played the organ as well. Maurice always gives interesting and thought-provoking sermons and the church is such an attractive one – it has a wonderfully carved rood screen with a rood (cross) and statues on top too. Pleasant talk afterwards with very good coffee.
I think a future post will have to be about all the lovely churches in ‘The Saints’ – the area where I live.
We (R, E and I) took my mother out for lunch at The Dove at Wortwell which is just over the border into Norfolk. An extremely enjoyable meal and everything well cooked and presented. Mum came back home with us for the afternoon and we just sat around and chatted.
Monday was a glorious day; a gentle, almost warm breeze, lots of sunshine and blue sky. Mum had an appointment for a blood test so I took her to her medical centre and waited for her outside in the car. A long wait; even though her appointment was fairly early (10.30) all the GPs and nurses were running 45 minutes late already. Dropped her back home and then drove to Beccles to shop in Tesco. I drove up to the main road at Harleston and then straight to Beccles via Bungay. Just before Bungay at Earsham, there is a free range pig farm and I saw a number of little pink piglets running about. I do like to see free range pigs – they seem to enjoy life, rolling in the mud, socialising with other pigs or going off on their own to rest in their personal ‘bijou residences’ full of straw. The farm close to my house looks after pigs but these are store pigs not free range. One farmer will care for pigs just separated from their mothers for a couple of weeks until they are a certain weight and then they are taken off to another farmer who will fatten them further and then pass them on to someone else. Or, the pigs are kept by the same farmer but moved periodically from one shed to another. Every Monday and Tuesday we have the noise of frightened pigs being loaded into lorries at the farm close by and then driven squealing past us down the lane. Other lorries full of squealing pigs are then driven past to be unloaded at the farm.
I noted that the temperature had risen to 14 degrees centigrade at midday – a spring day at the end of winter. Hung some washing out in the garden when I got back home. While struggling to get the washing line up a butterfly flew past me. I did’nt see it clearly but it was a dark one – a peacock perhaps – and it was flying strongly. By the time I had the line fastened the butterfly had gone.
Rain overnight and a cloudy and showery morning on Tuesday. Caroline, who has retired from being one of our church readers, visited this morning to give me some books and stayed for coffee. She made me laugh very much by recounting an awful accident she and her husband had had at the weekend involving an exploding bottle of home-made liquid manure!
After lunch I took E with me to Bungay to buy Mum’s bird seed. The pet shop there sells very reasonably priced seed – much cheaper than in Halesworth and Beccles. I can afford to buy in bulk (which works out cheaper in the long run) and I order it on-line but Mum on her small pension buys small quantities weekly – well, she pays for it but I go and buy it. We then drove to Halesworth to pick up my medication and went on to Dunwich where E and I walked on the beach. The sun was shining on the coast and the tide was further out than it had been when R and I walked there on Saturday. The wind was stronger and the waves higher than Saturday too. E can’t walk far so we soon turned and made our way back to the car but not before we had both got earache from the cold wind. On the way back we disturbed a bird in the grass and shingle a couple of feet in front of us. By the way it flew and the shape of it’s almost triangular wings I recognised it as a skylark. It only moved a few feet further on and walked about pecking at the ground now and then. I could clearly see it’s crest on the top of it’s head. As we continued walking forward the lark decided to take off and at our head height began to sing! We watched it getting higher and higher singing all the while.
Took Mum for her weekly shop in the supermarket in Diss today. Another lovely day – so many spring flowers in people’s gardens and the blackthorn is starting to come out in sheltered and sunny places. Got home at 2pm, had a late lunch, made a few phone calls then went out to feed the birds. Twenty geese on the field behind the house today including the two who have claimed the island as their nest site. Eggs have begun to be laid on the island. The female lays the eggs in the very early morning, covers them (not very thoroughly because I can see them!) with grass and leaves etc. and then goes off with her mate for the day. Once she has laid enough she will start to sit for about four weeks only leaving them for two very short periods during the day to feed. Her mate stays close by, wandering about disconsolately all the time she is sitting and always seems pleased when it’s her feeding time when he joins her.
The mallards seem to have reached an agreement as we now only have one male with the female in the garden.
Our neighbour who lives further along the edge of the field at the back of the house came to talk to me as I walked round the garden. He owns the muscovy ducks (both female) but one of them has gone missing. The one he still has is sitting on eggs and kept chasing the other one off if it got too close. It has now gone missing and he hopes the fox hasn’t had it. I said I hadn’t see it and he was free to look round our garden for it. They are very tame ducks; they come when called and sit at his feet. The missing one likes spending time with their chickens as well. Our neighbour, his wife and children will be very upset if the duck can’t be found, I think.
I gardened until 5.30 when it got too cold to stay out though it was still wonderfully light. As I gardened I heard a blackbird singing for the first time this year. Tentatively at first and then with more confidence – a clear flute-like song.
A cold, starlit evening though by dawn we are supposed to have wind and rain again. R is away for a couple of nights til Friday.

Winter Weather

03 Fri Jan 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary

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Tags

Beccles, Bungay, hail, Rain, sleet, wind

Not as windy overnight as forecast but very heavy rain about 8 o’clock in the morning. Fortunately this didn’t last long and by nine o’clock the sky was clearing and the rest of the morning was quite beautiful. I had some shopping to do in Beccles, a town about eleven miles away. Not much traffic on the road so I got there quite quickly. By the time I had finished my shopping the sky had clouded over and the wind had picked up again. I really enjoy driving on the road between Beccles and Bungay. It usually doesn’t have much traffic on it so I travel at about 50 or 60 mph. The road rises and falls and the views from the tops of the hills down into and across the Waveney Valley are good. Today, the clouds were purple-black and I could see the mist of falling rain in the distance. It began to thunder and lighten and I drove into heavy rain which quickly changed to sleet and hail. The roads in Bungay had a lot of surface water on them and then as I got on to the hill out of the town I had to drive on roads covered in a layer of hail stones which were very slippery. The temperature dropped from 9 degrees C to 4 degrees in just a few minutes. The afternoon continued cold and showery but at nightfall the sky cleared and a new moon and stars appeared in the sky. Quite a windy evening.