Polstead Walk

Our first walk in 2014 and after all the festive eating we could do with getting back to walking and this walk is quite a energetic walk in the green valley of the River Box. On this walk we had our walking companion Michael and as we had a lot of rain we were not sure how muddy it was going to be but in general it was not to bad. As with most of the Suffolk walks there was a lot of kissing gates and I believe they are more common in Suffolk as Essex have more Stiles.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 12/01/2014

• Distance: 4.24 Miles

• History:

• Car Park: Lay by beside Duck Pond CO6 5BS

• Refreshments: Cock Inn or The Crown in Stole-by-Nayland

• Photos Taken on Walk

Polstead is a picturesque village and lies at the point where the south Suffolk plateau breaks up into a number of small valleys. The village, which is one of the largest parishes in Suffolk , with a total population of about 820, consists mainly of five separate hamlets and was featured in the Domesday Book, derives its name from the ponds, and this is where we started the walk alongside the duck pond.

It was a gorgeous sunny morning and as we were booting up we could here the church bells ringing for the people of the village. From the pond we walked up to St Mary's Church and is situated in a superb natural setting, overlooking parkland and the River Box valley towards Stoke by Nayland and its church tower. Further on the walk we turned left over a style by a sign post named Scotland Street and into a meadow, then we had to turn right where to paths crossed and head up hill and at the top you have a good view of Polstead Church. We were supposed to see a sign taking us into a small wood but we could not see this so not sure which way to go we ended up walking around in a circle and did not realize till we got back to the place where we turned right to go up the hill and this time round we saw the sign going into the wood.After going through the wood it was not long before we were walking up a lane into Stoke By Nayland.

There is a Golf club nearby which we did not go past but we will go there as since the walk Tracey and John have decided that this is where we will all stay after their wedding in October. Just past The Crown we turned left and headed down hill through grazing pastures for sheep and there was a kissing gate that was full of mud and I had the idea to climb on the gate and swing out over the mud, well Christine did the same but the gate kept swinging back just have a look at the photo's. We then crossed the River Box and after gradually climbing up the hill  to join Marten's lane. At the village green there was a pub called the Cock Inn which is very typical to any village green, then it was all downhill to the duck pond. By now it had started clouding up so we had the best of the day while walking.