Depden - lost in arcadia, lost in time
Thursday I visited Depden village, further along the road to Haverhill from Bury (A145), past Chedburgh. There is a nice little farm shop there: //www.depden.com. It has a food shop with gourmet treats, a cafe, and a garden (which we weren't able to view.) We went there to meet the Depden Knitting Group, who made us most welcome. Knitting and nattering both occurred, and I'd like to go again if my friend Kate is able to provide transport.
After whizzing back to Bury for lunch at The Fox with Jean and her son Simon, we returned to Depden to visit the St Mary's Church, which is only accessible by the walking track alongside the fields and the woods. Do click on this link, which will take you to the Suffolk Churches website where you can see pictures of the interior. We did not notify the keyholder, so we only saw the outside of the church. Picturesque barely covers it.
The churchyard has a ditch and mound construction - I am not sure if that is to protect it from marauding bandits, or marauding sheep. It's in a woods too, so we nearly walked past it, even though my guide has been there several times. Including, and I found this most intrepid of her, Christmas Eve. That would have been a most Medieval experience.
I liked some of the architectural details:
(I'm a sucker for knapped flint work).
Later, we emerged onto the farm track on the other side of the churchyard, and into the most romantic views of Suffolk.
"On either side the river lie / Long fields of barley and of rye, / That clothe the wold and meet the sky; / And thro' the field the road runs by / To many-tower'd Camelot;" The Lady of Shallott, by Alfred Lord Tennyson, contributed by a kind friend as a response to this photo.
Don't worry, I'm not looking through any mirrors, I like the feel of the wind in my hair. And my heroic love is at home in Australia asleep.