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I left home on Monday the 13th of December 2021 to drive the hour and a half to Cavendish. I arrive at about 0930am and park up on the roadside by the St Mary the Virgin Church for free.
A Saxon church at Cavendish is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The church is mostly 14th-century, with building dating from about 1300 to about 1485, with some 19th-century additions and alterations.
The oldest parts of the church, dating from about 1300, are the Tower, the Porch and the lower parts of the walls of the aisles. In 1350 the South aisle walls were rebuilt to their present height and new windows were inserted.
Simon Jenkins awarded the church 1 star in his England's Thousand Best Churches.
The exterior of the church is dressed with flint. Above the parapet is a stair turret. The 14th-century tower is surmounted by a lantern. The building of the chancel was made possible by a bequest from Sir John Cavendish in the 1380s. During the Peasants' Revolt Sir John's son, also named John, was responsible for the death of Wat Tyler. As a result, Sir John was lynched by his parishioners. He reached the church where he pleaded sanctuary by grasping the handle of the church door, but was taken to the market place at Bury St. Edmunds and beheaded by a mob led by Jack Straw on 15 June 1381. He was buried in Bury St. Edmunds. His bequest to St Mary's was made by way of recompense. The nave was probably the work of Reginald Ely, designer of King's College Chapel in Cambridge.
The church contains a 16th-century Flemish reredos, in the North aisle, showing the crucifixion. It is set in a frame by Sir Ninian Comper.
Until the late 1530s, a chantry altar probably stood in the church, perhaps for a guild. There is a squint that would have allowed the chantry priest a view of the high altar. The canopied niche to the right of the chest contains a modern image of the Madonna and child. The altar was replaced by a tomb chest for Sir George Colt, who died in 1570.
There is a large roundel memorial in the South aisle to Sue Ryder and Leonard Cheshire, best known for their war relief work in the years after 1945. At the east end of the south aisle is the tomb chest for Sir George Colt, who died in 1570. In the early years of the 21st century
I leave the church and pass the Five Bells pub, strangely named as the church has 6 bells!
I walk down into the village and walk pass some pretty cottages.
These much restored 16th century cottages standing beside the village green below St. Mary's Church apparently became known as 'Hyde Park Corner' because of the practice of visitors to the rectory engaging in outdoor preaching in this area of the village green.
The group was saved from demolition and restored in the 1950s to serve as 'almshouses' supported by the George Savage Trust . However, they suffered a disastrous fire in 1966, but were again rebuilt.
I reach The George PH.
I cross the road and up to the Sue Ryder shop, once the old cinema.
In 1953 Sue Ryder established the Sue Ryder Foundation (later renamed Sue Ryder Care and in 2011 changed to Sue Ryder). The charity in 2011, now named simply Sue Ryder, thus reflects her importance and honours her life's work. Following her relief work in Europe after the Second World War, she first established a home for concentration camp survivors in Cavendish, Suffolk, that later provided nursing care for the elderly and disabled. Sue Ryder Care operates more than 80 homes worldwide, has about 500 high street charity shops and more than 8,000 volunteers. There is a Sue Ryder charity shop as far as the Ascension Islands.
In 1998, Sue Ryder retired as a trustee and severed her links with Sue Ryder Care following a dispute with the other trustees, whom she accused of betraying her guiding principles.
In February 2000, Ryder set up the Bouverie Foundation (since renamed The Lady Ryder of Warsaw Memorial Trust) to continue charitable work according to her ideals. Its work includes providing accommodation in Lourdes for handicapped pilgrims and their carers.
It is believed that Cavendish is called so because a man called Cafa once owned an eddish (pasture for aftermath) here. Over time, 'Cafan Eddish' became 'Cavendish'. It was home to Sir John Cavendish, the ancestor of the Dukes of Devonshire, who was involved in suppressing the Peasants' Revolt. Wat Tyler, the peasants' leader, was arrested by William Walworth, the Mayor of London, for threatening King Richard II in 1381. As Tyler fought back, Cavendish's son, also called John, who was responsible for escorting the King, ran Tyler through with his sword, killing him. As a result, John Cavendish tried to flee from the pursuing peasants, and he hung on to the handle of the door of St Mary's Church to plead sanctuary. A few days later, on 15 June 1381, the elder John Cavendish was seized at Bury St Edmunds and beheaded by a mob led by Jack Straw. He is buried in Bury St Edmunds. St Mary's Church had a bequest from Sir John, and its chancel was restored.
A C16 timber-framed and plastered house. The south wing was re-fronted in the
early C19 in stuccoed brick with a parapet.
I walk across Hermitage Farm and pass Hermitage fishery.
I walk down Hermitage Meadow and turn left onto Bridewell Street in Clare.
Clare won Village of the Year in 2010 and Anglia in Bloom award for Best Large Village 2011 for its floral displays in 2011. In March 2015, The Sunday Times and Zoopla placed Clare amongst the top 50 UK rural locations, having "period properties and rich history without the chocolate-box perfection – and the coach trips".
Clare and its vicinity has evidence of human habitation throughout prehistory, through the Norman Conquest, to the present day.
The name first appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Clara'. It possibly derives from the "clear" nature of the Chilton Stream as it flows through the town, but from a Latin word rather than a Celtic one as was previously thought. In the Domesday Book, it is described as "Always a market. Now 43 burgesses". Hatton describes this as an "astonishingly high number, because at the time very few Suffolk towns had any burgesses, let alone 43". It lists 37 acres (15 ha) of meadow, woodland for 12 swine, a mill, 5 arpents of vineyard (an arpent was 4–6 acres) and 400 sheep. The manor included Stoke-by-Clare and the hamlet of Chilton Street, totalling 128 households. Improbably it has been suggested that the word claret is derived from Clare and its extensive vineyards. There is a Claret Hall towards Ashen, but that could simply mean 'Little Clare'.
The Globe, a few houses away from the Cock, dates from 1695, re-fronted in Suffolk white brick early in the 19th century – this was a common practice in those days, giving a building a new respectable front, while retaining the old timber frame behind. It probably opened as a pub in the 1880s.
I walk on passing pretty properties and more closed pubs.
The Cock in Callis Street may date from the 15th century but the first reference to it as an inn is in 1636. In its time various parts of the current building were used as a barn, then as a schoolroom, later a family butcher's with its own slaughterhouse. It is now linked to the Nethergate brewery, which was founded in Clare.
I now pass St Peters and St Pauls Church, Clare.
St Peter and St Paul's Church, Clare is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Clare, Suffolk. It is one of the largest and most beautiful in East Anglia, described as a "large and handsome church... within a spacious churchyard", and is included by Simon Jenkins in his 2009 book England's Thousand Best Churches, where he awards it three stars.
The church is principally of the 14th and early 15th century, with 13th-century work in the west tower, in the perpendicular style. The list of past priests extends as far back as 1307. "The tower is unfortunately a little short for the church.....all the windows of the aisles and clerestory are slender and closely set, the effect has the same erectness as Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford and St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham. The remodelling of the interior made it very airy." 'Seen from any angle it floats on the skyline like a great ship, with a small tower for a fo'c'stle and two turrets for masts.
The greatest disaster to befall the church was the visit of William Dowsing in 1643. The Puritan Parliament decreed the demolition of altars, removal of candlesticks, and defacement of pictures and images. 'Basher' Dowsing, a fanatical anti-Romanist, was appointed as 'Parliamentary Visitor for the East Anglian counties for demolishing the superstitious pictures and ornaments of churches'. 'Cromwell's iconoclast' kept a journal of his visits. On 6 January 1644, he visited six churches, including Haverhill. As for Clare, he wrote: "We brake down 1000 pictures superstitious: I brake down 200; 3 of God the Father, and 3 of Christ, and of the Holy Lamb, and 3 of the Holy Ghost like a Dove with Wings; and the Twelve Apostles were carved in wood, on top of the Roof, which we gave order to take down; and 20 Cherubim to be taken down; and the Sun and the Moon in the East window, by the King's Arms to be taken down". Bullet holes in the roof suggest one inaccurate method; the rest being done with arrows, stones, poles and whitewash. The Sun and Moon still survive.
Like most English churches, it was altered in the Victorian era. It was first 'repaired and beautified' in 1834–36, and a gallery was also added. In 1876 a plan was given by the architect James Piers St Aubyn for work done between 1877 and 1883. In 1898, Detmar Blow, architect for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, was brought in to repair the tower.
Just beyond the church is The Clare Ancient House.
The Ancient House is grade I listed medieval timber-framed building .
The oldest part of the building is the west wing, dating from the 14th century, whilst the heavily decorated east wing is believed to have been built in 1473. The house features a moulded timber ceiling in one of the ground floor rooms and some elaborately carved oriel windows. It is mentioned in a will dating to 1502.
The Ancient House was acquired in the early 1930s by a local farmer, Charles W. Byford, in order to prevent its removal to the United States. It was then gifted in 1938 to Clare Parish Council to put to "a useful public purpose". A museum was established by the council in 1979. In the 1990s it was re-designed with grants and help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, St Edmundsbury District Council, and the Landmark Trust. It is now preserved as part Landmark holiday accommodation and part museum.
During the medieval period Clare became a prosperous town based on cloth making. The trade was already present by the 13th century, steadily expanding as demand grew. 3000 local fleeces were sold from Clare Manor alone in 1345. By the 1470s Suffolk produced more cloth than any other county. Broadcloth was the main product, somewhat coarser than Harris Tweed, prickly to the skin, odorous when wet. Flowing water was essential for the purpose of fulling – so production concentrated on locations along rivers such as Clare, Cavendish, Glemsford and Sudbury. Many houses in Clare had cellars through which culverts were led.
Merchants gathered in convoys for safety to convey the goods to Calais (then an English possession). Several locations in Suffolk were known as collection points – one of these is Callis Street in Clare, just north of the parish church, variously named Calais or Chalyce Street.
Clothiers organised and financed the industry, putting out work across the town, supporting road maintenance, providing alms to the poor, embellishing the priory and church, building substantial houses for themselves.
I walk on down the High Street through this beautiful small town.
I walk out onto Nethergate Street and then into Market Hill.
I walk back up Market Hill passing The Town hall pictured above.
I walk back up Nethergate Street and then down Malting Lane.
I walk pass Clares Antiques and tearoom at the end of Malting Lane.
The Clare Antiques and Interiors warehouse is a beautiful converted mill.
Clare Antiques and Interiors has two floors of antiques and collectibles for sale, provided by over 50 individual UK antique dealers.
I walk into Clare Country Park and cross over the River Stour.
I turn right and just a short distance is Clare Priory.
Clare Priory is a religious house in England, originally established in 1248 as the first house of the Augustinian Friars in England. It is situated on the banks of the River Stour, a short distance away from the medieval village of Clare, Suffolk. the friary was suppressed in 1538 and the property passed through many hands until it was again purchased by the Augustinian friars in 1953. Today the Priory offers modern retreat facilities for guests.
Clare Priory was established 1248 by Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, as a friary for the Order of St Augustine and a cell of Bec Abbey, Normandy. It was the first house of the Augustinian Friars in England.
In 1326, Edward II reconstituted it as a cell of Westminster Abbey.
By the 14th century the Augustinian order had had over 800 friars in England and Ireland, but these priories had declined (for other reasons) to around 300 friars before the anti-clerical laws of the Reformation Parliament and the Act of Supremacy.
Clare was one of the first English monastic houses suppressed in 1538 in the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the English Reformation. The partial list of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII of England alone includes 18 Augustinian houses such as Bourne Abbey, Newstead Abbey and Waltham Abbey.
In 1604 the priory was converted into a home for Sir Thomas Barnardiston, grandfather of Sir Thomas Barnardiston, 1st Baronet. In the 17th and 18th centuries it belonged to the Baker family.
In 1953, the Irish Augustinian Friars purchased the house with the help of the family who then owned it, and returned it to use as a religious house.
Clare Priory is a Grade I listed building, first listed in 1961. It retains some original features, such as the little cloister with the shrine, the vaulted porch, and stained glass.
The Shrine is dedicated to Our Lady, Mother of Good Counsel, and is housed in one of the oldest parts of the priory. It contains a relief of the Mother of Good Counsel by the well-known religious artist, Mother Concordia OSB, and is based on the original fresco at Genazzano near Rome.
The priory is still a working priory but it is open for visitors.
The house was built in the 14th century and remodelled in the 15th. The bays extending into the cloister are additions of the 16th, 17th or 18th centuries. The house contains a number of original features, including the Little Cloister with the Shrine, the vaulted porch, and impressive stone and stained glass work throughout the house.
The Rule of St. Augustine emphasises the need to search for God together in order to achieve oneness of mind and heart:
"Before all else, live together in harmony, being of one mind and one heart on the way to God."Rule of St. Augustine Ch 1.2
After a quick look around the house, I leave and walk out of of the priory grounds.
I cross the bridge back over The Stour and back into Clare Country Park.
I reach Clare Castle or what is left of it in the Country Park.
Clare Castle is a high-mounted ruinous medieval castle in the parish and former manor of Clare in Suffolk, England, anciently the caput of a feudal barony. It was built shortly after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 by Richard Fitz Gilbert, having high motte and bailey and later improved in stone. In the 14th century it was the seat of Elizabeth de Clare, one of the wealthiest women in England, who maintained a substantial household there. The castle passed into the hands of the Crown and by 1600 was disused. The ruins are an unusually tall earthen motte surmounted by tall remnants of a wall and of the round tower, with large grassland or near-rubble gaps on several of their sides. It was damaged by an alternate line of the Great Eastern Railway in 1867, the rails of which have been removed.
The remains are a scheduled monument and a Grade II listed building. They form the centrepiece of a public park.
Clare Castle was built between the River Stour and the Chilton Stream and took the form of a motte and bailey design, with two baileys rather than the more common one. The motte is 850 feet (259 m) wide at the base and 100 feet (30 m) tall, with its flat summit 63 feet (19 m) across. The two baileys, stretching alongside from the motte along the north and east, were protected by deep ditches and steep palisades, with either a causeway or a drawbridge linking the inner to the outer bailey; the inner bailey was also sheltered by the curve of the Chilton.
The castle was built on the site of a former Anglo-Saxon manor house, probably reflective of the wider Norman effort to demonstrate that their authority had replaced those of the previous lords. Clare Castle was the caput of the feudal barony of Clare, and as historian Robert Liddiard describes, as well as having a defensive value it also "represented and reflected the rank and dignity of the lord". The castle was surrounded by three deer parks, including the Great Park at Hundon, established by 1090. Like many other major castles, Clare was provided with a nearby religious house when Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester founded Clare Priory in 1249, close to the castle, which grew to contain 29 friars.
A new keep was built, probably in the 13th century. This took the form of a polygonal shell keep, with fourteen triangular buttresses supporting six foot (1.8 m) thick walls. The inner bailey was strengthened with new stone walls, 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) tall on top of the earlier earth banks, the walls and keep being built of flint and rubble. The castle was manned during this period by a castle-guard system, in which lands were granted to local gentry for the feudal tenure of providing knights and soldiers to serve at the castle.
By the early 14th century, before the outbreak of the Black Death, the town of Clare had a population of around 600. The de Clares continued to own estates across England, but in Suffolk their possessions were concentrated in estates situated around Clare Castle. The castle was passed down the de Clare line until Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester died at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, when the estate passed to his sisters. Elizabeth de Clare, whose husband John de Burgh had died the previous year, acquired the castle and the combined estates made her one of the wealthiest women in England. Elizabeth used the castle as her main residence between 1322 and 1360.
The castle was well developed by this time, and was reached through three gates positioned across the wider estate, called Nethergate (memorialised by today's Nethergate Street), Redgate and Dernegate. The castle itself had four stone towers protecting the entrance to the inner bailey and the keep, called Auditorstower, Maidenstower, Constabletower and Oxfordtower. Elizabeth built a chamber for her own use at the castle between 1346-7. A substantial water-garden, forming part of the moat to the east, existed at the castle during this period; it may have included a fountain and probably had a geometric form, possibly similar to the garden at nearby St Benet's Abbey in Norfolk.Vineyards and orchards surrounded the property. The castle's three parks continued in active use, and as part of the breeding programme, the deer were moved between them as they grew older.
The castle and estates supported a luxurious, wealthy lifestyle by their owners – Elizabeth had an income of approximately £3,500 a year, most of which was spent on supporting her household, centred on Clare. Over £1,750 was spent on food and drink, including luxuries such as swans, salmon and German wines. Some goods could be bought locally, but others, such as furs, spices, cloth and wine, were imported for the castle through the international fairs held at Bury St Edmunds, Colchester, Ipswich, London, King's Lynn and the Stourbridge Fair. The staff at Clare Castle included falconers, tailors, chaplains and goldsmiths, supported as necessary by 30 knights and squires. The castle's bakers could produce up to 2,360 loaves of bread a day, and on average around 900 gallons (4,091 litres) of ale were brewed every five days.
After Elizabeth de Clare's death, Clare Castle passed by marriage to the son of Edward III, Lionel of Antwerp, and again by marriage to the Mortimers of Wigmore. When Sir Edmund Mortimer acquired the castle in 1405, contemporaries reported it "in good repair and stocked". The subsequent years saw the Mortimers heavily involved in the Wars of the Roses; after Edmund's death in 1425, the castle passed to Richard of York and in turn, via his son Edward IV, to the Crown. Early in the reign of Edward IV, on 1 June 1461, the castle was part of a large estate gifted by the king to his mother, Cecily Neville, dowager Duchess of York, who did use the castle, but not as a main residence. Her half sister, Margaret Neville Scrope, resided in the castle until her death in 1463, and was buried at Clare Priory.
The castle deteriorated during this period. The masonry of the castle had probably been stripped for use as local building materials, as this part of England was traditionally very short of suitable stone. Edward VI gave the castle to Sir John Checke, until it reverted to Mary I. After Mary, the castle was acquired by Sir Gervase Elwes, whose family retained it until the 19th century. At some point after 1720, the surviving east and south sides of the inner bailey walls were destroyed.
In 1867 the Cambridge and Colchester branch line of the Great Eastern Railway was built through the castle, cutting across and largely destroying the inner bailey in order to make room for a new station. The railway line was later closed in 1967 as part of the Beeching Axe.
The castle now consists of a motte, on which a part of the keep still stands and the outer bailey earthworks; fragments of the inner bailey stone wall can also still be seen. The disused station, goods yard and the castle grounds have been developed into a landscaped country park, interlaced with water in the old moats, called Clare Castle Country Park, which is crossed by the Stour Valley Path. The park was opened in June 1972, after 15 acres (6.1 ha) were donated by Anthony de Fontblanque and 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) of railway land bought for £10,000. In 2014, the keep and curtain wall were extensively consolidated with the assistance of English Heritage. In March 2015, the stewardship of the park transferred from Suffolk County Council to the Clare Town Council; a trust manages the park with the support of local volunteers. The castle is protected under UK law as a scheduled monument and a grade 2 listed building.
I leave the castle behind and walk on through the country park and upon the disused railway.
Dr Beeching’s axe fell on Clare station in the 1960s. The tracks were taken up, anything of value was sold and the buildings were left boarded up and empty for many years. Thanks in large part to a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, the main station building now houses a thriving cafe as well as the Park office, the former goods shed is a unique exhibition/reception venue, the South platform waiting room is a visitor centre and the stationmaster’s house has been renovated and rented as a private home, providing income to help maintain the Park.
The railway was at Clare for a century and is a fascinating part of the town’s much varied history. Clare station is believed to be the only one in the world built within the bailey of a castle. The buildings are Grade II listed and were one of approximately 30 ‘Great Eastern Railway 1865 type’ stations built to a standard design. This type had complete architectural uniformity for all the station buildings, which even extended to the joinery and brickwork. Clare’s is the only surviving complex of the 1865 type. The signal box was sadly lost to a fire in the late 1960s, but the remaining buildings can be seen by visitors today.
During the boom years of railway expansion in England in the 1850s, plans were formed for a railway station in Clare. From Sudbury the route would go via Long Melford to Clare; in the other direction it extended to Haverhill and Cambridge. The Victorians had a rather different approach to conservation than we do today, so in 1862 the Great Eastern Railway began digging through the Norman bailey of Clare Castle and on 9 August 1865 Clare station opened with great ceremony.
Grain, sugar beet, coal and passengers all used the station at Clare. At one time all the town’s coal came by train and the coal yard was part of a thriving goods yard transporting everything from cattle to holidaying residents’ suitcases.
One of the most important of the local grain merchants, Charles Byford, had their offices in Station Road. His firm had its own dock at King’s Lynn and sent much of their grain around the country from Clare station, as well as delivering to whisky distilleries in Scotland. During the 1950s as much as 80,000 sacks of grain passed through the station each year.
The advent of road traffic led to a drop in both passenger numbers and freight. Following the Beeching report, passenger services stopped on 6 March 1967, freight services ceased in 1966, and as early as 1963 the station had become an unstaffed halt.
I walk on following the line of the old Railway line.
At the end of the line, the path was flooded but thankfully I found a way around and I take a path out onto the Cavendish Road (A1092).
The road here is fast and busy, I was stepping off and onto the verge to avoid cars and lorries.
Thankfully further up is a pavement and is now a more pleasant walk back into Cavendish.
I arrive back at the car after a seven and a half mile walk.
Driving home I pass Nethergate Brewery, so I stopped to buy some takeaway bottles and have a drink in the taproom. I mean it'd be rude not to!
First I have a half pint of Red Santa, very nice too!
Had a good chat with the staff about their beer and gins before having a half pint of Good Elf, a golden ale packed with Mosaic Hops. Very nice!
Then the drive home, a great day all in all!