GPX File Here
Viewranger File Here
On Thursday the 12th November I drove just under an hour to Bures, which is half in Essex and half in Suffolk. I parked up in the free car park by the community centre.
According to the twelfth-century Annals of St Neots, Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia, was crowned on Christmas Day 856 "in the royal vill of Burna", which is identified by historians as Bures.
I leave the car park and walk up Nayland Road for a short distance before taking a footpath that starts to lead uphill.
In the Domesday records, the village is referred to as "Bura" or "Bure", it's documented having a church with 18 acres (73,000 m2) of free land. The name "Bures" could be derived from either an Old English word "bur", meaning a cottage or bower, or from a Celtic word meaning a "boundary". If the village was not named until after the Norman Conquest, (circa 1066) it could have been called after a French village of the same name, of which there are at least eight: (Bures en Bray, Bures sur Dives, Bures Les Monts, Bures (orne), Bures (Yvelines), Bures Sur Yvette, Bures, Les Bures.
I leave the path and join the road, this is following a part of St Edmunds Way now.
I reach the top of the hill by Fysh House Farm. Next to this is Daisy's Wood, sad story attached of a seven year old Daisy died of a brain tumour in 2014.
I turn right and continue along the track with fantastic views opening up.
This is known a Wind Whistle Ridge, I can see why or rather hear why. The wind is really whistling through the trees right now.
I can see the Bures Dragon on the hillside over to my left.
THE BURES DRAGON
Local legend, first recorded in 1405, tells of a scaly dragon, fearsome to behold, which terrorised local inhabitants. It is tempting to dismiss the tale as superstitious nonsense, but there might, a very slender 'might', be a germ of truth, and that germ goes all the way back to the Crusades. Richard the Lionheart was given a gift of a crocodile by Saladin. This he brought back to England and kept in the royal menagerie at the Tower of London.
The beast escaped, however, and eventually turned up in the north Essex marshes. Naturally enough the locals were terrified and drove the beast away. The neighbouring villagers in Wormington claim to have actually slain the beast.
Is there any truth to the tale? Who's to say, but it is interesting that several churches in the area have wall paintings of dragons or serpent-like beasts, including the churches at Wissington, Wiston, and Wormingford.
I reach the end of the track and turn left onto Clicket Hill and now follow the road for a distance. It is however a quiet road , I only saw two cars and it was pleasant enough in the Autumn sunshine with amazing views.
After much road walking I turn right onto a footpath/track.
This leads me to Smallbridge Farm, where I take another footpath on my left and walk through farmland.
I walk along another small stretch of road and then walked up to Smallbridge Hall.
Smallbridge Hall is a Grade II* listed English country house in Bures St. Mary, Suffolk. The house is partially surrounded by a moat and stands on the bank of the River Stour. The present building is one wing of a large two-storey red-brick Elizabethan mansion. It was heavily restored once around c. 1874 and again in 1932.
The Waldegrave family had been the owners of the Smallbridge hall and the Wormingford estate which is on the other bank of the River Stour from at least the 14th century. The Smallbridge hall had come into their possession when Sir Richard Waldegrave married Joan, the widow of Sir Robert de Bures. Around 1555, Sir William Waldegrave rebuilt the house, and received Queen Elizabeth there in 1561. The property remained with the Waldegrave family until c. 1700 when it was sold to pay debts. The hall has been owned by many other families after that. It was once rebuilt around c. 1893 and further restored by Lady Phylis Macrae, daughter of the Marchioness of Bristol in 1932.
Sir Edward Waldegrave of Smallbridge was an ardent supporter of Queen Mary and the Old Faith. In consequence he was imprisoned (and died 1561)in the Tower by Queen Elizabeth and his manors of Wormingford and Bures given to his nephew William Waldegrave, Anthony's son.
In 1561 Sir William entertained his Queen, Elizabeth I, for two days in August and again in 1578.
I follow the path around and down next to the beautiful River Stour.
The path heads back to the road from whence I came and I now follow this for a way.
I reach a bridge over the Stour.
I take a footpath that leads through an amazing property.
How's this for a garden complete with the River and a weir too!
I walk over the hills with views to die for, this is superb countryside indeed!
I rejoin the road and walk on up into Wormingford.
Strange cottage with Asbestos roofing sheets!
The ford from which the parish takes its name (originally 'Withermund's ford') was probably that in the river Stour by the watermill, at the bottom of Church Road, where there is a sand bank in the middle of the river. A ford further east near Garnons has also been suggested, but seems less likely. The Church Road ford was replaced before 1802 by a bridge, called a horse-bridge in 1812. About 1821 Messrs. Jones, who leased the river tolls, built a new bridge, apparently a narrow wooden footbridge. It collapsed in the winter of 1895–6 and was replaced by an iron bridge in 1898.
The modern form of the place name, recorded from 1254, gave rise to three stories of dragons, ('worm' meaning serpent or dragon). The first story says the village is the location where the patron saint of England, St George, killed his dragon; a mound in the village is said to cover the body of the legendary dragon. The second, also unsubstantiated, is that a crocodile escaped from Richard I of England's menagerie in the Tower of London and caused much damage in Wormingford before being killed by Sir George Marney; a stained glass window in the parish church (St Andrew's) depicts this legend. The third, written in 1405 by John de Trokelowe, a monk, told of a dragon who threatened Richard Waldegrave's territory near Sudbury but fled into the Mere when pursued.
A large number of scattered archaeological finds from all periods from the Neolithic suggest that settlement was first on the flood plain, alongside the Stour, before woodland on the higher ground further south was gradually cleared. Prehistoric tools were found in the complex of ring ditches and other crop marks near the Mere in the north-west of the parish; when a Bronze Age barrow nearby was destroyed in 1836 'hundreds of urns in rows' were found.
Wormingford's tiny 12th-century church of St Andrew is built of rubble and flint, mixed with Roman bricks. The church was remodelled in the 14th and 15th centuries and heavily restored in 1870. In Saxon times the church probably served double-duty as a lookout point, with views across the vale.
The oldest part of the church is the nave and west tower, both dating to the 12th century. A north aisle was added in the early 14th century and the chancel rebuilt later that century. A south porch was added in the 15th century. In the churchyard are memorials to the aunt and uncle of artist John Constable.
Like all the churches today, it was locked shut.
I follow the follow the Stour Valley footpath out of the churchyard and through a small wood.
I leave the wood and head uphill again.
I pass through a field of cows before walking through a gate to head downhill.
At the bottom I have to divert around the field edge as the path has been heavily ploughed. I skim alongside the fenced off Wormingford Mere,
Now I make the mistake of following the signpost below and trudge across a ploughed field, that was hard going.
In fact the path headed right and I could have avoided this field! The GPX attached to this blog has been amended to keep you on track.
I am now back on the path again.
I am now walking through a field with the River Stour to my right again.
I reach Bures Mill on the Stour.
The first mill recorded here was in 1190. A century after the conquest in 1066 the Norman Sylvester family were responsible for building a new mill here.
In 1640 the timber framed mill house was built and extended in 1820.
The river was opened to navigation in 1715 which enabled barges to transport material to the mill for grinding.
I cross the bridge and take a path alongside the mill and back into Bures.
I am now back at the car park, I dump my bag and swap boots for shoes an walk back out of the car park through the park.I pass the play area and cricket ground to reach The River Stour.
Here I cross the bridge and follow the pretty river passing a fisherman on the bank.
Surprisingly this stretch of river belongs to a local fishing club to me,
I walk out onto Colchester Road and into the village.
During the Victorian era, Bures was an industrial village with its own tannery, maltings, brickworks, abattoir, gas works, electricity generator and many other small industries as well as at least 8 public houses.
The imposing church of St Mary's gives its name to the Suffolk version of Bures (technically, there is no such place as Bures; on the Suffolk side of the River Stour is Bures St Mary's, and on the Essex side is Bures Hamlet).
I cross over into Bures St Mary.
The church dates in part to the 13th century, but much of the present building is 14th century. There was obviously an earlier church on the site, as the list of clergy goes back all the way to 1180.
The church tower houses no less than 8 bells.
I walk up Church Square past lovely old buildings.
I pass the 8 bells Pub, such a shame that the Covid19 lockdown has closed the pubs!
I am back at the car at just under 7 miles. A lovely walk!
