Harleston to Diss
Walked by Sally and Richard, Friday 9th Septermber 2011
Just over 15 miles of walking, just over 13 miles progress along the Angles Way
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
We slept extremely well and woke to another dry if rather grey day, though it had obviously rained in the night. One of the 'different' things about Chameleon House is that you help yourself to juice, cereal and hot drinks in your room, then your cooked breakfast is brought to you. We'd ordered smoked salmon and scrambled egg - Ginni delivered this spot on time at 8.15 and it was delicious. We packed up and said cheerio to Peter, then went in search of supplies for lunch. Harleston has an impressive selection of independent shops, so it was easy to buy freshly filled rolls and apples, and we were walking out of the town around 9.15.
Although we were using both the Ramblers' Association Guide 'The Angles Way' and the Ordnance Survey map, and the signposting on the ground was generally good, there were a couple of occasions today when the route was slightly difficult to find. The first such occasion was on the way out of Harleston, when the track to the right of the grey gabled house, was not marked. On this occasion the instructions in the guidebook came to our aid.
We passed through a housing estate, crossed a field with a slightly odd row of 'no entry' signs to our right - we eventually realised that they are trying to keep you away from manhole covers of some sort. We crossed the A143, then descended so steeply that I had to get my walking poles out. We followed a minor road for a short distance, then crossed a meadow, just after a farmer had moved his bullocks to an adjacent field. We crossed a bridge over a dyke, then crossed the River Waveney just above a weir and passed a house and what appeared to be a former mill-race.
We took a track to Instead Farm and then continued across fields, with the river to our right and higher land to our left. We had the company of rather inquisitive horses at one stage and the guidebook was less than helpful, since it gave no indication of distance and some of the stiles were no longer there - so were we in a long meadow, a narrow field or on a green lane? We emerged onto the track at the right place at Hall Farm more by good luck than good judgement, crossed the river, and walked down into Brockdish.
Here the instructions, map and signposting are seriously inconsistent. We made the mistake of following the route shown on the map, right along the road past the pub and a converted church, then left up a footpath which climbed steeply. The route across at the top seemed to be barred by a locked gate, so we retraced our steps to the centre of Brockdish, then followed the road up past the school, to the point at which it goes under the A143 (we turned left just before the main road). For the next mile or so, we meandered to the north of Brockdish, repeatedly coming very close to the A143, but always turning away from it again, in a series of right-angled bends. We reached the Church and went inside for a look around.
Eventually we turned away from the busy road and took a track along the edge of the flood meadow. The track was rather overgrown (there are certainly not hoards of people walking this section of the path) but it was most attractive, with cows grazing on the meadow. We stopped for lunch by the river, at the point at which the Mid Suffolk Footpath parts company with the Angles Way. You're just north of Hoxne here. geologically famous, for the Hoxnian interglacial period, and archaeologically famous, for the 'Hoxne Hoard', but impossible to pronounce!
Eventually we returned to the A143 and crossed it at last. We followed Kiln Lane for 350 yards then took a track across attractive agricultural land above Billingford (complete with windmill, hall and interesting looking church - all in the distance). We turned right at the ruined remains of another church, then crossed fields, one with a slightly worrying sign saying 'cattle with young - may be aggressive’ (though they weren't!) and one where we had to make up our own route across a stubble field.
We emerged onto the old route of the A140 (and previously a Roman road) then crossed the modern A140 on a bridge and followed a 'quiet lane' (complete with rather loud lawnmower!) to Scole Common. A final meander around fields of maize, then we passed the Diss Business Centre and walked down the long drive to Frenze Hall. The hall itself isn't anything special but there's a pretty little church which the Norfolk Churches website correctly says is 'propped up but still leaning all over the place'. The track we were following was joined by the Boudicca Way, and we soon reached the railway line. We passed underneath this and followed Frenze Road down into Diss.
Since we had walked from Diss to the source of the Waveney and from here to Knettishall Heath previously, our arrival back in Diss marked our completion of the Angles Way (and thus our round Norfolk walk by way of the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path, Weavers’ Way and Angles Way). We celebrated with a cup of tea, drunk overlooking Diss Mere in the teashop of Diss Publishing Bookshop and by buying a copy of 'Portrait of the Waveney Valley' by Ian Carstairs, which we'd seen at Chameleon House last night. This includes photographs of many of the places we've passed on the Angles Way, so was a highly appropriate purchase. We walked back to the car, in the Station car park, and drove home.
