Ulting Church with a Walk along the River

A beautiful warm and sunny day yesterday so dropped the gardening and the spring cleaning to get out into the countryside. Drove about 50 minutes to this lovely old church at Ulting in Essex. Their brochure says "A Place of Peace and Pilgrimage". It was certainly that. There has been a church on the site since 1150AD. The church sits next to the River Chelmer and it is the most peaceful of settings. In the 1870's the fabric of the church was in a bad state and a major restoration took place.

The brickwork of the original walls can still be seen protruding from the grass in places

This is the view from the church yard

After visiting the church we drove to the nearby village of Woodham Waters and had lunch in the Bell Inn. The building is 500 years old. The food is excellent and had we not been out to walk I could have had a feast.

View from our table

We leave the Inn and begin to make our way back to the river

Passing this quaint Post Office and General Store on the way

We are back at the river and I would now like to take you on one of my walks. This river was made into a Navigation Canal in 1797. There are 12 Lock Gates and 6 Bridges. Coal, bricks and timber were carried along the river on barges. In places where the water looks dirty, it is not. The surface was covered in the fleece from the seed pods on the trees that lined the length on both sides.

This is the path we are taking as we leave Ulting Lock and we are going to walk for 3 miles to the next main Lock gates. Paper Mill Lock.

It gets prettier with the Cow Parsley

We pass a Narrow Boat. These days the river is used for pleasure

Then round a bend and we see the church from a different angle

I love the isolation and the empty spaces as we continue to walk

Bridge ahead

A seat in memory of a loved one was welcome - rest awhile if you wish

Back on the path watered and refreshed

Don't miss the wild Buttercups in the meadow as we pass

And another Lock Gate

Here we see a Swan fluffing out his feathers as he comes across a family of Geese who were obviously on his territory. The baby geese that were basking at the waters edge were quickly moved by their parents. Look at the reflection.

Civilisation at Paper Mill Lock

Well almost! These are the Tearooms

Somebody thought about the ducks

I hope you enjoyed your hour of leisure here eating ice-cream and butter flapjacks with Mango Juice. I did until I counted up the calories - over 700!!

We are now about to turn around and walk back. The 3 miles will take us about an hour as we stop to take in the beautiful fauna and wildlife around us. Our sightings today were geese, ducks, swans, moorhens, pheasants, rabbits and squirrels.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.