offpeakfang

  Rowing-boat ferry from Butley to Gedgrave and Orford, June 2022 My local OS map of Ipswich and southeast Suffolk - Explorer 197 - was what I used to plan my cycling trips around the rivers, heaths, village greens and medieval churches of Suffolk through the various 2020-2021 lockdowns. The Butley River snakes around the eastern edge of the map on its way into the River Ore and onward to the sea next to historic Orford Ness. The other side of the river was beyond the scope of the challenge I'd set myself, but the "Ferry P (limited service)" shown on the map almost sets a challenge to those who enjoy such explorations. So, I decided that on this pleasant summer's day, what better excuse for a bike ride than a rowing-boat ferry.  Dating from the Norman era, the part-thatched church of St John the Baptist at Butley was a pleasant place to rest for a while cycling to the ferry.  Butley village is already quite remote, with its few houses and its medieval church and abbey...

Rowing-boat ferry from Walberswick to Southwold, March 2021 Southwold is a very pleasant seaside resort, with all the traditional attractions like a pier, coloured beach-huts, and excellent fish-and-chips. But it also has something quite unusual - a licensed ferry across its harbour on the River Blyth. Harbour ferries aren't themselves that uncommon, but there aren't many of this kind: a rowing-boat ferry .  Traditional beach huts and pier, Southwold To celebrate the current stage of pandemic-unlocking where the stay-at-home order has ended and non-essential travel is once again allowed, I took the train from Woodbridge to Halesworth and then bus 99A to Southwold to spend an afternoon at the beach on this very sunny day.  One very nice walk around the town is to follow the public footpath along the route of the former Southwold Railway, closed in 1929, to just past its bridge over the River Blyth and then along the river wall to the village of Walberswick. The village itself h...

  The tiny hamlet of Hemley, Suffolk, March 2020. When the UK went into Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020, with only one daily outing allowed for walking/running/cycling exercise, I gave myself a small project to make the most of my limited cycling allowance: a medium-term project to cycle to and take a film photo of every church-with-tower, church-with-spire, and any other architecturally-interesting place of worship shown on the Ordnance Survey map of the local area (OS Explorer 197). It was a very fun combination of my cycling, history and film photography hobbies, and it was an excellent excuse to exercise responsibly during the pandemic and to explore lots of scenic rural Suffolk along the way. Here are the churches I visited, split into the three rolls of film that I used: 2020-03-22/2020-05-16: Roll 1 2020-05-20/2020-06-13: Roll 2 2020-08-07/2020-11-29: Roll 3 After visiting a total of 106 churches, here are some of my observations: It took me the entire year to get round to ...

Ferry boat arriving from Felixstowe at sunset, October 2020 The Bawdsey peninsula is a seriously pretty place to cycle through when the weather co-operates, with pleasant villages, forest lanes, and views over open fields and the Deben estuary under the wide Suffolk skies. It's the real essence of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.  Bawdsey Manor even had a great historical role in the development of radar, and remained in RAF hands all through the Cold War until 1991.  The hamlet of Bawdsey Quay, all picturesque at sunset and high tide.  Bawdsey Quay is quite literally the end of the road: the tip of the peninsula is pleasantly quiet and picturesque with views of Felixstowe just across the river, but with no further to go. But instead of doubling back along the country roads, there's a much easier way to return to civilisation: a river ferry carrying foot passengers and bikes.  The ferry is just about visible, slightly below and to the left of the Sun. It was the...

Loading from the beach at Felixstowe, June 2020 River ferries are a dying breed. A look at the excellent Ordnance Survey map archive on the National Library of Scotland website shows river ferry crossings all over the rivers of East Anglia, but in an age where cars are the most common form of transport, only a few remain for the benefit of walkers and cyclists.  The foot ferry between Felixstowe, Harwich and Shotley was started in its current three-destination form by the Great Eastern Railway in 1912, with its services passing to the London and North Eastern Railway and eventually to British Rail . For much of the 20th century until 1996, the route was served by  MV Brightlingsea, now on the National Historic Ships Register . The Harwich and Dovercourt history website gives lots of history on ferries around the rivers Stour and Orwell.  Today, the Harwich Harbour Ferry is an ex-lifeboat from the former ocean liner Canberra. While it now lands onto the beach at Felixsto...