쉬운 웬햄 파르바 주변 하이킹 및 워킹 코스

This isn’t St Mary the Virgin Church, Dedham. This is St Mary the Virgin Church, East Bergholt. Well worth a visit.

A typical English church with a very old cemetery

Whilst people have been worshipping on this spot for over 1,000 years, this beautiful church was originally built somewhere around 1350, nearly 700 years ago. It was originally designed with a tower in mind, but it was never completed. Legend says that every time the builders stopped for the night, the devil tore it down. Whatever happened, the five bells, considered the heaviest in England, are now housed in a bell cage and still rung before each service.

Left takes you to Tower Mill Ln, straight on towards Ipswich-Hadleigh main road

A distinctive landmark with its strange mix of assorted materials and partially ruined state.

Lovely view across the lower Stour valley just before the drop down towards Flatford.

Mixture of light mud and hard packed path, popular with hikers and dog walkers too. Very enjoyable, recommended.

St, Mary the Virgin Church is unusual for a number of reasons - firstly there is a foundation, but no tower. In this case not because it collapsed, but because it never got built, falling foul of the reformation, the wealth of the parish was appropriated to the Crown, and East Bergholt's tower never got built. Another unusual site is the bell cage - built as a temporary structure in 1531, it has withstood the test of time and it houses the heaviest peal of 5 in the world.