Southwold Pier

 Last time I went to Southwold in January 2023 it was to visit the church in town and I had problems with the car tyre pressure warning coming on and didn't dare stay too long so  it's years since I'd been down to the pier end of the town and hadn't actually been on the pier since it was restored and that was in 2001.

So that's where I went one morning. I'd picked the windiest day and the sea was really rough. The pier has got a couple of shops, the 'Under the Pier ' collection of strange machines, a slot machine arcade, fish and chip shop and a good restaurant..

Southwold sea front and lighthouse from the pier.

A couple of the crazy machines , some are very old and others are more recent made by a local Suffolk man.

The water clock that 'performs' every half hour but it was way too windy to stand and watch

It was a very high tide and the waves were crashing on the sea wall by the beach huts. These beach huts, day use only, sell for crazy prices, the equivalent of buying a small house or a flat in other parts of the county. No one using them on a rough September day.

I had a crab salad meal in the restaurant - it was delicious.

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Walberswick

 In the 1960s this place was THE village for artists and poets etc. My Grammar school friend Ally, whose father was Lawrence Self, a well known artist of the time, used to holiday here every summer, which I thought odd then as it was only an hour from home - that was before I knew  about it's arty/hippy  reputation. (Laurence Self eventually split with my friends Mum and re-married and nowhere on line is there any mention of the 4 children he had with his first wife!)

Now it gets crammed full with visitors in summer. In the early 90's when the children were still small enough for beach days it's where we went from the smallholding - being the nearest sandy place. 

Later they used to put up signs on Summer weekends (there's only one road in and out of the village) to say 'The Village is Full!" . Now they put people off visiting by turning all the car parks to ones where you need a phone app to pay and stay. I didn't!

The bridge I'm standing on to take the photo is one where people go crabbing. The World Crabbing Championships were held here for many years until they became so popular the village was overwhelmed and they finished in 2010.

 Colin had to come here with a boat and other members of the Bridge Department to check the bridges every other year. The water was too high for crabbing when I was there and for getting a boat under the bridge.

These buildings by the harbour were once for fishermen , now they are mainly expensive holiday lets.

I went back and parked in the village itself. It has tea shops and a couple of gift shops

I walked down to the beach and passed a man standing by his car - we said 'morning' as you do and then I did a double take and said ' oh hello I recognise you' .It was TV/radio broadcaster and author Paul Heiney who lives in this part of Suffolk with his wife, radio broadcaster and author Libby Purves. On my way back I just had to tell him that we had moved into Grove Road in Knodishall not long after they had moved away from the other end of the road.  Don't know what he thought of this strange woman speaking to him!

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St Andrew's Church, Walberswick

 Now this is a strange one! All the history is HERE on the Suffolk Churches website

The church as it is now, is the third church in Walberswick and was built in the ruins of the second huge Catholic church that became much too big for the congregation after Henry VIII changed the country's religion. The tower remains from the original church which was one of the biggest in the country when it was finished in the 1490's. But just 200 years later the congregation asked for permission to rebuild the smaller church.

The altar has something I'd never heard of before .......... a Supermensa -  which is a consecrated stone slab from medieval times, rescued from the ruined church.

Remnants of stained glass from the large church have been used in this window.

In among the ruins you can see just how big the church was originally.

It's always interesting to see how far back the names of the Vicars were known. The current Team Rector - Russell Gant was at primary school at the same time as eldest daughter and was one of my Cub Scouts. I had no idea he was a vicar but looked him up online and yes he is the Russell Gant from all those years ago.

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