Thursday being Halloween, we were on the lookout for wizards, witches and ghouls. However, we mostly just saw pumpkins until, arriving in Long Melford, we were greeted spookily by the ladies serving coffee and cake at Café Hygge.
We were 16 miles into a 30-mile outing: Alan, Brian, Jeremy, Keith, Neil, Roger and Simon having set off earlier from The Eight Bells in Bures (locals pronounce it Bew-is), a pretty village straddling the River Stour which for most of its length marks the boundary between Essex and Suffolk.
The ride from Bures to Long Melford was picturesque with plenty of twists and turns, not to mention ups and downs, along quiet lanes notable for long stretches of grass, gravel and occasionally mud too. Tucked away in a deep valley between Twinstead and Great Henny, we pulled up to admire the 14th century farmhouse at Sparrow’s Farm.
According to the Colne-Stour Countryside Association website, when renovated in 2011 the farmhouse was found to have several honeybee colonies living in the walls. These were “of immense size . . . it was necessary for us to remove two of them from the bedroom wall in the farmhouse, because they made a constant buzzing and heated up the walls with their activity, as well as, at times, coming up through the floorboards . . . we also removed over 60lbs of honey from the walls“. That’s rural idylls for you.
The outbound ride having been northwards along the Essex side of the Stour, on leaving Long Melford, we turned south and made the return leg down the Suffolk side.
Back in Bures, we enjoyed a pint and a good lunch at The Eight Bells, an old-fashioned, welcoming sort of place offering a decent selection of real ales and good value, hearty pub fare – and they were more than happy to provide early morning coffee and biscuits too. We must go back.
The Windmill Cycle Club 