Ipswich; Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

After checking out of the hotel it was back over to the bus station and onto another bus, this time up to the small town of Framlingham. For a small Suffolk town it’s seen it’s fair share of history – in part from having a stonking great big castle in the centre of the town.

Whilst most of the inside of the castle has long since gone, the outer curtain wall and towers are still pretty much complete, making this a very impressive fortification, which has seen its fair part of history. Mary Tudor assembled a military force at Framlingham before marching down to London and claiming the throne after the death of Edward VI.

In later years most of the buildings inside the castle were pulled down but a small part remained and was turned into a workhouse, those buildings now house an exhibition space (along with the café and the shop) and access up onto the wall walk.

The towers and curtain walls house an almost continuous walk that links them all together, though the sections between towers are made out of wood, so in the event of an invading party being able to breach defences and get up onto the walls they could be isolated into a single spot by the quick removal of the wooden paths.

I spent quite some time exploring both the castle, and the moat beneath from where some of the best views of the castle – and a real sense of how imposing the building is – can be taken.

I then walked back through town to the bus stop and hopped on the bus back into Ipswich, a quick change of bus and then I was back out to Woodbridge to have a bit more of an explore of the town.

Woodbridge is an historic market town about 8 miles up the River Deben, at a point where the river is navigable by quite large ships, which made it an important inland port. Due to the shape of the river, creeks and land round here it has an impressive tidal range, which has long been taken advantage of, with a Tide Mill located here for over 900 years.

At high tides the water floods into the mill pond, and then once the tide goes out the water from the mill pond can be directed to the water wheel of the mill turning it to grind corn to make flower. The Mill was in danger of being lost in the 1960s but through the campaigning of locals it was saved, however only the building was saved – the neighbouring mill pond was converted into a marina. Today a small mill pond has been built to help keep the mill running, though it can only supply enough water for about 30 minutes of operation at low tide, rather than the several hours of running that the old pond would have provided.

Next door to the Tide Mill is the Woodbridge Museum. This was originally located in the centre of the town, but as the tourist focus has shifted over the years from the centre to the harbour it relocated here to capitalise on the number of tourists around. It’s a nicely put out display on the history of the town and surrounding area.

After taking in the museums of Woodbridge it was time to head back to the bus stop, catch the bus back to Ipswich and then walk over to the station, diverting via the hotel to collect my bag, and make my way home.