Yesterday we left the younger generation in their beds to take our traditional New Year’s Day walk around Wimpole Park and up to the Folly.
The previous night’s heavy rain ensured that it was a muddy affair from start to finish and our cream-coloured labradoodle got back in the car with a black undercarriage, even though she had braved the lake on the way back to check out something in the water.
Looking back to the house and parterre
We took the route around the east side of the house, through a stock gate complete with large puddle, ensuring that everyone got a bit wet and a lot muddy, both coming and going. We passed the eastern ha-ha, which let us peer into the formal gardens that surround the house and slid on northwards, up the hill to the site of a small, old quarry at the edge of what was once a deer park. Today there are grazing sheep everywhere.
Norfolk Horns grazing beyond the eastern Ha-ha
An iron bridge gives access over a deep ditch to a sloping field and two sepentine lakes (Capability Brown-modified fishponds). Surprisingly, the surface water on the bridge was still frozen solid. Proof that we started the year with a frost.
During winter this whole area is filled with flocks of migrating geese, both Greylag and Canada. They fly up when disturbed, head briefly to the lakes, but invariably end up back in the field where they continue to graze, noisily.
A Grade II listed Chinese Bridge over the lakes frames one of the prettiest views of the Folly, but on this visit the bridge was just depressingly damp and slippery. The wooden ball finials and styled parapet still stand out as embellishments to the landscape though.
The Chinese bridge between the two lakes at Wimpole
It was then a gentle climb to the top of Johnson’s Hill where the Gothic Tower stands proud. This folly (1768) was designed to be viewed from the drawing room in the Hall and was part of the work undertaken by Capability Brown on the estate.
The Folly is once again accessible and a great place for picnics. Gone are the brambles, fences, barbed wire and pigeons.
Folly field, in front of the tower, is a great place for picnics and in summer the meadow is alive with butterflies. On a clear day the view from the top of Johnson’s Hill extends for miles, but on New Year’s Day this year it was limited by the murky weather.
The Gothic Tower has undergone some major restoration work in the last couple of years. You can get a glimpse of the scale and detail involved in this work here on the East of England’s Trust blog and here on the Wimpole Estate blog.
Wimpole volunteers were lucky to be allowed to see the inside of the tower at start of the project, once 6 tonnes of pigeon guano had been removed and a bit of flooring had been put back!
Wimpole volunteer tour of the newly opened (but as yet unrestored) Folly. Hard hats and gloves required, masks available.
The restoration work was finished in 2015. I think that the reinstated clunch crenellations on the tower have changed its appearance considerably. The tower is much more noticable against the skyline and in the landscape. Looking at the Folly now, it even seems feasible that gamekeepers once lived inside the tower.
The restored Gothic Tower, Wimpole 2015
We hung around the top for a while, drinking in the atmosphere, enjoying the views and taking photographs between the arrivals of other groups of ramblers.
Eventually we walked back down the hill, round the edge of the lakes and through the rustling beds of reed.
View across the Wimpole lakes towards the Chinese bridge
By the time we reached the car at lunchtime it was a lot busier everywhere and we were glad for our early start. And the mud didn’t take too long to wash off the dog!
Happy New Year!
Frogend dweller's Blog 
This looks like the best way of all to spend the first day of the year. I always cook a southern-home feast with collards, hoppin’ John, and spoon bread for dinner party for 10 on January 1st, so my day is spent in the kitchen, but the payoff of a happy evening for all is worth the effort. Wimpole looks like a great place to visit. How lucky for you to live nearby.
Hope that you had a great party. Southern food is such an unknown territory for me. I know what collards are, but I am at a total loss for hoppin’ John and spoon bread (so I am guessing rabbit and cornmeal dumplings – taking their names somewhat literally). Anyhow it sounds fascinating. There are some really lovely places to walk around here, but the trick is to find a hill to climb to get some views.
Hoppin’ John is a black-eyed peas dish, flavored with smoked meet and seasonings, and served over rice. Spoon bread is sort of like a white cornmeal souffle. I like your ideas too! Could work.
Know Wimpole of old, but haven’t done this walk – thanks for the tour!
You are welcome. Wimpole has large enough grounds that there are several good and completely different walks you can take there. Hope you are feeling better now.
Yes thanks – on anti-biotics over Christmas & hope I don’t need a second course!
A marvelous walk for both you and the dog!
It was, thanks. Sadie loved it, but with all the animals around it is a strictly ‘Dogs on a lead’ walk which is not what she is used to.
Leash laws around here have become more enforced with hefty fines for repeat offenders. With our newest dog, who is a nose-to-the-ground runner, we’ve had to leash her at all times, which is too bad because that girl loves to run!
Thanks for the tour. What a great walk, I love the folly.
We went for a walk too and we ended up with most of Suffolk on our boots. I do dislike trailing through mud with boots that get heavier and heavier. But when it dries up a bit we might head over to Wimpolle Hall. It looks so beautiful.
Happy New Year Allison.
I know what you mean about walking with mud platform boots, but we had been avoiding getting filthy on our other outings so thought it was time to embrace the countryside! The folly is brilliant as a destination and I love that it is now completely accessible, with all the fences, barbed-wire and brambles gone (even though the wilderness made it look more fairytale-like).
Thanks for showing us Wimpole there are some really great photographs. We have a Japanese Bridge here in our garden in Birmingham not dissimilar to the Chinese Bridge at Wimpole if not a little more modest in scale!
We are lucky to have Wimpole on our doorstep. There is something deeply satisfying about the shape of these bridges. If I ever had a large pond I would want one too.