30th October 2023 we’re heading out to Smockmill Common on outskirts of Saxlingham Nethergate, an excellent location for a fungi-hunt. But the Common is no long walk from the bus stop, so we go the longer way round. Please join us. You’ll need waterproof footwear…
30th October 2023
So it’s along West End and through Foxhole where my father’s Grandma Kemp used to live…
30th October 2023
An ancient hollow way takes us towards the common…
30th October 2023
Graceful beech along the way, before we join a little lane running out from the village…
30th October 2023
30th October 2023
Glorious weather…
30th October 2023
Nearly there, just need to cross the Broad Slough, which is a very damp corridor running through the village which in really wet conditions flows with streams…as here
30th October 2023
The Common has two different environments. There’s a hill, upon which a smock mill once stood, and which has been quarried small-scale for aggregates, and there’s a very wet part!
30th October 2023
My father played here as a boy, when there weren’t so many trees…
30th October 2023
River Tas in full burst-the-banks flow
30th October 2023
This is my favourite tree in this place…
30th October 2023
I suspect this tree existed in the days when my father played football here (1920s)
30th October 2023
Walking back to catch the bus…
30th October 2023
I do hope you enjoyed this walk. As you might have noticed, this place is close to my heart…
crispina kemp 
Your favorite tree is just so unique.
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Isn’t it fantastic! I wish I’d found it as a kid. I’d have climbed it… or clambered over it!
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It’s never too late 😂
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Just beautiful Crispina! 🙂 ❤
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Thank you, Deborah 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Lovely walk and that tree is amazing!
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I love that walk, it’s so close to the city and yet still unspoilt
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That’s a wonderful thing.
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Also was home to my forebears in C19th
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That is so very cool.
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Your talk of what it used to look like reminds me of the brook near the elementary school on the street where I grew up. Tracing that brook back to its source was one of my great childhood adventures. Sadly, further development of the school property obliterated the brook.
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That’s sad. I have the same problem of a place I used to love as a child. All gone!
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