Visit to Woodbridge

#ipswich #woodbridge #suffolk #riverdeben

When people visit it's often difficult to decide where to take them as you don't always know their interests.
The couple we were staying with suggested a trip to nearby Woodbridge for a walk around the town and along the river, which sounded a good idea.
After eventually finding parking, we walked through the pretty village with a nice range of shops and buildings. Before going down to the river we stopped to use the toilet facilities before continuing on our way. Arriving at the river, Sue thoughtfully decided to help David's fitness routine as she had left her phone in the toilet and he offered to run back to see if it was still there. Fortunately, it was. She tried this another day in Ipswich where she left it in the Museum toilet, he didn't fall for this trick again and we both went back for. Again, she was lucky. It had been handed in, although she had to pass strict security protocols to get it back.

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Arriving at the river, the tide was out and many of the boats were resting in the mud, several seemed to not have moved for a long time. The building to our left is the Woodbridge Tide Mill which  is a rare example of a tide mill whose water wheel still turns and is capable of grinding a wholemeal flour. The mill is a Grade I listed building.
Like a lot of the small towns along the local rivers, the landscape is very pretty and we soon enjoyed a walk along its banks.

After a short walk , we headed back to the town to get something to eat. Unfortunately, a lot of places were busy and as my wife and I are fussy eaters, this proved difficult, so we headed back to our friend's house for a lunch.

A couple of days later, after an enjoyable catch up with the friends,  we were moving to a hotel from where we would be meeting up with relatives. As we were passing through Woodbridge again on the way, we decided to stop to eat some sandwiches on the riverside, carefully checking that Sue still had her phone!
After sitting in the hot sun for our lunch, we set off for the car, but as we passed the first building there seemed to be an art exhibition in it. Being curious we asked if we could view it. After a gentleman apologised, saying that it was an art club session and not an open gallery, he still said it would be alright to have a look around.
Entering there were a wide range of paintings and craftwork by the local artists on show and we spent an interesting time viewing these and talking to him. In the next room the artist met on different days for activities. On this occasion it was a Chinese style painting session,  using traditional inks and brushes.

This was a nice find and we are always interested to see the work of other art clubs. The Woodbridge group are very lucky that this superb building was donated for this purpose by a benefactor in the past, and although the 27 year lease was up they were now negotiating for it's continued use.