Walberswick Suffolk

Walberswick is an area of outstanding natural beauty with its heath,marshlands and coastland. Though to many it is known as the home of the British Open Crabbing Championship which this year is held on 9th August. I have never taken part in this but know the event seems to grow every year with nearly 1000 entries last year.

Staying in Southwold to get to Walberswick you have a few options. You can drive about 8 miles back to the A12 and around the River Blyth. You can see Walberswick from Southwold just the otherside of the River Blyth and only a hundred yards so this seems the least sensible option. You can walk over to Walberswick and there are many routes which will take you through Walberswick Nature reserve. The most direct footpath will take you over the bailey bridge which is the former route of the old Southwold Railway line. The walk will only take you about 20 minutes from the centre of Southwold.

The 3rd option is to cross over the River Blyth by way of the ferry service. There is a footpath from Southwold Common leading to the ferry and is definitely an experience to try at least once. The ferry service has been run by one family for many years and there is a book to be bought telling the history of this service.

Walberswick has a long association with the arts and the English impressionist painters and when we there there was a party of some 20 painters at the sea front.

On the beach we had a competition to collect sea glass and hag stones. Most sea glass comes from bottles and is picked by beachcombers and is then used to fill jars or to make jewellery. Apparently according to the Sea glass association (yes there is one!) sea glass can be bought on e-bay but isn't necessarily authentic. Green and white sea glass was found which seem to be the more common coming from broken bottles there jagged edges long since being worn by the sea to a smooth service.

We also found many hag stones. What are they? Well they are stones that have a hole running right through the middle of them. They are also known by many other names such as wish stones, holy stones and nightmare stones. Hagstones have often been worn around the neck in the past to ward off evil spirits or at the end of a bed to prevent nightmares. The hole in the stone is created by centuries of wave action.