Norwich to Ipswich

 25th July 2022

Norwich to Ipswich can be done on two buses with a simple change at the border town of Diss, but I chose a longer route over a day-and-a-half to take in more of Suffolk.

I returned to Norwich by train to restart my travels and despite recent problems on the railways, which made me choose to catch an earlier train than strictly necessary, all went to plan. Norwich, however, is one of those places where the bus and train stations have been sited as far away from each other as possible, leading to a brisk 20 minute walk across the city on my part to maintain my schedule.

I was due to catch First's X2 from the bus station and arrived there to find the preceding X22 still on the stand, despite being about 20 minutes late.  I let it go however, as that service misses out some of the villages I wanted to see. That broke the First Rule of Public Transport ("If it's there and it's going your way - get on it!) but on this occasion I got away with it and the X2 turned up on time and proceeded to follow the X22 out of the city.

The X2 took me to Beccles, where we prematurely entered the county of Suffolk. I'd been here before and thought I rather liked the place, but it wasn't at it's best on a hot and sultry midweek Monday afternoon. The closed down Beales department store (itself based in a former Co-Op department store) in the town centre didn't help.

Diss. On the Norfolk/Suffolk border

Simonds 581 runs from Beccles to Diss, which is a sort of nowhere-to-nowhere route, although I suspect it may once have formed part of a much longer service. I retraced my steps back into Norfolk and then we ran through a series of borderland villages to Diss.  Diss is badly served by public transport.  The railway station is way out of town and what passes for a bus station, actually a layby and shelter at the wrong side of the main road, is also outside the central area.  It's a pleasant enough town though and the local history society has provided a series of information panels detailing its interesting history. Unfortunately the accompanying museum was closed.

The third and final bus of the day was also a Simonds bus - the 304 to Bury St. Edmunds. On this we did cross well and truly into Suffolk shortly after leaving Diss.

Simonds buses, including my 304 to Bury St Edmunds at Diss "bus station"

SUFFOLK     County Town : Ipswich

When county councils were first established, in 1888, Suffolk was divided into two administrative units: East Suffolk, based in Ipswich and West Suffolk, which was administered from Bury St. Edmunds. This situation persisted until 1974 when a unified "Suffolk County Council" was established. Otherwise the county has survived  more or less intact with just a few alterations to its boundaries. It is the easternmost county in England.

When I boarded the 304 the driver, unusually, asked how far I was going. He seemed disappointed that I was headed all the way to Bury and muttered something about not having to wait at bus stops if nobody wanted them, which didn't make sense. We set off at a rate of knots and I suspected that we might be in for a classic foot hard down "last run of the day" complete with disregard for the timetable.  After a while, however, he seemed to have a change of heart and we stopped at a random location to wait for time while he left the bus and had a smoke. We subsequently picked up a number of other passengers headed for Bury and whilst we continued at a fast pace we did, in fact, arrive bang on time.

It had been a long day for me, leaving home on the 0739 train and arriving in Bury almost exactly 11 hours later, but I compounded the issue by assuming I'd be able to easily find my hotel in a small town and wandering off in the wrong direction from the bus station.  In fact, it took me half-an-hour to find it, whereas if I'd turned left instead of right onto the main road I'd have been there in two minutes!

26th July 2022

I was back at Bury bus station after an early breakfast to catch the 0915 to Haverhill, operated by Stephenson's of Essex. I was pleased to see it was a double-decker, the better to enjoy the views, but not so pleased to have to pay £6.10 for the privilege of setting off before my bus pass became valid at 0930.

I wanted to incorporate Haverhill into this trip, even though it was out of my way, as I'd wanted to go there for a long time. It was, as I thought, somewhere I'd never been and was a town that had been massively expanded in the 1960s to cater for "London overspill", which led to a TV soap opera - "The Newcomers" being set there, which I remembered from my youth.

In fact, when I got to the bus station it began to look awfully familiar and I realised I must have been there before after all!   Apart from some classic 1950s and 60s social housing estates on the outskirts, which the incoming bus obligingly toured, it was a rather unremarkable one-street town

The influx of Londoners had been such that the East End accent has come to dominance in the town, something that was apparent on the next bus.  Star Cars, service 18 to Clare was a minibus and a real old "country bus" where the driver knew all the passengers and where they were going. He did, however, sound as if he's just arrived from the smoke, even ending all his sentences wiv a "know what I mean?"!

Clare couldn't have been more different to Haverhill - a lovely old Suffolk village and I would have liked more than 15 minutes there, but the timetable ruled and I was soon away on Chambers service 236, through Long Melford and its long main street to the local centre of Sudbury.

Sudbury church and town hall

Sudbury, has two claims to fame: the birthplace of the painter Gainsborough and the template for Charles Dickens' "Eatanswill" in the Pickwick Papers.  I had about 40 minutes for a walk round and it was an interesting town. If it hadn't been such a warm day and I hadn't been carrying my luggage I might have been tempted to stay longer, but in the event it was off to Ipswich on the final bus of the day  - Beeston's 91, another double-decker.

If you've been paying attention you'll have noticed that for the first time on this trip I hadn't used any buses from First, Stagecoach or Arriva all day. Stephensons, Star Cars and Beestons are all local companies and although Chambers is part of the large Go-Ahead group it has been allowed to retain a local identity and local feel. With yesterday's Simonds also a local firm this part of the trip had been a welcome break from uniformity.

Today's travels had been through very much typical Suffolk countryside - thatched cottages, half-timbered houses with "Suffolk Pink" painted walls, pretty villages,enormous stone churches and wide-open fields, one of which even had hay bales awaiting collection, something you don't see very much nowadays.

Ipswich's impressive Town Hall

Although it was only 14.35 when we arrived at Ipswich bus station I was happy to call it a day and a had just a brief walk around the town centre until it was time for my to check-in to my hotel, where I was pleased to see my room overlooked the local bus garage!  After having been on the go more or less since yesterday morning I was happy to have a lie down before venturing out later for a walk  to the Margaret Catchpole pub in one of Ipswich's suburbs. This is one of the best preserved 1930s art deco pubs in the country and was well worth a visit, despite having no real ale, which meant I had to have a very rare pint of lager before catching a bus back into the town for a meal in an Indian restaurant.

Cambridge to Norwich                                                                       Ipswich to Chelmsford