Shotley Marina

One of the slightly surreal repercussions of the Covid 19 pandemic is the need to ‘discover’ places in the more immediate vicinity to which you have rarely, if ever, been before. We are lucky that at the peak of lockdown we at least had walkable areas that allowed you to exercise without encountering too many others along the route, but enthusiasm did still begin to wane a lttle after a while.

And so it was that the Shotley area came into mind as a possible afternoon destination. We have been before but never beyond Shotley Gate and the pub housed there. An occasional ramble but starting further from the coast in Shotley itself. On this occasion we took the car a little further and arrived in Shotley Marina. What did we find? Well, a free car park, the Shipwreck pub (more later) and coastal walks in both directions. We initially took the route back to Ipswich, via what we assumed was the manned lock station. Hadn’t planned for any of this so didn’t on this occasion stretch out too far.

On returning, with masks suitably donned, we bought refreshments at the pub and sat outside to look out at the views. Sited on the confluence of the Stour and Orwell rivers, from our seats we could see Felixstowe port to our left and Harwich town and port virtually directly ahead. After the beer (in my case) we then headed in the opposite direction, down past Shotley Pier.

The latter doesn’t look that good at the moment, but maybe there are better times ahead. Suffolk’s only railway pier, it was built by the Marquis of Bristol in 1894 to convey the Royal Mail by ferry between Shotley Gate and Harwich the pier was a testament to the Victorian values of construction made to last. You can read more of its history and the attempts to save and indeed restore it by visiting the Shotley Pier website.

Going beyond the pier and passing the pinic area took us to the coastal path in the opposite direction, heading off all the way along the river bank towards Manningtree; we didn’t obviously. Difficult to reconcile our sketchy understanding of the area with the reality. The lovely river walks in both directions were well signed and well kept and, certainly on the Thursday of our visit, clearly well used but not overcrowded. I guess previously when out looking for places to walk, we’ve stuck to the tried and tested.

The pandemic gave us both the space and time to look beyond the familiar. Clearly to many the marina and its immediate environs would be very familiar, but for us it’s an area we will clearly return, knowing there are very fine river walks in both directions – the Stour out to Manningtree and the Orwell into Ipswich.

Mrs. No Name did however remember correctly that the ferry to Harwich and Felixstowe departed from the marina. Happy to report it still does!