Turn right after Barretts up New Street, where above the first couple of doors on your left are two moulded, smiling bearded faces. Strolling along New Street you’ll pass The Woodbridge Fine Food Deli and the library, before coming across the junction with St John’s Street.

Here, above the well-crafted curved brick façade, a painted advertisement reveals that the shop once stocked antiques.

Rising up behind this Victorian building is the spire of St John’s. It’s worth a quick detour to the church from here, if only to admire the eccentric spire, rising from a square to an octagon before finally becoming a pyramid.

Also of note is the sentimental Victorian gravestone adorned with a wee angel staring up to heaven and the remarkably emotive gargoyles at the east end of the church above the windows, who look more comical and pitying rather than fierce.

From the church go back to New Street and begin the climb, past a quaint little pub called The Old Mariner on your right.

Awaiting you are the dusky pink delights of Bridewell; now a residential house but also one of a number of fine examples of exposed beam Tudor architecture, with the original arched tops to its doorways.

Up from Bridewell, it’s easy to see your next port of call, Ye Olde Bell and Steelyard. The black counterbalance scale hangs ponderously over the narrow street by the white walled, dark-beamed pub and was used to weigh wagons full of hay or corn, on their way from the exchange down to the river.

This welcoming pub, the 12th oldest in England, is an ideal place to break the climb for refreshment.