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website last updated 1 November, 2010
Wickhambrook Walks
This series of walks have been put together by Roger Medley.
If any of the walking notes are confusing or inaccurate or the information is wrong, please contact Roger. If they are helpful, or if you have any other comments, likewise.
The Wickhambrook W.I. Walking Group meets every Wednesday morning at 10am starting from the MSC car park for walks in the village or slightly further afield. We walk for about two hours and cover about five miles, depending on how much chatting is taking place and there are usually six of us, although we have had a dozen occasionally, and dogs are welcome too.
Walk 1 Map
Walks
2 - Wickhambrook including Baxters Green
3 - Wickhambrook plus Clopton & Depden
4 - Walk to the Star Inn at Lidgate
5 - Walk to The Three Tuns at Cowlinge
6 - Walk to The Cherry Tree and onwards
7 - No hills in Suffolk - there's plenty here
9 - Skirt the grounds of Denston Hall
14 - Longer circuit of Stansfield & Denston
15 - A short circuit of Stansfield
16 - Hit the heights of Hartest
19 - Around the Thurlows & Little Bradley
Walk photos
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Walk 1 - walk around Wickhambrook
MAP » you might find it useful to view the map using this link »larger version« where you can also change the view from Streep Map to Satellite Map to view the route across fields, etc.
ROUTE » From the Car Park at the village hall turn right and take the footpath that runs beside the cemetery. Step across a ditch and continue in the same direction with the ditch on the right. At the bottom corner turn left and follow the edge of the field on the left.
On reaching the road turn right and at the entrance to Coltsfoot Close take the footpath on the right. This runs straight ahead (more or less), swapping sides of the hedge (do not take the left fork here) skirting the Waste Water Treatment Works, and continuing until you reach Cloak Lane. Here you turn right.
Cloak House on the left used to be the Cloak Public House until it closed in 1989. It was the only pub in the country with this name and it is supposed to be haunted by 'a little old lady in white.'
At the junction cross the main road and take the footpath beside the 5 bar gate. Halfway across the paddock turn around and take a look at Commerce House - the large pale pink building. This is the tallest thatched house in Suffolk and used to be a coffee house and grocery shop. The shop windows are just visible from Cloak Lane.
Having negotiated the second stile follow the path beside the ditch on the left until you reach the road. The official footpath goes diagonally across the last paddock but unless you wish to challenge thundering hooves, it is best to stick to the villager's path. Go across the grass triangle, pass a pond, seat and small green on the right, and after 70 paces turn left at a new footpath sign. Follow the path through a narrow wooded ribbon, crossing two footbridges, into a field witth a hedge on the left.
After passing the last pile of spoil on the right cross a collapsing culvert and you now have the hedge (and a previously hidden way mark) on your right. Continue until you can turn left at the last of the post and rail fencing (another way mark) and this short stretch will bring you to the road. Turn left (there are good views looking back to the village) then right at the T junction.
Shortly, as the road bends 90 degrees left, go straight ahead over a stile and follow a narrow footpath. A gate opens into a small field where you continue to follow the hedge on the right. At the field corner turn left, still with the hedge on the right, duck under a drunken tree and follow the way marks into the next two fields.
These are fields as fields used to be. The hedge continues on your right. Enter a copse and follow a narrow winding path, more or less, straight ahead. Walk some duck boards, go through a gate, climb a stile and reach the road.
Danger! Turn right and walk as fast as you like to the footpath sign on the left. Take the broad, green track which curves round to the left, keeping the ditch on the left. At a collection of way marks, three in quick succession, turn right uphill accompanying a row of trees on the left. The building on the left at the top of the hill was the village bake house until 1996 when Ron Penhaligan, the baker, and his wife Edna, the deliverer, retired.
Turn right and take the track until the first hedge on the left (and way mark). Follow this downhill, appreciating the views of the church, and round to the left. This will bring you to Wash Lane. Turn right and cross the ford (there is a footbridge).
Right again at the grass triangle and reach the almshouses and the church. The latter is usually open during the day and you may wish to pop in to admire the recent 'facelift', and, if you are quick, the wall paintings. It is believed that regular worship has taken place on this site for more than a thousand years. Upon leaving turn right and continue until the first footpath on the left.
Follow the hedge up the left hand side of what turns out to be a very large field. When the hedge ends continue in same direction with a ditch on the left hand side. Ignore a way mark pointing left and later one pointing right and continue until you can cross the ditch at a tractor access bridge. Continue, still in the same direction, now with the ditch on your right. Enter another field, with a spasmodic hedge on the right, continuing gradually uphill.
Eventually you will cross a footbridge and stile and enter a small paddock. Head for another stile at the far side. Stout boots are needed for the approach. Having climbed this one, turn left along the road and shortly take the bridleway on the right.
Downhill now but it can be somewhat soggy so don't discard those stout boots. On emerging from the green lane continue with the ditch on the left. Follow the field perimeter round to the right, turn left across a concrete bridge and follow the track up between two cultivated fields.
Pass Australia Farm on the right, take a little dog leg, right then left, and continue in the original direction. Turn left at the end and follow the road downhill, passing the chapel on the right at the crossroads (when Dissenters broke away from the Church of England around 1670, services were held in a barn at Badmondisfield Hall. Money was raised to build a new chapel nearer to the centre of the village and this was opened in 1734 giving the name to Meeting House green. Thomas Priest (!), a successful pastor, was the instigator). Continue up the hill to the car park.