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website last updated 5 April, 2010
Wickhambrook Walks
Hartest is one of these ‘ideal’ villages with a church, mansion, cottages, pub, garage and one remaining shop all huddled round a green and a brook. This five mile circuit goes from the village centre to Boxted then back offering impressive views over the valley and surrounding countryside. The whole distance will take between 2.5 and 3 hours to complete. Even at this time of the year surfaces underfoot are reasonable but it is best to choose a wind free day. The map needed is Ordnance Survey Explorer 211 (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket).
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 16 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 16 - hit the heights of Hartest
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 » Park at the village hall opposite the green. Take the road to Melford and pass the school. Soon after, on the opposite side next to a 30 mph sign, there is a fingerpost pointing between houses. Follow this path across the brook and turn right along the field edge.
On reaching a vehicle track turn right across a bridge and immediately left (waymarks) so that the river is now on your left. Follow this field edge path until you cross a sleeper bridge and two stiles and eventually arrive at Boxted.
On reaching the road turn left, keeping a wary eye open for vehicles as there is only a short section of pavement. At Street Farm find another fingerpost indicating a path to the left. Take this through a yard, up a hill beside a small wood and turn right at the next footpath junction (at the bottom of a dip).
You are now walking gently uphill on an obvious path with a hedge and ditch on the left. At the footbridge you follow the waymarks and change sides so the hedge is now on the right. Continue to follow waymarks through another gap so that the hedge returns to the left. Follow this path into the next field and continue along the edge of the arable area.
After a short distance a crossfield path will appear on the right. This is the official right of way and will take the walker to the road. Locals seem to follow the field edge until they (and you?) reach a wide gap in the hedge and can drop left down a bank. If at this stage you are tiring continue ahead and this path will return you, via one right fork, to the village centre (alongside the church).
If still going strong turn right to join another path which leads to the road. The two road exits are separated by a mere 200 metres but take you past some attractively named cottages. Elizel’s Cottage takes some beating. Turn left at the road and go downhill.
At Lark Rise, on the right, obey a fingerpost, and pass through a narrow gap beside a five bar gate to join a path between arable fields. This open stretch affords wonderful views of the village over your left shoulder.
Veer left, following the waymarks, through a newly planted copse, join a track from the farm and turn left at the junction (hidden finger post) to follow a concrete road downhill. You now have more choices. If at the next track junction you continue ahead to eventually join a road going left to the village centre, your total will be less than 4 miles.
If you turn right along another sheltered track you will add another 1.5 miles. For the latter follow the track past a lone house soon reaching open skies and another field edge path. This accompanies what appears to be an overgrown and sunken green lane for a while then swings gently left to reach a track stretching both left and right. Take a left option and stay with this solid surface as it veers left (past a pristine set of foundations – nothing else, just a set of foundations) and right, until you reach the road.
There is now a short section of downhill road walking but there should be little traffic and you will know when a vehicle is approaching. When you reach Hartest Wood on the right (this may not be quite as you imagine) enter and take the manicured path to the bottom left corner passing a statue – ‘The Gift’ - and two wooden seats.
Follow the path overlooking the lane (Pask’s Path) back to the village. On reaching Green View Close go into the estate, stay with the road to the end and then take the footpath down the steps. This short detour avoids a hazardous section of the Lawshall road. When the steps finish turn left and then right across the bridge and find the village green. The village hall will now be in sight.
The Hartest Stone to be found at the top of the green is worth a look. It is rumoured to have been dug out from a field at Somerton and moved to the current site on a sledge pulled by 45 horses. This was done to celebrate the victories of the Duke of Marlborough in the war of the Spanish Succession. The stone has been used as a ‘table for drink’ during village celebrations since the 18th century. A similar ‘glacial erratic’ stone, but much smaller, can be found outside the Plumbers Arms.
The row of cottages between ‘the Forge’ and the bridge, now no longer obvious, was called ‘the Duddery’, which indicates a place where clothes were sold.
The origin of Hartest Fair (now held every year on August Bank Holiday) was a national thanksgiving, held on 23 April 1789, for the recovery of King George 111 from ‘an afflictive malady’ (madness). On that day the inhabitants ‘to evince their loyalty congregated at the stone to drink and make merry and from this very circumstance originated the wake or fair’. In later years it became the occasion for local rivalries to be settled between boys of surrounding villages.
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