At the bottom turn left and follow this slightly more busy road as it twists and turns through a junction (do not turn left or right) past a seat on a small green and through a variety of houses and bungalows. As you leave habitation, just after Melford House on the right, take the footpath in a field entrance on the left.  Join and accompany a new rail and netting fence and a very young hedge as they bear round to the left. On reaching the hedge turn right (waymark).  Continue with the hedge and ditch on the left until you have just passed a group of mature trees in a copse.  Turn right and follow the edge of an arable field.  There will still be a hedge on your left but separated by a wide grass strip. You will soon meet a vehicle track in front of a wood (and another waymark) and you need to turn left.  Follow this track around a couple of large puddles until you eventually reach a road at a small grass triangle.  Turn right and continue to the corner by Fairstead Farm. Turn left at the footpath sign and follow another track which goes to the right of a corrugated barn cum workshop, then soon after left in front of a brick barn with many arches. The track continues straight, more or less, to Cowlinge. On reaching the road turn right and a few more paces will bring you face to face with the Three Tuns.  This seventeenth century hostelry, log fires and all round cosy, is open between noon and 2.00 pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (not Monday to Wednesday).  The bus arrives at 14.51 at the Three Tuns to deliver you back to Thorns Corner (via Lidgate) at 1503.  If you wish to use another 50 mins it is possible to walk to the church and back. 

The St Margaret of Antioch parish church was built some 650 years ago and boasts medieval graffiti and wall paintings. Under the east window there is a small grilled opening that probably ventilated a charnel chamber. Churchyards were re-used in the Middle Ages and bones from earlier burials were removed to charnels for safe keeping.  At the west end of the north isle is an unusual local seating arrangement.  Four plain backless forms are stepped one above another and these accommodated the keeper of the Cowlinge House of Correction and his prisoners, probably in the coldest and draughtiest corner. 

To do the church loop go back over the sleeper bridge, a few paces from the road, turn left and follow the ditch on the left. You eventually arrive at a grassy paddock with an obvious path crossing towards the church.  Having visited and admired, drop to the main road, turn left and follow Cowlinge 'high street' round to the left and back to the pub.
Approximate distances and times are as follows - the walk from Wickhambrook car park to Cowlinge pub is about three miles and should take one and a half hours and the church loop just over a mile and will take an hour.

The bus stop, which has no physical presence, is outside the pub on the opposite side of the road and the bus service (route 341) is run by Neals Travel, a company which is among the more reliable of local operators.  To be safe it may be wise to take a mobile just in case you need to 'phone a friend', or a taxi.