Fornham Walk

Today we enjoyed a familiar walk to celebrate the first day when we didn't need to walk in groups of 6 or less.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"Boris has given the go ahead for Step 3 on Monday May 17th. This means that we can be a group of up to 30. With that in mind you don't have to 'book' your space but just turn up ready to participate. Therefore, the next walk will be Monday May 17th.   We will park/meet at The Folk Cafe,  Fornham Business Court, Fornham St Martin, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP31 1SL.If you want breakfast/drinks/pastries before we start then please turn up and support The Folk Cafe at 9.30am. If you just wish to walk then we will start at 10.15am.

We are heading to Timworth, Ingham, Culford and back along the River Lark and the Fornham Golf Course. We have permission to use a farm track too to cut down the time on the road. The walk is similar to The Snowdrop Walk
It is 10 miles and circular. We will stop for lunch en route so pleases bring sarnie/drinks with you"

This was our route...

Here are a few of my photos...

We crossed a few fields to start with, including this path we had kind permission from the landowner to use.

There were hares...

..and some deer. Can you spot them?

Timworth Church was the first we passed.

Then it was on Ampton Racecourse. The jumps look ready for jumping, but I can't see any planned fixtures here.

We did see one horse and rider on the course, though.

We passed the Culford Estate War Memorial outside the village hall - it commemorates lives lost in the First World War from the 4 parishes : Culford, Ingham, West Stow and Wordwell.

We walked though the grounds of Culford School on the network of permissive paths, passing Culford Church....

...and walking along the lakes to the Iron Bridge.

Culford Hall, which is now the main building of Culford school, is a replacement for the original hall. which was built in the late C16 for Nicholas Bacon and was rebuilt in the 1790s for the first Marquis Cornwallis to a design by Samuel Wyatt. Wyatt's seven-bay, two-storey house was absorbed into the core of the present Hall, which was greatly enlarged by William Young for Earl Cadogan in the 1890s.

We arrived at the River Lark at Hengrave weir, where we stopped for our lunch.

Then it was along the path by the river, which, unlike the last time went along it, was not at all muddy.

There weren't many golfers on The Suffolk Golf Course, although the All Saints hotel looked busy.

I wondered if I had made the wrong choice of attire, wearing shorts, as we approached this path, but I managed to get along it without being stung by the nettles.

For one I managed to get a photo of a singing bird. This robin was in plain view.

In Fornham St. Martin we paused, as usual, to admire the Grade II listed Little Park. It was good to see the cottage garden and the wisteria coming into bloom.

After crossing the A134, the sun came out and our destination was in sight.

The cafe was quite busy now, but we were able to pause for a while at a couple of the picnic tables before dispersing to enjoy the rest our day.

Thank-you Joyce for the lovely walk. It was great to be able to walk as a single group of 9 people again.

You can find more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk,