Wednesday, 5 March 2025

West Stow Walk

Today we had a sylvan (and riparian) walk from West Stow along familiar paths.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Wednesday March 5th a circular walk of 12 miles starting from West Stow Church car park (IP28 6ET). We will meet here at 10.30am. I would recommend that you use the toilets at West Stow Country Park,  as you pass, as the outside toilet at West Stow Church may not be open.  This walk involves a lot of tree 'bathing' and straight lines. I love the area but it's maybe not for everyone. We are heading into the grounds of Culford School and then over to Brockley Corner.  After approx 4 miles we will stop on a log for a snack so pls bring a drink/flask. Then we proceed over to Thetford Kings Picnic place and catch the Fire route 205 back to West Stow CP where there will be opportunity for further refreshments and toilets. "

This was our route, largely along the edge of or through forest, but also a little along the Rive Lark.


There was a great turnout of 16 of us for the walk and se set off from West Stow Church on time.

Here are some of my photos.

We met at St. Mary's Church, West Stow.


Here is Joyce briefing us on the walk.


We passed the lake in the grounds of Culford School....


..and then the main school building.


We were soon out in the countryside. We saw plenty of hares today.


By Brockley Corner, Hill House had plenty of crocuses in bloom.


The house is named after the tumulus in its garden, shown on the map as the Hill of Health.


We came across a pig farm.


There were quite a few piglets. This little one had someone come out of the sty and was too small to climb back in.


Rachel spotted this iris...


...and next to it an anemone coming into flower.


By now Alicia, Rachel and I had got a bit left behind.
 

We worried that the group in front hard turned off the path, but eventually teh path was straight ebough for us to see them some distance ahead.


We caught up at the drink stop.


Now we turned west through the forest.


This was our lunch stop in the sun.


Logs!


It is a while since we've been to this car park. We used to bring the children here for a forest walk. There were lovely wild raspberries just along the path from here. I wonder if they are still there?


I liked the fronds of grass.


We reached West Stow Country Park.



Another drinks break here before the last leg.



We went by the old pumping station.


Rachel posed for a selfie here.


No time to visit Fullers Mill garden today.


Now we had a short stretch along the River Lark.


The path is still closed here where the bank collapsed.


So abit of a detour away from the rive and past West Stow Hall...


...and the old Rectory.


We had a little extra loop to pass the lake in the grounds of Culford School again...


...and then we were back at the church.


A lovely day for a walk and some lovely scenery and points of interest - not least the cute piglets. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and also to the rest for the additional company.

You can find more details of our 12 mile route here on MapMyWalk (our download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other related walks you can find on my blog include


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