Tuesday, 12 August 2025

Needham Market Walk

Today we had an early walk from Needham Market Lake.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"Tuesday August 12th please note new start time:  As we enter another heatwave, I feel it would be sensible to walk earlier so let’s start at Needham Lakes at 9am when they open for toilets and save a drink for the end (if you would like?). There is lots of parking if you enter Needham Lakes from the B1078 off the A14 slip road. Our circular walk includes some shade especially as we walk to Barking Church. Then it’s onto Baylham Church (toilet here), Darmsden Church and back into Needham. The walk is just over 9 miles. Needham Market is a lovely place and the High Street is worth exploring. Nearby is Alder Carr Farm which has a great café, deli, flower/plant shop. "

This was our route.

Here are a few photos.

At the start. Toave her voice, Joyce got Janice to tell us about the route.


We passed Needham Lake to start with...


..and then under the railway through the Cattle Tunnel, which dates from 1846.


We were soon out in the countryside.


It wasn't far along the Causeway to St. Mary, Barking Church. As Laura, who lives locally, reminded us and Simon Knott says.. "Until the 20th century, it was also one of the county's more populous parishes, including as it did the whole of the town of Needham Market, where St John the Baptist church was just a chapel of ease. All the dead of Needham Market came here to be buried, conveyed the mile up the hill on a bier along the Causeway. This is a journey you can still make today, albeit under your own steam. Local legend has it that the word 'causeway' is a corruption of 'corpseway'." 



This is the bier that was used to transport the coffins.


The have a lovely red carpet.




Roland found a bell-ringer's book of changes.


Onward now.


A neatly cut path through the long grass was welcome.


A welcome cool shaded path by a pond.


The land is pretty barren here.


In the distance we saw Grade II listed 17th Century Baylham Hall.


We passed under pylons as we had done on this walk when the path was closed for work on the pylons (but we were allowed to pass).


Lots of water-lilies on this pond.


And lots of ripe blackberries for the picking.


In the distance we could see Shrubland Hall. We had walked through the grounds on our Coddenham walk earlier this year (see here).




We were pleased to find that the didn't just have a toilet, but also a sink where we could replenish our water bottles.


The font is a good example of a typical 15th century East Anglian font.



There is a miscellany of vehicles parked at Roebuck Farm.



Our final charch stop was at St. Andrews Church, Darmsden.


Everybody was feeling quite hot now and we were glad of the shade.


On to the Suffolk prairies.



I think this bale may have rolled down the slope. Did someone push it?


Looking back at Darmsden church.


We were soon back at Needham lake.

Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to the others for the additional company. I was glad we started early as it was getting pretty hot by the end. Goof call, Joyce! You can find more details of our 9.9 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other reated walks you can find on my blog include...

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