Fornham All Saints Snowdrop Walk

Joyce is away at the moment and this week it was my turn to lead a walk for the group.

I chose one I hadn't done for 4 years (although I missed the group doing it in 2023 as we were meeting up with Laura and Laurence that day). This was the invite.

"Friday 20th February. A Snowdrop Walk. John will be leading a circular walk from The Coffee House, Moseleys Business Centre, Fornham All Saints IP28 6JY. Please meet there at 10am for coffee (or 10:30 am to start walking). The walk will be 9.5 - 10  miles and hopefully there will be snowdrops to see. Please bring packed lunch/snacks for a short break for lunch enroute."

This was our route, going anti-clockwise.

Here are a few of my photos.

We met at the Coffee House as planned.

There were 11 of us in total today so we doubled the number of people in the cafe at 10am.

Those needing milk took turns at using the cow milk jug. Someone complained that the milk should come from the udder rather than mouth, but that might have been a little impractical. Here's Roland adding milk to his tea.

So off we went on the walk going initially along the main road through Fornham All Saints and past the eponymous All Saints church, but we didn't visit.

Our path took us along the edge of the golf course with views of an icon of Bury St. Edmunds - the sugar factory.

Through Fornham St. Martin now and past the equally eponymous St. Martin's church. Actually we had plenty of time and the church was open, so maybe we could have visited - maybe next time.

We took a road called The Drift which had a few drifts of snowdrops.

Over the A143 and onto some wide back roads.

We wondered what the signifiance of this green heart at Hall Farm was. 

I looked it up... "The 💚 (green heart emoji) generally signifies  generally signifies love for nature, environmentalism, and a healthy, organic lifestyle "

We had plenty of puddles on the road, but they were easy to get around without getting wet or muddy feet.

As you can tell from the people in front of the camera, I was not leading the walk from the front at this point. After being called back twice for missing turnings the walkers at the front eventually learned to wait at a junction so we could all bunch together again.

Our next port of call was to be, St. Andrews, Timworth,

Ther are lots of snowdrop in the churchyard here.

The church wasn't open so we couldn't go in, but we found the churchyard interesting. Rachel spotted several horizontal gravestones where moss had grown in the lettering.

Onward now towards  Ampton Racecourse,  The next point-to-point race meet is on the 1st March. See a video about the previous meeting in January here.

We crossed the tributary of the River Lark that flows from Ampton Water. There is a sign here about the measurement buouy in the water measuring the water quality.

A final look back at Timworth Church.

We came to the point-to-point course and our path crossed the middle of it along a line of birch trees.

We spotted several birds of prey. Here is a red kite close to the ground.

We came to Ingham and resisted the temptation to stop at the Cadogan Arms for a drink. This looks like it should be the lych gate for the church, but it is the other side of the main road.

Our lunch stop was at  St. Bartholemew's Ingham Church,

 

Cosy and dry and with a toilet. Just as we arrived a passing rain shower came.

Rachel found a box of interesting home-made greeting cards for sale.

The shower of rain had passed as we set out again. We were over halfway now. This was the one field we had to cross and the well-marked path was relatively dry and mud-free.

We came to Culford and walked down the main road.

This was the path we had been heading for with plenty of snowdrops.

We were following the  St Edmund Way.here. We walked this bit in part 3 of our walk in March 2024. (see here).

To the left of us here in teh grounds of Ducksluice Farm there were lots of snowdrops in the woods, but it was private property so we couldn't get in among them.

After a brief shower the sun nearly came out again.We came to the River Lark at Hengrave Weir.

Time for a game of pooh-sticks.

I think Dan one. From here it was along the river back towards the golf course. This swan ignored us.

We marvled at the golf balls that had collected here. Presumably they had rolled along the river bed from the golg course but got trapped by the weir.

WSe saw an egret here.

Opposite us was Fornham Park and we could see the tower of the ruined Fornham St Genevieve church.

"The ruined church of St Genevieve is marooned in the park of Fornham Hall to the north of Bury. The tower, which is all that survives, stands on private land, a good half a mile from the nearest road. Although the church is only a mile or so north of Bury St Edmunds, it stands on wild heathland, and is not reachable from the village of Fornham St Genevieve itself. Instead, you have to approach it from the north, along a track which begins on a back road near Culford. In the old days, this would have meant risking the wrath of the owners of Fornham Hall, but today the Hall stands empty, and is being converted into apartments. The church was destroyed by fire in 1782, and was derelicted in 1813".

Onr more short sharp shower and we were back at the main road and passed Fornham All Saints church for a second time.

And here we are back at the start.

That worked out quite nicely. Pleasant paths and just a couple of showers.Thanks to all for coming.You can find more details of our 10.2 mile route here on MapMyWalk or here on OS Maps (or download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr. Other related walks you can find on my blog include:

• Culford and West Stow Walk (Feb 2019)
• Fornham St Martin Snowdrop Walk (Feb 2020)
• Snowdrop Walk (Feb 2021)
• Fornham Walk (May 2021)
• Fornham Snowdrop Walk (Feb 2022)
• St Edmund Way Part 3 (Mar 2024)
• Culford Snowdrop Walk (Feb 2025)