Mildenhall Walk and Summer Social

Today we had a short walk from Mildenhall to The Ark followed by a garden party.

This was the invite from Joyce....

"Friday July 17th Mothers annual Summer Party is getting bigger and better (hopefully)! We will meet at Mildenhall Hub, Sheldrick Way, IP28 7JX for a 11am start. (café and toilets here) and then take the tarmacked path to the village of West Row (Kim and I were born here). We will have a hydration stop here before we then continue along the River Lark to Isleham Marina. Time wise – we might eat our packed lunch at the marina, which is beautiful. We will then continue to The Ark Church which is built from Green Oak (mostly from Elveden Farms). Nick will give us a tour of this outstanding building and then I will arrange transport back to Mildenhall Hub. We will then re-park near my mum’s house (3 minute’s drive), for a social time of sandwiches, cakes and drinks. The timings are approx but I will aim to be at mums 3.30ish if you wish to join for the afternoon tea." 

This was our route today.

Here are some of my photos.

Assembled at The Hub. There were 16 on the walk today.

Off we go.

Across the fields on the tarmac path.

There were a few poppies scattered at the edge of the crops.

We stopped for a drink at West Row.

Then it was on to Riverside Island Marina. along the River Lark.

We had our lunch at a shady spot here.

We skirted Isleham village.

This time we didn't pass the former Baptist chapel that The Ark replaced, but here it is form our last walk here.

But we did get a glimpse of the Frances Peytons Almshouses, endowed as a hospital in about 1575.

Just outside the village we came to The Ark church.

Teas and coffees were provided.

Nick gave us a tour.

A rather nice feature upstairs is this beam where local children carved their names.

We were then ferried back to The Hub and onwards to Joyce's Mum's for afternoon tea.

Can you tell they are sisters?

A lovely day out. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to everyone else for the additional company, Gwen for hosting the garden party and everyone who supplied the yummy eats.

You can find more details of our 6.2 mile route here on MapMyWalk or here on OS Maps (or download a GPX file here).

Other related walks you can find on my blog include

• Ramblers Mildenhall Walk (Sep 2019).
• Mildenhall Walk (Nov 2020).
• Mildenhall and The Ark Walk (Apr 2022).
• Mildenhall Walk (Oct 2023)
• Mildenhall Woods Walk (Jul 2025)