Hawkedon and Upper Somerton Walk

This six mile circular walk goes through both villages, up and down several hills, and crosses the River Glem in two places.  The circuit includes Snugs Lane, a byway used by horses and quadbikes which is considerably easier to climb in dry weather than in wet (walking boots strongly advised), and Gallowgate Farm, which is like farms were some 50 years ago.  The Queens Head pub in Hawkedon (01284 789218) is open midday on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but only open evenings for the rest of the week.  Since first walked in 2006 several waymarks have disappeared so you may need the reassurance of an Ordnance Survey map. As is the way with OS maps the area you are exploring is on the very edge of two editions, both 210 (Newmarket and Haverhill) and 211 (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket).

Leave the car on the green below Hawkedon church but please avoid the area in front of the seat.  Walk uphill across the grass, passing the pub on the right.  Soon after the brow of the hill take a sunken track to the right.  This crosses a modest ford (Note; there is no bridge alternative) and follows a hedge and deep ditch round to the right.  Stay with the field edge round the corner and after a short distance, turn sharp right (do not follow a wider track ahead that veers right) and follow a path beside a barbed wire fence.  On reaching a gate use a footbridge and stile to enter a meadow. Turn left to follow the hedge uphill.  Just before an obvious angle in the hedge go left over a stile (more a section of fence) and footbridge and re-enter the field you left five minutes ago (I know but that’s footpaths for you!) Turn right and follow the hedge and copse uphill.  In the bend, before you walk under the power lines for a second time, spot a hidden stile on the right.  Use that to enter an unkempt area. You now have a choice of paths. The preferred option is the permissive path to your left. Climb the stile and accompany the fence uphill to reach a metal gate with a smaller gate and finger post beside. The alternative path, to the right having crossed the footbridge, leads through a marshy area and would only be enjoyable after a long period of dry weather. Go through the gap and stick to the hedge on the right. Enter a garden (that’s also footpaths for you) and reach the road.  This is Upper Somerton high street and a right turn will take you past houses, ignore any footpath signs pointing left, and the church to arrive at the village pump. At the pump turn right, the direction indicated by the fingerpost. There are seats here if you need a ‘breather’ or have taken a picnic. Follow the field edge to the left, ignoring the Bury/Clare waymark pointing right, around a corner and downhill for a while until you are directed through a narrow gap in the hedge. The path is well used so should be easy to follow despite the absence of waymarks. Once in the next field follow another left-hand hedge going gently downhill.  Appreciate the views ahead over the valley. At a curve in the path use an uphill footbridge on your left to enter the upper field. Continue for a short way with the hedge on your right then obey waymarks to drop to the lower field.  Just before this hedge expands into a small wood use another footbridge on the left to pass under power lines and enter a new field. Turn right and continue downhill. Drop to the road, cross, turn left and within 100 paces you will find the drive towards Lodge Farm.  Turn right and experience your first crossing of the River Glem. At the end of the drive continue in the same direction along a shady green tunnel called Snugs Lane. (Some names are spot on).  This is a byway and as such hosts horses and the occasional motorised vehicle.  It can be muddy and, if you are unlucky, slippy as well.  Climb up the hill, and it is a hill.  The track levels out and after an open section gains a hedge on the left.  Continue until you reach large barns at the top. You should turn right, half back on yourself, between barns 1 and 2 (waymark in hedge) and head downhill on a vehicle track. There are more pleasing views to be seen. This track eventually leads, after two gates, to Gallowgate Farm nestling in the valley.  This is a farm as farms ought to be – black barns, open fronted lean-tos, rusting machinery, lopsided doors, windows displaying many years accumulation of cobwebs yet contented cattle and calves in straw yards or fields.  Turn left in front of the start of a flint and brick wall (you join the Bury to Clare walk at this point), immediately pass apple trees on the right and continue along the lower edge of a small wood.  Once back into the open stay with the path as it heads alongside the right-hand hedge and then veers left up a slope between newly planted saplings.  On reaching the road turn left (a few yards to the right gives a view of the half-timbered Thurston Hall and is worth the short diversion).  Turn right at the road junction, signposted to Stansfield, and go downhill.  Take the stile and footpath on the right to leave the Bury/Clare walk. Drop down to the river.  Cross a footbridge and walk ahead between hedges soon losing the one on the left.  Ignore the waymark pointing left.  At the top enter a second field and continue round to the right.  Shortly after the next corner use the footbridge to go through the hedge.  Turn left down the side of the wood and at the first corner turn right (waymark) across the growing crop heading for finger post in the distance. Turn left at the road heading down hill and then up to return to Hawkedon church.

The circuit will take around 3 hours walking.

Roger Medley
Walked in May 2022