This is one of several walks to neighbouring pubs and it can be a ‘there and back’ exercise (a mildly interesting 4½ miles) or it can be extended to take in Denston (a more rewarding 7 miles). The Cherry Tree on the A143 is open from 8.00 am to 6.30 pm on weekdays apart from Wednesday and from 12 noon on Saturday and Sunday. To check details phone 01440 820215. Take OS map 210 Newmarket & Haverhill for re-assurance.
From the car park by the village hall walk across the recreation ground heading half right to a lone tree. Skirt the tennis courts and turn right down the side of the school. Cross the road and go down a minor road with grass growing in the middle. At the bottom turn left. At the next junction veer slightly right to find a green and bench on your right. Take the first footpath on the left which immediately takes you across a small metal bridge and then another. Continue with the hedge on your left, cross a collapsing culvert, and the hedge will be on your right. At the far end of the post and rail paddocks go across a ditch and continue ahead with a ditch on your right. This is a very open stretch. Eventually cross a sleeper bridge and go through a gate into a rough paddock. Veer slightly left towards the opposite corner where you will find a ‘chest expander’ stile. Go through this to reach the road and turn left into the small hamlet of Farley Green. Cross the next junction and then turn right at the next in front of the ‘Old Bakery’. Take the bridleway sign on the left (opposite Moat farm). As the gravel drive turns right keep straight on along a pitted and wet, in parts, green lane. Cross a footpath junction * (remember this for the return journey) and come out into the open. Stick to the right side of a large field, through a gap in the hedge, and along the left side of the next field. The Suffolk Pink of the Cherry Tree will come into view. Continue straight ahead along a track and reach the road. Turn right for the pub.
Having consumed your allowance and rested sufficiently, backtrack to the footpath junction*. If you wish to continue the circuit, climb the stile (missing April 2020) now on your right, cross a small rough paddock to find another stile and sleeper bridge. Make use of these and turn right. Follow a hedge, then a ditch, skirt a small copse and pass a collapsing sign saying ‘Landowner welcomes careful walkers’, all on your right. You meet a cross track where you should turn left. Make use of the first culvert on the right and cross a narrow field. There is no waymark here but you will see ahead the finger posts either side of the main road.
Cross the A143 and take a half left diagonal footpath across growing crops towards the nearest of a line of tall trees. Do not go through the trees (according to the definitive map) but follow this headland path left to the far corner. (Locals seem to use the track at the far side of the trees which is easier walking) Go right through a gap in the hedge and walk along with hedge now on your left. At the end turn left to enter the playing field and head towards the bench to the right of the swings, and the litter bin. Use the gap between them both to enter the churchyard. You will pass a neat row of memorials to pilots killed in the second World War several of which were killed in ‘accidents’ rather than the conflict and with an average age of little more than 20. There are seats in this area. Reach the road and turn left. Where the road swings left you need to cross but if you do so, because of the bend, you can see neither right nor left. So it is best to backtrack to where you can see to the right and listen to the left. Having crossed the road follow a track between a square cream cottage and a ditch on your right. At the time of writing the fingerpost was missing but it has now been reported. Go through a kissing gate, then right to cross a solid bridge, then left to follow a waymark. Cross a sleeper bridge and follow the hedge on the left until you are just short of the road. Continue with the headland round to the right until you reach a pedestrian bridge across a ditch on your left. Cross the bridge and go through a gate. Take a faint path across the meadow heading for the far side. Use the pedestrian gate just short of the right-hand corner, which unusually has a self-closing mechanism attached. This leads to the drive of Denston Hall. Turn left uphill towards the church. There is a seat here if you need a breather.
Take the footpath to the left of the churchyard, through a kissing gate and turn left. Do not go for the obvious kissing gate ahead. The correct path will take you through a wide gap to the left of a pond towards double metal gates in the far left corner. Go through the pedestrian gate and follow the headland with a hedge on your left. Curve left and then turn right in the first corner and right in the next to start a gentle downhill stretch still with the hedge on your left. Halfway down the slope you will spot a new sleeper bridge which you should cross. Join the headland and follow this around corners until you reach the A143. Cross with care and head up the rough drive on the other side. Divert to the right around the buildings ahead and rejoin the track, now a metalled road, on the far side. Reach and cross the B1063, and continue along the minor road opposite. After a short distance take the footpath sign on the right. This takes you back on yourself (the alternative option, walking the short section along the main road, comes under the heading of Extreme Sports and is best rejected unless you are tiring of life) down a regularly mowed path. Meet the road again and turn left to pick up the pavement and follow that across Cloak Lane back to the school and car park.
Roger Medley
First walked 14 February 2006
Updated 8 April 2019
If these notes are confusing or inaccurate or the information is wrong, please let me know. If they are helpful, or if you have any other comments, likewise.
Roger Medley [text-blocks id=”50903″ slug=”roger-medley-tel-no”]
Coming Soon to a Fingerpost near you
Suffolk County Council has received funding for a county wide initiative to encourage more people to explore the local area. A field officer has been appointed and volunteers have been recruited to attach plaques to fingerposts in individual parishes. Each plaque (see diagram) displays an app. which can be downloaded to modern Apple and android phones. This will display the local section of the Ordnance Survey map showing footpaths and recognised walking, cycling and riding trails. The information can be stored if walkers are visiting an area where there is limited phone cover. Plaques have been added to 44 stable fingerposts in Wickhambrook and where fingerposts are missing or unstable these have been reported. There are 18 of these and they will be replaced complete with plaques. Wickhambrook is one of the first parishes in the County to complete this task.
W.I.Walking Group
The Wickhambrook W.I. Walking Group meets every Wednesday morning at 10am starting from the MSC car park for walks in the village or slightly further afield. We walk for about two hours and cover about five miles, depending on how much chatting is taking place. There are usually six of us, although we have had a dozen occasionally, dogs are welcome too.