Great Blakenham Walk

Well we found the starting point in Gipping Valley Centre hard to find so settled for near to the Chequers pub, mind you we did find a lovely cafe overlooking a fishing lake trying to find the starting point. The village lies in the Gipping valley and there is a lot of lakes in the valley probably old gravel pits used to build the A14 as you normally find they like to quarry as near to a new road being built as they can.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 11/08/2013

• Distance: 4.34 Miles

• Car Park: Chequers Pub on the side road IP60LP

• Refreshments: Chequers

• Photos Taken on Walk

On the walk information we were told to look out for herons, kingfishers and otters along the way which would have been really great just seeing one off them, shame but not this time perhaps one day we will be lucky, but saying that we have seen herons before. As we did not find the start of the walk we joined it at point 2 which was down Mill Lane near Mill Cottage appropriately named from here we walked along the River Gipping path to a lock and there was a bench so we decided to have our lunch early. From here we followed the river till eventually coming out at the Baylham house rare breeds farm and Bayhams mill.

We then went up the lane which is also called Mill Lane to cross over the railway line and I was in luck there was a train just coming, once across the railway line and the main road to Moat Farm it was all up hill to  we reached the plateau with sweeping views of the valley. The walk goes into a Baylham and it doesn't matter how small the village is it still has a church which is called St Peter and dates back to at least the 12th century. In Upper Street which is just down the road from Baylham is even smaller and that had a church as well St Michael built in the 1980s and closed in 1997, only to be destroyed by a fire on March 2011. We had just finished walking across a field when I noticed in the distance a deer which is the second time we have seen one on all our walks. So now it is mainly down hill in to Gt Blakenham and back to the starting point near the Chequers, where we could have had drink there but decided to go back to the fishing lake we stopped at on the way here, the setting was just right seating outside looking over the lake.