Stowmarket Walk

Stowmarket is a small market town between Bury St Edmunds and Norwich and lies on the River Gipping which is joined by its tributary the River Rat to the south of the town. This walk takes you from the built up town of Stowmarket into the countryside and back through a hidden corridor alongside the river between a industrial area back into the town.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 09/09/2018

• Distance: 6.41 Miles

• Car Park: Meadow Centre (Free on Sundays) IP14 1SL

• Refreshments: Meadow Centre or plenty of places in town

• Photos Taken on Walk

This was the first walk we have done for along time this year what with this and that and we new we had done the walk that night. The walk starts of at the Meadow centre car park which we have been to before when we went to the Museum of East Anglia Life as a family when Eileen and Angie came over from Australia.

From the car park we walked past the museum and the gates of Abbot Hall and when the path divided we turned right alongside a high brick wall and then we turned right on a lane. At the end of the lane we turned left along a street and by no 19 we turned right down a narrow path between the houses to reach the river and we turned left along a wide path between houses on our left and the River Rattlesden on our right.

When we came to the road we turned right and then over a bridge and forked right where the road divides. Just before the Magpie Inn we turned right and cut through the shopping precinct to bring us out on to Combs Lane which we crossed and walked along the pavement until we crossed a stream just before Edgecomb Road. We then turned left with a 'Charcoal & Churches' walk sign on a telegraph sign. We followed the path alongside the stream and then into a wood. Once through the wood we were then in open countryside and away from the town. A little bit further we crossed the stream over a bridge and turned right along a field edge path. At the end of the field there was a metal barrier which we went round and turned left on to a lane passing a mobile tower and a reservoir then we turned right at a T-junction and then left along Mill Lane on to a path which run between parkland and fields.

We turned left again at the road to pass an old Tannery and then headed left at a tarmac path at Webb's close to climb to the centre of Combs, we then turned right passing the old village school. The lovely old Combs school where Christine and Michael are standing outside was built in 1875. At the junction we turned right and almost straight away turned left opposite a thatched cottage . We found a great place to have lunch and that was on a bench put there to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and had a blackberry bush trying to take over the bench, but there was enough room for us to sit and admire the view as you can see from the photo with the church in it and the silence only now and then to be disturbed by a passing car. After having a break we carried on down the hill between the fields and across a footbridge to follow a field path to the right. We went through a gate and then went diagonally across a field to a junction where we turned left passing a thatched farmhouse on our way to combs wood.

We stayed on the path as it run alongside the wood and into a housing estate crossing we carried along this path crossing over Lavenham Way and diverting round a school and then we turned left and right at the bottom. A little bit further we turned right on to Needham Road, then it was a left along Gipping Way which was just before a paint factory but we missed the sign post and walked down to the end of the road and had to walk back, but not before we done a selfie using a mirror put up to aid morists coming in and out of the factory and even got a flash border round it.

After doing our selfie we turned round and walked back down the road to find the sign post we had missed and put us back on the right path. We followed the path which was beside a the paint factory and we had to cross over a road inside the factory grounds then over a bridge and then left at a Gipping Valley sign and we followed the river path until we came to the maltings and this is when we climbed the steps to bring us out in the town, it was like a secret way into the town and although we went past the back of factories it was a pleasant walk along the river rather than along a road.

Once we climbed the steps we turned left along Station Road and kept walking straight ahead across the the crossroads until we came to the church which we walked through the churchyard which brought us out into the Market Place and we walked across the the square to bring us to the Meadow Centre. We decide to have a cup of coffee here and sat outside with the dogs.