LEISURE TIME MILDENHALL

Local attractions Mildenhall and District Museum, 6 King Street, Mildenhall, IP28 7EX. Tel 01638 716970 or see mildenhallmuseum.co.uk. Cost: Free. Features a Victorian kitchen and the Mildenhall Treasure, among other exhibits. Only the ground floor is accessible to disabled visitors. Anglo-Saxon Village, The Visitor Centre, Icklinham Road, West Stow, Bury St Edmunds IP28 6HG. Tel 01284 728718 or see stedmundsbury.gov.uk/ weststow.htm. Cost: adult/child & concessions/wheelchair users – £5/£4/free. Disabled access is excellent into the visitor centre, café and shop, but the houses within the Anglo-Saxon Village aren’t totally accessible because of their nature. Vehicle access into the village itself can be arranged in advance. Prickwillow Drainage Engine Museum, Main Street, Prickwillow, Ely CB7 4UN. Tel 01353 688360 or see web.ukonline.co.uk/jill.lawson/pwillow/engine.htm. DIRECTIONS Cost: Adult/OAP/children – £3/£2/£1. Full disabled access. Various engines recovered from the district’s Leave the site via its main entrance pumping stations. 1road then, at the main road, turn right. Cross the entrance to Woodlands Way, Mildenhall: 6.5 miles/10.4km then immediately cross the road and Just past the local town sign, cross the continue ahead down a track (sp 9youroad get to to the the bus road, stop cross and it continue onto the on Wilde bridleway), past a gate marked ‘Heath untilpavement, soon turning and turn left leftfollowing past the a footpath church Street Hatcheries’. signand next The to Chequers a sign advertising Pub. ‘Orchard Wildemere Free Range Eggs’. Continue up the Farm Eriswell When the track bends right, continue footpath at the end of the driveway. At the straight ahead down a grassy alley, 2 path junction continue straight ahead. through some wooden bollards. Continue along the footpath at the end of the hedge, After the bridge, continue straight Beck and almost immediately turn right down a Row 10 (be careful – the path is a little P Holywell gravel track into woodland. overgrown here). Keep the field to your Row Beck lodge When the wide main track turns 90 left and the dyke to your right until you A1011 WalkWalk onon thethe degrees left, carry straight on to a smallerreach the line of trees ahead. Just before 3 this, when you’re nearly at the road, veer path, into denser woodland. Continue P left to continue along the edge of the field. straight ahead, ignoring any forks. Milde Forest n Hall Airfield On reaching a clearing with a tree in its At the field’s corner veer right 4centre (behind which is a footpath 11towards the road and continue marker post), turn 90 degrees right ahead, crossing the entrance road to Eldon through the bracken, following the yellowFarm. Immediately afterwards turn right arrow on a black background. to cross the main road, following a public footpath sign and over a stile. Mildenhall Cross the wooden bridge, and then WILDSIDE A1011 5immediately turn left following the Continue straight ahead, following JO VAUGHAN BEGINS THIS MONTH’S NATURE TREK public footpath arrow, along the edge of a 12the line of the telegraph poles. Keep field. At the end of the field turn right and near these telegraph lines until you come Leisure FROM A DELIGHTFUL CORNER OF continue walking along its perimeter, to a small lake on your right. Skirt to the Centre keeping some woodland to your left. left of this and then veer left following a grassy track. Cross the next stile and turn HEvolunteer-run Round watercourse and heading into Eriswell. At the corner of the field veer slightly left left down the lane. Plantation Club site, just a short Here you’ll find a pub to quench your General information 6and continue until you cross a wooden walk from Mildenhall village, is a thirst, with food too if you time your visit bridge. Turn left at the next wooden At the road, turn left and walk along T NEAREST CLUB SITE: wildlife haven. Situated in the centre of right. Walk-wise, the going is easy, so footpath sign, following a yellow arrow. the pavement. At the crossroads, the local forest, it is peaceful and is always there’s no excuse for not taking part, Round Plantation Caravan Club 13 At the next footpath marker turn rightcontinue straight on down Eldon Lane. full of different species of birdlife. although one section is a little overgrown,Site, Brandon Road, over ‘Middle Weir’. After this, Walk past the entrance to Game Keepers Our walk takes us through the local so long trousers are a must to save yourselfMildenhall, Bury St Edmunds 7 continue straight ahead, following the pathCottage, and continue straight ahead along wooded landscape before crossing a large from scratches and stings. IP28 7JE. Tel 01638 713089. around to the left just before a field, the line of fir trees. For the remainder of your stay, there Open until 1 October walking through an are lots of nearby attractions to visit, the DISTANCE: 6.5 miles/10.4km When eventually you get to a post avenue of trees closest within walking distance: the TERRAIN: Good paths with a red and yellow arrow on it, and bushes. 14 Mildenhall and District Museum. With NUMBER OF STILES: Two (the turn right following the red arrow marked known occupation in these parts dating first could be difficult for larger, At the ‘Byway’, retracing your steps back through back as far as the Anglo-Saxons, there’s unfit dogs) the woodland. On reaching the main path 8T-junction Tourist information plenty to keep your interest here. The ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT: turn right, still veer left and continue straight ahead. museum tells tales of the village’s history Ordnance Survey Explorer Map following a At the path’s crossroads, at the Ely, Oliver Cromwell’s House, 29 St Mary’s Street, Ely, and is also home to a number of valuable 226 – Ely & Newmarket. Long Cambridgeshire CB7 4HF (open daily – admission similar grassy remains of a signpost and a junction exhibits. The stories told are a mixed bag trousers 15 charge). Tel 01353 662062 or see ely.org.uk/tic.htm. path. Keep to of telegraph poles, turn left through a of local hangings in the market place, LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: Easy Bury St Edmunds, 6 Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds, the path as it narrow gap to the left of the fir-tree fence. servant-hiring fairs, local market days andREFRESHMENTS: The Suffolk IP33 1UZ. Tel 01284 764667 or see veers to the left Continue along the avenue until you return various peasant uprisings. Chequers Pub, Eriswell stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/visit. (Open daily except towards some to the main road. Here, turn right and then TOILETS: None Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day). houses. When very soon left back into the site.

32 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE www.caravanclub.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2006 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE 33