[1] Park in the village street at Pakenham and walk in the direction away from Bury St Edmunds passing the village hall and post office on the left to follow the road to a junction where one bears left but immediately takes the footpath on the right hand side and to the left of the grey-brick house facing you. You go up a grassy path rising gently to a kissing gate in the far corner of the field.
As you go up the grassy path on the left can be seen the Jacobean “Newe House” a dower house of the Springe family. On the right on the other side of the field can be seen the mediaeval parish church. The Newe House is private and cannot be visited but there is a gate in the side of the field leading to the church. The chancel and one of the transepts is early mediaeval but otherwise the church is a mix of various dates. Worth seeing. The font is good. It is supported by four monks: Norman Scarfe in his Shell guide to Suffolk suggests they are Bury St Edmunds monks. Certainly his suggestion that the church is larger then one would expect in a village of Pakenham’s size because of the patronage of the Abbey seems reasonable.
Go through the kissing gate and turn left and at once right between fields towards a wood. Continue ahead through a short section of the wood and then continue on a track with the wood on the left until you reach a concrete sugar beet pad at the end of the wood. Ignore the footpath turning right and continue on the same track which turns left. The wood is still on the left. The track turns left again and at this point the wood is again still on the left. You will discover that the wood is quite long but not very deep and that you have ended up “crossing” its depth. Where the track turns left, take the first turn right away from the wood towards the barns of Beaumont’s Hall on a track between intermittent hedges, keeping the barns on the left and passing a small pond and group of trees on the right - also ignore tracks going right.
Continue with a hedge on the left until you reach a farm on the left (Beaumont’s Hall). Cross straight over the road under the electric wires and along the field edge with a hedge and then a fence on the right. Pass under the wires again. Turn right through a (broken) stile just before you reach a very large field ahead. Now continue alongside a fence on the left and with the wires away to the right. Pass through the hedge (another broken stile) and follow a cross-field path (may be wet) passing under the wires again to reach the corner of the field. Continue ahead with a reservoir on the left through a few trees into the next field with the hedge now on the left. At the end of the field go left and then immediately right with the hedge now on the right. Pass through a metal gate and shortly join a road on a bend.
[2] At the road go left. Bailey Pool Cottage is on the right. At a T-junction turn right to Grimston End and in 400m you will reach the watermill.
Pakenham Watermill was restored by the Suffolk Preservation Society in 1985 and is open to the public at certain times. There is a small cafe and shop where you can buy stoneground wholemeal flour to make your own bread: flour which is ground on site from locally produced wheat. While there has been a watermill on this site since before Domesday the present mill building only dates from the eighteenth century.
Continue along the lane, passing the Suffolk Wildlife Trust owned Micklemere nature reserve. It is only small but there is one bird hide from which you can watch the waders and waterfowl. After the hide, notice the windmill a short distance away on the far side of the field. You go much closer later on.
The alternative route is for those who prefer to get off the road (actually not very busy) and are willing to miss the watermill and a rather good view of the windmill. At [2] turn right and then immediately (after crossing a stream) left on to a track (Baileypool Lane) which gives glimpses to the left over Micklemere to the watermill. When you reach the road, cross opposite onto a permissive path which goes uphill to the lane (much reduced in width and blocked off when the Ixworth by-pass was built). Then when you get there, turn left onto the blocked off lane, continue along it to the by-pass, at the same time taking in the view in the Micklemere direction to the left. Cross the by-pass: busy road - care needed. Walk ahead into the centre of Ixworth and at the cross-roads (the Greyhound is on the far left-hand side) consider the need to stop for refreshment or continue straight on until you come to Commister Lane where you turn left. Go down the Lane and turn right onto the same sandy lane at [5]. It is at this point that the alternative route rejoins the main route.
[3] When you approach the main road (Bury St Edmunds to Diss - the Ixworth bypass) do not cross at the junction as visibility is much better further along. So cross the lane you are on to take a tarred footpath leading in the Bury St Edmunds direction alongside the main road to the point where at its end it crosses the main road directly to the old road. Turn left here to a T junction where you turn right into Ixworth (two pubs, a cafe, a posh restaurant and shops).
[4] Walk into the village and just past the post office on your left and opposite the Pykkerel turn left into Commister Lane
( At this point just before turning into Commister Lane you are in the centre of Ixworth ) Whether Ixworth is properly to be thought of as a small town or a large village is a moot point. But it is quite clear that even in Roman times, the Ixworth area was the centre of quite a substantial settled district and there have been finds not only in Ixworth itself but also in many villages round about. Even then the countryside was quite densely inhabited.
(A) You will have passed the church behind the main street which has a monument to Richard Coddington who swapped his Surrey property (also called Coddington) in 1538 with Henry VIII in exchange for Ixworth priory and the adjoining manor. The King merely demolished what was already on the site and built a grandiose new palace called “Nonesuch”. You see the church shortly after entering the village and the Priory when leaving Ixworth and crossing the causeway shortly after the alternative route has rejoined the main route. While the church can be visited the priory ruins are private and can only be seen from a distance over the park. Substantial parts of the priory are contained inside the handsome Georgian house. The priory had no connection with Bury St Edmunds Abbey: that was Benedictine while Ixworth was Augustinian.
[5] Having followed Commister Lane round a bend turn left onto a sandy bridleway, (This is where the alternative route joins the main route so youwill have turned right). The amalgamated route passes trees with a view of Ixworth Priory on the left over the park. Cross the bridge over the stream and continue into a field with a hedge on the right until you reach a wood. Turn right here and continue for 1 km (Ignore the footpath coming in on the left and go on between fields with electric wires on your left. Pass under the wires and continue with a small wood on the left).
[6] At the end of the wood go left, still on the bridleway, with an intermittent hedge on the left, until you come to a small wood. Turn left here with first the wood and then a ditch on the left. Then turn left again, this time onto a sandy track leaving a metal gate on your right. Walk towards another wood. Continue with the wood on your left, pass under electricity wires and continue ahead towards the Bury St Edmunds - Diss road ignoring tracks to left and right. The windmill now begins to come into view ahead. Continue to the road, cross with care and walk up the lane towards the windmill.
(B) Windmill. This is the second mill in Pakenham parish leading to the claim that there is no other parish in the country which has both a working watermill and a working windmill. This mill is thought to date from about 1820. She has a 5-storied brick tower, 4 sails and a fan tail. The sails drive 3 pairs of stones on the 2nd floor. The mill is open daily during working hours throughout the year. Before turning right at the cross-roads it is worth going straight ahead down Thieves Lane opposite for a short distance for a better view and perhaps a visit.
[7] At the cross-roads before the windmill, turn right along the road (left if you have been down Thieves Lane). After passing through a few trees, turn left by a house towards Old Hall Farm. Just before the farm, there is a pond on the left and a rushy pond on the right. Immediately after the rushy pond turn right down a narrow footpath with a fence on the left, but soon turning left and then right into a field. With the hedge on the left continue ahead, crossing a sandy track, then going between fields, crossing another sandy track (slightly staggered - right, and then left) to follow the path and electricity wires towards the houses of Pakenham.
[8] Go through a gap in the hedge, turn right and at the corner of the allotments turn left to see a playing field is in front of you. Walk towards this and pass to left of a large shed and go through a small gate. Go ahead to the end of the car park and follow th e tarred road out to the public road where you turn right and shortly then turn left . You will then be in the main village street which you follow downhill to the the stream, post office, village hall and the start