(A) The walk begins at Hawkedon on the large village green partly surrounded by houses and with the church at the bottom end: comparable in some ways with the neighbouring village of Hartest but where the houses are much more densely built and the church does not stand out in the way it does at Hawkedon. Even if it is not of enormous architectural interest Hawkedon church is impressively situated on the green itself. While the setting of the church is its major feature, it is only “lightly” restored and its interior is not without interest - font, bench ends, other timberwork and glass fragments. And Simon’s Suffolk Churches lauds its pleasures. He calls the porch “delicious”.
[1] Standing outside the gate on the south side of Hawkedon church (facing the porch), turn right and at the corner of the churchyard turn left going uphill over the green to the road. Turn right along this uphill and go past the Queen’s Head, continuing downhill to turn right on to a footpath (on a track). Follow the track over the ford (which may be impassible in very wet weather when it would be possible to reach Somerton by following the route of the Bury to Clare walk), go uphill and continue with trees and stream on your right. Follow the path left round the field corner then soon turn right to cross the ditch on the right over a grassy bridge (way mark). Turn left at once leaving a metal gate on your right. Follow the narrow path between the hedge and barbed wire fence for a short distance and then the fence alone until you reach a gate. Go through into the meadow and turn left uphill keeping close to the hedge on the left. Just before you reach a metal gate facing you, turn left over a stile and bridge. Turn right and continue with the trees and ditch on your right. Pass under electric wires and shortly turn right, over a bridge and a stile (in the hedge and slightly tricky to find). Keep slightly to the left to avoid the boggy ground, crossing the field slightly uphill to take the narrow path exit to the right of a very wide gate. Continue ahead with trees and hedge on the right. At the corner of the field continue ahead through the gap into a tranquil garden. Keep straight ahead to a small gate giving on to a lane - part of the Bury to Clare walk.
[2] Turn right and follow the lane through Somerton, (B), a tiny charming village, complete with houses and one of the highest churches in the county but not much else - no shop or pub - divided into two small hamlets - Upper Somerton at the top of the hill and the other clustered round the hall at the bottom of the hill on the Hartest to Hawkedon Road. The church is usually locked; current key holder is at Church Cottage which is the last house on your right just before the telephone box and church.
Shortly after the church turn right at the village pump into a field. Turn left past bench (ideally sited for a stop to enjoy the view) with garden fences and then hedges on your left. Follow round the corner of the field - ignoring the Bury to Clare footpath which turns right across the field. You then keep the hedge on the left, ignoring the wide gap in the hedge continue round the edge of the same field. At this point you should be able to see away on the right three mediaeval church towers - Somerton which you have just passed, Hawkedon where you started and Stansfield where you are going. Just after a gentle right hand bend turn left through a small gap (care needed) and continue ahead with the hedge on the left.
[3] Where the hedge turns right yet again, turn left over a bridge and ditch up into another field and at once turn right keeping the hedge and electric wires on the right. Pass under the wires through a wide gap so the hedge is now on the left. Notice Gallowgate Farm in the valley below. Continue down the hill and look out for left turn over a plank bridge (going under the wires yet again), turn right and keep the hedge on the right until just before a lane. Turn left onto small path parallel to the lane and very shortly turn right through a hedge gap and down the bank on to the lane (or if muddy just go straight down to lane and turn left along this).
[4] Cross the lane and go down the byway (initially a surfaced track) leading to Lodge Farm, crossing the River Glem. Passing the house on the left, go on the track uphill first between trees (this can be muddy), then hedges and then an intermittent hedge on the left until you reach two modern barns at the top.
[5] Turn right between the barns on a footpath (a clear track) with fields on both sides. Continue down the hill, ignore a track joining on the left, and pass through a farm gate. Continue ahead through a second gate, and just before a flint wall and the farm (Gallowgate Farm which you will already have seen when coming down the hill) turn left on a footpath between a fence and trees, then with trees on both sides. When emerging into a field continue ahead on a bridleway with a hedge on the right and then open fields. As the hedge runs further away from the track, keep straight ahead until you reach the road. Turn left along the road. You may first want to admire Thurston Hall, which can seen from the gate a few yards to the right. A splendid albeit restored half-timbered building built about 1500 and extended in 1607. At the junction turn right on the lane signposted to Stansfield and go downhill. After passing a few houses you come to a gate and stile on the right and a field entrance opposite. Turn left here (again the Bury to Clare walk) and continue with the hedge on the left to the corner of the field where you turn left over a plank bridge and through the hedge. Do not be tempted to cross the ditch and go through the hedge at any earlier point. Continue ahead on a cross-field path towards the electric wires and pass under them. Continue to some trees to join a tarred concrete track where you turn left and go up the rise.
[6] Having turned left on the concrete track continue until you pass on your right, first a moat, then a tennis court (you are now about 50 yards from a farmhouse), after which you turn right - still on the Bury to Clare walk. Continue ahead on a gravel track between fences, then hedges. Cross over a farm track and continue ahead with a wide hedge on the right. After a little way turn right into the hedge and at once go left on a path between trees. On emerging from the trees follow the path round a right hand bend with hedge now on the right. Follow round the corner of the field with a large house facing you. Continue on the footpath to reach the road. Here turn right for the Compasses pub a short distance down the road on the left.
Turn left or if you are returning from the Compasses go straight on, past some houses and then when you reach a black weather-boarded garage belonging to The White House, turn right across a field towards the right hand side of a wood. Pass through the gap between the edge of the wood and the hedge and continue across the next field. Continue ahead now with a bank and line of trees on the left until you reach the road. Here turn right. Continue past the houses and at the T junction at Assington Green turn right along the road (signposted for Stansfield).
Soon you will pass the drive to a large house on the right. At this point turn left on to a footpath crossing a small rather unkempt green. Continue ahead with a hedge and then trees on the right. In the far corner of the field go ahead to enter a wood, cross a plank bridge and follow the path to a stile into a field. Cross it and go half right across the field to another bridge. Cross it and go half right again to cross another part of the same field. There is a fence and trees on the right leading to a hidden stile at the far point. Cross the stile (ignore the footpath going off on the left) and continue ahead into the wood until you reach the road where you turn left. This the point where the main route is rejoined by the alternative route.
Alternative route. When you reach the tarred concrete track at [6] instead of turning left, turn right and go past the village hall then turning right at the junction (but turn left if you want the Compasses after which you will need to retrace your steps to the junction) and walking through Stansfield, ignore Thurston Lane and continue on the pavement over the bridge. Here the main walk joins.
One of the features of Stansfield (C) is that it is a long thin village running from North to South and without outlying hamlets dotted about. That is not to say there are not survivors of farmhouses and cottages built in open country and traces of those are on the walk. But starting from the church (nearly as far as the windmill and the junction with the Wickhambrook to Hartest road) the village street runs downhill to the bridge and then uphill via Lower Street past the Chapel (now closed) and the Compasses to the end of Upper Street. The road then continues to Clare. The walk covers each end of the long, thin village but because it goes to Assington Green misses out the middle. There are other long, thin villages in Suffolk - such as Long Melford or Kersey. Is the long, thin shape in this case because of the hill, or what?
[7] Continue uphill from the bridge, past Stansfield Church on the left, as far as the T junction where you turn right (signed Hawkedon) and almost at once turn right on to a gravelled track which passes the base of an old windmill (without sails). Continue past the mill and house between a hedge and a fence and then with a hedge on the left. Reaching the corner of the field go left through a gap, then right across the corner of the field through another gap framing a spectacular view of Hawkedon village and church. Bear right with a hedge and then trees on the right. As the trees end turn left slightly to follow a cross-field path to the lane (way marked, but not always easy to see as path can be rather faint on the ground - head towards way mark post on the lane). Then turn left down the hill to reach the start of the walk at Hawkedon Church.