An easy summer walk on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds, takes in splendid Nowton Park with its impressive trees and a little church with a grand tale to tell
If you've spent much time in Suffolk you'll know there are many sides to its character. So much can change in a journey of just a few miles. It's high summer and a hot one at that. The coastal town where I live is heaving with people seeking sweet relief. Who can blame them? But I'm heading for the open, empty plains of the west where I can clear my head and stretch my legs. To Nowton, just outside Bury St Edmunds, is 37 miles and world away.
My walk starts in Nowton Park (IP29 5LU), at the car park to be precise. I'm not spending long here though, as I head to the northern end of the car park to a noticeboard marking the start of the Bury to Clare trail, 19-miles (30.5km) through some of the most beautiful countryside the county can offer. This walk will include just a tiny section of it. Through woodland to the road, I leave the park via a small wooden gate and turn right. When I reach Plovers Way, I find a bridleway on the other side of the road and head up it.
The path takes me to Breckey Ley House. Once known as Brakeley House, it's an impressive red brick residence built around 1880 as the dower house for Nowton Court in Nowton Park, the main residence of the Oakes family who owned the entire Nowton estate. More of them later.
I follow the track round to the left (1) and follow the path through trees until I meet a lane at Nowton Court Farm where I turn right. About 500 yards later I take a bridleway on the right, a lovely grassy track that rises gently between broad, open fields that stretch to the horizon. It's early August but the harvest is already done in most of Suffolk, one of the earliest on record.
I'm on higher ground here. You'd hardly know it, but as you head west from the coast of Suffolk you gradually climb. Through the claylands that run through the middle of the county - 'High Suffolk' - you reach the chalk plateau north and west of Bury St Edmunds and the county's highest point at Great Wood Hill, near Chedburgh, part of the Newmarket Ridge. The summit, in the middle of a wood, near the village of Rede is 420 ft (128 metres). It's hardly Everest but these things are relative. My part of Felixstowe is a mere 60ft above sea level and I can sense even this modest elevation. Even the sky is different here.
After a gradual climb, I reach a crossing of paths and turn left along the St Edmund Way. The stubbly fields unfold for miles around me. Reaching a stand of trees, I cross over a small wooden bridge, follow the path round to the right, then along the field edge until I meet Park Lane, where I bear left. I follow the quiet lane for about a mile taking in the views. Across the expansive fields on the left is Bury St Edmunds. I can see the sugar beet factory - in another season I would also see huge plumes of steam belching from the tall chimneys.
At a sharp left bend by a thatched cottage (4) - with delightful thatched pheasants perched on the roof ridge - I keep straight on along a gravel path, heading for High Green and the hamlet of Nowton. About 20 yards on the left is a stile in the hedge. I I go over it and head diagonally across a meadow, once the parkland for Nowton Hall. I climb another stile in the far corner, cross a paddock behind a barn, go over yet another stile, and head down a meadow towards pretty St Peter's church, nestling in trees.
This little Norman church was founded for monks from the Abbey of St Edmund who worked in vineyards that once covered the gently slopes that surround it. I'm struck by its neat and tidy appearance and its exceptionally well-kept churchyard. I wander around the headstones and come upon several belonging to 19th and 20th century members of the Oakes family. Churchyards are full of stories and this one is no different.
In 1811, Elizabeth Frances Oakes, wife of Lord of the Manor Orbell Ray Oakes, died at the tender age of 42 and was buried in St Peter's. In those days it was a far cry from the immaculate building I'm looking at today and prompted something of a makeover for St Peter's, which endowed this little rural church with one of the largest and best collections of continental stained glass in England. How so?
It's all thanks to Colonel Rushbrooke who lived a few fields away at Rushbrooke. An eccentric character, he was an enthusiastic antiquarian and carpenter and embarked on a refurbishment of Rushbrooke's church in the style of a Cambridge college chapel. The colonel roamed Europe, buying up wooden panels and painted glass from monasteries which had been closed and ruined after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
About the same time, Orbell was keen to create a more appropriately beautiful setting for his wife's last resting place. In those days, most English churches were very plain, especially in puritan East Anglia. Just a few colourful windows would have been quite an adornment. But Orbell went to town, purchasing about 80 panels from Rushbrooke and had them installed in almost every window by the expert stained glass artist Samuel Yarington from Norwich. Orbell died in 1837 and his son, Henry James Oakes, the new Lord of the Manor, funded a full restoration of the church under architect Anthony Salvin. Understandably, the church is kept locked but if you want to visit do contact the keyholder on 01284 388628.
I leave St Peter's behind, wandering down the winding lane to a road where I go left into Nowton itself (5). Along the road, around a sharp bend to the left, I follow the footpath on the right side of the road reaching a gate into Nowton Park (6). A waymarked path leads to a signpost offering the park's many features. One way goes straight back to the car park, but I decide to go exploring.
Nowton Park is astonishing. Almost 200 acres of landscaped Suffolk countryside managed by West Suffolk Council, it's a fantastic public recreational space, with arboretums, wildflower meadow, ponds and a bird hide. There are football pitches and a large play area, and events are held here throughout the year. It occupies part of the Nowton estate which was owned by the Oakes family for more than150 years until 1985 when it was acquired for the community.
Nowton's collection of trees is impressively large in number and stature. It's like walking among giants after the open plains of the countryside. I come upon a group of eucalypts. Standing among them, in the heat of high summer, their warm, menthol aroma transports me back to my days in Australia. Beneath my feet papery bark and discarded leaves litter the ground. I search for a souvenir leaf, a long, elegant, curved blade. A eucalypt leaf makes a superb bookmark.
Time to wend my way back to the car park, tempted though I am by the sign to the maze, planted in the shape of an oak tree in homage to the Oakes. I walk along the Lime Avenue, planted around 1880 to give the estate a sense of grandeur and a vista for the residents of Nowton Court. In spring more than 100,000 daffodils bloom here. Now it's picnickers who are spreading out beneath the trees, enjoying the sunshine and the peace and quiet of the park. I leave thinking how lucky the people of Bury St Edmunds are to have such a place right on their doorstep.
Compass points
Distance: approx 4.5 miles (7.2km)
Time: 2 hours, depending how long you spend in Nowton Park
Start/finish: Nowton Park, Bury Road, Nowton, Bury St Edmunds IP29 5LU
Pay and display car park (Ringo app).
Access: Public footpaths, roads, field edges, stiles
Map: OS Explorer 211 Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket.
Map for Nowton Park at westsuffolk.gov.uk/leisure/Parks/nowton-park.cfm
Ts & Ps: Nowton Park Grounds Cafe
