Walk Along the River Lark

By Wendy Meek

In my role as a volunteer walk leader for Feel Good Suffolk, I lead a short walk in Brandon every Monday morning. So, of course when I heard The Brecks Outdoor Festival was launching not far away from me at the Jubilee Fields in Mildenhall, I couldn’t resist booking a place for myself. As per usual, I got to the venue far too early but after parking up, I came across a large group of people unloading boxes from their vehicles. Some of them were gathered outside the Jubilee Centre and I naturally assumed they were waiting for the festival launch. Wrong! In fact, after speaking to a couple of people I discovered they were militaria collectors.  A nice man kindly pointed me in the direction of the Jubilee Field, helpfully adding, “there’s something going on down there”.

Fortunately, I recognised the BFER logo, and made my way over to greet their team, along with Suffolk Rights of Way, and Mildenhall Deputy Town Mayor, Grace Bristow.

I was immediately struck by the beautiful embroidery displayed on the stalls. These had been created through BFER by the Thetford Town Council volunteer craft group, who meet each Wednesday morning for a social crafting session at The Carnegie in Thetford. The panels were both inspired by the group’s local rivers, celebrating the wildlife and heritage.

Soon, we were joined by a group of walkers and were ready to set off.

Our walk leader for the session was Claire from the Suffolk Rights of Way Team, who explained that the route we were taking would go in the direction of the Mildenhall Hub. We learnt that, if we walked in the opposite direction, we would end up in Bury St Edmunds and that it was possible to walk from Bury to Prickwillow at a total distance of 20 miles. However, I was relieved to hear we would be traversing a much shorter distance today, on a circular route that would bring us back into Mildenhall.

We paused on the footbridge to enjoy the view and Claire asked whether we’d noticed anything interesting about where we were standing. Neither I nor the other walkers knew the answer, so she pointed out that the River Lark to our left was actually higher than the Jubliee Fields to our right. I looked from left to right, and back again, and it began to make sense. Yes, the river WAS higher than the fields. The river depth had been increased to allow for boat use. However, one unfortunate consequence was the flooding of the fields, such as we’d seen following heavy rain in January of this year. One intrepid young man had in fact taken advantage of this new temporary “lake” to try a bit of canoeing on the field before the flood subsided.

We followed our leader across the road towards the old mill and stopped to admire the chalk stream which joins the River Lark. We learnt there are only 216 chalk streams in the world and Mildenhall has quite a few of them. Under the BFER banner, there is work due to start shortly, involving installation of concrete baffles to direct the flow of water. This will provide the fish with staging posts where they can stop for a rest before continuing along their watery way. The Suffolk Rights of Way team have also been levelling the footpath alongside the stream to make it accessible for pedestrians and wheelchair users.

I was bemused to see someone had turned a byways sign to point towards someone’s garden! Fortunately, our intrepid Suffolk Rights of Way members reoriented it before we continued our way past the cricket club, through the church yard, and back into Mildenhall. On our return to Jubilee Fields we exchanged goodbyes, and as I returned to my car I reflected on the fascinating walk I had just enjoyed. I realised so much great work goes on behind the scenes. We often take our beautiful Suffolk landscapes for granted but they can only remain beautiful and functional because people are working hard to keep them that way.

This event was run by the Suffolk Rights of the Way team as part of the Brecks Outdoor Festival made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.