About the Stour Valley Path
The 60-mile Stour Valley Path stays close to, and is often beside,
one of England's best-loved rivers, the Stour of Suffolk. To Britons the Stour has been made famous by the great landscape painter
John Constable
through images such as Flatford Mill (top picture in sidebar) and the Haywain.
Much of the countryside is still recognisable from his time, and is classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
On this walk in 2002 and 2003 Dave Travers and I walked downstream, starting at England's horse-racing capital
Newmarket,
through pretty villages and small towns such as Clare, Long Melford and Nayland,
to the path's terminus at an (alas uninspiring) picnic park at Cattawade. From here the Stour is broad and tidal;
if you wish, and Dave and I have, you can trace its final miles to the North Sea along the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Path.
From Long Melford downstream, much of this path is coincident with the St Edmund Way,
which Dave and I have since walked upstream.
An official guide 'The Stour Valley Path' was published in 2001 by
Suffolk County Council.
It's not difficult however to follow the route using Ordnance Survey Explorer maps 210 and 196, on which it is marked.
Newmarket
Newmarket owes its success as a horse-racing venue to its heaths.
Wide, open, slowly rolling, and well-drained, they provide many training gallops for the dozens of thoroughbred stables
as well as the town's two racecourses,
home to two of the five English 'classic' races, the 1000 and 2000 guineas.
The National Stud,
National Horse Racing Museum and Tattersall's sales are based here too.
The only problem, from a walker's point of view, is that the Stour is some way away;
perhaps the path should have passed through the small town of Haverhill, for the river does, close to its source.
Sudbury
Another of England's great artists,
Thomas Gainsborough,
was born in the valley, at Sudbury, the half-way town on this walk.
He is commemorated both by a museum in his birth house
and a statue (picture 2) in the market square. Sudbury is a major transport hub for the Stour,
with buses serving most villages reasonably frequently as well as the rail line.
Transport and accommodation
I was able to do much of this walk by public transport from my London home,
using the rail lines to Sudbury, Colchester and Manningtree
and the bus links run by local firm Chambers
from the first two towns to places such as Clare and Nayland.
Newmarket has a rail service too, but bus services north of Kedington are rare.
Much of the area is well provided with accommodation, in the north as a result of the need to cater for racegoers
(obvious warning - avoid Newmarket on race days),
and from Stoke by Clare eastward to the general popularity of the region with tourists.
The Suffolk County Council guide referred to above lists some B&Bs that might not otherwise be easy to source.
Two lovely little pubs with rooms, right on the path, are the Lion at Lamarsh (picture 3)
and the (rather more up-market) Angel
at Stoke-by-Nayland: I stayed in both during 2004 (though not on this walk) and can recommend them.
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