The Lavenham Walk - beautiful autumnal walk along disused railway in rural Suffolk

  / stevebuchananface  

This is one of my favourite countryside walks which in this case I did on a beautiful autumn day. The walk itself sticks mainly to the disused railway line which used to be a branch line running between Bury St. Edmunds and the market town of Sudbury.
The rail service was originally part of the 'Great Eastern Railway' and opened on the 9th August 1865 with the final train running on the 10th April 1961.
There are a couple of interesting and historic landmarks on the journey including the series of military 'Pill boxes' dotted around which once served to defend the local Lavenham Airfield during the war. Lavenham Airfield was home to 487th Bomb Group of the American 8th Airforce. It was from this airfield that heavy strategic bombing missions departed with targets in Northern France in preparation for the Normandy invasion. They targeted airfields, coastal defences, road junctions, bridges and trains during the invasion itself as well as missions against German industries, refineries and communications. East Anglia was popular for airfields as it is flat and close to the continent.
The walk itself takes in open fields, small muddy pathways, disused railway cuttings and beautiful forest - I hope you enjoy the walk with me and will click on the 'like' button below.

Music is from 'danomusic.com'