Wool Towns Walk connecting Clare, Long Melford, Lavenham, Sudbury and Haverhill is launched
A 50-mile circular walk that takes in some of Suffolk’s most historic towns has this week been launched after years in the making.
The Wool Towns Walk links the towns of Clare, Hadleigh, Lavenham, Long Melford and Sudbury and was launched at the Old Goods Shed in Clare Castle Country Park on Monday.
The idea for the walk came originally from Clare Walkers who, led by chairman Derek Blake, pitched it to the now defunct Wool Town’s Association in 2017, but without success.
The walk was taken up by Sudbury Ramblers, under the leadership of its then chairman, Keith Brown.
Both men spoke at the launch event.
Mr Brown said: “The remit was to join up the wool towns in this part of the country.
“We didn’t want to join them up in a straight line, we wanted to showcase the really beautiful area that we have here and the lovely historic villages that we have here.”
With lots of hostelries dotted along the walk’s route, Mr Brown joked: “You can have a great walk or an extremely long pub crawl.”
In addition to the five main towns, the route contains villages such as Boxford, Cavendish and Kersey, as well as the three Belchamps (St Paul, Otten and Walter) in Essex.
It can be completed in four full days of walking, or broken into four or eight more linear sections that can be walked separately.
As a result of the Sudbury Ramblers taking up the challenge and scoping the walk, Suffolk County Council accepted it as the four day Challenge Walk in its 2023 Suffolk Walking Festival.
That led to the formal waymarked and leafleted long-distance path that could feature on Ordnance Survey Explorer Series mapping, with a contribution to the initial set-up costs being made thanks to the support of the county councils green access manager David Falk.
Funding from Mr Falk, said Mr Brown, helped to produce leaflets about all the sections of the walk plus its dedicated website - www.wooltownswalk.co.uk - from which more information can be found.
At the launch, Mr Falk said: “It has been an absolute joy working on this project and being involved in it.
“It’s a fantastic project and it’s a really good example of what community involvement can do.”
Mr Blake was also keen to praise Suffolk County Council for its support of the project, which it is hoped will also boost tourism in the are and the local economy.
He said: “I think that shows the commitment that they’ve still got to the project.”
Suffolk County Councillor for Clare, Bobby Bennett, also contributed £400 from her locality budget towards the costs of promoting the walk.
She said: “There’s very little where, as county councillors, we can make a real difference to groups like this and the locality funding does that.”
The launch had representatives from all of the five towns on the walk plus groups such as the Ramblers Trustee Board, Long Distance Walkers Association and Walkers Are Welcome.
