Knettishall Heath
Knettishall Heath is an area of sandy heathland, commonly known as breckland, on the Norfolk and Suffolk border. As well as hosting Suffolk's largest nature reserve it is also the meeting point of four long distance paths. The Peddars Way, which runs north to the North Norfolk Coast, the Icknield Way which continues south from the Peddars Way to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire and with the Peddars Way forms part of the Greater Ridgeway. The Iceni Way uses the route of the Icknield Way extension to Thetford before continuing onto Hunstanton and finally there is the Angles Way which follows the River Waveney to the coast at Great Yarmouth.
Having walked both the Icknield Way and the Peddars way, the knowledge of this being a remote place with no public transport was familiar to me. It lies about 8 miles by road from Thetford and a little more from Diss. On my previous walks a day had to be spent walking out to Knettishall Heath and then camping overnight at the Dower House campsite which is located in the woodland on West Harling Heath. The only other realistic option would be to use a car, either having a friend to provide a lift or, as a couple of friends recently attested, have two cars, one stationed at either end of the walk.
A Rather Embarrassing Story
I had to applaud the bright idea of using two cars until I heard the gory details of the actual event which is worthy of retelling the story. The couple, who are friends so I wont embarrass them by including names, had already walked the Angles Way from Great Yarmouth to Diss during the course of 2012 as a series of staged sectional walks. For the final section, with careful forethought, they duly drove down in two cars from Norwich and out to Knettishall Heath where, with permission from a local landowner, they parked one car in a field entrance close to the start of the Angles Way. They then continued in the second car to Diss where there is a reasonably priced pay and display car park next to the Mere. All they had to do was walk back to the first car and have ready made transport back to their starting point. Very clever, and with no schedule or timetable to adhere to, they could leisurely wander the miles between the two points.
I was told that the day was good and the weather was kind. The Angles Way scenery a delight and the walk a fulfilling and fitting end to this underrated long distance footpath. The final mile gave that feeling of achievement, the gratifying knowledge that over 78 miles of the Norfolk Suffolk border was just about to be completed. A worthy walk full of happy memories that would not be forgotten and something to recommend to others. As with all long distance walks, there is no ceremony at the end, no welcoming party, fanfare or medal, just the self knowledge and fulfillment of ones achievement. So it is not surprising that as those final yards were paced more practical things came to mind. Things like the location of the car. There are no specific landmarks at this end of the Angles Way and there was always that little bit of apprehension that the car would not be where they expected. Maybe they had misjudged the location of the start to the footpath, maybe the unfamiliarity of the area would disorientate them. Maybe. But no. The car was there. As they left it. Parked up in a field entrance.
I suppose it is just custom to expect ones partner to have the keys. But if both partners have the same supposition this can be a problem and in this instance the hopeful question of the whereabouts of the keys soon drew the conclusion that they had assumed the other one had the keys. Then the slow realisation occurred that the keys for said vehicle had been placed in the safety of the car glove box. The glove box of the second car that is. The car that sat at Diss Mere. 17 miles away. Not the most convenient place for the keys to be.
Whether or not expletives were exchanged I do not know but I can well imagine that some colourful adjectives may have been used to describe their predicament. Even so, with Stoic contemplation of their situation, another plan was hatched. Luckily, there was a mobile phone signal and it wasn't long before a taxi was summoned to rescue them from the predicament. Not quite the plan they had anticipated at the start of the day and a little more expensive than they had bargained for. Nonetheless something that the memories of The Angles Way will latch onto. I had to laugh.
Alternative Methods to get to the Starting Point
Unfortunately Kat and I only had one car between us and as stated earlier there is no regular public transport between Diss and Thetford that could gain us access to the start of the trail and the only other public transport services were to Bury. The nearest point these buses came to the Angles Way left a good 7 mile hike to Knettishall Heath. After weighing up the alternatives, and about to reconcile to the fact that we may well have to begin the walk from a point other than the official start, I chanced upon one overlooked service. This was a Diss to Bury school and college service which happened to run via Thetford. It only ran once a day, at 7.40, and then only during term time, but the timetable was published on the web and to all intents and purposes it appeared to be a service open to any member of the public regardless of their educational status. Operated by Simmonds Coaches this service appeared to follow the main A1066 to Thetford and would pass close to the start of the Angles Way. This was an opportunity we had to take.
On the day it all went to plan. We parked up at the Mere car-park. The bus was on time and, as expected, was full of juveniles. The driver, although he did not have the traditional ticket machine, was able to take our fare and despite being dubious as to the location of The Angles Way he agreed to drop us off on request providing it was safe to do so. Luckily, two girls who sat behind the driver and spent the journey exchanging friendly banter were able to offer a little advice. They picked out the landmark of Riddlesworth School as the place we needed and sure enough the lane just beyond this historic boarding school famed for having Princess Diana among its former pupils, was the one that led to the start of the Angles Way.
The Walk
The start of the trail is an easy ramble along country lanes and tracks. The outstanding section is most definitely the wandering path that meanders through Thelnetham Fen and Hinderclay Fen following the Little Ouse river and then through Redgrave Fen which contains the official source of the River Waveney.
Other points of interest include:
- The start of the walk passes through open countryside in front of Riddlesworth Hall which is now a school. This area used to be the parkland to the hall which was laid out around 1792. The park included an extensive area of woodland and a large thin boating lake made from widening the river. After WWII the majority of the park reverted to agriculture and the boating lake drained.
- The Old School House at Riddlesworth with a fine sculpted mural on the walls. it is thought the building was constructed around 1792 and was probably designed by Thomas Leverington who was the architect for Riddlesworth Hall. Today this is a private dwelling.
- The ruins of St Nicholas's church at Gasthorpe which can be seen across the fields
- Thelnetham Windmill also known as Button's Mill which dates from the early 1800's and was restored in 1979
- St Marys Church at Wortham with its ruined round tower which is the largest round tower by diameter in England
- Diss Mere, a six acre lake which local folklore states is an extinct volcano with bottomless depths.
- The former Dolphin Inn in Diss which is now an Indian Restaurant, the building is said to date back to the 16th century.
On this particular walk we also caught sight of an distinctive large delta winged jet. It was a sight to behold and we took a few minutes out to stand and view this craft as it banked steeply round a full 180 degrees displaying its huge delta wings. There was not much sound as it gently manoeuvred a line of flight which appeared to be ready to come in to land. Probably the military air bases at Mildenhall or Lakenheath. An awesome sight nonetheless.
The big disappointment to this walk was the lack of drinking holes. According to the OS map there are pubs just off route at Hopton and Thelnetham but as the bus service deposits the would be walker in the early morning such establishments are hours away from opening. In the event we found a wooden bench overlooking Redgrave Fen and had an early lunch of pastie, mars bar and soft drink and left the well earned pint of beer for when we completed the walk in Diss. However this did present challenges to relive oneself and a few trees did get watered along the way. Isn't it typical that one can wander a lonely country lane for miles and see no-one and as soon as one finds a suitable tree every man, woman, dog and van driver arrives to listen to the gentle sounds of rushing waters.
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