We're in the heart of the county this month with Peter James of Norfolk Ramblers
Distance 8.8km, 5.5 miles
Park at the layby by the church
TG0846 1137
Nearest postcode NR20 3SF
What3words: ///glides.muffin.dancer
1 From the lay-by just above East Tuddenham church walk down to the access drive to the church and turn right to cross the road onto a footpath into the wood, passing a rusty metal gate on your right. Follow the path to the left of the tree and into a field. Turn right to walk along the side of the wood. Follow this field edge path around the field until you come to a stile on your right. Go over the stile and continue ahead on the left edge of the field to a corner; turn right into the track called Crinoline Lane, passing a few houses as the track meets a road.
2 Turn left along the road passing the houses Lands' End, Crinoline House and Crinoline Cottage on your left. Opposite the last house, a bungalow named West End, turn right into a wide footpath with a concrete bollard in the middle. Follow this path alongside the boundary of Laurel Farm; the pink farmhouse is over to your left. Continue along the path to a wooden railed fence and follow the waymarks around to the left and then right through an open metal gate. You will come to a single wooden rail. Slide the rail to the left and when you are through, replace the rail. Continue ahead along a field edge; the path turns into a grass track called Six Acre Lane. Follow this green lane to , Church Lane. Turn right to ascend this gently rising road to pass Crossways Farm on you right just before the junction with the Mattishall to Norwich road. Go straight over into Blind Lane with a memorial on the right to Mattishall Airfield. Continue on this narrow road as it gently descends down to a road junction just before a sharp bend. Continue your direction around the bend until just before Whitford Bridge.
3 Turn right onto a footpath going across a grass meadow heading for a stile on the opposite side, go over the stile into a long meadow. Head rightwards towards a skeletal tree and then continue along the right field edge alongside a wire fence line. Enter into an even longer meadow through a wooden gate, again following the fence line on your right. At the end of this meadow go through another wooden gate and head slightly leftwards to a large oak tree, go over the stile and across a bridge into a grass meadow. Cross a sometimes-boggy area where pieces of wood and some stones have been laid to assist getting across. Now head for a line of fir trees keeping to the left-hand side of them.
Follow this path as it winds its way through Riverside Farm holiday accommodation and camping site and turns into a single-track tarmac road, passing the houses of the hamlet of Rotten Row. At the T-junction, turn left and then right into an enclosed footpath. Continue along this path to a very small clearing, where the path deviates to the right to follow a wire fence on your right. The path enters into a small wood with a recently installed boardwalk.
At the end of the path, now in the open with a gate ahead of you, turn right alongside an overgrown ditch. Follow this ditch and at the second culvert cross over to walk with the ditch now on your left side. The path moves away from the ditch heading for a gate in the distance and the Mattishall Road, turn right back to the lay-by.
Beating the mud with a boardwalk
Norfolk Ramblers Work party volunteers working with the parish council have installed a 60+ metre boardwalk which will make this path accessible all year round as was not usable for six months of the year because of the deep mud. This project has been funded by the East Tuddenham Parish Council and a grant from Ramblers Holidays charitable trust.
Eat here
The Goat Shed, Honingham
It started out as a small shed with an honesty box; now it is a large farm shop and café serving a range of drinks and light meals. It is only a short distance from the parking spot and is well-sign-posted.
The Painted Barn
Further down the road towards Barnham Broom is The Painted Barn, which has a very pleasant café and restaurant, again serving drinks, snacks and light meals. It is down a track on a bend before the village; easy to miss the turning!
