Sicklesmere Suffolk

8.30am 10 miles in 1hr 22 11 seconds.

Year to date mileage 870

Month to date 61 miles

Average miles per month 105

Average weekly rate 24.1

Weather: Rain but feeling close.

Course: From town centre through the water meadows and out onto the A134 road to Sudbury. There is a good pathway for about 3 miles although it is besides an A road so this does mean plenty of traffic. When the pathway finishes return by the same route. I have measured in the car so I am pretty sure this is a 5 mile out and back course.

I reached the halfway point in 41.20 and returned in 40.51. I felt comfortable all the way round and I am happy that this gives me an idea of what I can aim to run in the Tarpley 10 which is on Sunday 25 September at Beyton Middle School, Beyton near Bury St Edmunds.

On the run you pass the Rushbrooke Arms (see photo above) a popular pub but inappropriately named bearing in mind it is not actually in the village of Rushbrooke. The pub used to be named as the Sicklesmere Wagon and I can understand that but not sure why anyone would call it the Rushbrooke Arms?

The strange off centre picture is of the old Bury Gaol. Just outside this gaol on a nearby meadow William Corder was hanged for the murder of Maria Marten, in 1828 - the notorious Red Barn murder. A crowd of some 10,000 people watched.

The gaol was built on the radiating principle, and is surrounded by a wall twenty feet high, enclosing an octagonal area. The keeper's house, which is an octagon stood in the centre and was elevated above the rest so that that from the windows the keeper could watch the whole building. In the centre of his house was a chapel, divided off into numerous partitions, so that the different classes into which the prisoners were divided and subdivided were kept separate so that prisoners could not see each other.

The Bury and Norfolk Post the local newspaper of the 19th century is full of stories of people committed to Bury Gaol such as :

In 1835 Thomas Scarfe and Robert Kittle charged with ravishing Sarah Philips a single woman
of Milding , Samuel Seeley charged with stealing a great coat from William Humm at Glemsford, Thomas Humphrey charged with stealing a skep of bees belonging to William Theobald of Boxted. 6 months in prison - Elizabeth Parmenter and Sarah Heard for having uttered several base half crowns at Long Melford.

Many of the prisoners who were eventually tried were subsequently sent on transportation ships to Australia.