Elmswell to Norton Suffolk

8.15am 8.6 miles in 1 hour 10 minutes.

Week to date mileage 33

Month to date mileage 94

Average weekly rate 31.5

Average Monthly rate 137

Weather: cold and dry

For todays run I drove out to the village of Elmswell which is about 8 miles east of Bury St Edmunds on the A14 towards Stowmarket and Ipswich. I parked close to Hawk End and set of for a run quickly picking up a footpath which immeadiately took me to the railway line. I ran past Elmswell Hall on the Parnell Lane.

I went under a bridge to cross the railway line and then headed across fields which took me on a twisting path out to Norton Hall and into the village of Norton.

As a run I will remember it most for the amount of dogs that I saw and heard barking everytime I disturbed the peace by approaching a house or farm. The other main memory was getting a little too close to a wood known I think as the grove near Norton Hall where the farmer was blasting away at phesants.

Elmswell has plenty of well marked footpaths and must be a good place to be based if you are a runner. The village itself is now quite sizeable and could be classed I suppose as a small town. The big news in Elmswell this week has been the announcement of the closure of the local bacon factory which is affecting around 400 jobs. That is a major loss of employment for Elmswell and it will have a big effect on the local economy.