Bury St Edmunds, Rougham Hill and Rushbrooke Suffolk

1pm 9 miles in 1 hr 13 mins 56 seconds

Week to date mileage 9 miles

Month to date mileage 42

Average weekly rate 30.1 miles

Average monthly rate 131

Year to date 42

Lifetime 9635

I was quite indecisive when I set out for this run setting of in one direction and then having a complete change of mind. I ran down Beetons Way thinking I would do one of my regular runs around Fornham but on a day off from work something in my mind suggested I should do something different from the norm.

The weather was again fairly mild but the wet drizzle was persistent. This winter has been mild and it makes you wonder if we will get any snow at all.

So at the bottom of Beetons Way I turned right to follow one of the paths that leads behinds King Edwards School. Emerging near Springfield Road I decided I would head out towards Rushbrooke and look for a footpath some one had mentioned to me that runs parallel to Rushbrooke Lane.

On the way I ran past Cine World and on to the market place to see how the development works are progressing. I was half expecting the old Duke of Wellington to have been pulled down but saw it still standing there with its many tales and about to be just a memory.

I ran down Cullum Road and then out towards the A14. Instead of running down Rushbrooke Lane this time I carried on past the Recycling Centre and up Rougham Hill. I believe this used to be where cars parked in the early days of the Bury 20? I think this might be the last time I have been up Rougham Hill. Not being a lorry driver I would have no cause to venture up here for at the top there is a cafe and a lorry park. Very busy it was too as lorries retreated into the sanctuary of the Hill top cafe.

Past the cafe there is a pathway on the right hand side which I took It takes you behind a large golfing range where you can here the ping of golf balls sometimes reaching as far as the high metal fence at 250 metres. If I was a golfer I could have scooped up half a dozen balls which had some how escaped the fence and were on my path.

The going along this pathway is a little wet in places especially when the path emerges into open fields. There were great waves of black crows feeding on something on the ploughed fields and they rose into flight as I got closer before ignoring me and carrying on feeding.

At the end of the footpath there is a new diversion to the original path and being unsure where the pathway leads I returned back into Bury. Before running home I decided to take a peek at the now disbanded Travellers Site. This was a purpose built set of homes and I don't recall the history as to why they are now all destroyed, each property has had its roof cut off like the top of an egg.