A Cycle ride to Tuddenham Suffolk

My cycle ride today turned into a little longer ride than I planned. I forgot to take a map and the route I planned wasn't possible as I missed a turn. Still I came up with an alternative circular ride of 20 miles my longest yet.

My route took me from Bury St Edmunds through the villages of Risby, Cavenham and out to Tuddenham. The name, Tuddenham, dates back to AD 854 and is derived from the Anglo Saxon ‘Tudda’s home’ and is about 10 miles out north west from Bury St Edmunds. The icknield way passes through the village which is on the edge of heathland

I had planned to turn towards Higham and Gazeley but instead found myself 10 miles out. Rather than directly turnaround and follow the same route back I instead followed a road back to Higham, Barrow, Gt Saxham and Lt Saxham and then back into Bury.

The verge on the route between Lt Saxham and Bury  was covered in poppies and other wild flowers.

Total time for the ride was 1hr 43 minutes for the 20 miles for a 5.10 mile pace

10 miles around Great Saxham Suffolk

This morning I did my last run of week 10 of my half marathon training programme. I felt sluggish this morning not helped by the large curry and beers the night before. I had intended to do another 13 miler today but I forgot to restart my watch when I got to Gt Saxham .

As I ran uphill I saw a couple emerge froma field having feed their horses and immeadiately two labradors came bounding towards. I stopped at this point not knowing how friendly they would be. As it turned out perfectly harmless. However I couldn't run again , I tried but this only set the dogs off again so I walked up to the couple who were friendly and turned out to be the owners of Great Saxham Hall .

They were interested in what I was training for and explained that there daughter had run the London Marathon  a year or two ago. The hedgerows at Gt Saxham are carpeted in snowdrops but there is little sign of the daffodils at the moment which are late this year. This concerned the lady as she said they were holding an open day at their hall and gardens in 3 weeks time.

After this I forgot to restart my watch so I don't have a time or exact distance for my run but I believe it was around 9.5 miles.

My run had begun in Bury St Edmunds and I had run out to Little Saxham before taking the Barrow road and heading left up hill into Gt Saxham.

Further photos of Gt Saxham including some of the hall are avilable at my flickr photo site here

Lt Saxham Suffolk

8.am 10 miles in 1 hr 23 mins 53 seconds

Week to date mileage 10 miles

Month to date mileage 90

Average weekly rate 31.4. miles

Average monthly rate 136

Year to date 90

Lifetime 9683

After heavy over night rains the weather was dry but cool as I ventured out on a long run. I decided to run out to Little Saxham a village about 3 miles to the west of Bury St Edmunds.

This isn't a road I would recommend as it always seems to be busy with traffic and with the large puddles this morning I got my feet wet running through these at times by keeping into the side of the road. The minor B road takes you out past Westley to the right and Horringer can be seen in the distance to the left.


circular buildings. Thats one theory though I imagine it was partly a case of keeping up with the Joneses and what was gooThe road twists and turns but eventually arrives at St Nicholas Church at Lt Saxham which is a lovely round tower building. Apparently there are only around 180 of these in the country and most of these are centered in East Anglia. Why a round tower? Well this is disputed but it seems the local flint stone is difficult to use to construct square buildings and lends itself more tod for one village was then wanted by a neighboring village.

The church is right smack bang at the end of this road and cars have to turn sharply either towards Barrow or Chevington. This time I turned southward towards Chevington. I was able to run a fair way along this road without reaching Chevington before my time was up and after 43 mins I turned for home . This section of the run was much quieter and could be run in comfort.