NCN 13 Maldon - Bury St. Edmunds
Lavenham
Ride Overview
From the town of salt to the town of a saint, stage 2 of National Route 13 travels through the land of jam and quintessential Suffolk villages; multi-coloured, wonky-walled cottages, a stately home or two, ‘wool’ churches and the old capital of England. It’s a gentle pedal through a calm of countryside. Grain-filled fields and small woods. Hedgerows, loamy-lined lanes, chatty sparrows. Church towers, water towers, Tudor Gatehouse towers. It is about as far removed from stage 1’s Essex and Estuary as it could possibly be.
Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Maldon/Bury St. Edmunds DISTANCE: 111km TOTAL ASCENT: 803m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: mainly asphalt on quiet lanes, and cycleways. Other surfaces are firm and easy to ride on. None of the challenges of yesterday RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS; CAMPING: ACCOMMODATION: Bury St. Edmunds; The Old Cannon Brewery NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Colchester, Bures, Sudbury, Bury St. Edmunds LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: NCN 1,
*WMWG only list places for food, drink and beds which have met our strict quality standards. They will promote local growers, are independent who set high standards, but who are not necessarily the cheapest place in town
Ride Notes
Out of Maldon, you join the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. If you’ve ever wearied of the delays, postponements, dithering and opposition to any new transport link, you’ll have sympathy with those who tried for 120 years to get the canal linking Chelmsford to the sea. The main opposition was from the authorities of Maldon, who feared that if the canal went ahead, Chelmsford, rather than Maldon would become the main port of this coast. Evenually, as is so often the case, the developers won. And from a cycling point of view, thank goodness, for the way is green and traffic-free. From Maldon until Colchester, the route is signed as NCN 1, rather than 13.(Route 1 being the ‘mightier’ - Dover to Shetland - so Route 13 gives way to it).
Layer Marney Gatehouse
At Heybridge, take a last look at the sea, at the yachts and barges assembled in the basin and bay, and head onwards along the twistiest of lanes, some of which have very idiosyncratic of names, e.g. Cut-A-Thwart Lane. You ride through a rich tapestry of agrarian landscapes, little woods, magnificent churches miles from anywhere and some sprawling villages. There are, as with yesterday’s stage, various modern, statement homes behind elaborate electronic gates; lions on pedestals, pots, urns, embellishments, are all evident, but none equal that built by Henry Marney. Henry VIII’s Lord Privy Seal, Marney, built the tallest Tudor Gatehouse in England, before dying. His son had neither the money, the position, nor desire to continue the project, so the rest of the palace is remains but a dream. (The impressive Gatehouse, along with gardens and tea room, is a kilometre off route - just follow the brown signs for Layer Marney.)
Tiptree is synonymous with jam. More than 50,000 jars are produced each day. Since the route passes through both the village and the factory, you might anticipate riding beside field and after field of strawberries and raspberries, but this is not the case. They must be somewhere, for Tiptree claim all their fruit is locally grown, but they are absent from the route. If you need a break, their café serves their preserves spread on your choice of scones, bread, rolls, and anything else you may favour.
Colchester Castle
Route 13 follows the old British earthworks which surrounded Colchester, and are among the few surviving late Iron Age defences in Britain. They defended the west side of pre-Roman Colchester, Camulodunum. Not that the Romans were too bothered by them, for they conquered the city and built an enormous Temple to Claudius in its heart. A later set of conquerors, the Normans, built a castle on top of the temple, which is said to be the largest keep of its kind in Europe. The route digresses into the city to enjoy the castle and excellent museum, but ignore it (it’s not part of Route 13) if you wish to continue northwards and avoid England’s oldest recorded town.
The way onwards to Sudbury follows a succession of single track roads through richly-farmed country. Hedges are rare, verges are rich in flowers. Sand and loam edge the lanes. There are no hills to ride up. With an awning of sky, colourfully painted cottages, wide horizons and fertile land, it’s a pleasant ride. There’s another short diversion (off the official route) into Sudbury, where there are over 240 listed buildings as well as a fine market place. Ignore the diversion if you wish.
Lavenham Church
You now ride into the heart of ‘wool country’. The wool trade in medieval England turned the nation into an economic power house. Suffolk was, along with the Cotswolds, the most prosperous part of the nation and where today you see fields of grain you’d have seen sheep had you ridden past (on your horse) 600 years ago. Wealth brought about a lot of boasting, which took the form of who could build the biggest and grandest church. Every village has a cathedral sized church, whose tower is seen long before you arrive. Both Long Melford and Lavenham Churches are worth having a look, for they are embellished with all that the 15th century had to offer.
It’s not just their ‘wool’ churches, for the two places are among the best-preserved historic towns in England. Status trumpeting timber-framed houses abound. Melford Hall (NT) is a kilometre out of town, and is as fine a country pile as you would wish for.
Other than two quintessential English towns, it’s barns and farms, narrow and empty lanes, (and oversized churches). The soundscape is of your tyres purring away on tarmac, of chattering hedge sparrows and happy goldfinches twittering away. Autumn pigeons glean in the harvested fields, sparrow hawks patrol the skies. With an absence of any meaningful hill, the kilometres tick past with ease.
The Gateway to St. Edmundsbury Cathedral
Route 13 is nothing if not idiosyncratic. Its designers clearly had a thing against historic towns, which are the highlights of the whole journey. So far, I’ve created diversions into Colchester, Sudbury and now into another, Bury St. Edmunds. It is one of East Anglia’s most important (ecclesiastically as well as historically) towns and home to England’s original saint, Edmund. Quite why the natural born Englishman was supplanted by a saint of Turkish origin (St. George) is for another time. John Leland, travelling in 1539, described the city as, “A city more neatly seated the Sun never saw, so curiously doth it hang upon a gentle descent, with a little river on the east side; nor a monastery more noble, whether one considers the endowments, largeness or unparalleled magnificence”. The abbey was demolished by Henry VIII, but the cathedral and city centre (it is in truth, more village than city) seem little changed from John Leland’s day.
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