The Story of the St Edmund Way
– a walk across Suffolk
The St Edmund Way was devised by John Andrews in the early 1980s. (John was a long serving member of Ramblers in Suffolk, where his commitment to safeguarding rights of way earned him recognition at national level in terms of honorary lifetime membership of the Association)
In John's introduction to his accompanying book, delightfully illustrated by his wife Jean, he explains that the route is intended to be the final link in a chain of Long Distance Paths from London to the north of England; it begins at Flatford and links with the Essex Way at Dedham, before running north-westwards (via Bures, Sudbury, Long Melford, Lavenham, Bury St Edmunds and Thetford) to Brandon, where it joins the Hereward Way. Its total length, including the link from Manningtree station is 88 miles; the significance of its name is not only that Bury St Edmunds is the largest town through which it passes but also that a number of other places near or on the route have associations with our "martyr king" who subsequently became England's first patron saint – and there have been attempts in recent years via Downing Street to have him re-instated!
It had occurred to me that it would be a good thing to raise the profile of this very local but unmarked LDP, an idea which gained in strength and wouldn't go away – especially after I had put "the St Edmund Way" into an on-line search engine and found the following entry in a walkers' forum:
"Is the St Edmund Way a Figment of my Imagination?!
"Just spent a very enjoyable week walking what was called on the o/s maps the St Edmund Way. However, was this just my imagination as we did not see one sign for this way. When we walked the Essex Way last year this was marked by very pleasant poppy signs. We were wondering if it is the norm for long distance paths to be signed or was the Essex Way an exception?"
It was decided to pursue the possibility of our way-marking the entire route, in liaison with Rights of Way Officers in Essex and Norfolk, in the bounds of which lie some very enjoyable parts of the walk – and with the support of David Falk, Suffolk County Council Green Access Manager, who heads up the Discover Suffolk Project, and through whose help we were able to obtain the necessary quantity of waymarks to our design, showing the gold crown of Edmund and crossed arrows on a blue background.
We set off in the snow of February 2012, for the first stage of a walking assessment of the entire length, to estimate the number of waymarks we would need (hundreds!) and then walked it all again to carry out the task – which we completed, very appropriately, on our St Edmund’s Day Walk in the November and with a Radio Suffolk interview during the walk!
We’ve re-walked the route from time to time, both as a long distance walk and as part of some of the many other walks we enjoy as a group – and we’ve often been asked if we are the "Guardians of the St Edmund Way?!"
We have recently updated much of the way-marking in the beautiful Dedham Vale area where stiles have been replaced by excellent gates; and we are always delighted to hear from anyone interested in walking, or who has walked, the St Edmund Way – and to provide a certificate on request – and it’s helpful to hear of their experience of it, especially of course if any difficulties have been encountered.
My enjoyment of it has been enhanced recently by the pleasure derived from Marcus Powles’ gem of a book entitled "The Saint Edmund Way – A Pilgrim’s Notebook" in which he describes in more detail the many churches he has visited on, and sometimes slightly off, the route itself.
A more recent guidebook by Joe Jackson is also now available, but our John Andrews’ original publication continues both to inform and delight, and has also in recent years become something of a collector’s item!
Whether you view the St Edmund Way as a pilgrimage, or simply as a good walk across the very lovely and surprisingly diverse county of Suffolk – happy reading and happy walking!
Rosie Perham
Bury St Edmunds Ramblers - www.burystedmundsramblers.org.uk
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