Coddenham and Hemingstone 4 mile circular walk
Approximately 8 miles north of Ipswich is Coddenham a small village which has a rich history dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period.
Having driven through the village of Coddenham many times over the years on my way to various car shows. I was aware that the road that passes through Coddenham, High Street road, is very narrow in places and I wasn't sure I could park safely along it. A quick google search showed that along school road was a parking area at the community centre, this turned out to be a great move, as the community centre looked to be only a few years old and it also had lots of free parking.
The weather today was a nice 15 degs and sunny, with the walk taking us along the gently rolling suffolk countryside, through woodland, along field edge paths and quiet roads but more importantly it had no major hills 
.
Walking through the woodland areas it was lovely to see the ground was still carpeted with the last of the snowdrops and in places you could see the bluebells getting ready to come out. The ground was easy going and surprisingly very dry, which was great as we didn't have to keep de clogging our boots.
Our first stop was Mill Hill, here you can still see some of the foundation stones of the old post mill which was constructed in 1810 before being dismantled in 1909.
Further along the walk crossing a farmers field, and just a short distance in front of us a herd of deer suddenly appeared, stopped, then ran off past us. Unfortunately we were not quick enough with our cameras to get any good shots, but still a very nice sight to see.
The walk then takes you passed Hemingstone, it's not a large village, but here we visited St Gregory's church. The church has a 14th century octagonal font, a rare 16th century rood beam roof and 17th century wall paintings discovered when the walls were cleaned in 1930. Turning left out of the church a short distance along the road we came across the Hemingstone Hut, which looked like it was the village hall, but it's back history was that it was once a WW1 hut located in Rendlesham Forest and was moved to the village in 1920.
A few hundred meters further along we turned off the quiet road, and followed along the field edge, heading now towards Hemingstone Hall. Hemingstone Hall is a magnificent red brick, Jacobean manor house with Dutch gables that was built around 1625 and is Grade 1 listed, we were only able to view it from the gates as the hall is privately owned.
Passing around the perimeter of Hemingstone hall, the walk then took us along the nature trail through Broom Hill, an area of grassland and woodland gifted to the village of Coddenham in 1988. The nature trail lead to a kissing gate and a narrow path which emerged into the churchyard of St Mary’s church. An impressive church that has a double hammer-beamed roof with carved angels and a raised Norman chancel. I didn't have a compass to check this, but to me the raised Norman chancel and the later extension appeared to be at slightly different angles to each other, as the step up into the chancel was tapering on its width.
A few metres away from the church and nearing the end of the walk we came across coddenham community shop and café. This village shop dates from 1696 and the stabling at the rear once accommodated horse and cart deliveries. It would have been rude to pass and not support the local community, cheese scone and chutney with a pot of tea for Ann, and for me a slice of homemade lemon cake.
4 mile easy going walk with stops took us 1.5 hrs
