Dear Nub News readers

It all began in early 2014, when I read an article in the East Anglian Daily Times about The Stour Valley Path, a Long Distance route that runs from Newmarket to Brantham. I, Stephen Harvey, had always walked, but at the time had a dodgy knee (courtesy of too much football as a youth), was overweight and was only doing small local walks. However, I loved a challenge, and walking The Stour Valley Path really appealed. I thought that a long walk might help strengthen the muscles around my knee, help me lose weight, improve my mental well-being, and improve my overall fitness. It's good to dream!

My wife was unhappy about me doing the walk alone, and suggested that I found a walking partner to share the experience, and more importantly, make sure I came to no harm. I mentioned this to a few people, which led to a call from Alan Meredith. My walking partner had been found. At this time, neither Alan nor I realised where this first walk would eventually take us.

Planning commenced. We agreed that we would walk each Monday, my day off from work and normally a free day in Alan's heavy retirement schedule. We also decided to split the walk into weekly stages of around 10 miles, and try to complete the total route using one car and public transport.

We eventually walked the Stour Valley Path in 7 stages, enjoying it so much, that we decided to continue walking each Monday, when possible, and still using one car and public transport.

By October, 2015, we had completed sets of walks on the Stour and Orwell Walk (Brantham to Felixstowe), the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Path (Felixstowe to Lowestoft), and a route from Lowestoft to Newmarket (including most of the Angles Way, which we completed on a subsequent walk), thus completing a circumnavigation of Suffolk.

Our next set of walks were on an extended Mid-Suffolk Footpath, from Norfolk, north of Hoxne, to Langham, Essex. This was quickly followed by another set of walks taking us from Brandon to Sudbury, utilising the St Edmunds Way and other footpaths, roads, bye-ways etc.

In mid-May, 2017, we were reflecting on having circumnavigated Suffolk, and having walked across it twice, north to south, when we decided we had to cross it east to west. A route was quickly planned from Cambridgeshire to the North Sea i.e. from Burwell, to Southwold. We eventually completed this walk by mid-August, 2017, in 10 stages.

By this time, I was nearing retirement, and we had talked ourselves into an attempt to walk in every civil parish in Suffolk, plus the boroughs of Ipswich and Lowestoft, all 479 of them. We had by this time walked in only 174.

To cut a long story short, we continued over the next few years to pick-off the remaining parishes, in geographical blocks, undertaking weekly walks of between 8 and 12 miles, and still trying to use one car and public transport. Initially we continued to do linear walks, but due to Covid-19, when public transport ceased, we started to utilise circular walks. Progress was interrupted on many occasions, by such things as Covid-19, hospital stays and operations, my wife's medical treatment, illness, holidays, attendance at away football matches, Alan's monthly delivery round for the Hadleigh Community News etc.

By September, 2021, we had only 38 more parishes to walk, all in central East Suffolk. We planned to walk these in 8 more walks, totalling around 75 miles, and ending at Framlingham Castle. The end of our 479 parish challenge was so close, but my wife had to start a new round of medical treatment, and I had to stop walking, to protect her from Covid-19 and other infections. We did not commence walking again, apart from undertaking the Hospital Hero Hike, a 21 mile sponsored walk from Colchester Hospital to Ipswich Hospital, until June, this year, 8 months later.

The first seven of the eight remaining walks were duly completed: The Cransford Loop, Mickfield to Rishangles, the Bedfield Loop, the Dennington Loop, Earl Soham to Framsden, the Hoo Loop, and the Charsfield Loop. This left a final walk of around 10 miles, from Wickham Market to Framlingham, completing the final 4 parishes.

In high spirits, we set off for Framlingham on 6th September, 2022, and parked in the Fore Street car park, before catching a bus to Wickham Market, where we set off on the walk back to Framlingham. On arrival in Framlingham, we stood outside the castle and asked a young couple if they would take a celebration photograph for us.

As we stood outside the castle, reflecting on our achievement, we experienced a great feeling of success and also relief, that Suffolk had at last been conquered. In the past 8 years, we had completed 121 individual walks, walked in all 479 Suffolk 'parishes', plus 18 in Norfolk, 18 in Essex and 8 in Cambridgeshire, walked 1142 miles in the process, using only one car and public transport on all but a handful of the walks.

Since starting our walks back in 2014, my then dreams have become reality. I have lost 3 stone in weight, my knees are pain free and I am definitely a lot fitter. As far as my mental well-being is concerned, you will need to check with my wife. I have also seen first-hand much more of the beautiful County of Suffolk, and have learnt much about many things from my walking companion, oracle and friend, Alan.

What next for us? Watch this space.

Stephen Harvey