Go up Leather Lane towards Little Yeldham. This becomes Little Yeldham Road. After passing a sign that you are entering Little Yeldham parish, and after passing one field on the right, go right by a footpath signpost into the second field on the right.
Go ahead with the hedge on your right, follow the boundary left at the far corner, then about half way along that side of the field go right by a way-marking post through a gap into the next field.
You are now on cultivated land, but the path is normally promptly restored if it has been disturbed. Aim for the end of a hard farm road, and follow that road towards the farm buildings of Upper Yeldham Hall. Go right down the side of the field just before reaching the buildings, and continue with the hedge on your left.
At the bottom of the field go ahead through a gap in the hedge over a piped field entrance, and aim straight across the next field to a gap with a wooden plank footbridge, and continue ahead to the corner of a piece of mown grass beside Priestfields Farm. There are often caravans parked there. Go across the grass and right onto the hard by-road which goes between Priestfields Farm buildings and the house. Folow this road to Kirby Hall. The wide grass verges along this road are a wonderful sight in spring as the Primroses and Cowslips are flowering. When you reach Kirby Hall turn in to the right, go past the front of the house and between the buildings, then go right and left out of the yard on to a hard farm road.
Follow the farm road until it starts to go down hill and Poole Farm buildings are in sight. Go right along an unmade track which can be so muddy as to be almost impassable. At the next field entrance go right over a footbridge and left though a kissing gate. Continue along a wide grass track towards Yeldham with the hedge on your left. You will pass a small wood on your right. At the far corner of the wood keep ahead across a cultivated field, over a bridge in the gap at the bottom, and up another cultivated field. Both these fields may be left for some time after being ploughed or cultivated before the path is restored. They are a heavy clay soil and can be very muddy.
Go through the gap at the top of the field and go right (ignore the gate on the left which goes down Spayne's Hall drive), along a farm road with hedges on both sides into the next field.
Go ahead through into the next field. Continue with the hedge on your left as it turns right, left and right again, to the far side of the field. Go left across a footbridge and follow the path as it immediately goes through a gap on the right from the field side of the hedge to the inside of an overgrown green lane. Follow the path between the trees to Leather Lane. Go left down the road to the Village Green.
5 Apr 2013