Into Silent Woodland

About trip

The full version of the Pingo Trail is 7 miles (11.3km), and many walkers feel its furthest reaches have the most to offer. If you enjoy silence and solitude, then you may want to complete the circuit. While you're there: The walk will take you through two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI): one ranging from Thompson Water right across to Thompson Common, and the other, if you take the extension, at Cranberry Rough. These areas are rich in wildlife and information boards give details about what can be seen where and when. What to look out for: On the western side of Thompson Water look for the large slate monument for Norfolk Songline Sculptures on the Peddars Way, with its poem commemorating ancient footpaths and ancestors. The monument is modern and its verse is printed sideways on. Thompson village church is away from the main settlement, suggesting a population shift at some point in its history, perhaps due to plague. College Farm stands on the site of a priests’ school that was founded in 1349 by the Shardelowe family. Where to eat and drink: The Chequers at Thompson is an attractive 17th-century thatched pub with original oak beams. It serves home-cooked food at lunch and dinner, and has a garden and children’s play area. Dogs are welcome in the garden and public bar. Directions: From the car park, which is set a short way back from the main road, take the straight path in front of you, marked by a notice board and map of the Pingo Trail. Pass the old Stow Bedon station buildings and continue ahead on the disused railway line, part of the Great Eastern railway which gives the walk its name. The path runs through mixed woodland and after a little more than a mile (1.6km) reaches a farm track. Keep straight ahead, passing the stone foundations of the old railway keeper’s cottage, dating from 1870, on your right. Cross Breckles Heath to enter the woods and arrive at Cranberry Rough, once a large glacial lake but now a swamp. You plunge into a railway cutting and it is easy to imagine the steam engines making their way along it, filling the gully with smoke. Eventually, you will see eight wooden steps, marked with the Pingo Trail sign. Climb the steps, follow the path and turn right when you reach a lane at Hockham Heath. Stay on the lane until you see the ‘No Through Road’ sign. Follow this sign. After 200yds (183m), you reach a fork. Take the unpaved track on the right, marked as the Peddars Way Circular Walk and National Cycle Network trail 13. Tall pines grow around you, whispering softly in the wind - which is the only sound you will hear unless the planes are up and about from the nearby airfield. The ground is covered in ferns and wood chips, making for comfortable walking. You may be alarmed by the signs on your left that say it is a military firing range, and that you should keep out. This area was commandeered by the government in 1942 for training troops and is known as the Stanford Training Area. Stanford was the name of its biggest village and about 1,000 people were ‘temporarily’ evacuated as part of the war effort. The villagers expected to go home in 1945, but they were never allowed to. Occasionally, permission is granted for them to attend family graves, but most of the time the settlements lie forlorn in the middle of bomb-pitted terrain. The training area represents some of the best untouched Breckland heath in Norfolk - a peculiar advantage of sectioning off certain tracts of the countryside for defence purposes. Eventually, you will see the track from Watering Farm on your right-hand side. Continue along the gravelled footpath of the north-south Peddars Way trail. You will soon see Thompson Water - a shallow artificial lake built in the 1840s - on your right. On your left note the signs warning would-be walkers that this is an area used by the Ministry of Defence. Once the lake emerges on your right, look out for a sign for the Great Eastern Pingo Trail. Turn right into the Thompson Common nature reserve. This part of the walk can be muddy, and may necessitate some acrobatics across fallen trees and through sticky black bogs. There are trails to the lake itself, if you want a diversion to see teals, shovellers, reed warblers and crested grebes. The main path can be hard to follow, so look out for the waymarkers. Head for a bridge crossing a sluggish stream. Turn left after you go over the bridge and walk next to the stream along a pretty path. Cross another bridge, going away from the stream and out into the open area of Thompson Common, a meadow kept in good condition by a flock of grazing Shetland sheep. After you walk through a second meadow - in which are a number of large pingos - you will see Thompson village on the horizon. Follow a track to a paved lane. At the lane, continue into the outskirts of the village itself. Pass a number of houses, until you see the Pingo Trail sign to your right, just before a ‘Give Way’ sign. Follow it through the woodland to arrive back at the car park.