Route to the coast from Halesworth

Some extensive work has been done by the Beccles and Bungay Cycle Strategy Group on setting out the options for cycle routes to the coast from Beccles and Halesworth.

Recent improvements to the National Cycle Network in Halesworth include the provision of an attractive traffic-free path from the town centre to the south of the town. The new Millennium Green Cycle Path joins a quiet lane adjacent to the Mells level crossing where the National Cycle Network Route 1 heads west towards Walpole and continues on towards Framlingham.

The northern section of the Suffolk Coastal Cycle Route is currently unsigned but is designated as Regional Route 41 of the National Cycle Network. It passes from Dunwich to Bramfield via Wenhaston. It crosses the A12 at Hazels Lane near to Hinton.

BBBS route leaflet

The desire is to create a National Cycle Network link from Halesworth to the Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB making the connection between Halesworth railway station and Southwold, Walberswick and Dunwich and thus improve the sustainable transport opportunities for people accessing the AONB. This link can take advantage of the new path across Halesworth Millennium Green and connect with the end of Regional Route 31 in Southwold.

The route out of Halesworth through Wenhaston is already up to National Cycle Network standards. Similarly the track across the Bailey Bridge between Southwold and Walberswick is an existing cycle route of good quality.

The route between these two sections is where some hard choices have to be made.

One option (green) is to follow the Regional Route 41 as far as Wenhaston, then take Wenhaston Lane towards Blythburgh and continue towards Walberswick and Southwold on the byway that is the remains of the defunct Southwold Railway line to meet Regional Route 31 at the Bailey Bridge.

The other option (purple) is to follow Regional Route 41 along the Mells ‘Back Road’, Heath Road to Bramfield Road, Back Road and Back Lane to The Street, Wenhaston and then to Hazels Lane, crossing the A12 and continuing to the Dunwich Road B1125. From there is a byway to Westwood Lodge and a quiet lane to Walberswick.

All of this latter route is existing highway and currently low in traffic density, though a watch should be kept for any housing development proposals. A recent retrospective planning application for a caravan park and a application for a Travellers’ campsite on Hazels Lane has raised objections because of traffic.

While shorter and offering more amenities along the route, the green option would require considerable surfacing and ground works with a huge environmental impact in a very sensitive area of the Blyth Estuary. Though it can be cycled already, in winter is it not much more than a muddy track. A crossing in Blythburgh would be safer than the other option as it would be within in the village 30 mph zone, though this stretch is still the site of frequent accidents.




While a crossing of the A12 within Blythburgh has many advantages, it is the impact of creating an all-weather cycle surface in the estuarine environment that tips the scales towards taking the route to the south and that is the preference the Halesworth Bicycle Team will put forward in a Supplemental Planning Document to Waveney District Council.

Following Regional Route 41 will require improvements in two locations needing careful consideration:

A. A12 crossing Hazels Lane TM 43640 73908

The A12 at this point has the national speed limit (60mph) and the visibility to the south is poor due to a curve and slope on the road. This crossing was the site of multiple fatality night-time road accident in 2006 caused by impairment and dangerous driving when a southbound car in the wrong lane hit a northbound car head-on killing five people.

Improved visibility can be achieved for the west-east crossing by creating a cycle crossing point a few metres to the south of the junction so that cyclists can see vehicles coming around the corner and up the slope towards the junction. Unfortunately this would not help the east-west crossing movement. A cycle crossing facility north of the junction would give good visibility in both directions but to achieve a good level of visibility it would need to be beyond the splay of land owned by the Highway Authority. A crossing within the land owned by the highway authority would provide a limited benefit but the addition of a cycle-activated sign to warn motorists of the presence of cyclists crossing the road would help.

B. The byway from “Five Ways” to Westwood Lodge

This byway is already well used by cyclists and is marked as the Southwold to Dunwich cycle route on the Walberswick National Nature Reserve leaflet. It is popular in Summer.

There are, however, some deeply rutted sections and surface improvements need to be undertaken to bring the route up to acceptable standards. The total length of byway that needs improvements amounts to a few hundred metres. In some locations the level of the byway has been eroded well below that of the surrounding land and to rectify this will require a significant quantity of imported material to be brought in. The imported material needs to be appropriate and respect the environmental interest at this site. It may be beneficial to impose a TRO on the byway to prevent public use of the track in motor vehicles. This should not impact on the local access.

Millennium Green Cycle Path Ride

At yesterday's (18/5/13) opening of the Millennium Green Cycle Path the sky was very overcast but today there was bright spring sunshine, so it was a perfect opportunity to to show how the new path makes it more pleasant and safer to reach Halesworth from Bramfield, Walpole or Wenhaston via the Mells Crossing, which is now part of National Cycle Route 1.

The little Flip camera used was a bit shaky as it was only mounted on a Gorilla Grip on the handlebars but you get the idea. Plenty of cyclists and dog walkers were out making the most of it,  showing how the  path now extends the use of the Town Park into the Millennium Green. At the end of the route Edwards Restaurant in the Thoroughfare is usually open on Sunday mornings and it welcomes the hungry cyclist. Still a bit left to do on landscaping, installing the 'kissing' gates and rationalizing the signage. The cattle grids proved passable on 20 inch wheels.

Millennium Green Cycle Path Opens

For everyone, forever.

Suffolk Bike Aid rarely goes on the road to events but as hundreds of cyclists were expected to come to the opening of the Millennium Green Cycle Path in our home town of Halesworth on Saturday 18th May 2013, we thought we should be there to welcome them.

View the Millennium Green Cycle Path in a larger map

Eventually several of the 250 or more cyclists attending did need to avail themselves of the donated  tools and pump we had brought along so it was a successful day on that front but also we spoke to many people who said they would like to host the kits in their own communities.

The night before we knocked up these information panels and were able to make an exhibition stand from bean poles to hang them from. We carried everything; table, chair, tools and pump to the event on a bicycle. We hope that inspires others to emulate taking bike aid to events.

But enough about us. The main event had splendid turnout with two Suffolk MPs and several County, District, Town and Parish councillors showing their green credentials by coming on bicycles. A large contingent of friends of the late Brian 'Boysie' Tate came en-route to St. Mortiz on a fundraising ride in his memory along with several Sustrans officers and volunteers and Suffolk County Council's Cycle Challenge who were conducting video interviews. A large marquee was kindly provided by the Lions Club of Halesworth and all the bunting made by the community for the Jubilee got yet another use. A pay-what-you-can stall serving home made food and drink encouraged people to be very generous and the takings reportedly exceeded expectations, proving Bike Aid's ethos that trust has greater efficiency than control.

The event organizers and project réalisateurs Halesworth Millennium Green Trust asked local schoolchildren to submit designs for bicycles of the future and a held a fancy dress competition for decorated bicycles. Several prizes were given to worthy winners and speeches of thanks made before the ribbon cutting by a pupil of Edgar Sewter Primary School.

The Millennium Green is owned by the people of Halesworth and will be so forever. With a grant from the Department of Transport, the charity Sustrans acquired and donated the land for the path adjacent to the green but a small plot prevented joining this to the Town Park until a Green Party district councillor urged Waveney District Council to acquire the land from a bankrupt developer, so unifying a patchwork of gifts by local philanthropists and the town council's efforts of more than forty years ago. In the last seven years HMGT volunteers have spend countless hours on negotiations, fundraising (still more to do), debating the virtues of hoggin versus tarmac and a great deal of hard physical labour to remove dangerous structures, buried railway lines and undergrowth before the contractors could begin the work. They and the contractors then battled the worst winter weather anyone can remember against a closer and closer deadline right up to the day. Without a doubt it has all been utterly worth it. The town park has been vastly extended into the Millennium Green, children now have a safe environment to learn to cycle on, people on an industrial estate have a safer way to cycle to the town's shops at lunchtime and people (of all ages) in buggies can go deep into a nature reserve on its hard surface.

The HinT pay-what-you-can coffee stall did very well. Many people were over-generous 

Design competition with work by local schoolchildren 

Cutting the ribbon on years of hard work 

Bike Aid supporters from Halesworth in Transition, Town Council and Sustrans 

Uncredited photos courtesy of Halesworth Millennium Green Trust. Others require permission.

Host Profile: Gypsy Hollow B&B & Teas

If you fancy kipping next to nature in a gypsy wagon in the grounds of a Grade II* listed Suffolk farmhouse, then this is a B&B for you. 

Then wake up to hearty breakfasts of their own Gloucester Old Spot/Berkshire pork and fresh free-range eggs. You can cook their farm produce yourself on the open fire or in the kitchen area and afternoon tea cream cakes are available for your delectation.

Along with a spa to soak away the strains of a day in the saddle, what could be missing? 

Absolutely nothing now that it has joined Suffolk Bike Aid so passing cyclists can stop by to make running repairs if need be as well as get afternoon cakes and teas.

Proprietors Philip and Clair Westwood-Dreamer are located deep in the north Suffolk countryside (not far from the Norfolk border), roughly between the market towns of Halesworth and Bungay, yet only six miles from the A12. The can even pick up guests in their horse and carriage from Brampton rail station.

Directions From Halesworth

Take the A144 Norwich Road north for about 2 miles, then turn right onto Nollers Road and then left onto Butts Road.

From Bungay

Take the A144 south from Bungay for about 5 milles, then turn left onto Hog Lane, then right onto Butts Lane.

Gypsy Hollow B&B

Valley Farm

Butts Road

Westhall

Suffolk

IP19 8RN

www.gypsyhollow.co.uk

Tel: 01986 780995

Mob: 07884 165445

52.39359, 1.51796

Join the Halesworth Bicycle Team

If anyone is interested in encouraging cycling in the Halesworth area, there will be a meeting on April 18th 2013 at 5.30 pm at the Halesworth library with Joseph Young of Cycle Suffolk to which local cycling groups and people have been invited.

In October 2012 the Local Government Minister Grant Shapps, the MP responsible for the Mary Portas town regeneration project, gave a £10,000 consolation prize to Halesworth after it applied to be a Portas Pilot Town. 

The Halesworth Portas Pilot Town Team who submitted the bid quickly allocated this funding, cutting the budget down to 10% of the original plan, but they obtained additional funding and were able to put several proposals immediately into place. The derelict print works off the Thoroughfare has been tidied up and is set to hold weekly markets, auctions and craft fairs and local food producers and gardeners and the community have been mobilized by Halesworth in Bloom projects as well as a branding campaign; HalesWorth Visiting to entice passing trade.  It's not sour grapes but it's a great shame that a year later some towns who won the £100,000 grand prize still have their money in the bank or have frittered it away on Christmas decorations instead of seeding sustainable projects.

Improving cycling facilities has always been a part of Halesworth's tourism and economic sustainability strategy. The Halesworth Town Plan cycling group (who were part of the Portas bid) came together in May 2012 as a refreshed group to action some ideas that could be taken forward, regardless if they had funding or not. Community development is often a case of Fast/Cheap/Good: you can pick any two. One of this group's actions was encouragement of the Halesworth Wheel and organising several turn-up and ride events around it.

This group have since been allocated £2500 of the Portas money. Half of that cycling pot has gone towards completing the Millennium Green Cycle Path (a scheme backed by the Department of Transport and Sustrans needing match funding), the other half will be spent on developing footfall by enhancing Halesworth's many advantages to the cyclist; be they the club, commuter or tourist rider (or is there a better typology?)

With the promise of this tiny pot, a 'bicycle team' will have to brainstorm some very clever ideas to develop cycling in Halesworth and so I have put some thoughts here to start the dough. What the town needs is more ideas and more people to see them through, so willing hands and feet are very welcome. 

cyclists' yellow jersey

Like many rural market towns, Halesworth faces many economic challenges but encouraging cycle tourism plays to its strengths. With good transport connections, key services, wide range of quality accommodation, location midway between the AONB coast and inland heritage attractions, nature reserves, excellent rural pubs, quiet roads and beautiful scenery; the various factors add up to put Halesworth as the top choice as a base for a cycling holiday or to visit on a tour. The attractions of the other Waveney 'four towns': Beccles, Bungay and Southwold and the wider Waveney Valley are part of Halesworth's offer too.

The Halesworth Tourism Group recently produced a leaflet touting the Blyth Valley Experience showing what the town and surroundings have to offer (opens a PDF).

This list is not in any order. The intent in sharing it is to stimulate other people to offer other ideas too. If other towns 'steal' these ideas and do them first, so much the better. My particular interest is tourism and commuting and not so much 'club' cycling so I hope my ideas will be balanced by others.

Some of these ideas will be easy to realize and everyone can take these actions at anytime. Some of these ideas will need further resources; contacts will have to be made, other financial support found and of course, having some people to take responsibility to see them through.

• Establish a loose identity as the local Bicycle Team as a point of contact and for re-distribution of info. Avoid committee meetings, do it via the web!
• Wider promotion of the Halesworth Wheel and its Sustrans/Mike Jackson supported cycle rides - signposting on websites, leaflet distribution in TICs and libraries.
• Support the Dunwich Dynamo and encourage more stay-overs.
• Linking the Bicycle Team with relevant tourism and business groups, partnerships etc. Priority local 'Four Towns' and Waveney Valley but thinking internationally as well, i.e. Dutch Flyer promotions.
• Establish points of contact with bus, coach and train operators i.e. Anglian, National Express, Greater Anglia (Abellio) Stena Line.
• Team to author strategy papers: The club, commuter, tourism rider; how to attract & encourage them - To be circulated relevant partners and town and parish councils, especially Waveney 'Four Towns' with tips on what to to and what not to do.
• Collate listing of cycling facilities, shops, hire etc. on Halesworth websites
• Produce yellow T-shirts of 'Hales-worth Visiting' for sale in town shops.
• Auditing and signposting of cycle-friendly B&Bs and facilities; which ones have racks, storage etc.
• Local B&B promotion (Halesworth Tourism Group's sheet) to include the standard cycle facility symbols.***
• Rapid response to cycling inquiries: if people tweet #Halesworth, they can get a response from many people who monitor that hashtag. Have the Town Clerk and other web hosts SMS or tweet cycling inquiries to the Bicycle Team.***
• Prepare cycle tourism/club/commuter media contact list and background press release with quality photographs.
• Signposting to Suffolk Bike Aid.
• Have a Bike Aid collection of spare tools and kit making session at events.
• Run a Suffolk Bike Aid/Cycle Suffolk/Bicycle Team stand at Latitude.
• Plant bicycle themed/bicycle accessible Geocaches.***
• Ask a local collector to open their antique bike collection for tours.
• Encourage museums to explore or highlight cycling heritage.
• Stage an annual Bicycle Jumble Sale ('saddlebag' instead of 'car boot') in Halesworth - key stands like Ipswich Mencap bicycle recycling project.
• Create a BMX track on waste ground somewhere.***
• Explore making the Thoroughfare a two-way cycle path.***
• Have a cycle info rack in the library - make contacts and have volunteers that replenish it.*
• Hold cycle repair classes - perhaps at the NSSA.
• Encourage an entrepreneur or social enterprise to open cycle hire business, perhaps a seasonal container/lock up? CAS can signpost to grants,  WDC can advise on rate relief and Town Council on sites.
• Investigate providing electric bicycle charging points.
• Encourage the CPRE 'quiet lanes' designation on local back roads.
• Form links to local cycling clubs with the Bicycle Team.
• Encourage volunteer cycling 'greeters': a contact that visiting touring riders can meet in Halesworth.***
• Audit to ensure all cycle features are correct on OS and OSM maps, Point X  datasets, Navteq, TeleAtlas and are signposted on local websites and included on local info maps.
• Web forum monitoring and signposting when any events are near Halesworth.**
• Support the Suffolk Churches cycle ride.**
• Encourage or lobby for 'bike' entry prices at events and repay with cross-promotion.
• Encourage bicycle/foot-only camp site operations away from car/caravan camping - Support planning permission applications and rural grants to establish them.
• Offer talks about cycling in Suffolk, Bike Aid, Millennium Green etc. to local groups like the WI etc.
• Encourage posting videos of local rides on Youtube etc. Either a competition or community media project through New Cut Arts.***
• Author and post GPX & photos of local rides  on trail report sites.**
• Put local routes on ride-planner websites.**
• Encourage young people to enter decorated cycles as part of parades. Contact parade organisers, encourage business to offer prizes for bike competition categories.
• Create a Community Action Suffolk resource map hosted on the web of local cycling resources.
• Have a ‘Cycle Only’ Weekend in Halesworth, promoted by Waveney District and Suffolk County Council who may spread this throughout their area.
• Link up with our Twin Towns of Bouchain and Eitorf to promote and participate in our/their cycle events.
• Hold an 'Edwardian' Cycling Picnic with cream teas and croquet.

* people have since offered to support.

If you found this page on twitter etc. and you have suggestions or questions, or would like to help, please get in touch: nat (at) pixlink.co.uk

Host Profile: Halesworth Area Community Transport

The Halesworth Area Hoppa is a unique scheduled bus service run by a non-profit company and driven by volunteers that operates four days a week to provide the younger and the older residents of the town a lifeline to reach essential services.


The bike aid kit is available from their office open Monday to Friday 9 AM - 12 pm at Halesworth Railway Station, Station Road, IP19 8BZ telephone 01986 875900

Host Profile: New Cut Arts Centre

The New Cut Arts Centre is a remarkable place located in Halesworth, Suffolk. Housed in a former grain maltings, the 'Cut' offers a wide programme of theatre, live music, dance, gallery exhibitions and educational and health activities for the community.On weekends it is a lively social hub as adults and their children mingle or attend classes and performances or hang out in the cafe (with free wi-fi). Remarkably, it does this without any Arts Council funding. Lately the Cut has become the home of the enormously successful High Tide Festival of new theatre writing.


The Bike Aid kit is kept at the box office and is available when the Cut is open.


New Cut Arts
New Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 8BY
Box Office: 0845 6732123 ~ Admin Office: 01986 873285,
info@newcut.org