If you enjoy country walks, far away from busy roads, where you are likely to see a good variety of birds as well as breathtaking landscapes and some pretty exciting industrial history then may I recommend the path tracing the old Blyth Navigation which links Walberswick and Southwold on the Suffolk coast with Halesworth, an extremely attractive Suffolk market town.

The distance is just over seven miles and there is a great deal to see and admire on the way so allow plenty of time. If you don’t want to do both directions on foot then take advantage of the bus service to get you back at the end of the walk (details from www.travelineeastanglia.co.uk).

If the distance is too much in one day then you can break up the walk into stages. With a good local OS map you can even do several circular walks.

A Bit of History

The Blyth navigation was opened in the 1760s and is one of our earliest canalised navigations. With Southwold and Walberswick still important ports, there was constant traffic along the narrow, rutted lanes between the coast and Halesworth and stories of accidents and lost cargos abound; there are even tales of highwaymen ambushing the slow moving carts.

Cargo could be moved by river as far as Blythburgh, but at this point the river narrowed. It was therefore decided to build the Blyth Navigation, an ambitious project costing £3,000, which would include a series of 4 locks. An engineer from Kings Lynn, Langley Edwards was appointed to manage the work.

The Southwold to Halesworth Walk

If you are starting your walk from Southwold follow the path south towards the harbour and cross the river Blyth by way of the footbridge (where once the southwold to Halesworth railway crossed the Blyth Estuary) or, in the summer months, take the ferry to Walberswick. You can then follow the path west beside the river Blyth until it snakes in over the heathland towards Blythburgh and the Heronry. The views here are magnificent and a bird watcher’s dream, the heathland is attractive and despite the summer crowds in Southwold you are unlikely to meet more than a few walkers on your way.

If you are in need of sustenance then The White Hart Inn in Blythburgh is a good stopping off point. In good weather you can sit out in the garden overlooking the estuary. The pub does not have the charm of many of our more rural Suffolk pubs but the food is good and if you don’t fancy a drink, they do a fine cup of coffee. Next door to the pub is a very good little shop selling snacks etc for the remainder of your walk.

It was at Blythburgh that the first lock was built, positioned at the end of the tidal river. Do make time to visit the ‘Cathedral of the Marshes’ as Blythburgh Church is known. It is not only a most attractive landmark, its architecture awe inspiring, but it contains some beautiful windows and very fine wood carving.

From Blythburgh follow the path west; it meanders along the water-meadows beside the Blyth River. Be warned it can be a bit wet along here, particularly after very high tides and in the winter but persevere as the views are once again magnificent, (Leonard Squirrel produced some fine etchings and paintings of this wonderful landscape).

Along this section of the path you will see evidence of the old narrow-guage railway which ran from the East Suffolk line at Halesworth to the coast at Southwold. Over to the right stands Blyth View, a recent conversion of an old institution, now containing some lovely holiday cottages.
Looking over to the North West you will see Wenhaston in the distance (another church most definitely worth a visit if only for its fine Doom painting, but it is a detour). The path takes you on to the second lock on the Blyth Navigation, the Wenhaston Lock and from there to the Bullhorn lock. It is here that the canal leaves the River Blyth and turning right, travels all the way up the Town River.

The landscape changes imperceptibly until you find yourself crossing meadows and wandering through areas of woodland between the old railway and the canal. Here sheep and cattle graze and whilst there is evidence of the 21st century in the form of the occasional telegraph pole, it still doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to transport yourself back 100 years or so.

West of Wenhaston the land becomes more undulating; in spring you will walk through daffodils, in summer you will be accompanied by the calls of skylarks. As you step down into the meadows surrounding Halesworth you can see the best of the locks.

The brickwork of the Halesworth lock is in remarkably good condition although the gates have long since rotted away, but you can still imagine the old wherries lining up to go through with their cargos of malt.

Walk on and you will soon reach the Town Lock, if anything even more interesting; once again the brickwork is in a good state and the wooden posts are still visible where the bottom gates were hung. These posts are unusual in that they are simply rectangular timbers with no sign of where the gates sealed against them. It can only be assumed that metal castings were attached to these timbers suitably shaped to hold the gates. Sadly the top end of this lock has been completely lost and has had a concrete sill laid across it to act as a flood weir where it forms a junction with the Town River.

At the west end of the New Reach was the terminus of the navigation - now a builders merchants yard. The first wherry was recorded as arriving in the Halesworth Terminus in 1756. What a sight that must have been.

But the story does not end there. A local malster, Patrick Stead, built a fifth lock of a very different design, a couple of hundred metres above the terminus where the New Cut rejoined the Town River. This lock raised the river by a few feet and allowed wherries to reach his Maltings.

Navigation ceased in 1934 and the canal has fallen into decay, being used for land drainage ever since.

Technical details about the 4 original locks

A gauge of 14 ft. and a length of just under 50 ft. It is believed that there was a lintel above the gates similar to locks on the Stour and about 12 ft back from the gates another set of timbers set into the lock walls with lintels across the top of them. Between the two sets of inner timbers the lock walls curve out to increase the gauge of the lock by 18". The floor of the lock was probably flat and made of timber but this won't be confirmed until the lock is drained, it's possible that the floor of the lock has been destroyed by dredging over recent years. Just visible below the water level the lock walls are cobbled out over about 5 courses by about a quarter of a brick on each course and then the wall dropped vertical until it entered the silt. Below the tailgates there are signs of an accommodation bridge crossing the navigation, which is where the towpath crossed to the other side.