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Queen
Mary's Lane
Circular Walk
The route is dotted
with
four interpretation boards. To view one,
click on a board on the map
(downloads large files each 4MB - 8MB)
We have
opened a stretch of the ancient way called Queen Mary's Lane
for
permissive public access as a bridleway.
We have also built it into a 2.5 mile / 4km circular walk for visitors to
the Woodland
Trust site at Pound Farm, Great Glemham, where there is a
convenient car-park.
Queen Mary Tudor
The lane was named after the momentous events in 1553
when Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen of England while marshalling her
troops at nearby Framlingham Castle. It is assumed she led her
army down this route to London to claim the throne
from Lady Jane Grey—the 'Nine-Day Queen'. There Mary became the first
woman to be crowned Queen of England in her own right.
Today, the
one remaining section of the original lane sweeps
through the edge of Queen Mary's Wood, between widely spaced ditched
banks on either side. As you drop down into the calm of this sunken
green lane you can imagine the awe of the peasants
working the surrounding fields as an army
of thousands marched through here, headed by their new Queen
on her white horse.
This website pieces together the history of this ancient pre-medieval lane
displaying all the old maps and texts through the ages.
Queen Mary's Wood
& Queen Mary's Plantation
Queen Mary's march was not the only event in the lane's long history; it
has other stories to tell. To find out more about any of the stories
below, follow the links at the top-left of the page:
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- The story of Queen Mary's Wood, which was
planted with
oaks in 1788 according to an ancient linen map, which you can see online.
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- The story of the flowers that came into bloom
in 1984 when the
ancient practice of coppicing was restarted in Queen Mary's Wood,
opening up the
soil to sunlight again.
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- The beautiful story of how the Victorian
children of the
parish all planted acorns that grew into the tall oaks of Queen Mary's
Plantation.
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- The reopening of this stretch of Queen Mary's
Lane is in memory of my father, Paul Briscoe, who instituted the
clearing of the only visible remains of the lane through Queen Mary's
Wood in the 1990s.
- The lane is one part of a
much larger set of environmental improvements we have been undertaking
since 2011.
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Queen Mary's Lane
lies along the
parish
boundary
between Parham and Great Glemham, near Framlingham in Suffolk, England.
Click
to enlarge this map
overlaid on the Ordnance Survey,
which shows the other bridleways, tracks and minor roads that the new
permissive paths connects up, just as the original Queen Mary's Lane
did in its day.
Please
follow the Countryside Code:
- Always stay on footpaths and bridleways
- Keep dogs under close control
- Protect plants/animals
- Take your litter home
The route
passes through a working farm.
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This circular
walk is provided by JC Larter & Co
in co-operation with the Woodland Trust.
Capital works were part-funded by Natural England.
Illustrations: www.wearedrab.net
Interpretation board editorial: www.xtrahead.co.uk
© JC Larter & Co, 2014 |
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