An All Together English Walk

Lindsay Want takes a seasonal family stroll around the parklands of Huntingfield and Heveningham

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A good festive walk is bit like a good Christmas pudding, plummy, packed with all the right ingredients and full of delightful surprises, put together with love and saved up especially for the occasion.

There’ll always be someone less keen to partake, but if there’s a softer, more appealing version, it could just prove irresistible. After all, the shared Christmas constitutional is a real English tradition.

So, where better to head for than the village of Huntingfield near Halesworth, manorial home of one of Suffolk’s famous Magna Carta barons?

Here footpaths lead along ancient wooded green lanes, down gentle Blyth valley slopes, steeped in our rich farming heritage, past thatched cottage clusters, old maltings and magnificent village churches. Even through Capability Brown landscapes alongside one of the most outstretched, Georgian stately piles in England.

There’s plenty of potential to spot partridges, hens and calling birds, not to mention several swans a-swimming and a whole host of gold rings. A leaping lord might be a bit of a tall order, but little princes or princesses in the party will almost certainly jump for joy when their carriage pulls up right next to the play area by the village green.

Others will be pleased to visit the old Estate Office, sometime conveniently converted into the Huntingfield Arms. Scale the steps up to Millennium Green to drink in views of Heveningham Hall and the rolling countryside towards Cookley.