A CIRCULAR WALK FROM FOXLEY

---

Approx distance:  6 miles                                                                 Approx time:  2 - 3 hours

Highlights:  Rural views, public Footpaths and ancient Bridleway, Themelthorpe loop railway junction, Foxley Wood (bluebells in May), Foxley Manor moated site,  St Thomas' medieval church. 
Starting and ending at the lay-by just North of the village on the main road.

It is a very easy and pleasant walk northwards along the grass verge of the main road to the lay-by where Foxley’s  Common Lane starts off on the right and is signposted as a Public Footpath. 

At the end of Common Lane is a patch of overgrown ground where an earlier Moor  Farm once stood. 

The path is then signposted diagonally across a field. If it is not clear as when this photo was taken, you can walk anti-clockwise round the edge of the field to the far corner, and pick up the footpath again.
Over a little footbridge, past a pond and along a wide grass edge to the next field. 
Then there is a decision to make: either continue on the Public Footpath to Foulsham, or turn right along the farm track towards Lizard Farm, and complete a circular route back to Foxley.  That we chose to do. 
The going was very easy with beautiful rural views across the fields towards Foxley Wood.  At Lizard Farm a new track, again clearly signed, takes you round the farm instead of immediately past it as it used to, and here you enter the old bridleway to Themelthorpe. 

This is closed in on both sides by ancient hedgerows and even the occasional apple tree.  It is very pretty.

More decisions to be made on reaching the road at Themelthorpe.  If you are a railway buff, you will be interested in the complex Themelthorpe Loop junction, the remains of which are still to be seen there. 
It was a junction of the Great Eastern Railway route between County School and Wroxham and the Midland & Great Northern route between Norwich and Melton Constable.  The tracks just crossed.  The loop was added later so that trains could get to Lenwade industrial estate from the mainline via Wroxham. The Norwich end of the Lenwade M&GN line was  a terminus.

Part of the Loop is now included in Mariots Way cycle track . 
We turned right towards Foxley and paused briefly at the entrance of Foxley Wood, which was quite busy.  Sorry no dogs allowed.

On reaching Foxley we turned left by the new fishing ponds and round to the right of the first field to the old Manor House moats.  We were very impressed with these and declared them a magnificent example a real asset to the village.  If only we could get permission from Albanwise Ltd, the Italian owners to allow public access to them!  This we have tried to do and will continue to try and find a way of addressing the Public Liability issue.  If the area inside the moats could just be cleared once a year, and a park bench placed there and a interpretive board  provided, it would be a wonderful place to soak up the atmosphere and take in the panoramic view across fields sweeping down towards Foxley Wood.  A great asset to the village.

The walk then took us past very old and interesting St Thomas Church and back to where we started.

A LEAFLET CAN BE DOWNLOADED AND PRINTED NOW

LEAFLET (.pdf format)