Cherry Hill
Public Footpath No. 5 leads to Cherry Hill, along the boundary between
Herringswell and Barton Mills.
It has changed so much - from a lovely walk with masses of wild flowers and
golden gorse, and skylarks singing - to an overgrown path as no one can cross
the very busy A11 road, which was opened in 1986 by Peter Bottomley MP. 
It
must now be approached from the Tuddenham Road. Cherry Hill is not a steep hill
- from the bottom it looks to be no more than a small undulation from fenland.
It crosses two fine, spacious fields, running southwards from the A11
opposite Bell Lane for perhaps a mile or more, to the point where Tuddenham/Worlington
Road meets Herringswell Road.
It presents no challenge to old or young, horse-riders, animal lovers,
courting couples, runners or joggers; it is the perfect length for the stroller
at anytime of day at any season.
Yet it rises to the highest vantage point on Barton Mills, offering views on
a sunny day of: ·
The
Path is recorded as long ago as 1290, separating the two great open fields of
the Medieval Benedictine Abbey of St. Edmundsbury.
In 1942 the Scottish Regiment were stationed on Cherry Hill with
anti-aircraft guns and a searchlight. They built a cement "Pill Box",
which is still standing in the year 2000. A beacon was built on the pillbox for
the V.E. Day celebrations on 8th May 1995, which was lit that evening.
In 1977, Barton Mills W.I. did a sponsored walk over Cherry Hill through to
Icklingham Heath. The final total of £287 was raised to buy an orthopedic bed
for Newmarket General Hospital.
In 1999, Barton Mills W.I. took part in the Suffolk Millennium Challenge
Landscape Recording Project and choose Cherry Hill as their area, recording the
landscape once in January and again in July.
Copyright 2000: E. Smart
