Canoe Days Out

Suffolk - River Stour - Sudbury to Brundon (& return)

This page was submitted by Richard Ward (E-mail this submitter)
How to get there - Sudbury is on A131/A134. Follow signposts to the Granary Theatre.

For those with SatNav the postcode is CO10 2AN.

Get a map with driving directions to start (enter the postcode of your starting point at A)

Suggested Launch Site - Slipway by headquarters of River Stour Trust, next to theatre. Free parking courtesy of the River Stour Trust.

General Description - Whenever I want a quick paddle this is the one that suits me fine, it takes me 10 minutes to get loaded up and ready to go to being on the water. I like to get there early in the morning if I can to avoid the crowds and hopefully see more of the wildlife.

The river itself is a short paddle past the where the stour trust moor the boats they use for the tourist trips. If you turn left the river runs wide and deep with Friars meadow on your left. Soon you will see the lock at Cornard coming into view.

This would be the first Portage if you were heading down stream but its where I have the first cuppa when doing the round trip.

You now retrace your steps back upstream back past the cut to the quay and on under the old railway bridge that now forms part of the Stour valley path, on towards Ballingdon Bridge and past the now sadly closed Boathouse Inn.

Once under Ballingdon Bridge the river gets a bit thinner but still lots of water and reeds as you start to go through the common land.

Next you come to the footpath bridge over the common where the river starts getting more enclosed and feels remote although you are very close to the town. You can keep going further upstream until you reach a point where the river splits into 2 channels. If you take the right hand fork you will come to another footpath bridge. Here you can take out and portage across the meadow to the east to drop back in on another channel that will take you past the Croft under the bridge and through the old "swimming Pool". You can follow the river to the mill pond at Brundon which is the head of the navigation.

Or like me you can turn around and stop on the bank for another cuppa.

You then go back down stream under Ballingdon bridge again, back under the old railway bridge, backk to where the quay theatre cut joins the river and back to where you started!

Its a great way to spend an hour or so. If you are there at the weekend in the summer the trust have a tea room or if your more like me the Angel Inn is a short walk away!










 



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The last trip loaded was Great Haywood to Great Haywood (Circular Route) on the River Trent / Trent & Mersey Canal by Peter Robinson