The Bungay Picnic Trail
Artisan breads, sweet treats, savoury bakes, seasonal fruit and veg, pickles and juices – the domed Georgian Butter Cross 12 might leave you almost picnic-ready on a market day! This clever, cool dairy market (1689) replaced a market cross, sandwiched between a meat ‘shambles’ (today’s Cross Street ) and a gazebo-style corn exchange (the Black Dog of Bungay now marks the spot!).
Cross to 3 Tuns coaching inn 11 with Dickens/Dick Turpin connections.
Continue down ‘foodie furlong’ Earsham Street with its historic shopfronts, stopping to shop at 18 (Fen Farm butter pastries? Plump Hodmedod’s flour rolls perhaps?), 15 (fresh salad/something fruity?).
Cross to wholefood heaven 19 (nuts/seeds/chocolate?), before following your foodie nose to taste, try and buy local cheeses and more at divine deli 13.
Retrace steps to crenelated Castle Inn 9.
Enter Castle Yard.
Take steps (left) to Baron Bigod’s ruined castle and bailey and Bigod’s Kitchen 1 to Castle Orchard/Priory Lane.
Before car park, enter gates (right) to grassy Castle Hills (Saxon rampart/outer bailey earthworks) for fine views.
Back on Priory Lane, continue to St Mary’s Street.
Turn left to 1400s Guildhall with carved beams (left) where priory visitors probably stayed and artisan pizza chefs now prove dough in the cellar 8. Today folk dine beneath ancient beams at the Fleece Inn 7, home to Bungay Botanical Society herbology lectures in 1800s.
Cross to St Mary’s Church, (the Black Dog of Bungay rampaged here in 1577), go through churchyard , past haunted priory ruins to Trinity Street.
Turn left for fine wine merchants 16 (bottle of red to wash down that cheese, anyone?).
Retrace steps, continuing past Saxon round-towered church, Holy Trinity to Staithe Road.
Turn left, then left again between historic Marstons Mill/maltings to former river-port, Bungay Staithe .
Cross bridge to Falcon Meadow , taking ancient riverside footpath (left) to Falcon Lane.
Turn left, up Bridge Street, buildings here once backed onto busy wharfs. Look left to spot old Market Tolls board and Georgian lovely, The Music House, with its beefy literary connections.
Opposite The Chequers 10 detour left (Borough Well Lane) to view restored Tudor well with Roman connections .
Retrace steps. Cross into Nethergate Street to follow in smugglers’ footsteps up Brandy Lane (left). At livestock-herding-friendly Broad Street, spot an irresistible green dragon 21 (right).
Turn left passing the pargetted confection housing Bungay Museum (right) and a real catch of a Georgian theatre @ (left), back to the Butter Cross – a fitting time and place for an ice-cool treat 3!
Look out for Bungay broadsheet panels on route, sharing more time-honoured trading tales!
Pick your picnic spot along the way
Why not include a spot of gallery grazing or pencil in time for art supplies shopping in Earsham Street too? Or check out the Fisher Theatre for all sorts of art offerings.
Tail-waggingly good Earsham Street Café doesn’t just offer a very inclusive menu of delicious home-cooked plates packed with lots of local loveliness – its garden oasis is a dine-with-your-(well-mannered)-dog happy place, where you can all enjoy a real treat! They even share some loopy ideas for pooch-perfect local walkies around Bungay’s mighty Waveney river meander (2.5/5.5 miles) – ideal for walking off lunch and making room for afternoon tea!
