History
walk 5
From Low Road to Grange Farm
The footpath from Low Road at TG443175
to Grange Farm TG436173 and on to the boundary with Repps
Parish at TG435173
Physical
Character
The footpath starts from where Low Road takes a right angle bend to continue south. It is the point where from 1878 to 1959 the railway used to run and there was a level crossing. Only the gatekeeper’s bungalow remains.
Perhaps Low Road actually follows the route of a former footpath or green lane which has since been widened. The path crosses a cropped field. It appears that the footpath is not regularly re-instated. When the path reaches a green track at TG440174 it continues straight across another cropped field until the track known as Common Road is reached near to Grange Farm. The path crosses that track and continues across a meadow used for grazing until the boundary with Repps Parish is reached.
Historical
Ecology
The footpath must be a very ancient one as it would have been the route used by the people living at Grange Farm to go to the Church. Grange Farm is the modern name of a settlement that existed from perhaps pre-Norman times. It was the hamlet of Sco where people had settled on what was the edge of part of the Common. The course of the stream that is the boundary between Martham and Repps may have been wider before the marshes were drained, therefore the path may be where it was dry enough to cross the stream.
1. The beginning of the footpath at TG443175. Here you see that a new crop has been sown but the footpath has not yet been re-instated
2. Looking back east at TG440175 across the field where peas had just been harvested
3. Looking west from TG440175 where the path has not been used since the corn was sown
4. Looking back after we had walked the path
5. Looking back from the track at TG436173
6. The path continues through the meadow to the boundary with Repps at TG435173
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