Great Massingham - Peddars Way

Walk Information

Flights: 1 h 30 mins
Walk length: 6.5 miles
Walk time: 4 hours

Great Massingham is one of Norfolk’s most attractive villages, having one of the most impressive greens in the county. Several large ponds dominate the village, some of which have their origins as the fish ponds for an 11th century Augustinian Abbey. The Church of St. Mary is a focal point in the village opposite the green. The award-winning Dabbling Duck serves award-winning gastro pub cuisine.

Airfield

Great Massingham airfield was built as a satellite airfield of RAF West Raynham and opened as a grass airfield in July 1940. In July 1943, the airfield underwent an extensive refit, that would ultimately result in accommodation for 1,778 RAF and 431 WAAF personnel, 3 concrete runways, a single B1 hangar and four T2 hangars. It became home to Mosquito night-fighters/light bombers, and a Bomber Support Training Unit. After the end of the war, in August 1945, Great Massingham was transferred to Fighter Command and became home to the Central Fighter Establishment, which developed, tested and evaluated new fighter tactics. The airfield closed in 1946, and was returned to agricultural use. Around 1990, a small private airfield began operating from parts of the original runways, but the control tower has been demolished. A small wooden shack on wheels now serves as an operations centre.

RADIO FREQUENCY: 119.280Mhz
Landing Fee: £10 (microlight)

Links

Great Massingham Airfield  
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Airfield History  
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Viewranger Route  
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Norfolk Wildlife Trust Walk Guide  
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The Dabbling Duck

Walking Route

The walk follows part of a route published by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, including a short section of the arrow-straight Peddars Way. The Peddars Way follows the route of a Roman Road from Knettishall Heath in Suffolk to the Norfolk coast, and was traditionally supposed to be a haunt of the ghostly East Anglian hound Black Shuck. We visit one of the “Norfolk Songline” stones, a project inspired by the Australian Aboriginal belief system, in which each ancient track is the score of a vast, epic song, whose verses tell the stories of how the landscapes and its landmarks came into being. The church of St Andrews in Little Massingham has close links with the wartime history of the airfield.

To start the walk: From the green chiken hut next to the hangar, re-join the main taxiway turning right to follow the taxiway for 100m until you reach a footpath on the right. Follow the footpath between fields, and then as it dog-legs right-left between houses on the outskirts of the village. The path brings you to the edge of the village green opposite the Dabbling Duck pub.