River Lark

The River Lark rises near Bradfield Combust south of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk and flows for about 31 miles to join the Great Ouse south of Littleport in Cambridgeshire. It is a chalk river and tributary of the Great Ouse, extended during drainage works in past centuries. Navigation began in Roman times, and improvements in the 17th and early 18th centuries added locks and staunches. The river once carried building stone for Bury St Edmunds Abbey and clunch from Isleham pits. Commercial use continued until 1928, though navigation was officially abandoned in 1888. The upper river passes prehistoric sites like the Neolithic enclosure at Fornham All Saints. Near Barton Mills a side weir leads to the Cut-off Channel, a 45-kilometre drain built in the 1950s and 1960s. Below Barton Mills a footpath follows the north bank past Mildenhall Cricket Club to Isleham. A Roman silver hoard of 34 pieces found at Thistley Green in 1942 is now in the British Museum. The stretch from Jude’s Ferry to Isleham includes wartime pill-boxes and a memorial to the Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. Isleham has three 17th-century pubs, shops and a large marina. The river flows for six and a half kilometres in an artificial cut thought to be Roman. Prickwillow is home to the Museum of Fen Pumping Engines, once a working station. The vicarage there shows how the land has sunk, with steps to the front door raised from two to nine. Below Prickwillow the river is crossed by the Ely to Norwich railway line before joining the Great Ouse.