Needham Lake — Attraction in Mid Suffolk

We love this place. It's so calming and beautiful. The kids have begun to leave happy rocks everywhere after finding some here and saying it made them happy, so they'd like to make others happy too. There is a cafe with toilets and a play area. The cafe can get really busy at the weekend but the cakes are worth the wait. There is a BBQ area off the carpark, which has also become popular at the weekend it's nice seeing families come together to use the space.

There are electric charge points in the carpark if you drive an electric car and quite a few spaces in the two carparks available.

Downside, there aren't enough bins for the amount of rubbish produced as the bins are overflowing, so rubbish is left all over the ground and play area. The kids and I took a black bag with us last time, and litter picked, but it wasn't enough to...

This used to be a problem with dog walkers who ignored rules and let dogs off leads, running around, interfering with the wildlife, jumping in the lake chasing Swans and disturbing nesting birds.

Visited the other day and there is a huge improvement. They have listened to the feedback of this situation and installed signs which are eye catching, the right height, easy to read but also friendly, around the whole walking trail advising of keeping dogs on lead.

Informative signage of feeding ducks and cute little duck feeding points. Different types of gulls from Black Backed Gull, Herring, Black headed Gull depending on the weather.

Improvement would be the info point near the toilets which could have expanded walking trails (to Stowmarket or Blakenham), bird sightings, bird identifiers...

A lovely place for walks with plenty of parking and a fantastic green space for enjoying a leisurely walk or a picnic. Lots of wildlife can be seen and in evenings bats come out too. There is a café for refreshments and it is a short walk from Needham Market railway station which can be accessed from a path adjacent to the lake.

It can get very busy at times when the sun is out so if it's a hot day, the paths around Needham Lake and the park can get quite busy with some people not putting rubbish from picnic tables into bins, so it is important to use the bins provided or to take litter home, as litter poses a danger to the birdlife...