St Matthew's Field parkrun

Chris Jeanes
Aug 29
7 min read

Up to parkrun venue number 80 now. This was another West Country parkrun which I picked up when visiting relatives down in the South West. St Matthew's Field parkrun is situated in the town of Bridgwater a largish town in the county of Somerset, and only a short drive from my home town of Taunton. St Matthew's field is located on the Western outskirts of the town and is a 10 minute walk from the recommended parking at B&M/Morrisons. It is a mixed terrain three lap course, which starts by lapping some playing fields, before diverting onto a trail path running alongside a brook with views out across The Meads eco park. It was fairly new at the time of our visit being on event number 17 on the 4th of April 2026, and being Easter some of the volunteers were in fancy dress. We really enjoyed this parkrun as it was so friendly and welcoming and we stayed for refreshments at the Cricket Club across the road from the field.

[We first visited this parkrun on 4th April 2026]

St Matthew's Field parkrun sign — Another location ticked off!

Bit of History

OK so the name of the parkrun has an interesting story. St Matthew's Field is the location of the annual Bridgwater Fair (now Funfair), which takes place every September and the fair originally took place on or around St Matthew's day (the 21st of September), which gave the venue it's name. Today the fair takes place on the four days starting on the last Wednesday in September. It is a huge fair and well known in the local area, I remember going to it once as a teenager.

Bridgwater is also home to the annual Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival which is held each year on the Saturday closest to the 5th of November. It is the largest of all the night-time West Country carnivals and attracts an attendance of around 150,000 people. The carnival has over 100 entries every year and a large number of the entries are large lit 'carnival floats' this is well worth a visit if ever you get the chance! It really has to be seen to be believed! Maybe you can combine this with the parkrun if you are touristing.

Beatlemania Carnival 'Float' — The Beatlemania Carnival Float from when I last attended in November 2024

Briefings

The first timers briefing initially focused on introducing new parkrunners to the parkrun concept, 5k run not a race, you can walk or run, there are volunteers in High-Viz out on course including park walkers and tail walkers if you just want to walk, and so on. Moving onto a good description of the course (they had a large printed map of the route which is always nice to see), there was one important point to note, which is to listen to the marshal at the bottom end of the field in case there is anyone waiting to come into the allotments, I will cover the course in detail in my course notes section, but briefly it is a 3 laps course with a keep left rule to allow quicker runners to pass by you, particularly if you are being lapped. After token scanning we were asked to hang our finish tokens on a peg board according to position. Always nice to see innovative approaches to token sorting, having volunteered as a token sorter on a few occasions now. On the main briefing where the run director was dressed as an Easter Bunny, we discovered one of the volunteers and his wife were celebrating their 20th Wedding Anniversary. There was a celebration of some Milestones, and visitors today from Guernsey, Swindon, Cheddar, Surrey, Woking and Reading. Usual rules about under 11s and dogs, course conditions described as good with recently cut grass and a mention of no parkrun next week due to an event (not really relevant anymore given how long it takes me to write up my blogs). A mention that the Concrete Lego bricks have been moved recently, so to watch out for them while running the course. We were reminded to be considerate of other park users and local residents (in particular to please keep quiet in the housing estate section) as we do not have exclusive use of the park, and to watch out for people coming in and out of the allotments. There was a very brief description of the course once again. As it was Easter there were some tokens hidden out on course for the children to find and exchange for some goodies in the Cricket Club café.

Run Director dressed as a Bunny at the Main Briefing — Nice to see the Run Director getting into the Easter spirit!

Course Description

Starting on grass at the Westerly end of St Matthews Field you head out North East towards Westfield Church at the far end of St Matthews Field. Reaching the far side of the field you turn right, and soon come to some large concrete Lego-shaped blocks denoting the vehicle entrance to St Matthews Field. Negotiating the Lego Blocks you soon reach the Eastern end of the field and pass through a gate onto a compacted gravel path which runs alongside Durleigh Brook. This is quite an open section of the course and you can see right across the area of land known as 'The Meads', which is on your left as you follow the brook, this is quite a pretty section with lovely views out across open countryside towards the Quantock Hills in the distance, you will soon pass some allotments and then a housing estate both on your right, and you will eventually come to the end of the path which swings right over a bridge, and then you keep turning right where the path crosses close to a housing estate which is on your left (please keep quiet here as it's a Saturday morning and we don't want to wake the residents). You will soon come to a left turn (with the allotments in front of you), you then head uphill back into St Matthews Field, it's fairly steep but also fairly short and you will come back to into St Matthews Field, where you head off again for laps 2 and 3. At the end of lap 3, you head into the finish funnel near to where you started.

Course Route — Relatively simple three lap course.

Difficulty

Mixed terrain, starting on grass but with a longer section on compacted gravel paths. Other than the one short sharp climb at the end of each lap, the rest of the course is fairly flat. In summer this is a relatively easy 1.5 out of 5, but in winter I suspect you could add another point of difficulty as it gets a bit muddy. Road shoes are fine in Summer but you would want trails or hybrids in winter (or after a lot of rain).

Concrete Lego Bricks — Watch out for the Lego Bricks, I suspect they would hurt if you ran into one!

Elevation

With a total of 24m of Garmin registered elevation, this is fairly flat for the most part and virtually all the elevation is in a short sharp climb uphill back to the start at the end of each lap, this is over before you know it and the rest of the course is fairly flat. It looks worse than it is in the graph, this is not a parkrun which I would describe as hilly or even undulating.

Parking, Facilities and Coffee

Free parking at Morrissons and B&M car park, from here it is a 10 minute walk to the start of the parkrun in St Matthews Field. You can either head North out of the main car park entrance and turn left onto Broadway road, and keep going until you reach Albert Street, turn left and head all the way to the end of Albert Street and the park is at the end of the road. Or you can head south out of the carpark, turning right onto a canal towpath, heading past the Purplespoon café, and keep going until you come to Albert Street where you turn left and again, follow Albert Street until you come to the end of the road and you will find St Matthews Field. Toilets and post parkrun coffee are provided by the Cricket Club which is right next to St Matthews Field and is serving hot drinks, cakes and ice cream. I had a very tasty Brownie with my Coffee. I understand that for those wanting a more substantial breakfast with their coffee, the Purplespoon Café on the canal is also used by a number of parkrunners after their run.

Cricket Club Coffee — Post parkrun Tea and Coffee (plus Brownie) at the Cricket Club

Other Points of Interest

On the walk from the car park to the parkrun, if you come along the canal, keep an eye out for Pluto, it is mounted in a concrete plinth with information about the former planet Pluto, and is the starting point of the Bridgwater end of a full scale sculpture trail of the entire solar system laid out along the Bridgwater to Taunton canal. Pluto at this scale is a very small sphere of metal not much bigger than a pen nib. From Pluto if you walk in the direction of Taunton for 11km you will pass models of Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury and will eventually come to a 8 ft tall model of the Sun at Maunsel Lock in the village of North Newton (and the halfway point between Bridgwater and Taunton on the canal). If you wish, from there you can then keep walking/running/cycling to Taunton for another 11km, passing duplicate models of the sculptures you have already seen and you would eventually reach the second model of Pluto at the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton. For more information on this amazing walk, please follow the attached link - https://www.gps-routes.co.uk/routes/home.nsf/RoutesLinksWalks/somerset-space-walk

Sculpture of Pluto — Pluto at the Bridgwater end of the Somerset Space Walk

Summary

It is great that Bridgwater now has a parkrun of it's own, and this is a great course with a very friendly and welcoming core team, who have a great sense of fun (I mean you'd have to, to come dressed as Easter Bunnies wouldn't you). I particularly enjoyed the section of the course which passed by The Meads (I've included a photo of it below), it was a lovely morning and the scenery alongside the brook was very pleasant. We really enjoyed running this parkrun, and having my photo taken with a Bunny, and it was a pleasant walk over from the car park along the canal before and after the run.