6-7 April 2024
Having spent most of my life living nearer to the west than the east of England and tending to travel on holiday to the mountainous areas of Wales, Scotland and England or to the coast on the west, my appreciation of the east side of the country has been limited. My project to travel and experience an “adventure” based on each of the 204 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey maps is gradually extending my knowledge and removing my bias. Following my foray to north east Norfolk I am in agreement with John Betjeman: ‘I am still reeling with delight at the soaring majesty of Norfolk.’ rather than with Noel Coward: ‘Very flat, Norfolk.’
The first of this two part adventure was a walk along a section of the Weavers Way from North Walsham to Cromer where I met my husband for fish and chips sitting near the pier and then a hike back along the coast path to our accommodation at nearby Overstrand. It was long – 49.5km walking in total.
My bus journey from Overstrand to North Walsham took 36 minutes for what would be less than a nine-mile journey by the shortest route. However the flat price single fare subsidy meant my ticket only cost £2. I boarded an almost empty bus and travelled a circuitous route through several picturesque villages with typical pebble and flint buildings, some thatched with Norfolk reed and also enjoyed fine coastal views from the top deck. As we travelled further away from Cromer and towards North Walsham, the bus filled with local people going to their local town including elderly women with capacious shopping trolleys off to do their shopping.
Once off the bus, I soon spotted a waymark for the Weavers Way. I passed the ornately carved and pinnacled entrance porch of the large parish church of St Nicholas, one of Britain’s largest parish churches. The impressive market place forms a hub for various narrow streets. There seem to be multiple interesting small shops. Notably, given all the closures over the past few years, there is at least one bank. However I didn’t linger in the town as I had a long walk ahead of me.
I wasn’t on pavements for long. The disused railway track bed of the Midland and Great Northern Railway Line which ran until 1959 between Melton Constable and Great Yarmouth provides a green corridor almost from the centre of the town. I passed Felmingham Station and platform which appears to be undergoing conversion for alternative use now and a man was working on the garden.
The flowers along the sides of the path were attracting colourful butterflies including clouded yellow and painted ladies as well as some blue butterflies of species unknown to me.
Near Aylsham the Weavers Way leaves the railway route and passes over the River Bure, where there is an information board explaining the importance of the area for wildlife including kingfishers and otters – as both are elusive it is of little surprise that I saw neither.
Soon I reached Blickling and made a quick visit to the church, where an impressive collection of medieval brasses has survived and the originals copied to allow brass rubbing – popular pastime decades ago but I’m not sure how many people do it now. Several of these depict members of the Boleyn family (owned the hall 1499-1505), including Anne herself who was possibly born at nearby Blickling Hall. Actually by 1507, when Anne was born, the Boleyn family had moved to Hever Castle in Kent. Notwithstanding this, Norfolk legends abound including that every year, on the anniversary of her execution, Anne Boleyn’s headless ghost arrives at Blickling Hall in a carriage driven by an equally headless coachman, possibly her father Sir Thomas Boleyn. According to the legend, he is forced to drive his spectral coach for a thousand years, pursued by hoards of screaming demons, over twelve bridges between Wroxham and Blickling as a penance for betraying his family.
I moved on to stroll down the imposing gravel drive towards Blickling Hall, now in the care of the National Trust. This is a very grand looking big Norfolk country house, largely constructed for Sir Henry Hobart in the 1620s on the site of its predecessor. There would have been plenty for me to explore here for the rest of the day, including the house, gardens, printing museum and RAF museum as well as the huge 4,600 acre estate.
I settled for coffee and a snack from the Stables Café and a quick look round the large second hand bookshop, before resuming my walk, which continued through part of the estate.
I ate my lunch sitting on a convenient bench by the side of the path on Thwaite Common, spotting some roe deer feeding on the far side of the common.
My route went across some fields to the round tower church of All Saints, Thwaite, set in an isolated position next to a minor road. The tower probably dates from the twelfth century. There are only about 185 surviving examples of round tower churches in the country, 124 of them in Norfolk and most of the remainder elsewhere in East Anglia.
The path follows the road for a few metres then crosses over to traverse further fields and reach the larger village of Aldborough. I passed a man walking in the opposite direction with his dog. He turned out to be a local councillor and apologised for the state of some of the footpaths and that the path had been ploughed up where it crosses some fields. In fact I explained that the paths had been easier to follow than many elsewhere and it appeared that farmers locally had tried to flatten a path where it passes through a large field. The problem lies in the interests of what were thought to be good farming practices so many hedges forming old field boundaries with important wildlife habitats have been destroyed in the interest of trying to improve efficiency and yield. Of course the old rights of way end up passing over the middle of the field rather than round the edges.
Aldborough looked like an archetypal English village, set around a large village green complete with a pond in one corner. There is a pub, a post office and shop, and a community centre and it appeared that cricket continues to be played on the village green.
The path continued, leaving Aldborough up a path from a corner of the village green and passing Scarrow Beck, a chalk stream tributary of the River Bure. The crystal clear water, arising from underground chalk springs makes this a valuable wildlife habitat.
The next village I reached was Hanworth. All the roads into the village and common are either gated or have a cattle grid and all residents have grazing rights. I didn’t actually spot any animals on the green though!
More paths and tracks lead past some farm buildings where the friendly farmer was mowing the verges. I passed a couple with their daughter having a break on their walk but they overtook me further on as I stopped for a rest, sitting on a seat by the village sign for Sustead. This tiny village was one of the homes of the landscape designer Humphry Repton who is credited with the design of many magnificent gardens including the picturesque landscape at Blaise Castle near Bristol. I walked on reaching the tower church; just like at Thwaite, this church is in an isolated position away from the houses. It is a beautiful and simple building but it looks as though it suffers with extreme damp and various notices explained the vital need for donations from visitors in order to try to maintain the building.
I was pleased to notice that I was beginning the final part of the walk into Cromer. I overtook the same small family again, sitting next to the path eating sandwiches. The mother explained that her daughter was completing a ten mile challenge walk, probably her longest walk ever. Wishing her luck, I proceeded on and reached the grounds of Felbrigg Hall, now under the care of the National Trust.
Felbrigg Hall Estate at 1,760 acres is much smaller than Blickling although still impressive. The Weavers Way route passes the lake and also close to the magnificent façade of the house dating from 1624 and displaying the Family Arms of the Wyndham family who owned the house from the fifteenth to nineteenth century. I decided it was too late to stop for coffee and besides which I was already looking forward to my promised fish and chips in Cromer.
The route remains pleasantly more or less off road all the way to Cromer. I passed yet another Norfolk hall – Cromer Hall – rebuilt in the 1820s following fire. Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle stayed in Cromer to recoup by playing golf while recovering from enteric fever. His inspiration for The Hound of the Baskervilles is said to have arisen following a visit to Cromer Hall, when the owner regaled him with stories of Black Shuck, the legendary Norfolk hell hound. According to the legends, one of Black Shuck’s tracks runs past the links golf course and over the hill in the grounds of Cromer Hall.
Fortunately I didn’t encounter any vicious hounds and sadly I didn’t spot the muntjac deer that a walker coming towards me had just seen. However I arrived safely at the pier to join my husband and eat fish and chips, whilst enjoying the unseasonably warm although windy weather.
It was fine for my husband – he hadn’t been walking all day – but a struggle for me as we walked up to the cliff top, back to sea level and then once more up a steep stepped path to the cliff top. The route of the coast path between Cromer and Overstrand is far from clear. It looks as though part of the right of way on the cliff top next to the golf course has subsided. Fortunately at this time in the early evening there were only a couple of people playing golf so we weren’t at too much risk from flying golf balls.
The next morning we embarked on the second part of this adventure – an eight mile circular walk from Sheringham, a seaside town immediately to the west of Cromer. This included diverse landscapes – coastline, farmland, heath and woods as well as many viewpoints for the Poppy Line heritage railway. Coincidentally, this weekend was the sixtieth anniversary of closure of the line and to celebrate there were two diesel and two steam trains running a service every thirty minutes in each direction. The attractions of this walk tempted my husband to join me.
We were soon out of Sheringham and on the rather windy cliff top at Skelding Hill looking back down towards the town. The ascent continued to reach the coastguard hut and views of the heritage train line. We were 170m above sea level on what was moraine that the ice sheet covering most of Britain 500,000 years ago left behind when the ice melted.
We could see areas of exposed cliff face with a range of particle sizes making up the cliff as a whole. The different sized particles aren’t in layers as are those made from river sediments. This is further evidence that the landscape is glacial in origin – when glaciers melt, large and small sediments jumble together.
As we proceeded, the first train of the morning snaked its way along the railway line, accompanied by a plume of steam. Our route continued along the cliff top before turning off to reach a railway bridge. We stopped and waited until we had seen a train, which turned out to be one of the diesels.
We walked through some farmland and crossed the road to reach Sheringham Estate. Here we lingered to look at a World War 2 bunker and catch sight of another train on the railway line.
We climbed the steps to reach a gazebo viewing tower and then more steps up the tower, which had been officially opened by Charles III when he was Prince of Wales. This afforded a grand view over the grounds of the Sheringham Estate (landscaped under the direction of local man Humphry Repton). We saw further trains and also noticed that Sheringham Park isn’t flat but sits in a range of shallow hills. This area was just past the terminus of the glacier. When the ice sheet melted, the meltwater carved out river valleys which have become the gentle dips and hill of the parkland today. Unlike his famous predecessor (Capability Brown) in garden landscaping, Repton tended to work with natural topography to develop his designs.
The walk continued through part of Weybourne Heath to reach Weybourne Station, where we stopped for a coffee and to look at the trains again.
Weybourne village is quintessentially Norfolk with its flint built buildings including cottages and the church. The church was built on the site of an Augustine Priory and the remaining standing ruins adjacent to the present day church are Grade 1 listed.
We reached the coast again and walked along part of the low level shingle beach. It was hard going but fortunately along much of this stretch there was some exposed sand because the tide was out – this was much easier on our feet. Facing out to sea and looking to the right, we could see a vertical cliff composed of material transported by the glacial sheet. However, to the left, the cliffs are lower and characteristic of generally flat outwash plains formed by meltwater from the glacier depositing gravelly sediments.
As we walked we looked for caves in the cliffs caused by undercutting and erosion of the rock. We also spotted areas where the cliffs had been eroded from above: rainwater saturating the clay of the upper cliff builds up and the pressure exerted causes mudflows and mudslides with material moving quickly down the cliff face and accumulating in a fan-shaped scree at the cliff base.
We climbed up a path onto the cliffs again and over Skelding Hill before descending to Sheringham to enjoy a well earned ice cream and look at the heritage railway station. Definitely this was not ‘very flat Norfolk’!
Where's Kathryn? 