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  • LDWA 100 – Training Walk 5 (Berney Arms to Reedham)

    LDWA 100 – Training Walk 5 (Berney Arms to Reedham)

    The main page for this walk is here, this blog post is just the section from Berney Arms to Reedham.

    This is the second part of our Wherryman’s Way walk, following on from the section from Great Yarmouth to Berney Arms. We had hoped we had gone through the worst of the overgrown section, but this section after Berney Arms was the worst. This was primarily as the track by the verge disappeared, so we had to wade through waist-height foliage and again worry about standing on a snake. I don’t care what anyone says, as far as I’m concerned, this area of the county is chockablock with snakes, so goodness knows how we didn’t see one.

    The weather had been variable so far in the morning, but there was a period of rain which wasn’t entirely ideal.

    And more heavy foliage, which significantly slowed down our speed. I was fearful that this section would go on for miles, but fortunately, it was only part of the way. Something gave Nathan and me a rash on our legs, yarrow has been suggested as a possible cause and it certainly wasn’t pleasant.

    Nathan discovered a touch of blood on his leg and so assumed he had been attacked by a rattlesnake. I wouldn’t be surprised to be honest, goodness knows what was in that foliage.

    Cadge’s Mill, built during the late 1870s and the early 1880s.

    Some rather lovely poppies.

    There’s no shortage of windmills on the horizon.

    We had mixed emotions about this as it can be seen that the path is suddenly clear and easily walkable, which was a relief after what we’d gone through. But then we saw a flock of sheep and not being very brave, we were concerned that they might attack us.

    Mostly the sheep moved out of the way, but sometimes they faffed about on the path and looked menacing.

    Hoards of sheep. There was one which followed us from a distance, which seemed a stupid thing to do for an animal that likes being in a flock with others. We were frankly concerned about this sheep and it looked aggressive and so we had to keep looking behind us to see if it was charging after us. Fortunately, it didn’t….

    And we had now arrived in Reedham, this is the railway bridge over the river. There’s no footbridge or bridge for vehicles here, everything has to go over Reedham ferry. More on that later though.

    How lovely, I like historic churches and I like breweries.

    The Ship pub, which has been trading since the 1820s.

    The riverside street in Reedham, which is a village that I’ll write about more in separate posts.

    The war memorial in the village.

    We felt that we had made good progress by this point, with the village marking the 10-mile mark, and we were in Reedham by 13:00 which was sort of what we had expected. Unfortunately, the overgrown areas had put some extra time on as we couldn’t walk with any speed there. The weather had brightened up and was warm, but with a pleasant breeze to ensure that we didn’t over-heat. We weren’t particularly tired and everything seemed to be going to plan, so we were quite confident in the next stage of our plan, which was to explore Reedham briefly and then head off on the Reedham Ferry.

  • LDWA 100 – Training Walk 5 (Great Yarmouth Railway Station to Berney Arms)

    LDWA 100 – Training Walk 5 (Great Yarmouth Railway Station to Berney Arms)

    The main page for this walk is here, this blog post is just the section from Great Yarmouth Railway Station to Berney Arms.

    Liam dropped us off at Great Yarmouth railway station and the weather was, well, slightly wet. If I’m being honest, this isn’t the most glamorous part of Great Yarmouth and it’s quite a walk from the town’s Greggs. Quick bit of information about the railway station, it was built in 1844 and for much of its life it was known as Yarmouth Vauxhall station to differentiate it from the now-closed Yarmouth Beach and Yarmouth South Town railway stations.

    We had just a little problem in finding the start of the walk, which wasn’t ideal. But soon enough we were walking alongside Breydon Water, admiring just how much litter the people of Great Yarmouth have dropped over the last few months.

    This bird hide is near to the A47 and Liam’s boy saw us from the road as I was taking photos of it.

    Taken from near the entrance to Vauxhall Holiday Park, this is a photo of the Greater Anglia train going from Great Yarmouth to Norwich, in front of a directional finger-post for the Wherryman’s Way.

    A snail. I didn’t take many photos of wildlife on this walk, but the snail seemed happy and it seemed useful to record that moment. OK, I accept the snail might not have been happy, but that made me wonder what really makes a snail happy. Do they feel sad? Anyway, I digress.

    This is when we ran into problems, around a mile out of Great Yarmouth, the actual path of the Wherryman’s Way is on the top of that bank to the left. But, it was too overgrown to walk and I was moderately worried about standing on a snake. For a chunk of a way we were able to drop down to this farmer’s track at the base of the bank, but it wasn’t ideal. Norfolk Trails have a real challenge during these difficult times, but the problem is that the path has got so bad that it’s not really walkable. That means that no-one at all is trampling on the path at all and foliage has just totally taken over. I’ve alerted Norfolk Trails, although I’m sure they were already aware (they’re replied really promptly, they are aware and they’re on it so the foliage should be cleared in the next few weeks).

    Located by the Fleet section of the water, this windmill isn’t named on the map.

    Signage where the path meets the railway track once more.

    This is the section of road which drops into the Berney Arms pub, although I have to admit that we didn’t see the turning to go and look at the pub. The pub is usually closed at the best of times and has been for some years, its rural location means that it’s accessible only really from the river. I have to say that a pub with no road access, just accessible from a boat or after a long-walk or cycle, is going to struggle to survive. There were plans a couple of years ago to turn the pub into a residential property, but the council refused.

    This is Berney Arms windmill, which has the difficulty that like the pub, it can’t be accessed from the road. It was first constructed in 1865 for the Reedham Cement Company who used it until 1880 when it was converted into use as a drainage mill in 1883. It remained in use until 1948 and has since been restored and is occasionally opened to the public.

    This was our first stop of the day, I sat down to eat my sandwich acquired as part of the Co-op meal deal, whilst Nathan gorged on the delicacies that his wife had packed for him. After I had carefully removed the fat from the bacon of the BLT sandwich, I was relaxed and sufficiently well-fed for the next part of the expedition. At this stage, we were satisfied with our progress, although moderately worried about the state of the path. Ron from Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA group had warned of us about the state of the path, but we were hoping that the problem bit was the section at the start that we had already reached by the time that we were at Berney Arms.

    How bloody wrong we were.

  • LDWA 100 – Training Walk 5 (Wherryman’s Way)

    LDWA 100 – Training Walk 5 (Wherryman’s Way)

    This walk was socially distanced….. And is the fifth walk in preparation for the 2021 LDWA 100.

    WALK NUMBER: 5 (Great Yarmouth to Norwich – the complete Wherryman’s Way)

    DISTANCE COVERED: 38 miles

    NUMBER OF NATHAN’S FRIENDS WE “ACCIDENTALLY” BUMP INTO: 0

    SUFFICIENT BEER CONSUMED: Yes

    PUBS VISITED: 0

    WEATHER CONDITIONS: All over the show.

    ATTACKED BY ANIMALS: Nearly.

    NUMBER OF SNAKES SEEN: 0 (but they were a constant threat)

    I’m going to split this blog post up into numerous parts to try and make it manageable to write and read. But, this was a giant leap in terms of walk distance, particularly for Nathan, and we completed it rather tired but still in one piece. Although it wasn’t ideal to finish the walk at 23:00.

    SECTIONS

    Great Yarmouth Railway Station to Berney Arms

    Berney Arms to Reedham

    Reedham Ferry to Chedgrave/Loddon

    Chedgrave/Loddon to Rockland St. Mary

    Rockland St. Mary to Norwich Railway Station

     

  • Old Catton – St. Margaret’s Church (HR Champion)

    Old Catton – St. Margaret’s Church (HR Champion)

    The grave of Flight Lieutenant HR Champion is in St. Margaret’s Church in Old Catton and he died on 6 July 1950, at the age of 25. He was killed when the Gloster Meteor T7 he was flying in crashed, with this particular aircraft brought into service on 25 July 1949. This type of aircraft was known as the first British jet fighter and the RAF lost 890 of them in service, killing 450 pilots.

    The air crash was reported in the press with the short article reading:

    “A Gloster Meteor jet fighter exploded before crashing into a cornfield at Sculthorpe. There were no survivors. Rescue squads from the American base at Sculthorpe broke through a hedge and raced across a cornfield to the wreckage. The plane belonged to Horsham St. Faith aerodrome”.

    This explains why these burials are in Old Catton, it was the nearest parish church to RAF Horsham St Faith and their staff accommodation.

  • Norwich – Chish and Fips

    Norwich – Chish and Fips

    To start our Catton walk off, we popped into Chish & Fips on Angel Road, a reminder that this blog used to have many more posts about food and drink before the current crisis….. Anyway, the social distancing was all clearly laid out and managed well. The staff members were friendly, the shop was clean, the service was efficient and the process was fast. Well, Nathan had to wait for his battered sausage since I ordered the last one, but I got over that.

    Not the easiest to eat when presented like this, but it was all entirely acceptable, albeit unexceptional. The sausage was generic (although they usually are, but then again I suppose that’s the definition of generic), the batter had no discernible taste to it and I’m not sure what the chips were cooked in, but it didn’t add any particular richness of flavour. But for £3, it’s admittedly still perfectly acceptable value for money as they were served hot and they didn’t taste bad or overcooked. The portion size was also sufficiently generous and there were no customer service issues here.

    However, I understand that their strongest element is their fish, which is rather useful for a fish and chip shop. But, they don’t accept cards and given the times in which we live, that’s enough for me to once again divert via Grosvenor instead. Although I say this and I haven’t been there for weeks, I must do some diverting this week to get there.

    So, overall, entirely acceptable and there was a friendly welcome.

  • Old Catton – St. Margaret’s Church (GH Scott)

    Old Catton – St. Margaret’s Church (GH Scott)

    This is mostly a useless blog post (as so many of mine are to be fair….) because I’ve managed to find out nothing about this individual. I’m slightly reassured that I can see two other people have tried, and have equally managed to uncover absolutely nothing that isn’t on the gravestone.

    So, all I have is that Senior Aircraftman GH Scott, service number 4062634, of the Royal Air Force died on 14 May 1953 at the age of 20. The date of his death means that many records haven’t gone to genealogical sites yet, with RAF records from the Second World War still being with the Ministry of Defence, let along those who died afterwards. This was probably a death of someone who died during their training, rather than through a plane crash or major incident.

    One day, I’ll find out who it was, or if anyone knows, I can correct the record….

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 100

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 100

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…. As a side note, I’m not sure that I expected the crisis to be lasting this long, but here we are, 100 days later…..

    Dam

    The dictionary defines this as “a small Indian coin, mentioned in the Gentoo code of laws; hence etymologists may, if they please, derive the common expression, I do not care a dam, ie, I do not care half a farthing for it”. The OED don’t like this explanation and claim that there’s no evidence for this origin of the phrase, but prefer the idea that it comes from an Old English word meaning “curse”.

    But, there are more word origins here, it may derive from the Latin word  ‘dampnare’ meaning to inflict loss on, which later evolved to mean to inflict judgement on. But the earliest time that “don’t care a dam” is recorded is from the eighteenth century, so the Indian coin option is still possible. Most likely in my view is via the Old English route, with the word ‘damnation’, it’s just a corruption down of that word which means “don’t give a care” and it also explains that the word is actually ‘damn’ and not ‘dam’.

  • Old Catton – St. Margaret’s Church

    Old Catton – St. Margaret’s Church

    There’s something quite charming about Old Catton, a village with some character to it, but somewhat now part of Norwich’s urban sprawl. The village’s church of St. Margaret also clearly shows the signs of piecemeal additions over the centuries, no doubt required by changes in the size and needs of the congregation.

    The church’s quite modern lychgate doesn’t really seem big enough to shield a coffin in the rain, so I assume this is more decorative than functional.

    From the road, the original twelfth-century church is more visible, but from the rear (as in the above photo) the additions are more apparent.

    LIke the nave, the round tower is also from the twelfth century and, fortunately, the ivy which once covered it in the nineteenth century has been removed.

    The tower was modified in the fifteenth century and the octagonal top section added.

    Where the tower meets the nave, with numerous periods of building work evident. Churches are slowly re-opening at the moment, although this church is only open for prayer on a very limited basis, but I will hopefully be able to get back to look at what is apparently a mostly Victorian interior, albeit with a much older pulpit.

  • Skeyton – War Memorial (Lance Corporal Bernard Walter Hugh Doughty)

    Skeyton – War Memorial (Lance Corporal Bernard Walter Hugh Doughty)

    Bernard Walter Hugh Doughty is commemorated at Skeyton War Memorial, the son of James and Emily. Bernard was born in British Columbia, in Canada, in 1897.

    His family moved to the UK shortly after he was born, with the 1901 census noting James Doughty (born in 1852 in London), Emily Doughty (born in 1868 in Aylsham), Alan Doughty (born in 1893 in Canada), Bernard Doughty (born in 1897 in Canada) and Constance Doughty (born in Bradfield, Norfolk in 1900). The family lived in North Walsham and by the 1911 census, Alan was working as a coachbuilders apprentice, with Bernard still at school, with Doris Doughty also making an appearance, who had been born in 1904 in Skeyton.

    Bernard enlisted in the military in 1915, with service number 706030, going to fight on the Western Front. He died on 27 September 1918, fighting in G Company of the 47th battalion in the Canadian army as part of what became known later on as the 100 Days Offensive.

    Bernard is buried at Queant Communal Cemetery, in the British Extension, with Skeyton Church recently holding a service on 27 September 2018, 100 years on from his death, that commemorated him.

  • Norwich – Tree

    Norwich – Tree

    OK, this isn’t exactly fascinating content, I just liked how the tree roots had forced the concrete and bricks apart. I’m easily pleased….