Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norfolk

Thursday to Sunday : Blickling Hall, Blickling Church and Bonds Chip Shop in Aylsham

It’s quick progress (well, slightly quicker, I won’t get carried away) on this blog when I’m in Norwich, as I managed to do little of note on the Thursday, Friday or Saturday, although since I had an opportunity to go to Blickling Hall on the Sunday that seemed a marvellous idea to get the most from my National Trust membership. I’ve visited here on numerous occasions before, it’s a flagship National Trust property and I think very over-priced for non-members to go in at over £15, but there we go…..

Going through the front porch, it must be handy owning a property with this much space. Anyway, there’s a date of 1620 visible to the top-right, contemporary with the original construction of the property between 1619 and 1627 for Sir Henry Hobart, the Lord Chief Justice.

The frontage from a different angle. The volunteers at the house were pro-active, friendly and helpful, although I suspect they were low on numbers as some of the rooms were closed off. As an aside, I do wonder what the National Trust are doing with all the rooms that are closed, they surely can’t need that much office space. I’m especially disappointed at the lack of access to the former servant rooms, as these often tell some of the most interesting stories of how the property was run and how the servants lived and worked.

Located at the bottom of the stairs is what some people refer to as an original Holbein, although the National Trust say that it is a copy. The painting was at Newbattle Abbey, a former monastery turned into a residential property following the Reformation. It’s a decent copy though, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference, although I’m not entirely sure why it’s shoved down by the bottom of the stairs by the mops.

My favourite room in the property, the Great Hall, or as far as I’m concerned in terms of the naming, the library.

Any working environment is substantially improved by having so many books and I could sit here for quite some time without getting bored. I could also fit a bar billiards table in here and I might even have my own cue like other professional players that I know.

What a beautiful sight. This collection of books is of national importance and there are around 14,000 of them, mostly a legacy from the book collector Sir Richard Ellys (1688-1742), but added to over the years. There are some very early books here, including incunables from the early years of printing.

The tapestry room which would annoy me as I’d want to remove the crumples. I’m pleased that tapestries on walls has gone out of fashion over the last few hundred years.

One of the state bedrooms, more style over substance here as far as I’m concerned, but I think that’s what guest rooms are really for in country houses. This room has a fine view of the lake and it’s just a short walk from the library for any guest wanting a night-time read. I’m fascinated about what life must have been like for those with wealth here and whether they realised the enormous privilege that they had, or whether it was so part of their normality that they didn’t much think about it.

I approved of their gentle humour.

Walking around the outside of the house gives an indication of its size. The last owner of the property was Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian, a man who had some fascinating roles, including the Ambassador to the United States and earlier on in his career, the Private Secretary to David Lloyd George. The property was given to the National Trust in 1940 following Kerr’s death, although it didn’t open to the public until 1962.

It started to rain after I had left the hall, so I decided against walking around the gardens which I’ve meandered around many times before. There are 55 acres of formal gardens, which feels excessive for any one family, but I won’t get involved in class based discussions here. And, in addition to that, there are thousands of acres of land around the estate, although much has been sold off over the generations.

I think this is wisteria on the wall, it all looks very suitable for the National Trust and its image.

I’ve never had chance to visit the RAF Oulton Museum at the property, located next to the cafe and there are plenty of knowledgeable volunteers here. It commemorates the existence of RAF Oulton between 1939 and 1946 which was located at the Blickling Estate and there’s some continuation of heritage as the rooms that the museum now occupies were used by air crew and wing sergeants during the Second World War.

And just at the end of the drive is St. Andrew’s Church and it’s open seemingly every day, although the constant flow of visitors from Blickling Hall must help to justify that.

The nave of St. Andrew’s Church, which was used by Blickling Hall, which was unfortunately substantially reconstructed during the Victorian period and it’s perhaps a drab and sterile affair in comparison to other churches in the county. However, it holds some charm and there are some memorials to previous residents of Blickling Hall.

Despite the Victorian renovation of the fifteenth century church, there are some survivals from the earlier building, including this older piscina.

And this chest, which is around 500 years old.

The font is medieval, although I can’t imagine that paintwork is particularly old. I’m going for the Victorians fiddling with it.

Steps down to a vault under the chancel.

The Commonwealth War Grave of LE Billington, who died at the age of 20 on 4 March 1945. Leslie Billington was on board an aircraft that crash landed at RAF Oulton on the way back from a military operation on the European mainland.

Bond’s Chips in Aylsham and I have my usual complaint that they don’t accept cards. On this occasion, I had guessed in advance about that situation and had cash, but this lack of card acceptance is now becoming increasingly rare and it’s no surprise they’re receiving negative reviews about their policy.

The service though was friendly and the sausage is better than the photo suggests, this is a proper butcher’s sausage and the batter had a pleasant taste to it. The chips were served as a suitably large portion and I was satisfied with the whole arrangement. And there was a little eat-in area which made things easier.

June 7, 2022
Monday and Tuesday : Lucy’s Chips in Norwich Before a Trip to London Including Goose Island, Craft Beer Co and Hard Rock

I’ll immediately admit to some deceit and have used a photo from a different day, but this is the delight of Lucy’s Chips at Norwich Market. For the first time, no scraps were available today, but I’ve now decided these are the best sausage and chips available in Norwich, because they use a proper butcher’s sausage and they’re competitively priced. It’s no surprise that there’s nearly always quite a long queue wrapping around their market unit.

I did have some cheap tickets to fly to Montenegro, but for various reasons, I decided not to go. However, I still had my £5 fare from Norwich to London, so I thought I’d head to the city for one night rather than not use the rail ticket.

I wasn’t at all surprised or delighted to see that Greater Anglia have shoved another Stansted Express service on the route. Well, actually, I wasn’t entirely surprised at this bloody train being put into service. With no first or catering, neither of which impact on me, this isn’t an ideal train for many customers, nor is the entire lack of tables. I don’t know why people on the Stansted Express aren’t allowed tables, but I’ve questioned that before and Greater Anglia don’t know. I’m unsure why the rail company who spent hundreds of millions on these trains isn’t sure why they don’t have tables, perhaps someone forgot. The guard on board made an announcement apologising for the train, saying that several of the usual mainline trains were currently being repaired. I have no idea why such new trains need such maintenance, but there we go. The train was clean and tidy, getting quite busy when we neared London. I did have another passenger keep talking to me during the journey, but I tried to look as busy as possible, although that didn’t much help.

The tableless train arrived into London Liverpool Street on time at least.

Instead of going to a salad bar, I got muddled up and went to Goose Island, what I consider to be the best bar in London, which I might have mentioned a few times before. This is the IWD2022, a dank and hazy DNEIPA which was fruity, refreshing and beautifully decadent. Brewed on the premises and it’s always a delight to visit this marvellous location.

This is Worship Street where a girder bridge is still in place with trains underneath the road sweeping into London Liverpool Street station. I mention this as I have managed to walk by this many times and not notice it was there. Behind me in the photo there was not that long ago a series of railway tracks going into Broad Street railway station, which was one of the countless casualties of the post-war under-funding and poor management of the network. Even Beeching didn’t want it demolished, but British Railways demolished the station and flogged the land off anyway. Today, they’ve have to build Crossrail underneath the new developments, so Broad Street has come back in some form at least.

Clicking on the image makes it larger, and I was standing where it says Worship Street Junction on the left-hand side map. Look at all the railway!

I had decided to walk to Oxford Street, which is about an hour’s walk from Goose Island, since it was a pleasant day and I’m always keen on urban walking. This is Farringdon’s new Crossrail station, although this central section of the Elizabeth Line hadn’t opened when I was in the city, I was one week to early for that. I’ve pinched Crossrail’s press release below for information about this station:

“Farringdon station will be one of the busiest in the UK, connecting with Thameslink and the London Underground to provide links with outer London, the home counties, the City, Canary Wharf and three of London’s five airports. The goldsmiths, watchmakers, ironmongers and blacksmiths of Farringdon, Clerkenwell and Smithfields and the Brutalist architecture of the nearby Barbican Centre provide the context for the design of the new Farringdon station. Two new ticket halls are connected by underground mined platforms. The western end located on the corner of Farringdon Road and Cowcross Street will provide access to and from the Thameslink ticket hall.

The eastern end is bound by Charterhouse Street, Lindsey Street and Long Lane. This major transport interchange site has had to fit within a complex infrastructure network up to 25 metres below ground. The engineering and design challenges here have driven tailored design solutions such as lifts that move on a slope rather than the standard vertical movement. In the eastern ticket hall, the design references the Barbican centre and the design of heavy metal sliding-screen gates has been derived from a barcode for ‘Farringdon’. In the western ticket hall influence is drawn from the nearby diamond and jewellery quarter. A material palette comprising champagne coloured stainless steel cladding and etched glass panels unify design at both ticket halls.”

I’m a big advocate for Crossrail, this will make connections across London much quicker. Even though I try and walk across London as much as I can, this does make things easier and the excellent accessibility for those with disabilities is a real positive as well.

The once bustling site of Smithfields market, which is still there in part, but most of the site is moving location. Much of this will be the Museum of London in a few years, they’re moving from their current location.

I thought I’d have a quick mid-walk rest and charge my devices up, this is the Sir John Oldcastle pub in Farringdon, operated by JD Wetherspoons. I didn’t have any issues here, friendly staff, well-kept and keenly priced beer with the pub being clean and organised. And there were plenty of power outlets as well.

I had a look at some of the pub’s reviews, and it’s towards the higher end of ratings for the chain, with this one being helpful to me.

“If you want to sit and read a paper or a book, this is the place for you. If however, you want to have a laugh and giggle with friends, go to the castle pub instead. They could do with a manger that will let a group of friends meet up and not kick them out before most of them have finished their first drink.”

I can imagine what “have a laugh and giggle” means in terms of the disruption to others, so this reassures me about the pub’s management.

Or a 1/5 review as:

“We bought a cake from outside to share as it was my friend birthday”

and they were annoyed the pub wouldn’t let them.

And a 1/5 review:

“I came with a coffe cup, ok, I agree it’s not permitted, just left it on the table”

They came with their own coffee cup for the unlimited refills?

Anyway, I digress.

I was fascinated by this missing building and I’m still none the wiser. It’s been like that for at least two decades and there was once a building there, so quite what happened to it, I have no idea. And I’ve never said that this blog actually answers questions and problems….

Tzatziki Sour from Orbit Beers, which my friend Nathan has mentioned more times than I’ve mentioned crisps in my life, but it’s a very good beer.

And the This is Not a Soft Drink from Pressure Drop Brewing from Tottenham, who have a taproom that I want to visit. They occasionally have some beers in Goose Island, I had the Escape Pod Cherry Edition last year from the brewery, one of the most decadent and rich imperial stouts that I’ve had. This was a juicy raspberry and yuzu sour, refreshing although lacking a little something. And, no, I don’t really know what an yuzu tastes like, I think it’s lemony.

Downstairs in Craft Beer Co in what I considered was a suitably artistic photo.

The Whippet Bench at Centre Point which was designed as a seat, although this is rather more style over substance. It was created for the London Festival of Architecture and its relevance here is the architects of the public space wanted people to think about how dogs live in the moment.

The flags at Oxford Street, and also on Regent Street, have been controversial because some people have compared them to Nuremberg and the Nazi Party. Having been in Nuremberg a couple of weeks ago, it’s hard not to note the similarities and I assume this was considered, but at some point perhaps countries have to move on from what happened 80 years ago with a entirely different flag. Given they’re only there to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee which absolutely has to be marked in many different ways, it is perhaps going too far to say that they’re offensive. But I won’t go down the rabbit-hole of politics beyond that.

Thanks to TheFork, who I still refuse to praise for their anti single diner policy, who funded this thanks to their numerous offers. I’d add I might not praise them, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to enthusiastically join in with their deals. Anyway, this is the Hard Rock cafe on Oxford Street, which I’ve written about numerous times, mainly because of previous generosity from TheFork. Service here is nearly always impeccable, and it was thus once again. Although I’d note that they have an odd way of sitting diners next to each other rather than putting spaces between them, which isn’t an ideal situation. I was left with the neighbouring table asking me to explain the British currency, or more specifically, what the coins meant. It isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone disappointed that the 2p isn’t £2 as they had a lot of them and were about to pay for their coffee with them.

The “One Night in Bangkok Spicy Shrimp” weren’t cheap at £14.75 (thank goodness this wasn’t my money) but this sort of dish is often exciting in the United States in terms of the flavours. It was satisfactory here, but the outside was more hard than crispy.

I had a little dilemma here of trying to unstick the sticky sauce from the camera whilst smoke was sizzling from the chicken fajitas, so the photography is bloody dreadful. I’ve got a new camera now though, perhaps the imagery will improve…. Anyway, this was suitably delicious as ever, although four wraps isn’t enough to fit that much food in. Despite now being aged over 14 years old, I still get excited seeing food sizzling as it’s brought to the table. I should probably get out more to be honest.

As part of the decor, clothing worn by Phil Collins in 1982. I can imagine a political restaurant, perhaps with a suit worn by Jacob Rees-Mogg in 1987 being on the wall. On second thoughts, maybe not.

I thought I’d walk through Hyde Park to get to Hyde Park Corner underground, walking past the remnants of the Marble Arch Mound or whatever it was called. This is a cycle and pedestrian lane, although it wasn’t entirely clear to me (or anyone else actually) which was which.

A simple, albeit long, journey on the Piccadilly Line to Hounslow West. It’s possible to do the journey to Heathrow by Crossrail now, but it’s much more expensive than using the Underground, something that they’re not making at all clear.

And safely at the Ibis Heathrow with the two drinks proffered to me. I was only at Heathrow as this is where the cheapest hotel in London was, it was nothing to do with the flight I had originally intended to get, which was at Gatwick. It was good to be back in London, this is becoming increasingly rare given how much the hotels are now costing in the city.

June 1, 2022
Saturday : Gem of Norwich

Expect a flurry of blog posts this week, as I bring everything back up-to-date…. After my successful weekend in Wales zip-lining and paddle boarding with my friend Liam, I need to rush forwards to get that inspirational content on-line. And I don’t care if others don’t think it’s inspirational, I do and I’ll get it written as soon as possible.

After a quiet day, Saturday was the evening of the Hike Norfolk meal out, and we were delighted to see Gordon appear, he’s someone more often seen at socials than walking, but men of money are often like that. Gem is a Turkish restaurant in Norwich which is located opposite the railway station and in the former building operated by Prezzo. It’s an odd building to be used as a restaurant, with a minimal reception and waiting area, alongside poor acoustics and difficult areas for staff to see. However, the new operators have built themselves a formidable reputation and their reviews are good, with friends having gone telling me that the food is excellent. Although the emphasis of the restaurant is on Turkish food, there’s also some Greek and Kurdish options to add to the mix. As an aside, they opened I recall just before the first lockdown, so it must have been a challenging couple of years for them having to work through the enforced opening and closures.

In terms of the ambience, it’s loud, but that is apparently a common situation here. By the staff’s admission, there were a very loud table, although they only admitted that after the group had gone, but it did mean that the restaurant had quite a vibrant feel to it during the evening. For some people that sounds marvellous, although I rarely like vibrant venues, I like peace and calm.

The service was on-point and timely, with the team members being conversational, friendly and knowledgeable. Susanna and I would have gone for the set menus, but the entire table needs to order from those and so we thought that’d potentially come back another day for those. In terms of beer selection, that’s poor, but not perhaps unexpected, but the prices for them were off the scale and were more expensive than some central London venues. The restaurant also does the thing that CAMRA disapprove of and charge far proportionally more for a half than a pint. Anyway, that’s a comment that is a little unfair as they don’t portray themselves as a bar or beer restaurant, so I can’t much say it’s a negative about the venue. Although, I decided to just order tap water.

The service time was reasonable given how busy the venue was, but the restaurant was hot and they could perhaps do with some air conditioning here. I liked the engagement from the team members as well, they were trying their best to build up a rapport with customers, it’s clear customer service is important to them. I can’t say that we had any problems during the service, but I imagine that they would have been resolved politely and efficiently if we had.

I went for the main of chicken shish, large pieces of chicken which were cooked over a hot charcoal grill and so were tender on the inside and had a firm exterior. The rice was well cooked and the salad seemed fresh, with everything tasting of a good quality. I did have a coffee after the meal, which took far too long to arrive, although they did apologise on three occasions about that (they were pro-active apologies, I didn’t make three complaints).

As a venue, I thought that it was professionally run, it can’t be easy getting this volume of food out in a busy restaurant on a Saturday evening. They were fully booked which shows just how popular the restaurant has become, with nearly no negative on-line reviews. Reading through those reviews, there were a couple of annoyed people that they couldn’t change the items in the set menus, but it is clearly stated that this is the restaurant’s policy and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to have that policy. The pricing at the restaurant is a little towards the higher end of the scale, but they have the customer service and food quality to back that up. A vibrant venue on a Saturday night isn’t really something they can do a great deal about (other than by becoming unpopular), but it was particularly noisy which wasn’t entirely ideal. But, all still recommended.

Anyway, I’m of course not one to break any confidences about the Hike Norfolk meal discussion, other than to mention Gordon running off to hide in the toilet to avoid a situation, but I couldn’t possibly write any more than that and I’m sure it’ll be mentioned again at the Christmas meal.

May 30, 2022
Friday : Only a Little Bit More than Nothing in Norwich

Here’s a way of getting through the days quite quickly on this blog, stay in Norwich and don’t quite do anything of much interest. But it seems only right to comments on Simon’s visit to Norwich (this is the Simon of 100 fame), to reward me for my completing the LDWA 100 in 2021. Did I mention that I walked 100 miles in May 2021?

I forgot to take many photos other than of beer on this evening, but that’s the handy thing about Untappd (note my 2,000 badges that I achieved yesterday…..), I rarely forget photos of beer. On which subject, this was my favourite beer in the Artichoke where we started proceedings, the DIPA#2 from the GlassHouse Beer Co from Birmingham. This is the third beer that I’ve had from this brewery over the years, and they’ve all been delightful.

Then a quick visit to the Leopard, definitely one of the best pubs in the city, for the Knickerbocker pale ale, with flavours of strawberry, raspberry and cherry ice cream. Now, that’s an innovative beer, certainly a challenge for those drinkers (who I won’t name) who don’t like beer with flavour or taste. It wasn’t quite as rich as I would have liked, but still an enjoyable beer.

Then to the Plasterers, with this being the rich and decadent Imperial Stout Muda, from Puhaste Brewery in Estonia. And the Wotsits complemented it beautifully. I think Simon was by this point suitably impressed with the pubs available in the north part of Norwich City Centre.

The King’s Head was calling for the last pub of the night. I went for Mini Cheddars with the Nightlight Mild from Elmtree Beers, which was not perhaps particularly notable, but it was well-kept.

Emma, eager to hear from the gossip about Bev in Barcelona, as we all walked the Boudicca Way a few years ago, although Emma has perhaps sensibly retired from walking now. Simon couldn’t quite manage an entire night of drinking, but as he admitted, he’s from the north, and I didn’t say anything when he walked back to this hotel after a couple of hours. However, lovely to be back in Norwich, a reminder of just how many decent pubs we have in the city, as well as to see some people that I haven’t seen for some time.

That was certainly one of the quickest blog posts that I’ve written in recent weeks as well, there’s a lot to be said for staying in Norwich every now and then to catch up.

May 25, 2022
Monday to Thursday : Not Much of Anything

I had been getting a little behind with my blog, but I’m pleased to report for purists who dislike gaps that I’m able to catch up in one go by a few days as I was in Norwich for most of the week and have little of interest to report. That means, nothing for me to write about from the Monday to Thursday, other than my trekking up Gas Hill (Mountain) to go and vote.

May 24, 2022
Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

As this is a journey that I often take, I wasn’t going to write about it, but Greater Anglia’s choice of train annoyed me. So, I have.

Norwich railway station on a Wednesday lunch-time in February, it’s getting busier, but I’m sure that passenger numbers aren’t there yet. Shame that West Cornwall Pasty, which was to the left of Starbucks, has closed, but that unit could perhaps be turned into a Greggs…. The M&S at the railway station is still closed, it’s been like that for two years now.

Here’s the train, all shiny on Platform 2.

And then I realised this. It’s the bloody Stansted Express train they’re using again. I thought to myself just how not ideal this was.

I have no idea why Greater Anglia keep using these Stansted Express trains, they were never designed for this route. They don’t have tables, they don’t have first class (not that that much matters to me) and they don’t have a buffet car (actually, that doesn’t much matter to me either). Other customers have asked Greater Anglia why they use these trains on social media, but it’s seemingly a mystery to customers and Greater Anglia alike. Two groups came walking by me on the train on a hunt for tables, but their search would have been forlorn. The conductor, who was friendly and helpful, made an announcement saying that a last minute train change was required, but this train continually goes up and down the Norwich to London mainline so it’s not a rare occurence.

A lack of table is annoying when using a laptop, although the power points worked. It’s quite hard to sit at these seats without wanting to put your feet on the chairs opposite, because that would make using a laptop much easier. However, I consider that to be a crime against humanity, although it’s possible to put one foot on the heating panel below the window. Greater Anglia have also decided they’d like their trains to be like rolling furnaces along the track in some sort of commemoration of the heat of steam engines, and there’s no way for a customer to cool the carriage themselves.

We arrived into London Liverpool Street at the unusual platform 4 (unusual as in this train doesn’t usually stop there, it’s otherwise a normal platform) which I guess is because they’ve decided that the Stansted Express train was going to be used to go to Stansted.

London Liverpool Street is definitely looking busier. All of the e-tickets were failing (again) so the gate guard was busy checking tickets manually, which I’m not sure is how the system is meant to work.

As an aside, I went to the rear of the station and this is all looking much tidier.

I don’t know when this was landscaped, but the whole area around London Liverpool Street appears to be being modernised, it’s all a clear improvement.

I suppose it’s hard to complain with a fare that’s only £10 from Norwich to London (although, as is evident here, I’ve had a good go), but this would be a nicer journey if the train was more comfortable. But, the staff on board were friendly and conversational, although the train was rather hot, but everything ran to time and was efficient.

February 17, 2022
Finding the Source of the River Wensum Part 3

PART 3 OF FINDING THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER WENSUM

When Nathan and I were training for the LDWA 100, we started on a series of expeditions to find the source of the River Wensum. I accept this isn’t as challenging as finding the source of the Nile or the Ganges, but there was limited ability to use public transport and venues open during the lockdown, so we had to be a little resourceful. Anyway, we got as far as Lyng, and I wanted to go further to complete what we started. Nathan has retired from walking now, so this time, I convinced friends Richard and Liam to come with me. It took us a while to organise, but with my complaining that I was tired after marshalling the LDWA Winter Poppyline on the Saturday (more on which later) we were ready to go.

Standing in the same spot as my photo from the last section of the walk, we started at Lyng Mill. The fun fact for this mill is that there is some support for the theory that it was where blotting paper was first created, a mistake caused by messing up production of normal paper. Another great Norfolk achievement.

I was still quite sleepy when I took this photo, but Richard noted that the village sign notes some other spellings of the village’s name. The village sign was placed here in 2010 and shows the church, the now disappeared medieval abbey, the mill, a blacksmith and Humphry Repton who designed the gardens at Lyng Rectory. Lyng might now feel like quite a sleepy village, but it was once an important settlement with its two religious buildings.

An old heritage map of the village. Some far-sighted council likely put this up 20 years ago and it’ll probably stay here until it falls down. We walked through the courtyard of the Fox at Lyng to get through to the church, reminding ourselves that next time we do this then we’ll get a Sunday lunch at a pub en route.

St. Margaret’s Church in Lyng, which deserves a longer visit, as this was a building with some considerable character.

The west tower dates to the thirteenth century, as does the bulk of the nave. The font is also from this period, another remarkable survival.

This is rather odd (the church I mean, not Richard standing in the foreground), as the chancel is off-centre compared to the rest of the building. It transpires that the chancel was rebuilt in the 1860s on the site of the original floorplan, which suggests to me one of two things. Either there was an north aisle which has been brought under one larger roof later on, or the church was widened in the late medieval period and they never got to widening the chancel as well. I suspect it’s the latter, there’s not much space on that north aisle.

The Victorian plan for the new church.

I think this was appropriate to the day’s quest, a map of the local area on the wall of the church, with the river’s route being clearly noticeable.

This is a legacy of when some pews were available for free usage, as opposed to those who got a seat up-front but had to pay pew rental for that benefit.

A blocked up door, which I initially couldn’t work out, but I think it was the former entrance to the two-storied fifteenth century porch.

There are numerous more stories to tell about this church, I’ll return…..

Given the walk, I felt the need to take a photo of this sign.

Our rule was to try and catch sight of the Wensum whenever we could. Walking through Lyng, this isn’t it, these are the lakes formed from the former quarry that was located here. However, the Wensum winds it way behind here, so we went to investigate.

We walked by the lakes, located on Quarry Lane, in the hope of seeing the river at the rear of the lakes. Liam took the lead here in case there were any dangerous animals in the undergrowth.

To cut a long story short, it’s not really quite possible to see the river, but we could see the route that it was taking in the distance. So we walked back to the road, but pleased that we had investigated.

Back on the main road we walked through the metropolis of Fustyweed, which seemed to consist of four houses, of which one was a treehouse. This small hamlet has name origins which are uncertain, although there’s a guess at trying to explain the situation at http://www.lyngonline.org.uk/whats-in-a-name.html.

This is the bridge on Elsing Lane, with Richard and Liam standing in front of the river as it heads towards Norwich.

And there’s the landscape from the other side of the road, looking towards the source of the river.

A photo from the same location, without the bridge’s ironwork in the way.

The village’s mill is visible.

As we walked northwards, a rather fancy wall appeared, which I imagine is the country estate wall of Bylaugh Park.

One of the lodges at the entrance to the road leading to Bylaugh Park.

This will definitely need further investigation, St. Mary’s Church at Bylaugh. This is kept permanently locked, but there’s keyholder information and we’re planning to get in touch to visit this church in the future. Richard, who is the most social, is going to get in touch with the church as there are some interesting things to see inside it seems.

The tower is late Saxon or early Norman, the rest is a much later rebuild from when a grander building was needed for the hall. It’s positive that this church survives as there’s no real congregation here, the hall isn’t lived in and there are very few residential properties nearby.

Richard and Liam standing in the graveyard, and this is really quite a pleasant place to be buried (as far as these things go….) with its view over the River Wensum.

All very tranquil and there’s a newer section to this graveyard a little nearer to the road. The Wensum is quite wide at this point, it’s showing few signs of narrowing at the moment.

The pleasant path from the church back to the road.

The second lodge of the hall. The road here goes to the north of the Wensum and we could see the river’s route, but couldn’t get near to it. The hall is worthy of more investigation and I wonder whether it might be possible to visit, although it’s currently in use as a training centre. The hall had been completed in 1852 and was designed by the architects Charles Barry, Jr. and Robert Richardson Banks. It was one of the most substantial residential buildings in Norfolk and one of the first to be constructed with a steel girder frame. The building was damaged during the Second World War after it was used by the military, and there were attempts to turn it into a nursing home following the end of the conflict. The core of the building was flogged off in 1950 at an auction, including the roof and the interiors.

I noted this destruction to Richard and Liam as I had found that information on-line. So imagine my surprise when three minutes later we walked near to the entrance to Bylaugh Hall and it looks very complete with not much evidence of destruction. It transpires that it was only around twenty years ago that it was decided to save the building, and a grand reconstruction has taken place at what was previously a wreck. There’s more about this work at https://thecountryseat.org.uk/2013/02/22/bylaugh-hall-the-hidden-history-to-a-remarkable-restoration-opportunity/.

There is some evidence that President Eisenhower came to the building during the Second World War and apparently Winston Churchill visited on a few occasions. It’s hard to imagine that a former President of the United States has been driven down this quiet back road, but I rather hope that the story is true.

The walk then goes to the Swanton Morley Waterfalls. You can see the look of excitement in the faces of Richard and Liam, I think they felt quite humbled to be near such an important site. This is very much Richard’s patch of Norfolk (I mean Dereham, rather than this particular stretch of mud), although he hadn’t been aware of this water feature despite driving by it on numerous occasions.

I’m surprised that there isn’t a visitor centre by this major attraction, although I accept that it’s not quite Niagara Falls. This isn’t the River Wensum, it’s a channel that was created from it for the purposes of constructing a mill. I think that’s one thing that I’ve learned from this whole process, there were a lot of mills along stretches of the river, an essential early power source. We saw a few fishermen in the area, and although this isn’t a hobby that is in the slightest bit of interest to me, I can imagine it’s a quiet and peaceful location if they can ignore the sound of the thundering waterfall.

The river reappears at Swanton Morley, including this rather lovely bridge, but more about that in the next post.

And here are Richard and Liam on the bridge, celebrating the completion of our short walk.

Despite Richard being told clearly not to look at the next part of the river walk, which we’ll tackle in a few weeks, he ignored that and excitedly ran towards it pointing. I disregarded his exuberance and obsession with questioning authority. I mentioned that Nathan would have been appalled at this continued breach of the rules that we had established, but Richard didn’t seem concerned at his lack of river walking etiquette. Anyway, I digress….

And that’s that, not the longest of walks, just 7.3 kilometres, but it was really rather lovely to get nearer to the source of the River Wensum……. And just as we finished the walk, I had woken up after my lack of sleep from the previous evening, which perhaps wasn’t ideal timing.

February 14, 2022
Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

I’m used to the journey from Norwich to London Liverpool Street, but it’s rare for me to be getting the 07:00 train as that’s normally an expensive commuter service. Today though, it was £12.50 which I thought was reasonable all things considered (namely how expensive some other Greater Anglia services are which are of a much shorter destination).

Norwich railway station wasn’t packed with people, but there were a few services about to leave, including the service to Liverpool Lime Street, so it wasn’t entirely quiet.

Here’s the London thunderbolt that would hopefully get me into the city at 08:51. I boarded and had a carriage to myself, which was rather lovely. I then had a woman come up to me and she said that I looked strong (can’t fault her logic there) and could I open her bottle of water for her. This sort of scenario isn’t ideal, as if I can’t open it then I look ridiculous. Fortunately, I gave the impression of huge strength since I opened the bottle immediately. That’s a decent start to a journey.

What wasn’t a decent start was seeing that the train was marked as delayed, with no announcements made about it. I’m not sure what caused this, as the signs soon lost their delayed status and the train was ready to rock and roll at 07:00 as expected. The announcements made by the staff were all friendly and informative, with a guard checking tickets. This process didn’t exactly take him long and to my slight disappointment (as I like watching drama unfold) everyone seemed to have a valid ticket.

Here’s the packed carriage. I also managed to sit at the only block of seats on the train that didn’t have working power, so had to move to the seats opposite. This wasn’t the only technical problem on board, as the shutter at the cafe had broken and jammed, so the staff had to walk up and down the train with the trolley. The service though arrived into London on time, so no complaints there. It didn’t get much busier either, just a handful of people on the entire train.

This is London Liverpool Street at commuter time, but on a morning between Christmas and New Year’s Day, which is perhaps never going to be packed with hordes of travellers. Nonetheless, it was still quieter than I expected.

And outside London Liverpool Street station, with a calmness in the air.

December 30, 2021
Bunwell – St. Michael and All Angels Church (Grave of Jacob Hinchley)

When my friend Richard and I went to visit some churches last week, we visited St Michael and All Angels in Bunwell. We spent some time looking for the war graves that are located here, and found two of the three that are located at the church.

Anyway, for absolutely no reason at all that I can explain, I was interested in this grave and it’s the only non war related one that I took a photo of. Given that, I thought I should investigate a little why the grave of Jacob Hinchley who died at the age of 59 on 10 March 1897 seemed so intriguing to me.

Jacob was born in Bunwell in 1837, the son of John and Rebecca Hinchley. At the 1841 census, he had three older brothers, Charles, Henry and Robert, as well as a younger sister, Rebecca, and they all lived at Burnt House in the village. This quite substantial house still stands, today worth half a million pounds and having six bedrooms. Despite residing at a large property, I can’t imagine that the family were particularly wealthy as John worked as a road labourer and the male children worked as farm labourers and the daughter as a worsted weaver.

Jacob is listed on the 1871 census as living with his wife Sophia and his father John, who was now aged 73, with their address listed as “by the turnpike in Bunwell”. Jacob had married Sophia Parish at Bunwell church in 1866, but something clearly goes wrong after this and there is a burial record for Sophia Hinchley at the church in 1875. There wasn’t a great delay before Jacob married Ellen Blake in 1876, when he was 39 years old, although his wife was aged just 21 years old. Jacob appears in the local press a few times as a bell ringer at the church and he travelled the county performing his hobby.

The last census that took place during Jacob’s lifetime was in 1891, when he lived in North Bunwell and was still working as a farm labourer. He lived with his wife Ellen, their daughter Alice and their sons Oliver and Percy, which is the same arrangement as the 1881 census, other than he had a new child. Percy was just two years old, which meant that Jacob became a father at the age of 52, which is relatively old for the period, but a reality given that he married twice and I’m not sure whether he had any children with his first wife.

Jacob died in 1897, with Ellen living until 1916. I’m not sure that I uncovered much about Jacob, other than he married twice, he liked bell ringing and he lived in Bunwell all of his life. It is though a case of just how important the church likely was to Jacob, as he was baptised there, married there twice, buried there and was a bell ringer. And maybe one day I’ll find out something else about Jacob to add to this little story….

December 28, 2021
Norwich – Orford Plaice

This was the final Christmas lunch of 2021 for James and I, at Orford Plaice which is a chip shop we’ve managed to walk by several hundred times and never quite gone in.

It’s larger inside than I expected, there’s a downstairs eating area and there are a number of tables on the ground floor. The service was friendly and helpful, although we got their last pot of gravy (not something that we really ever buy, although it’s a personal favourite of mine with chips).

Having chips on a proper plate is a bit decadent for us, or “it’s like being in a Wimpy” as James put it. The food was brought over after a few minutes, at which point they remembered they hadn’t prepared the gravy, but that didn’t take much longer. Our meal was chips alongside battered pigs in blankets. The chips were fine, complemented nicely by the gravy, although I thought that the pigs in blankets were a little generic and not really very interesting. Having written that though, I did like the battering of them, primarily as I like nearly anything that has been battered, it just adds taste and texture. The portion size was also reasonable, with everything at the appropriate hot temperature, although the plate itself was cold.

Price-wise, this is somewhere between Grosvenor and Lucy’s, with the surroundings being reasonably comfortable. There’s meant to be a masks-on inside policy, but it was ignored by some and not questioned, but I’m not going to burden myself with getting concerned about that. I think I still prefer Lucy’s, their butchers sausages are a nice little treat. This venue has won some awards, which I’m slightly surprised about, but we’ve decided to revisit in the new year to test some more of their menu out. No point coming to any snap verdicts about the food quality….

December 21, 2021