Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norfolk

  • Buckenham – Name Origin

    Buckenham – Name Origin

    Further to my visit to Buckenham this week, this is the origin as given by The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames. To confuse things just slightly, there are three Buckenhams in Norfolk, Old Buckenham, New Buckenham and what is mostly now just called Buckenham, but has historically been known as Buckenham Ferry.

    Buckenham, Norfolk. Buchanaham in Domesday Book, Bokenham Ferye in 1451. From Bucca’s Ham.

    Ham is a village or settlement, with Bucca being one of the early leaders of what became known as the Anglo-Saxons, a similar word origin to Buckingham, as well as the other Buckenhams in Norfolk. Unless he meandered around a lot between Buckinghamshire and Norfolk, I assume this was some related group of people who came to Norfolk in the seventh century. Incidentally, the ferry at Buckenham operated until the 1940s, but more on that another time….

  • Buckenham – St. Nicholas’s Church

    Buckenham – St. Nicholas’s Church

    This is the secluded church of St Nicholas in Buckenham. Unfortunately, the churches are currently closed given the ongoing health issue, but it’s possible to peer inside at the boxed pews and otherwise quite empty interior. There’s not much else in the area of the church, although it is a short walk from Buckenham railway station for those who can navigate themselves onto one of the few trains which stop there.

    The Norman tower, which was originally round and was later reworked to make it octagonal. That’s also an original Norman doorway and is in situ and probably wasn’t moved here from elsewhere in the church.

    The entrance to the stairs within the tower.

    The nave, which is the oldest part of the church and dates to the eleventh century.

    The fourteenth-century chancel.

    The north side of the church.

    The east window, and this tells a story of its own. The church was deconsecrated in 1968 and was just left by the Church of England to a slow abandonment. Fortunately, it was taken over by the Redundant Churches Fund around ten years later, but there had been vandalism and destruction during that time. One of the oldest bells in Norfolk was stolen and much of the Victorian stained glass had been smashed. The Churches Conservation Trust gathered up what glass they could and they’ve reset it in the upper part of the window, but the lower part is now just plain glass. This could though have very easily had a different fate, perhaps something more like what happened at Bixley.

    It’s difficult to know whether this is a deliberate wildlife garden approach to their graveyard, or whether they just haven’t been able to cut the grass recently. The village of Buckenham depopulated over the centuries, so there hasn’t been much of a congregation to support it for some time. The church was remodelled in the 1820s, which gives it a different feel to the much more brutal and comprehensive restructurings of the later nineteenth century, although a guide from the beginning of the twentieth century called the changes “fitful and destructive”. Numerous Roman remains have been found in the area, suggesting some form of Roman encampment locally, likely because there was a ferry site nearby.

  • Cantley – Cantley Marshes

    Cantley – Cantley Marshes

    And, just photos, from my walk yesterday around Cantley Marshes, a 650-acre Site of Special Scientific Interest. The RSPB oversee the area and there are numerous rare birds that reside here, along with numerous deer that we saw darting around. And lots of cows, fortunately not near the footpath. I also like to think that they’ve removed the snakes, but I suspect they’re still in there somewhere….

    There’s Cantley sugar beet factory in the background, which looms over the local countryside somewhat and has done since it opened in 1912.

  • Buckenham – Buckenham Railway Station

    Buckenham – Buckenham Railway Station

    Buckenham railway station was opened in 1844 and it is now situated on the line which goes from Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. It’s not a very well used station, not least as there are no trains on weekdays, but a few people use it at weekends to access the nearby walks and bird reserves. It’s the least used railway station in Norfolk, with only a couple of hundred people a year using it, with passengers having to request a stop here.

    The railway building, which seems to have now been converted into a house. This railway station was once frequently used to sell livestock, so I’m sure there was some freight trade here at some time. There was a signal box in the area that is now trees to the left of the gate, which was derelict by the 1980s and has since been demolished.

    The buildings, none of which are listed, that front onto the platform, all of which are now closed off to the public. Not that the handful of passengers realistically need any facilities here.

    The socially distanced bench, along with cat for scale. This is the same cat that was waiting for the train.

    Looking in the direction of Norwich, there is another platform on the other side and further down the tracks, although I’m puzzled why they’ve shoved it down there.

    And the new lights on the automated crossing which has been recently installed. There’s little need for this railway station, especially when considering how many much more needed stations were lost, but it’s a quirky piece of history that it remains and it’s handy for the RSPB reserve. And, should anyone miss the infrequent train on weekends, it’s not far to walk to the metropolis that is Cantley.

  • Buckenham Railway Station and the Waiting Cat

    Buckenham Railway Station and the Waiting Cat

    More on Buckenham railway station in another post, but I liked the cat waiting patiently at the platform.

  • Hardley – Hardley Cross

    Hardley – Hardley Cross

    I’m pleased that Łukasz showed this monument to me today, which I’ve somehow managed to miss entirely although I’m sure that I’ve likely walked by it many times. It’s near to where the River Chet and the River Yare meet, but it’s more importantly the former boundary between Norwich and Great Yarmouth.

    Once marking the end of Breydon Water, there have been numerous panels and inscriptions added to the cross, this one being from the 1899 repair. The base of the cross is likely medieval and probably dates to the fourteenth century, although repairs have been made in 1820, 1834, 1899 and 1971. There was a wooden cross added on top of the base in 1543, and likely before, with a stone version added in 1676 and that’s the one that is there today.

    And the information sign. And it’s evident why this has survived, because it’s effectively in the middle of nowhere, although it is along the route of the Wherryman’s Way.

  • Mulbarton – Name Origin

    Mulbarton – Name Origin

    Harking back to our second training walk, we headed towards Mulbarton and the village’s only remaining medieval building is the church. The Concise Oxford Dictionary comments on the origins of the village name:

    Mulbarton, Norfolk. Molkebertuna in Saxon period, Molkebertestuna in Domesday Book, Mulkebertun in 1250. Comes from Meolc-beretun, meaning outlying dairy farm.

    According to the same dictionary, the ‘eo’ often became ‘o’ or ‘u’ because they sounded similar. The ‘molke’ section is milk, similar to the current Dutch word and derived from the German ‘milch’.

  • Norwich – Coast to Coast

    Norwich – Coast to Coast

    Sad to hear that Coast to Coast, located to the left of TGI Fridays in the above photo, is closing permanently in Norwich. They bemused me, they were becoming popular locally and their reviews were positive. But they were for months deluging out offers whereby anyone who had a Tastecard, Gourmet Society card or voucher could get 50% off of food. If you were a diner who went in without those cards, you were getting charged twice the amount of everyone else and I’m not sure how that could ever end well.

    They can run their restaurant how they wanted, but why they devalued their product so much never quite made sense to me. Anyway, I hope the space is used for a large Greggs, constantly good value without gimmicks.

  • Thorpe (Norwich) – St. Andrew’s Hospital Graveyard and Polish Community Memorial

    Thorpe (Norwich) – St. Andrew’s Hospital Graveyard and Polish Community Memorial

    Although now hidden away in the middle of Broadland Business Park near Thorpe, this cemetery was once in a quiet and remote area near to St. Andrew’s Hospital. The hospital itself was opened in 1814, when known as Norfolk County Asylum, and it remained in use as a mental health hospital until 1998.

    This area was used as a graveyard from 1859 until 1966, replacing another site that had been used for burials between 1814 and 1859. This original site had been a little erratic, with burials inside the confines of the main hospital buildings and all of the burial records from that time have been lost.

    The trees give the area some solitude and there’s paving which winds to the memorial stone in the centre of the site.

    The memorial, which is also in remembrance of the Polish Community, many of who came to the building during the Second World War when it was used as a military hospital. There are three Poles buried here, who are remembered with memorial stones. There was once a small memorial chapel on this site, although it has long since been demolished.

    The text on the memorial, with over 1,400 people thought to have been buried here when it was a mental health institution. Tragically, the hospital board made a disgraceful decision in 1968, against advice, to flog off for scrap all of the metal discs which marked where the burials were located, including the three Poles. There are burial records and a map, so anyone could work out approximately where each burial is located, but unfortunately, nothing is now marked.

  • Group Walking is Back…..

    Group Walking is Back…..

    At least for me, yesterday was the chance to go on a small group walk for the first time since March. All socially distanced, just a small group of under the maximum allowed and all professionally-led (since I wasn’t leading it).

    An intriguing tree…..

    The walk went around Thorpe marshes at first, which is where most of the photos below are from. I’ve neglected walking this area as I had forgotten about it, which isn’t much of an excuse, but it was peaceful and I’m not sure many people are aware of the walking options around there.

    There’s a photo of a deer drinking on the other side of the river, which I hoped was a Chinese water deer given there are lots around there, which were introduced from China in the nineteenth century. I’ve been told it’s a Muntjac though, but nonetheless, it still looked sweet and innocent.

    Anyway, the photos…..