Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey (Robert Dixon Print)

    Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey (Robert Dixon Print)

    This print (© The Trustees of the British Museum) is in the collections of the British Museum, created by Robert Dixon (1780-1815) in 1810. Dixon was a Norwich man, who lived in Tombland for much of his life, working as a set painter at the Theatre Royal and also earning money house painting. He was trained at the Royal Academy, also working as an architectural draughtsman, specialising in landscapes from around Norfolk and particularly coastal scenes.

    The print was purchased from James Reeve in 1902, a curator of the museum who collected works by members of the Norwich School of artists. Looking at the print, not much has really changed over the last 200 years, although fortunately the cows have been moved away from the churchyard. That’s the last thing I’d want when meandering around looking at gravestones.

    Here’s what the tower looks like today.

    And the arch which is on the print, still in nearly the same condition, a testament to how well it must have been built.

  • Wymondham – Name Origin

    Wymondham – Name Origin

    Following my little visit to Wymondham yesterday, I had a look at what The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames said about its name origin. The town name is interesting insomuch it isn’t pronounced as it looks, it’s something more akin to ‘win-dum’.

    Wymondham, Norfolk. Wimundham in Domesday Book, Wimundehamia in 1150, Wimundeham in 1168. Wigmund’s ham.

    So this is an Anglo-Saxon name, simply meaning the settlement or village of Wigmund, which wasn’t an uncommon name at the time. It does look like it would have pronounced as it was spelled back then, with the corruption of the town name evolving over the centuries into its shorter version today.

  • Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey (William d’Aubigny)

    Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey (William d’Aubigny)

    This tablet marks that William d’Aubigny is buried near to this spot at Wymondham Abbey, the founder and benefactor of the institution in 1107. It’s not known exactly where he was buried, but it was likely in the section of the abbey used for monks, which was taken down following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

    William d’Aubigny was likely born just after the Norman invasion of England and he was born in France, near to the village of Saint-Martin-d’Aubigny. He received the support of King Henry I, who gave him great swathes of land across Norfolk. When King Stephen ascended to the throne in 1135, William retained his power and influence at the Royal Court, but he died a few years later in 1139 and his body was brought back to Wymondham to be buried.

  • Wymondham – Wymondham Market Cross

    Wymondham – Wymondham Market Cross

    Wymondham Market Cross was built between 1617 and 1618, replacing the previous structure which had been destroyed by the great fire of Wymondham in 1615.

    There’s a staircase that allows access to the top of the building. During medieval times, this would have been the site of the market, where some punishments took place and official announcements were made.

    There’s not much decoration to the structure, but the market cross has become one of the symbols of the town. During the nineteenth century, the town’s subscription reading room was located here. The Thetford & Watton Times reported in 1899 that the reading rooms were under-funded and that the entire structure was in a “somewhat dilapidated condition”.

    H. Rider Haggard, the Norfolk born author, presided at a fund-raiser in 1899 to help finance the repairs. At a speech at the event, he explained how markets were often originally held inside a church, but they could be loud and disrupting so they tended to be moved to a more public area which would be marked by a market cross. He added that if there was a proclamation of a new Monarch, a felon to be executed, a martyr to be called to sacrifice his life for God or a pageant to take place, then it would occur at the market cross.

    Talking about the Kett brothers who led Kett’s Rebellion, with one being hanged at Wymondham Abbey, he noted that “in those days they would be called rebels and were hanged in chains, nowadays they would be called moderate liberals”. With reference to the reading rooms that were in the market cross, Haggard noted that 84% of the books taken out of the Norwich Free Library were fiction and he considered this a very good thing. He added that free libraries provided books which were good, honest works which amused and informed readers.


    The market cross in 1950.

  • Wymondham – Green Dragon

    Wymondham – Green Dragon

    This is the first time that I’ve been to the Green Dragon in Wymondham, a Good Beer Guide listed pub which is also one of the oldest in the county. The owners say that it has been here since 1371, no doubt used by those involved in the building and operation of Wymondham Abbey.

    The pub itself isn’t open for inside customers at the moment, it’s all a bit difficult to manage any safe form of distancing. What is open is the beer garden and there’s a staff member at the entrance guiding customers to their tables, which usually have to be pre-booked. The pub has also made clear what to do and where to wait, with track and trace being in operation here.

    The beer selection of the day, with no darker beers available. The staff member said that they had been getting several requests for a dark beer, but I don’t know whether it was a conscious decision not to get one, whether there’s one waiting to go on or whether they can’t get hold of anything exciting. I didn’t like to ask and sound like a difficult customer…..

    The beer garden, all nicely laid out, clean and organised. This is apparently usually where music performances, beer festivals and the like take place. It’d be interesting to see the interior when they’re open, the photos I’ve seen certainly make it look quirky and historically interesting. The listed building record notes that the current building is likely from the mid-fifteenth century and was probably constructed as a shop and private residence.

    The Lavender Honey from Wolf Brewery, well-kept, at the appropriate temperature and with a clean taste with a strong note of lavender and honey. I’m not sure that I would have wanted two, it was a bit insipid for my liking, but the flavours were interesting.

    The pub was having some problems with its logistics, we waited 24 minutes for a round and when it arrived they’d brought out one too many beers. However, this was fine, they gave it away free, so I was enormously forgiving. Although it meant I had another pint of Lavender Honey. The other pint was Trawler Boy from Green Jack Brewery, I didn’t get much from it at all, although it was smooth and well-kept.

    Service was efficient throughout, with the forgivable error of one round probably getting lost in their ordering system. Staff at the pub were engaging, friendly and polite, always welcoming. I understand a couple of pubs in the town are still closed at the moment due to social distancing not being possible, but I suspect this pub would have been busy anyway. There’s a community feel evident to it and someone new to the area could likely come to this pub and feel welcome. Staff knowledge on the drinks selection was a bit weak, but, being fair again, these are challenging times and the set-up is inevitably different.

    I didn’t order food, but others at the table did, and it was of a decent quality and not unreasonably priced. I thought the packaging look a little random at first, but when it was opened up it was well presented and the hot elements kept away from the cold. It certainly saves on the challenges of washing-up at the moment.

    All told, a welcoming pub, although for my own tastes, I would have preferred a wider selection of beers as it felt rather unbalanced. Unfortunately, the pub doesn’t respond to their negative TripAdvisor reviews, I like reading them to get a measure of how they react to problems.


    And a photo of the pub from the 1950s…..

  • Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey (Thomas Betts)

    Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey (Thomas Betts)

    This gravestone caught my eye as it probably doesn’t have long left, the back is heavily eroded and there’s now a hole at the top.

    Surprisingly, the front of the gravestone is still partly readable. I think it’s the Thomas Betts who died on 28 June 1861 and was buried here on 4 July 1861. The probate records suggest that he didn’t die a wealthy man, with only minimal assets. Assuming this is the correct Thomas Betts, which I think is, he lived on Damgate Street with his family and so he would have looked out onto Wymondham Abbey.

    The 1861 census was taken a few months before he died, when he lived with his wife Mary Ann and his children, Thomas, Sarah Ann, Harriet and Rosa. He worked as a carrier in the town, as did his son of the same name. Betts sadly died at the age of 43. At least, for the moment, his gravestone remains readable and in the churchyard of the beautiful Wymondham Abbey.

  • Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey

    Wymondham – Wymondham Abbey

    Wymondham Abbey sits almost a little adrift in the local landscape, a former Benedictine monastery which is still in use as a church. It’s imposing and impressive with its two towers and a more recent modernisation is the latest part of the building’s evolution. Work started on the building at the beginning of the twelfth century and the first main section of the monastery was completed by 1130.

    There are interpretation boards around the site that are sensibly placed and have plenty of useful information on them.

    This is the west tower which stands 42 metres high, although it was initially intended to be even higher before the money ran out. It was also where William Kett, brother of Robert who led a rebellion in 1549, was hanged from.

    The west window was added in the 1450s and this turned out to be a bit of a mistake as the tower was at risk of falling down. So, they put a new central pillar through the middle of the window to help to support the structure. Not the most elegant perhaps, but it works.

    This is what is left of the Monks’ Tower, or the east tower, which was built in 1380 to replace the earlier Norman tower that was falling down. Although this is now the end of the church, it previously went back further and this central area is where the choir stalls were once located. The monastery had been used by the town and the monks, so when the Dissolution of the Monasteries came it was decided to take down the monks’ church and leave the rest of the main building. The structure started to fall into some disrepair after this, but Queen Elizabeth I came by in 1573 and she pledged money to help fix the problems.

    This is the entrance to the chapter house of the monastery and the cloisters would have sat behind this. The complex was large, and although it has been re-landscaped the area hasn’t been built on. The church’s interior isn’t currently open given the national situation, but hopefully it’ll be back to its normal opening hours again soon.

  • Wymondham – White Hart

    Wymondham – White Hart

    I’ve never been to the White Hart in Wymondham before, but it has a grand frontage and was once the town’s main coaching inn.

    Within the building, the heritage of its time as a coaching inn is evident, I hadn’t expected such impressive interiors. The building was constructed in the early seventeenth century, likely after the fire which devastated much of the town in 1616. Originally, the above wall was the back of the wooden structure, but it was expanded backwards in the eighteenth century and that’s when the frontage was redone.

    The White Hart has been a licensed premises for four centuries or so, but for reasons that must have made sense to someone, it was renamed to the Heart of Wymondham for a few years. Irrelevant as my view is, that’s an awful name for such a historic pub and bizarre to make it sound like a cross between a nightclub and a radio station. Fortunately, the pub has been renamed back to the White Hart and normality has resumed.

    There were people in this room, so I didn’t take a photo inside, but this is the pub’s Masonic Hall from when there was a lodge held here. That’s another impressive interior though, this is a quite glorious pub in terms of its history. But, going back a little to my visit. I noted other reviews of how good the pub’s one-way system was, although I was entirely confused where I was supposed to go to order. It seems the answer is that you hover near the bar, but I suspect there’s table service when it’s busier. It only occurred to me after leaving that the pub isn’t operating track and trace, or at least, I wasn’t asked. Sometimes systems have to be idiot-proof as otherwise I get confused by them.

    The staff member was friendly and helpful though, there was a welcoming atmosphere about the pub. It has new owners and from what I heard from others there’s a focus on the food which is being served here, and they certainly have a delightful environment for diners. The beer selection wasn’t marvellous, just Doom Bar and I don’t think any craft beer, but it was well-kept and these are challenging times in terms of customer numbers. The food menu does that strange thing of offering a separate option for senior citizens without mentioning whether it’s also available for those just with smaller appetites. Not that having a smaller appetite much impacts on me, but I’ve heard so many people over the years want to order from such menus but not feeling they’d be allowed to.

    Another interior as I sat inside, primarily as I wasn’t entirely sure if they had any seats outside and I didn’t want to get caught up in the pub’s one-way system. Although I like indoors to be fair, there are fewer wasps and bees. Looking back at historic newspapers, there have been hundreds of different meetings held here over the centuries, this was once a pub that was very much at the centre of the community and the new owners seem keen to restore that ethos. The pub’s web-site makes nearly nothing of the building’s history, which is a moderate shame, although I wonder whether that’s a limitation of EI’s (Enterprise Inns) technology.

    Anyway, it’s marvellous that this pub is still trading, so much heritage packed into this building and a relaxed, friendly and calm environment. If the number of real ales or craft beers were increased with some more exotic options, this would very likely be a pub that should be listed in the Good Beer Guide.

  • Great Yarmouth – Docwra’s Chip Stall

    Great Yarmouth – Docwra’s Chip Stall

    I’m not sure what the best strategy is in terms of choosing between the various chip stalls at Great Yarmouth market. I decided on the practical solution of going under the covered section of the market to try and avoid any seagull related attacks. The owner of this stall, Norma Docwra, said in the local press a couple of years ago that the seagulls were becoming an increasing problem and she’s not wrong. There was one seagull who hopped along at one stage, but I followed that advice of staring at it, and it merrily hopped off. Rarely do wild animals or birds do what I expect, so this pleased me. Anyway, I digress.

    There’s a plethora of chip coverings at the stall, including curry sauce, chicken gravy, onion gravy, cheese, BBQ sauce, beans, mayo, burger sauce, spicy chilli sauce, sweet chilli sauce and chilli con care. Or, if those don’t appeal, there are sachets of tomato ketchup and brown sauce for 10p each.

    I went for topless chips, just adulterated in a positive way (I’m not sure that’s a thing) with salt and vinegar. I’m not one for large portions of chips, so went for the £1.20 option which proved to be entirely sufficient. Ignoring the toppings options, I like stalls where there’s just one product for sale, it makes things much easier.

    The chips were fine, not greasy, sufficiently plentiful for the money, hot and at the appropriate hot temperature. I’m not really a chip expert, so I don’t know what they were cooked in. There were two staff members, the younger one was happy and bubbly (the other one was the owner and she was serving another customer, so she might have been just as happy and bubbly but I wasn’t paying attention) so there was a friendly feel to the whole arrangement.

    All rather lovely and excellent value at £1.20. Based on this, and for comparison purposes, I might start a little research survey of other Great Yarmouth food options at the market.

  • Great Yarmouth – Tombstone Saloon

    Great Yarmouth – Tombstone Saloon

    Tucked away a little, although within a short walk of the main market-place is this Good Beer Guide listed pub in Great Yarmouth. Calling itself a saloon, not least because of its American west theme, it’s the bar section of the Tombstone Brewery. It’s an under-stated location from the exterior and until about ten years ago, this was the home of the restaurant Cafe Nova. Indeed, some of the decoration from that period as a tapas restaurant remains today as the bar area.

    A decent selection of real ale, particularly given the trading limitations that all pubs currently have. The pub was also busy, with someone at nearly every table, and there was a relaxed atmosphere in the pub. There were numerous tempting options visible at the bar, not least the scampi fries, with a range of different beer types.

    I opted for the Tindall Stout, which was reasonably priced at £3.30. There are a couple of stouts produced by the Tindall Brewery, a small–scale local producer from nearby, in Seething, but the board didn’t name which one it was. I’m guessing though that it was the caramel stout and I came to that conclusion because I thought it tasted of caramel…. It seemed a little weak in body at first, but the aftertaste was rich and moreish, so a decent beer.

    The wild west theme hasn’t been taken too far, but it adds character and atmosphere to the surroundings. The service was polite and the pub staff were following the current guidelines in terms of taking customer details. A fair few pubs aren’t doing this very well at the moment, and although I can’t say it overly bothers me, it does show a level of professionalism. It’s not the largest of pubs either, so I can imagine that it gets relatively busy during a warm balmy day in summer. Well, I like to think that tourists come here in a reasonable number anyway.

    There wasn’t really anything exceptional about my visit that I can add, although that doesn’t mean there was any particular problem. But the customer service didn’t engage beyond the minimum, so there’s not much more I can add about that. I would say though that it felt like the kind of pub where you’d soon be known after visiting a few times, it had that sort of character to it. The selection of beers and ciders, as well as spirits, is also well above the average and so I can see why it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide.