On a visit to a number of churches this afternoon I signed the visitors book and then realised it went all the way back to 1934. Not only that, but they’re still only half way through the book so at current rate it should last until the end of this century. I’m bemused, but pleased, that no harm has ever come to this book and it’s still in decent shape. Long may it continue……
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.
As I’ve mentioned on at least 72 occasions on this blog, I completed the LDWA 100 a few weeks ago. Which it has been widely and universally acknowledged was very brave. And it has also become apparent that nearly no-one actually thought I’d finish, and it seems a few bets were lost. I like being understated and unpredictable though 🙂
But, enough about me. There were two walks that I was visiting this weekend, the one along Peddars Way and the North Norfolk Coast path which was being walked by Jayne and Malcolm. There was another in Suffolk being walked by Jane, Simon H, Simon C, Paul, Michael, Hilary, Roger and Yvonne. The first of those two walks I was visiting on both days, the second of the two walks I was visiting on the Sunday.
Susanna kindly escorted me along to see Jayne and Malcolm, and by chance it was agreed that it best to meet them near to the McDonald’s at Swaffham, which is next to the Peddars Way. Dave Morgan mutters and moans about Peddars Way as a trail, but I ignore that, as if he hasn’t got some mountain to climb he gets temperamental and doesn’t appreciate the beauty of flat fields. Us hardened walkers don’t need mountains, we level-headed Norfolk folks just require one level. Although actually, Liam and I cycled all 49 miles of Peddars Way in one day once, and I complained for most of it, although that’s primarily because 49 miles is a very long way to cycle.
The end of that bike ride in 2009…..
Anyway, I digress.
Susanna and I found a spot to wait along one of the lovelier parts of the Peddars Way, which is namely a section that wasn’t in the bright sun. And Malcolm and Jayne swept by, in far too healthy a state for my liking given they’d already walked nearly 30 miles.
This is a little further along the Peddars Way, just before Castle Acre. I remember this as Liam likes cycling through this…..
And there we are, from 11 years ago…… A little trip down memory lane there. I’ve digressed again.
The route that Jayne and Malcolm took wasn’t entirely dissimilar to this, starting from Peddars Way near Thetford, then going north, popping into Hunstanton to add distance, before walking back along the coast path.
It was a very hot day, which I think I mentioned on a few occasions….. Malcolm seemed to like the blazing heat, but I think it might have exhausted some walkers as it can sap energy if it’s too hot.
Here they are walking into one of the little checkpoints organised by the quite incredible Dawn, who was running their support team. This was me done for day one, with thanks to Heather for getting Susanna and myself back to the car, all much appreciated. Although our attempt to find the shoe that had gone flying off Heather’s bag at some point was unsuccessful.
Here we are in North Norfolk on Sunday morning, with many thanks to Richard for taking me. In the background, looming high about the landscape, is the mountain of Beeston Bump. This mountain strikes fear into the heart of Norfolk walkers, towering above the footpath. And, Jayne and Malcolm decided that they’d summit this. Tough people…..
I was busy taking photos of the beach and sea, promptly nearly missing Jayne and Malcolm walk by. It’s that kind of care and attention that I can offer to events…..
The salubrious surroundings of the West Runton car park, listening to the car park attendant shouting at visitors. He scared me and I don’t even have a car…. There’s nothing like the welcome to the North Norfolk coast of an official shouting and gesticulating at a visitor “come back here, don’t you dare park there, come back” because a poor driver had got confused as to the admittedly confusing arrangements there were in place. Anyway, that has little to do with this post.
Jayne had a deserved little sit down, whilst worrying if I had eaten enough. I’m not sure that’s quite how the marshalling support system works, but I had a lovely custard tart, sixteen cheese straws and eight date balls. Jayne took a croissant to eat at an unstated future point of the walk.
Whilst moving to the next checkpoint set-up, Richard and I popped to McDonald’s in Cromer en route, which is one that I’ve never visited before. They’ve got one of the worst Covid-19 handling arrangements I’ve seen, involving more touchpoints and corralling customers towards each other than they had before the outbreak. Very bizarre set-up. Anyway, it’s a relatively new McDonald’s and I rarely go to them in the UK (other than twice this weekend), as pubs are usually too tempting. Staff were friendly though and the food was brought out promptly, which was useful as the confusing ordering set-up had put us in danger of missing Jayne and Malcolm in Overstrand.
More of the coastline, it was a beautiful route which they were walking.
I think this is Overstrand, and it’s somewhere around the 95 mile mark for our brave entrants. Brian and Kathleen had joined the walk to help, and they’d been assisting overnight, and it was a delight to see them given they’d helped me just a few weeks before. The LDWA has some really lovely people in it.
And there they are in Southrepps, going past the church which is often used as a checkpoint in the Winter Poppyline challenge event that the Norfolk & Suffolk group hold. That was the end of Jayne and Malcolm’s walk, 100 miles successfully completed in a very good time that I think was just over 32 hours. That is an excellent pace, showing what sort of times are achievement when entrants walk on the flat, something for us to consider when Norfolk & Suffolk group hold the event in 2025 at the AYCE 100.
The timing of this walk ending was very convenient, as it meant we could then go and see the group that was still walking near Ipswich. Thanks to Richard for his assistance in getting there, his support was much appreciated by the LDWA, and myself.
This is Sproughton church which is near to Ipswich, a countryside setting which is surprisingly near to a built-up urban area. On this walk, Hayley and Yvonne had dropped out before we could get there, but not before posting some huge distances themselves. Still going were Jane, Roger, Simon, Michael, Hilary and Paul, with Simon C having walked a shorter distance. I had thought that Hayley and Jane were only ever walking 60 miles or so, which is a massive walk in itself. However, Jane was still going. I was impressed.
It would be impossible not to single out Jane for one of the bravest walks that I’ve seen. Despite being in pain at 90 miles (and indeed before, but that’s when I saw her) she still persisted with the walk. I couldn’t have done that, huge credit to her for achieving that. And of course, the others were doing marvellously as well, with Simon struggling slightly, but that wasn’t a surprise as he had clearly pushed himself to match my time of a few weeks ago.
I’ve never walked along this stretch of the River Gipping, but it’s quite beautiful and we saw very few other people. It was lovely also to see Chelle and Fred for the last few miles, as unfortunately Chelle’s foot didn’t allow her to take part in the event this year. I heard a rumour that instead she’s walking the 100 twice next year.
Simon had a wait and a think by the river. He’d sort of agreed to take Jane on nine holidays if she could walk the last nine miles in, so he had a lot to think about, especially if they were camping holidays.
Richard and I had time to pop into the Sorrel Horse Inn, which was rather pleasant, but I’ll write about that separately as to not to distract myself writing about the appropriate temperature of beer in the middle of a walking post. It was a refreshing stop, as all this walking had worn me out. It was also another opportunity to try and update LDWA social media about the event, something I had been trying to do all weekend. It was a challenge, given just how many walks were taking place and seeing just how many photos were coming in. Thanks to Michael and Dave for their support with this, much appreciated.
And look at the bravery as Jane battles on. She was at around the 95 mile mark at this point. She’s going to have to win some sort of award.
The sun was slowly starting to set, it really was a beautiful evening. It was sunny throughout much of the country during the weekend, even in South Wales, where I was told it always rains. And, at that point, I’d like to thank South Wales for their quite wonderful organising of this event. The national pandemic meant they didn’t get to hold the event in 2020 or 2021, a real blow given their years of planning to host the national LDWA 100. Their volunteers have been so warm and helpful, I do hope there’s another event held there in the future. Also, Jeremy and Chris from Norfolk & Suffolk group were walking the planned route in Wales as their LDWA 100 effort, and they got over 60 miles in, another marvellous achievement.
Something like 96 miles done now and although Jane was struggling, the pace remained steady.
Jane was surprised and delighted to see a hill, but there were steps up it.
This isn’t exactly a photo that will win a prize to go on the LDWA membership card next year, but here are Jane and Simon walking in for the final stretch. At this point, I’d say that Jane was looking quite energetic and ready to go. Unfortunately, she still had to walk another 0.5 miles around the garden when we got to the finish point, just to tick the distance off as being over 100 miles. It seems ridiculous to see people walking around a garden, but it’d be soul destroying to walk the event and then find you’d actually only gone 99.8 miles. To the outside world, it’d make little difference perhaps as it’s still such an amazing distance, but to a walker, it really isn’t ideal.
And in! Roger, Simon, Jane, Hilary, Paul and Michael all completed the walk, so it was a delight for me to see them all come in having finished the LDWA 100. It was nice to see Yvonne as well who was fortunately still in good shape, although I’m not sure yet on her thoughts about walking the event in future. Maybe best to ask in a few weeks.
And then they were all safely home. I’m not sure that I was much use in the whole arrangement, but I wanted to be present given the help that others had given to me on my 100 walk a few weeks ago. I think it’s also becoming apparent which of us are retiring from walking 100 events and which of us are just going to keep taking part every year.
As the outgoing chair of Norfolk & Suffolk group (what a marvellous two years it has been for everyone!) I’m incredibly proud of everyone who took part in our area. To Hayley and Yvonne on their 60 mile achievements (or around that, sorry if it was longer!) and to Jayne, Malcolm, Jane, Simon, Roger, Paul, Michael and Hilary for their 100 mile achievements. And, not to forget my 100 achievement of course, as I haven’t mentioned that for a few paragraphs. It was quite emotional to see so many completions locally, and also to hear of how entrants had been getting on around the country. The LDWA community came together, whether it was walking or supporting the walkers. How very lovely.
Hundreds of Norfolk (in .pdf format)
The hundreds are the old administrative divisions of Norfolk, in place from the Anglo-Saxon period to the nineteenth century civic reforms. I hadn’t seen this Hundreds of Norfolk map before, which has the parishes and the hundreds marked on it, which is rather useful. The PDF has been produced by the wonderful Norfolk Record Office and it’s a handy way of seeing how the old parishes and hundreds were made up. There were surprisingly few changes over the centuries, with 36 hundreds in Anglo-Saxon times and 33 by the middle of the nineteenth century.
