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From
the beginning of the nineties up
to the present time my brother and his wife Wendy
have owned a small chalet close to the coast.
It is sited on a holiday home park in the village
of Heacham North Norfolk. On many occasions
through the years we have taken advantage
of this seaside retreat and used it as a base
for weekend rides through the quiet and abundant
Norfolk country lanes and byways. Two or three times a year after
we have locked the shop
on a Saturday evening, our bikes have been bundled into the car
and then driven the eighty five
miles to Heacham that is three miles south of Hunstanton.
From the outside, my brothers chalet
has the appearance of a large dolls house, inside there is one
bedroom, a bathroom and a combined
kitchen and sitting room, it is a small and comfortable abode,
that has been affectionately
named The Wendy House. It is usually quite late in the evening by
the time we have unpacked
our bags and settled in, there is just enough time left, to walk
along the beach to the West
Norfolk Pub order something to eat and enjoy a drink in the bar.
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The Wendy
House |
Sunset
over the Wash |
| Each
Sunday through the summer months Hunstanton plays host to a very
large market
that is situated in the centre of the town a short distance from
the beach. During the morning
hundreds of holiday makers, day trippers and bargain hunters, will
pour into the town along
the busy A149 from King's Lynne. We hate busy roads and always try
to find an alternative route.
By following the beach in the northerly direction through lines of
caravans, we eventually come
to the start of the high sea wall that protects holiday homes and
low lying farm land, from the raging
North Sea in stormy weather. On the top of this concrete structure
is a wide pathway, this has
proved to be a truly wonderful amenity, as it allows a safe
passage for walkers and cyclists for the
final two and a half miles between Heacham north beach and
Hunstanton town centre. Other attractions
that the town has to offer besides the market include, a large
green for picnics on warm summer
days, the beach with donkey rides and the fun fair along the front
for the children. Hunstanton
is the only Norfolk seaside resort that can claim to be on the
west coast. On a fine summer
evening with all the right weather conditions, it is a real treat
to watch the ever changing colours
of the sky, mixing with intricate cloud formations, as that great
glowing ball of solar energy glides
slowly and gently down from above, to finally disappear into The
Wash. |
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Hunstanton the A149 continues on it's way around the north coast
towards Cromer,
during the low holiday season traffic is a lot lighter, unlike the
section south of the town the
road has not been upgraded and it still retains many of the
charming features of a winding country
lane. It is still a pleasant road to cycle along with hedgerows
that protect us from the wind, while
on other stretches it is possible to admire lovely views out over
the salt marshes to the sea. The
area is a favourite haunt for the bird watchers and ramblers
walking sections of the coastal path.
Our usual destination when we follow this route on a Sunday
morning is Wells Next The Sea, an
old fashioned port with a quay that is overlooked by the high
granary building. Opposite the quay
is a cafe with a traditional seaside bingo hall attached and an
ice cream stall at the front, it is inside
this cafe that we treat ourselves to a mug of milky coffee and a
doughnut for elevenses. Some
afternoons on our weekend rides, we make a return journey from
Wells through Holkham Estate
which is very close to the town. Richard has always enjoyed riding
through the country parks
that surround great houses. Parts of Holkham Hall were designed by
William Kent for Thomas
Coke, The Earl of Leicester. It is a Palladian style mansion that
was popular with the aristocracy
at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The grounds and
parkland were set out by Capability
Brown a very busy man who completed many such contracts for the
gentry of that period.
Thomas Coke embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe when he was still a
young man, which took
six years. While he was away he acquired a large collection of
valuable manuscripts, books, art
treasures and statues, when he finally returned he found that the
house he had inherited was not large
enough to show off all these exhibits, so he built a new mansion
specially for the purpose, it took
thirty years to complete. To enter the estate we turn left off the
main road two miles west of Wells,
then ride past a line of estate houses and the rear of the big
house which is on the left. In front
is a long lake and over to the right St.Withberga's Church, the
road curves round until The Ice
House that resembles a medieval peasants hovel. I have never been
able to find out what purpose
it served, I can only assume that it was an Early attempt at
refrigeration. Nearly two miles inland
on much higher ground is the south entrance, it is here that the
Earls noble guests would have
entered the grounds through the Triumphal Arch and be driven in
their fine carriages around the
tall obelisk and along the park road, soon to be confronted with
all the magnificent wealth and splendour
of the house and deer park. It could not have failed to create the
lasting impression that was
intended, standing with our bicycles we can only look back and
experience a feeling of humble admiration.
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Holkham
Hall |
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over West Norfolk is a network of minor roads that reach as far
south as Swaffham,
they are very narrow and used only by local motorists, indeed two
motors often have difficulty
trying to pass. Some of these roads now form part of the route for
The National Cycle Network,
they are lovely peaceful roads to cycle along but you do need a
good map to navigate. We
make our way back to Heacham along these lanes passing through
small villages such as Burnham
Thorpe (birth place of Lord Nelson) North Creake and Docking. Many
of the village houses
are built with large round flintstones, red bricks are used to
keep the corners and openings straight.
Some of the church towers are also built with the flints and as a
consequence the towers are
round all the way up, a feature that is unique to Norfolk and
parts of Suffolk. Approaching Sandringham
the building material changes to small sandstone bricks that have
been used for many of
the attractive farm houses and cottages on the Royal Estate.
Sandringham is another wonderful country
park that has 600 acres open to the public and quiet roads passing
through to connect the seven
villages that form part of the estate. We always joke that we are
going to take tea with the Queen
when we stop on a Sunday afternoon, alas she is a very busy lady
with lots of important engagements
to keep and unfortunately not often in residence. Her staff in the
restaurant are very good
and only to pleased to serve us with tea and cakes. One afternoon
while we were locking our bikes
outside as we had many times before, a rather over zealous park
official approached and reprimanded
us for leaving the bikes at the front of the building and not
placing them around the back
in the cycle racks provided. Not wishing to be dragged off to the
Tower for such a serious breach
of royal protocol, we apologised profusely and immediately
complied with his wishes. To make
amends we bought a bottle of Sandringham House elderberry wine in
the shop and will drink to
the mans health at Christmas time.
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Royal
Stud at Sandringham - Persimmon winner of the 1896 Derby
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Donkeys Hunstanton
beach |
| Seven
miles from Wells Next The Sea travelling east along the A149 is
another small port,
at one time during the thirteenth century, Blakeney was an
important trading port. Now the River
Glaven estuary that the village stands on has become shallow and
the only boats that can navigate
their way in are small sailing boats and pleasure craft. Blakeney
Quay is about a mile from the
sea, it is sheltered by a long shingle and sand bank known as
Blakeney Point, which is a nature reserve
owned by the National Trust it is also wonderland for bird lovers.
It is possible to walk to the
point from the quay and continue along the path into Cley Next The
Sea, a village that is easily recognised
by it's prominent and well preserved windmill. Several times on
our rides out we have taken
lunch in the Kings Arms at Blakeney, a real ale pub that serves a
good pint of Woodforde's Wherry,
poured straight from the barrel that rests on the bar. However
this brew does need to be treated
with caution as over indulgence can lead to bicycles becoming
exceedingly unstable machines.
At the top of the Norfolk coast just four miles apart, are the two
seaside resorts of Sheringham
and Cromer, the latter is a bit to far for me to cycle too in one
day, but it will always hold
a special place in our memories. It was in Cromer many years ago
that we spent our weeks honeymoon,
living in a gas lit caravan, on top of the cliffs that overlook
the golf course and the sea. All
through the night the beam from the lighthouse would come around
on it's regular circuit to shine
through the windows of the caravan as it passed by, one could not
have wished for a more romantic
setting. |
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have visited Sheringham many times and not only in the summer
months. Twice during
the eighties when our children were young, we stayed at the Youth
Hostel with a group of our
Cycling Club members to celebrate the Christmas festivities, we
always enjoyed ourselves, it was
lovely to be able to go down to the sea and walk along the beach
on Christmas morning. There is
not a lot more of Sheringham to see, once you have walked along
the high street that leads from the
main road to the sea. On both sides of this street are shops and
restaurants, with a theatre halfway
down and an amusement arcade at the bottom. Most of the shops are
still locally owned, there
is a small Woolworth's but not much evidence of any other large
chain stores, this is nice as it allows
the resort to retain it's own distinctive ambience. One Easter
weekend, I stood by the coast at
the end of the high street and felt the icy force of a cruel north
wind that had blasted down the North
Sea from the Arctic Circle. It arrived onshore brutally smashing
the sea into the high defences,
you could hear this wind roar with delight, when the crests of the
giant waves leaped over the
sea wall, to soak unsuspecting pedestrians who happened to be
standing on the path behind it. At
the top end of the high street opposite the A149 is Sheringham
station and the headquarters of The
North Norfolk Railway also known as the Poppy Line. This very
popular privately owned steam
railway, that attracts thousands of visitors every year, starts at
the old Victorian station in Sheringham
and offers a delightful ten and a half mile round trip to the
western terminus and back. In
the past we have often used trains and have now twice avoided the
climb to higher ground above Sheringham
by purchasing a single ticket for this one. Our steam train starts
by following the coast or
a mile before turning inland to cross the main road, it then
passes through Weybourne station and
begins to climb the steep gradient up through Kelling Heath to
eventually come to a standstill in
the station at the end of the line, which is appropriately named
Holt. |
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Little Walsingham
village |
Great
Bircham Mill |
| An
obscure and little known EU. regulation, decrees that any cyclists
who rides more than
twenty five miles (on a Sunday afternoon) must be allowed to take
at least twenty minutes off the
bike to sit in a cafe and that he or she must be provided with a
cup of tea and a cake. Between Holt
station and our base camp at Heacham lies twenty eight miles of
undulating Norfolk countryside,
so as to comply with this petty bureaucratic European legislation,
we must undertake
pilgrimage to Little Walsingham. (That's what Richard said, but he
makes up silly rules like that as
we ride along):- Anyway in 1061 Lady Richeldis a very religious
woman and wife of a Walsingham
nobleman had a vision, during this strange extraterrestrial
experience she was commanded
to build a replica of the house in which The Virgin Mary was
visited by Gabriel. Not wishing
to disappoint anyone, she constructed a simple wooden hut and a
statue of the virgin and
child,
the result of her efforts became a shrine, that was visited by
thousands of pilgrims over the following
five centuries. If we had been riding with the pilgrims during the
middle ages we may have
mixed with the kings and noblemen of that time who converged on
the village along with the any
other visitors often creating a holiday atmosphere. A priory was
built around the shrine in the in
twelfth century, but the site was badly damaged and partly
destroyed during the reformation. Modern
pilgrims can visit a new Anglican Shrine of Our Lady that was
completed in 1937, our pilgrimage
came to an end in the cafe opposite the old priory, when we
stopped for the mandatory afternoon
tea break |
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Two
examples of Norfolk village signs |
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interesting feature of the Norfolk countryside is the wide variety
of village signs,
all decorated with artistic designs and displaying themes of
traditional village lifestyle. The
illustrations show two examples from villages that are near the
end of our ride, the Sedgeford sign
is very unusual because it has been cut from a piece of mild sheet
steel. On the edge of Great Bircham
village is a privately owned windmill that is always worth a
visit, it is a fully restored one hundred
and fifty year old corn mill, with a bakery and a working museum
attached. Lovely fresh bread
and cakes can always be purchased from the mill shop, any cyclist
will tell you that the most important
part of this enterprise is the tea room, which acts like a magnet
attracting members of the pedalling
fraternity from all over the county. Our return journey ends only
a few miles from the mill
after we have crossed the busy main road by the lavender fields
and then ridden through Heacham
village back to The Wendy House. |
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(Christine
Byers) |
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