Norfolk Coast Explorer

Blickling Estate

Horsey Windpump

Sheringham Park

Morston Quay

Felbrigg Hall & Gardens

Oxburgh Estate

Explore and restore: chart a new course

The natural riches of our coast and countryside are to be treasured. We can all play our part in sharing, understanding, and increasing them. The Norfolk Coast Explorer is here to show you how!

Welcome to Norfolk’s coast. With some of the largest and best saltmarsh, freshwater grazing marsh and dunes in the UK, this is a rare wild oasis.

These extraordinary habitats are a significant refuge for many species. This is thanks to nationally protected areas, the Norfolk Coast National Landscape and the nearby Broads National Park, working closely alongside the tireless efforts of conservation organisations.

Recent research has conclusively proved that conservation and protected areas are successful in protecting nature.

But we need much more of this. Due to the impacts of climate change and human behaviour – for example intensive farming – more than a quarter of all plant and animal species are currently at risk of extinction.

Ongoing and substantial declines in global biodiversity as well as the associated negative consequences for human wellbeing are among the most pressing contemporary risks to society.

In this edition of the Norfolk Coast Explorer, you can read all about the work of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (p4-5), National Trust (p6-7), Broads Authority (p8-9) and RSPB (p14-15). You can also read about plans to enable and encourage farmers and landowners to help protect our natural resources by linking up priority habitats (p17-18).

We can all be part of this. As humans we have a deep and resonant relationship with this coast. From the footprints of our earliest forebears at Happisburgh, to happy holidays at Great Yarmouth, we have gravitated here.

This relationship with special landscapes is even written into law and protected for every citizen. The 1945 report which established the UK’s national parks and landscapes specified that they were “for people – and especially young people – of every class and kind, and from every part of the country, indeed the world… not for any privileged or otherwise restricted section of the population, but for all those who care to refresh their minds and spirits and to exercise their bodies in a peaceful setting of natural beauty.”

In the following pages you will find much to help you enjoy and explore: getting about from rail to pedalling (p11); heritage from stars to spires (p18-19); a useful illustrated map (p20-21); walking and the new coastal path (p23-24); art and exhibitions (p26-27); wellbeing tips and stories (p28-29); delicious and unusual local flavours

(p30) and lastly a packed events calendar (p32-36).

This edition comes to you with every good wish, to help you enjoy and appreciate this richness, restore yourself - and give something back to this special place.

Cover image: detail from a screenprint by Carry Akroyd.

Follow the Countryside Code while you explore, and you’ll go further

Respect everyone

• be considerate to those living in, working in and enjoying the countryside

• leave gates and property as you find them

• do not block access to gateways or driveways when parking

• be nice, say hello, share the space

• follow local signs and keep to marked paths unless wider access is available

Protect the environment

• take your litter homeleave no trace of your visit

• do not light fires and only have BBQs where signs say you can

Swooping in

• always keep dogs under control and in sight dog poo - bag it and bin it in any public waste bin or take it home care for nature - do not cause damage or disturbance

Enjoy the outdoors check your route and local conditions plan your adventure - know what to expect and what you can do enjoy your visit, have fun, make a memory

The Countryside and Coastal code can both been found at gov.uk

Carry Akroyd works as a painter and printmaker, with a focus mainly on arable landscapes and wildlife living on the margins of agriculture. She has published many books and has spent 25 years making images relating to the poetry of John Clare, and was invited in 2016 to be president of the John Clare Society. Her popular illustrations for the Bird of the Month column in The Oldie magazine are bought together in Swoop, Sing, Perch, Paddle: a new collection of 132 screenprints in a book to be published by Bloomsbury in August, celebrating birds in all their colour and charm. Cards, prints and advance orders at carryakroyd.co.uk

Happisburgh beach at low tide.

Blakeney saltmarshes.

Marsh Harrier.

Norfolk Hawker.

Discover wild

The Norfolk coast is a treasure trove of natural wonders. Robert Morgan of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust is your guide

From the strange albatross-like fulmars nesting on the two-tone cliffs of Hunstanton, to the iridescent emperor butterflies in the woods of Sheringham Park, there is little to disappoint the wildlife watcher on the Norfolk Coast.

It is no surprise that much of the coast is designated under law as national landscape and Special Protection Area (SPA) – and even a portion is national park. This distinctive coastal landscape contains some of the UK’s finest examples of sand dunes and saltmarshes, and these habitats sit cheek-by-jowl with wide-open beaches, mudflats, creeks, expansive reedbeds and lush green grazing marshes. This rich mix of habitats sustains a wealth of diverse wildlife, and the Norfolk coast is home to some of the UK’s rarest flora and fauna. It can be spectacular and aweinspiring one moment, then gentle and peaceful the next. This is most noticeable on Norfolk’s internationally important intertidal mudflats and saltmarshes. The mudflats are particularly famous for the huge congregation of wildfowl and waders during the winter months. However, summer can be just as rewarding with the haunting call of the redshank reverberating over the shiny smooth silt of the winding creeks. The saltmarshes form an important home for many breeding birds, including the muchdeclined yellow wagtail. Little egret and grey heron can often be seen stalking along the creeks at low tide, and in late summer they are joined by numerous migrant wading birds.

The saltmarshes also support a unique community of plants such as sea wormwood, the strongly aromatic plant with medicinal properties, or the scrubby sea-purslane, a characteristic plant of Norfolk saltmarshes that forms a thick carpet along the borders of the mudflat creeks. From late April to July look out for the beautiful flowering ‘sea-pink’ of the thrift plant. Norfolk is also known for its succulent crop of samphire – this salttolerant plant is often known to naturalists as ‘glasswort’ as in former times its ashes were used in the manufacture of glass.

There are, perhaps, almost too many birds to mention, but a favourite of many is the little tern. As its name implies it is the UK’s smallest tern, but also one of the least common, with only 1,500 pairs found in eastern England. Although terns look superficially like gulls, they are much more elegant and agile, and the little tern is considerably smaller in comparison. It is the only tern in the UK with a white forehead to its black cap - it also has a yellow bill.

The little tern arrives in April after wintering on the west African coast, with the Norfolk shoreline holding up to 35% of the British population. These small vulnerable birds form colonies on beaches of shingle and sand, with several notable around the Norfolk coast. Temporary fencing is erected each year to cordon off areas where they settle to nest. Along Norfolk’s popular and busy coastline this protection has proved vital, and visitors are asked to respect the birds and give them the space they need, particularly if they have a dog. Other Norfolk shorebirds that require areas of undisturbed beach in the summer are ringed

Hickling: a hidden inland corner

Further inland, is the wonderful NWT Hickling Broad. The largest of the Broads, Hickling is a year-round haven for wildlife.

It is easy to spend a day walking around Hickling’s trails or, in summer, gently while away a couple of hours taking in the Broad’s hidden corners on one of NWT’s summer wildlife watertrail boat tours.

Hickling Broad is situated on the Upper Thurne river system, which holds a significant percentage of the UK population of common crane as well as important breeding numbers of bittern, marsh harrier, bearded tit and Cetti’s warbler.

Between late May and early July adult swallowtails emerge to provide one of Norfolk’s wildlife spectacles. Their yellow and black wings have a span of around 9cm, making them easily the largest native British butterfly. In good years a second brood occurs in late August to mid-September.

Above: Cley in the morning sunlight: Part of a rich mix of unique habitats sustaining a wealth of wildlife.

Above left. Panoramic views: the well-stocked café and visitor centre at NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes is a great place to reserve watch.

plover and oystercatcher, both are in decline and seriously threatened by disturbance, so please abide by the signage and any instructions from beach volunteers.

Norfolk has some of the best examples of diverse sand dune flora in the UK. Marram grass grows throughout them and proves indispensable, as its roots act as a stabiliser for the sand. However, in recent years East Anglian dunes have suffered a great deal of erosion due to a constant battering from winter storms and ever higher tides. Dunes can be great places for nature lovers to explore, but tread carefully as they are home to many rare plants, including several varieties of native orchid.

Our wonderful wildlife-rich sand dunes can host sea-lavender, sea-kale and sea-milkwort. And although scarce in Norfolk, keep a keen eye out for the pale blue pompom flowers of the sheep’s-bit, particularly around the Great Yarmouth area. Butterflies found in the dunes can include grayling, small copper, small heath, and dark green and silver-washed fritillary; if you are lucky a migrant such as the clouded yellow may be discovered. Dune ‘slack’ ponds are home to the rare natterjack toad, and Norfolk boasts one of the largest colonies in the country.

At the Scolt Head National Nature Reserve, little tern are joined by internationally important numbers of sandwich terns. In fact it is a great place to see Arctic tern too, and with a combination of dunes, saltmarsh, intertidal sands

summer

Spoonbill: a creamy-white member of the ibis family.

Above: Vulnerable: the little tern’s shingle nests need space and respect Above top: Reed bunting enjoying a view over the reed beds, NWT Cley Marshes. Left: Saltmarshes support a diverse community of plants, including the beautiful sea lavender.

and mudflats it is a year round birdwatcher’s paradise.

Scolt Head is one of the UK’s oldest nature reserves having been purchased by the National Trust in 1923, with the first ‘watcher’ (warden) being the pioneering ornithologist and photographer Emma Turner. A little further east sits Blakeney Point, a nature reserve since 1912. It is a long spit of shingle and sand which was formed by longshore drift, its length and isolation means it has become a fantastic haven for wildlife. Although walking is possible from Cley-next-the-Sea, it is advisable to take one of the boat trips that are available from Morston. This will offer better views of the large colony of grey seals that use the reserve (see pages 6-7 for more details).

NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes, and the RSPB reserve at Titchwell are both exceptional

Spectacular and awe-inspiring one moment, then gentle and peaceful the next

nature reserves of national importance, not only for breeding birds but large numbers of migratory birds too. They have a variety of habitats, with Cley boasting a sizable reedbed complex that plays host to bearded tit, bittern and marsh harrier. The pools in front of the hides never fail to impress, with avocets, black-tailed godwit and the recently re-colonised spoonbill often present. Cley is renowned for a wide range of dragonfly, moth and butterfly species, and the visitor centre not only provides refreshments and gifts, but a fantastic panoramic view of the landscape. There are few areas in the British Isles that have the diversity of habitats and range of wildlife species of the Norfolk coast; a landscape rich in nature waiting to be discovered and explored.

Robert Morgan is Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserves Officer

FIND OUT MORE

Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserves in and around the Norfolk coast area include Cley and Hickling Broad. To book a boat trip and find out more about NWT Hickling Broad and other reserves, check out the website norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

The spoonbill: welcome back after 300 years

The reappearance of a lost bird to the British Isles has delighted birdwatchers on the Norfolk coast.

The spoonbill, a large creamywhite wetland bird, has returned to the UK’s breeding bird list. Belonging to the ibis family, this tall, long-necked and long-legged wading bird has as its most distinctive feature its elongated spatula-shaped bill. The birds can often be seen sweeping these strange spoon-bills from side to side in shallow water, using this method to syphon their food of small fish, crustaceans and molluscs.

Historically the spoonbill was a regular nesting bird in southern Britain, visiting in summer and departing south for winter, with records of birds nesting in East Anglia as far back as the 1300s. However, due to drainage, eggs and chicks taken for food, and general persecution, the spoonbill was already in serious decline by the 1600s, and in the early 1700s the last spoonbills were nesting in Britain.

For more than 300 years, not a single spoonbill chick (known rather affectionately as teaspoons) was raised in Britain. During the twentieth century the bird was a rare but regular passage migrant, with some wintering on estuaries in south-west England. The population started to expand in the lowlands of Holland, and the Dutch population increased to over 500 pairs by 1995. Visits to the UK by spoonbill became more regular, and in 2010 a colony became firmly established at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk. Spoonbill are also regularly seen at Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Cley and Salthouse Marshes where a new colony was recently found in nearby private woodland. In 2023 spoonbill started nesting in the Norfolk Broads, with several pairs settling down at NWT’s Hickling Broad and Marshes reserve.

This summer, if you are visiting any of the wetland nature reserves on the Norfolk coast, look out for these fascinating birds, and join the celebration of their return.

Photo credit: Andy Adams

Photo credit: Margaret Holland

Nature and nurture

From salty shingle ridges to freshwater marshes, conservation staff work year-round in all weathers protecting the glories of the coast. Richard Steer of the National Trust shares some highlights.

At the end of four miles of shingle, on a thin ridge between open sea and ever-changing harbour, live some of the dedicated band of wardens and volunteers who watch over and record the coast’s incredible natural riches.

Norfolk’s stretching, morphing coast has unique and nationally important habitats, home to an amazing diversity of wildlife, including many threatened species. And its saltmarshes even help safeguard our future by locking up vast amounts of carbon.

The National Trust is one of the conservation organisations whose staff and volunteers work year-round, in all weathers, to look after it - from Brancaster Beach to Stiffkey, Morston Quay, Blakeney Village – and the shingly Blakeney Point.

Working with volunteers, local communities, landowners, and a range of conservation organisations and statutory bodies, they do all sorts of jobs to protect these places for future generations – and to share them with visitors from near and far.

At the heart of the Norfolk Coast National Landscape, Blakeney National Nature Reserve’s wide-open spaces give uninterrupted views of the beautiful coastline. The four mile shingle spit of Blakeney Point offers protection for Blakeney Harbour and the surrounding saltmarshes, providing a perfect habitat for the array of residential and migratory wildlife.

National Trust rangers spend the summer living in the Point’s historic blue lifeboat house to watch over them. “Terns are very noisy and rowdy, and being marooned out here among them is an incredibly rewarding experience,” says ranger Duncan Halpin. “They have a really distinctive call, a sort of dog-toy squeak. For me, it’s the sound of summer.”

Summer is a great time for nature-watching, with common seals in residence and another

The heart of the furry, feathery action: common seals and sandwich terns on Blakeney Point.

Migrants on Blakeney Point: Sanderlings arrive in the UK in winter from Arctic breeding grounds, but can also be seen as they pass through in spring and autumn.

Photo credit: National Trust Images, Hanne Siebers

Being marooned out here is an incredibly rewarding experience

world-class wildlife spectacle unfolding across sea and sky. From May, up to 4,000 sandwich terns arc in from Africa to breed, alongside little terns, ringed plovers. sanderlings and

oystercatchers, filling the strand with feisty families.

But high season on the beach at Blakeney Point falls not in summer, but winter, when thousands of blubbery bathers bag their favourite spot along the shingle shore. These are the north Norfolk nature reserve’s celebrated grey seals, which arrive to pup in late October. Under the Trust’s tender care, the colony has grown to be Britain’s largest. Just 25 pups were born in 2001: it’s around 4,500 today.

The best way to experience the reserve is on a boat excursion from Morston Quay. There are several operators to choose from, and an hour’s round-trip takes you to the heart of the furry, feathery action. Or if you’re keen to stretch your legs, grab binoculars and try the three-

Safe seal watching

There are lots of places along the Norfolk coast where you can spot grey seals and common seals. They both spend a lot of time at sea but they do come ashore to breed. Seals are rare globally, and easily disturbed, so it’s important to do all we can to keep them safe.

The Atlantic grey seal colonies at Blakeney Point, Horsey and Winterton are one of Britain’s great wildlife spectacles. The flat beaches, shallow waters and high dunes offer seals an ideal location for giving birth. The work of Friends of Horsey Seals, which includes volunteer seal wardens and a rescue service, helps protect the seals from disturbance and injury. If you would like to support the charity, you can join the group for an annual subscription, which gives you newsletters and free guided walks in the pupping season. More information at www.friendsofhorseyseals.co.uk

The National Trust encourages visitors to follow these tips when watching seals:

Approach considerately

• Always aim to arrive, watch and leave without the seals noticing you.

• Walk slowly and quietly to find a safe place where you can sit or lie down to watch the seals.

• Stay still and quiet, watching for signs that may show you’re disturbing the seals. Whisper if you need to talk.

• If you see signs of disturbance, quietly move away.

• Always stick to the designated foot paths and follow local signs.

Getting a good view

• Use binoculars or a telescope so you can get a better view without getting too close.

• Please avoid taking your photo with any seals as you may disturb protective females and territorial males, which could result in injury.

Visiting with a dog

• Dogs can cause alarm to seals so are best left at home.

• If you do bring them, please keep dogs on short leads, and stay a safe distance from the seals.

Cause for concern

Pups are occasionally left by their mothers for

mile circuit around Blakeney Freshes. Extending east from Blakeney village, these freshwater marshes bustle with breeding waders – avocets, redshanks, lapwings – and plop with otters and water voles.

The National Trust also looks after other notable habitats along the coast, including Friary Hills, Blakeney Freshes, and Stiffkey Marshes – places which have a crucial role to play in safeguarding our future.

Comprising of approximately 160 hectares of freshwater grazing marsh, Blakeney Freshes is an important area for breeding birds and overwintering wildfowl. The waterways of the Freshes are also home to glass eels, which have a remarkable life cycle which sees them migrate thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean and undergo four major transformations.

Stiffkey is home to one of the country’s richest saltmarshes for wildlife. Flooded daily by the tide, it is an important conservation area for breeding birds. And that is not all - as well as their importance for wildlife, the saltmarshes also sequester a large volume of carbon dioxide, making them an important local contributor to efforts to reduce CO2 and tackle climate change.

Richard Steer is senior communications & marketing officer, National Trust Norfolk Coast & Broads

FIND OUT MORE

National Trust properties in the Norfolk coast area include the estates at Blickling, Oxburgh and Felbrigg; Sheringham Park; Morston Quay; Blakeney National Nature Reserve; West Runton and Beeston Regis Heath; Brancaster beach and Horsey Windpump. nationaltrust.org.uk

short times and this is perfectly normal. Pups may also cry, which may sound distressing even if the seal pup is fine.

The most important thing to remember is to always keep your distance and not approach any seals as this can cause unnecessary stress. Please do not attempt to move any seal yourself.

If you see an injured seal

If a seal has a visible injury then please contact British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) on 01825 765546.

Photo credit: National Trust Images, Hanne Siebers

Globally rare: a grey seal cow and pup on the beach at Blakeney Point.

Photo credit: National Trust Images, Justin Minns

Above: Natural riches: Brancaster Beach Left: Helping the incredible voyagers: National Trust rangers putting in place eel ladders on Blakeney Freshes.

Photo credit: National Trust Images, Hanne Siebers

Photo credit: National Trust Images, Ian Ward

Twin landscapes,

While you’re enjoying the Norfolk Coast National Landscape, why not spend some time in Norfolk’s other protected place – the Broads National Park. Jess Tunstall shares some tips.

Twin outstanding beauties, the Broads and the Norfolk coast share much, and are an example of how the natural world is most truly about links, not boundaries.

Alongside the similarities, they are distinctively different, too. Water flows in reedbeds in both, but the Broads is principally a freshwater system: though the wet grassland, intertidal mud and saltmarshes around Breydon Water, close to the east coast of Norfolk, are not unlike the north Norfolk saltmarshes, and how to manage water is a recurring theme.

As well as the seven rivers, the national park has 63 broads (shallow lakes) and other areas of open water, the remains of medieval peat diggings, which with rising water levels flooded. Peat was dug to use as fuel for heating and cooking, in what was then a densely populated area. These waterways are the reason for much of the richly diverse wildlife – a quarter of the UK’s rarest wildlife lives in the Broads.

Technically, you don’t have to leave the Norfolk Coast National Landscape to experience the Broads National Park. A small area around Horsey is within both – the only place in the UK to boast this twin designation.

To take in both places, you could set off from north Norfolk on foot on the Weavers’ Way, a long-distance route that starts in Cromer. It winds through the Broads, crossing Halvergate grazing marshes and meeting another route, the Wherryman’s Way, before heading to Great Yarmouth, where it meets the Angles Way, which goes on into the valley of the river Waveney (also part of the Broads National Park) in Suffolk. The Weavers’ Way includes some sections that are suitable for cycling. It was named after the Norfolk weavers, deeply linked to the Norfolk landscape and its history of sheep farming.

There’s a range of shorter walks linked to the Weavers’ Way – the one from the village of Thurne is about 3¼ miles long and you can see Thurne Mill, another distinctive feature in the Broads landscape. At the staithe or mooring place, look out for the phone box, a mini Broads information centre, where you can listen to Broads birds

calling. You’ll also find the Lion Inn close by for refreshment.

If you’d like to find out more about the weavers, then Worstead is the village to visit. Weaving flourished here for over 500 years and Worstead gives its name to a type of cloth, woven in the village in the Middle Ages. Attracted by abundant supplies of wool in England, a considerable number of Flemish weavers settled in and around Norwich. The weavers were highly

skilled, with a long reputation for the excellent quality of their work. The cloth trade of Worstead and of Norfolk as a whole came to be centred more and more on Norwich. Competition from other areas eventually caused the local decline. You can see reminders of the weaving industry in the village, especially in the church, and some of the weavers’ houses in and around the village survive. They are large and spacious, to accommodate weaving looms. The village website includes a village trail and a rural trail.

Worstead is not far from the North Walsham and Dilham Canal, opened in 1826. Wherries, the traditional cargo boats used on the Broads, would sail its length transporting loads to and from the mills and communities along the route. The wherries used on the canal were a distinct size. The canal’s decline began with the arrival of the railways in the later 19th century and the last wherry to sail on the canal was Ella, in 1934. Eventually, the canal became choked with vegetation, but in recent years the canal’s trust has been working hard to restore the area.

They now offer two boat trips, one on a passenger boat and one on a steel replica of a Norfolk wherry, but without a sail. The replica wherry is privately owned and is loaned to the

Photo credit: Bill Smith

Swallowtail.

Ra boat trip.

Weavers’ Way, Halvergate Marshes and Berney Arms.

Dilham canal.

Photo credit: Tom Barrett

linked by water

Relax in a green world, with meadows and wet woodlands that can’t be explored by land

trust for trips. Both boats are electric-powered. Birds you may see on the trips include wagtails, coots, grebes, swans and marsh harriers. Deer, foxes and water voles can also be seen, as well as fish chasing the front of the boats. Contact the boat trip telephone numbers on the trust’s website to see what dates are available for trips. The trust also welcomes new volunteers.

Wherries are no longer trading on the Broads either, but there are still opportunities to visit and sail as a passenger on the remaining seven trading wherries, pleasure wherries and wherry yachts, belonging to three trusts (one further wherry is privately owned). They offer various trips, from a short sail to half-day and day trips, some with additional activities.

Museum of the Broads, Stalham, is the place to visit to find out more about the history of the Broads and a new exhibition this year will take you right back to the origins – to the peat, which

is up to 10,000 years old. The new exhibition, Digging, Draining, Drenching – The Story of Peat in the Broads, will also show you the importance of peat for the future of the Broads – peatlands store twice as much carbon as forests, helping to combat the effects of climate change. The museum has fascinating collections and organises many events. The museum also offers two boat trips, one on a Victorian steam launch and one on an Edwardian-style launch, which is accessible to wheelchair users.

The Broads Authority also offers small and friendly wildlife boat trips from its three information centres at Hoveton, Ranworth and How Hill, near Ludham. Solar-powered Ra is based at Hoveton and is accessible to wheelchair users. You’ll find yourself drifting into another world, transported along a beautiful and tranquil stretch of the River Bure, going to Caen Meadow on a short trip or into Bridge Broad and along to Belaugh on a long trip. Listen to the birdsong and relax in a green world, with meadows and wet woodlands on either side that can’t be explored by land (bookings: 01603 756097).

Liana, another Edwardian-style launch, with electric engine, operates from Ranworth. There are wonderful views of St Helen’s Church, known as the cathedral of the Broads, and the chance for a glimpse of an otter or two as you pass along Ranworth Dam (bookings: 01603 756094).

At How Hill National Nature Reserve you can visit Toad Hole Cottage, once the home of an eel catcher, enjoy the wildlife walking trail and even visit a wherry – pleasure wherry Hathor is moored at the staithe for much of the summer. The reserve is one of the best places to see swallowtail butterflies, Norfolk hawker dragonflies, marsh harriers and other rare Broads wildlife. The Electric Eel is based here too and will take you into a tranquil, secret world, where reeds and flowers fringe the narrow dykes (bookings: 01603 756096).

Jess Tunstall is communications officer for the Broads Authority

FIND OUT MORE

For all you need to know about visits and special events in the Broads National Park, go to VisitTheBroads.co.uk, where you’ll also find lots of ideas for where to stay ashore and afloat, boat trips and information centres. Information centres (see above) and yacht stations at Norwich, Reedham and Great Yarmouth, will all be pleased to help you in person too. For bookings for Broads Authority events, go to eventbrite.com/o/broads-authority-29218269141 Broads Authority broads-authority.gov.uk

Weavers Way norfolk.gov.uk/weaversway

Worstead worsteadparishcouncil.norfolkparishes.gov.uk

North Walsham and Dilham Canal nwdct.org

Wherries

wherryyachtcharter.org

wherryalbion.com wherrymaudtrust.org

Museum of the Broads museumofthebroads.org.uk

Electric Eel.

Photo credit: Julian Claxton

Accessible at Horsey.

Halvergate Marshes Weavers’ Way.

Find your way

To truly experience the coast, you need to leave your car behind. Let our locals guide you with some ideas for expeditions on foot, pedal, rail, bus and afloat – sometimes combined in one trip!

WALKING

Peter James of Norfolk Ramblers: “There are many interesting walks on the Norfolk coast –circular, or linear using the coast bus service. Three of my favourite are as follows. Firstly, the walk from Wells, taking in the coast path and Holkham Hall. Secondly, a great walk for birdwatchers is from the Shepherds port car park along the causeway, then to Dersingham, then along the old railway to Snettisham and back to the coast. My third walk is from Roman Camp, with great views of the coast, then along the coast passing West Runton to Beeston Bump, then back inland to Beeston Regis heath and back to the start. These three walks are from books produced by Norfolk Area Ramblers and are available

in many tourist information centres and other outlets; they can be ordered direct.”

Also, check out

Long distance options, now that the coast path runs the whole length of Norfolk from Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire to Hopton on the Suffolk Border (see page 24); and there are many shorter, local walks on the Norfolk Trails website. Find out more

• norfolkra.org.uk – local publications

• ramblers.org.uk –advice on groups, walks and routes

• norfolk.gov.uk –Norfolk Trails map and local updates

CYCLING

Rosalind Bacon, Sustrans Network Development Manager Norfolk & Suffolk: “Sustrans are custodians of the National Cycle Network, nearly 13,000 miles of signed routes spanning the UK. We are consistently working to make it easier for people to walk, wheel and cycle. National

Cycle Network route 1 runs from the Highlands of Scotland down to Dover. In north Norfolk it runs between Ringstead and Wells-next-theSea, linking King’s Lynn with Suffolk. A previous regional route followed the coastline between Wells-next-the-Sea and Great Yarmouth. Much of this route has unfortunately been removed from our network due to traffic volumes and speeds being deemed unsafe for those cycling and walking. We have long-term aspirations to create a safe and accessible route along the entire Norfolk coastline.”

Also, check out

The Rebellion Way is a new county-wide route – a 232-mile / 373km cycling adventure around Norfolk. Meandering along a mix of quiet, mostly flat back roads, byways, cycle paths and bridleways under huge panoramic skies, it’s an introduction to multi-day, on- and off-road adventuring and covers part of the coastal area. Find out more

• sustrans.org.uk/national-cycle-network –maps of national route

• explore.osmaps.com - maps

• cyclinguk.org –Rebellion Way maps and information

BY RAIL

Jess Tunstall, Broads Authority: “For getting to the Broads and the coast, you can take advantage of the Bittern Line (named after one of the rarest birds in the Broads), running from Sheringham to Norwich, with onward travel south and east in the Broads on the Wherry Lines. Both lines have Railway Rambles – guides for walks to do from stations. Bittern Line stations include Worstead, Hoveton & Wroxham for immediate access to all kinds of boating activities and Salhouse, from where you can walk to beautiful Salhouse Broad (about 2½ miles). Salhouse offers short walks and

Reedham swing bridge.

Photo credit: Bill Smith

Walking the Norfolk coast path.

The ruins of St James’ Church, Bawsey.

Wherry yachts on the Norfolk Broads.

12 Ways to explore

continued from p11

canoe hire, so you can paddle over to Hoveton Great Broad Nature Trail, only accessible by boat, and a stargazing net, where you can lie back and discover the dark skies and bright stars over the Broads. You can also enjoy the accessible, narrow gauge Bure Valley Railway, which runs between Aylsham and Wroxham (about nine miles). A path for walkers and cyclists runs beside it, with bike hire available at Coltishall, and between Hoveton and Horning.”

Also, check out

The Poppy Line (North Norfolk Railway) and Wells and Walsingham Light Railway, two of the other heritage railways of Norfolk which offer memorable trips back in time as well as journeys in the area.

Find out more

• bitternline.com

• wherrylines.com

• norfolk.gov.uk/article/42975/Railway-Rambles

• salhousebroad.org.uk

• hovetongreatbroad.org.uk

• bvrw.co.uk

• burevalleycyclehire.co.uk

• norfolkbroadscycling.co.uk

• nnrailway.co.uk

• wwlr.co.uk

BY BUS

Good Journey, the not-for-profit campaign for active travel: “When you travel by bus, the journey is all part of the day out. Enjoy the view over the hedges and the villages along the way. Without a car, you’re free to do a linear walk, enjoy a local tipple or to snooze on the way home. With £2 bus fares till December, take a ride on the famous Coast Hopper and Coast Liner services, and grab the chance to see over the hedges all along the coast!

Also, check out

Norfolk county council was the first in the country to team up with Good Journey to offer the chance to get discounts on attractions and refreshments if you arrive in any other way than a car. So far

there are a handful of places on the coast, but the number is growing – don’t forget to ask if businesses are members, if you are not in a car. Useful maps and a journey planners are available on the website. Find out more

• goodjourney.org.uk

• travelnorfolk.co.uk –a one stop shop for all your local travel needs

AFLOAT

Henry Chamberlain, Coastal Exploration Co, Wells: “Sailing gives you the ability to get into those amazing spots which I think is where the magic begins. The feeling of being out and sailing is really powerful because you are just working with the forces of nature. With the engine off and just knowing that it is the wind powering the boat along as it has done for hundreds of years. If you go out to nature you are going to the fundamentals and you are forced to be more on your own and reflect where you are …and perhaps look a little bit more inwards and listen to yourself.”

There are all sorts of ways to travel by water here, from surfing and stand up paddle boarding to sailing and day trips, and lots of small providers and trips along the coast to discover. Try an electric or solar powered boat on the Broads, a stunning Norfolk sailing wherry, or a traditional trip out to see the seals.

Visit our ciderworks in Wells for a free taste of our cider and apple juice then buy some to take away or have a glass or two in our tranquil courtyard garden.

Please see our website for opening times Find us on the Stearman’s Yard car park, Wells-next-the-sea NR23 1BW

Also, check out

Swimming and paddling are part of the pleasure of the coast. But always treat the water with respect. Follow the beach safety tips from HM Coastguard: choose a lifeguarded beach, check local signs and flags for risk, know your location, and look after each other – keep a close eye on children and never let them swim alone. If you get into trouble at the beach call 999 and ask for the Coastguard.

And take the important advice from the RNLI Float to Live campaign too: “If you find yourself struggling in the water unexpectedly, your instinct would tell you to swim hard. But cold-water shock could make you gasp uncontrollably. Then you could breathe in water and drown. Instead, you should ‘float to live’. The best way to float is to tilt your head back with your ears submerged. Try to relax and breathe normally. You can gently move your hands to help you stay afloat if you need to. Spread your arms and legs out to improve stability – and it’s OK if your legs sink, we all float differently. Once your breathing is under control, call for help or swim to safety.”

Find out more

• glidesurfschool.co.uk

• coastalexplorationcompany.co.uk

• hunstantonkayaks.co.uk

• beansboattrips.co.uk

• wherryyachtcharter.org

• rnli.org

• hmcoastguard.uk

01328 711821 / 07769 571423 www.whinhillnorfolkcider.co.uk Shop online at www.joyfulliving.co.uk

Joyful Living Drove Orchards Thornham

Above: Seals on the Norfolk Coast.

Take to the water – boat trips, canoeing, paddleboarding, sailing, electric day boats. Explore the countryside on foot and by bike – fens, grazing marshes, mysterious woodlands. Discover the wildlife – swallowtail butterflies, Norfolk hawker dragonflies, water lilies. www.VisitTheBroads.co.uk

Nestled in the heart of the orchards, the Drove Orchards Farm Shop is packed with a great variety of fresh produce. Alongside the home made fruit juices and ciders there are dedicated butchery and deli counters plus a wide array of groceries from Norfolk and beyond. Open 9am-5pm in summer, 9am-4pm in winter.

@drovefarmshop.com

Tel: 01485 525 652

hello@droveorchardsfarmshop.com

www.droveorchardsfarmshop.com Thornham Road, Thornham, Norfolk PE36 6LS

Life saving space

A huge natural bay spanning the north Norfolk and Lincolnshire coastlines, Jo Taylor guides you round The Wash: a vital, unique and wild mix of land and sea.

An ever-changing wilderness, The Wash provides vital space for wildlife, local communities and visitors to enjoy. It is often unseen but buzzing with life, from the calls of oystercatchers to the smell of the sea air and sometimes the footprints of passing walkers: the beating heart of the Norfolk coastline.

The largest bay in Britain, the rivers Witham, Welland, Nene and Great Ouse flow into the bay which at its widest point is around 20km across and 30km long.

The vast expanse of mudflats are covered twice daily by the North Sea. Surrounding these valuable mudflats are sandy and shingle beaches, saltmarshes, and hidden lagoons which provide the ideal resting and feeding spots for internationally significant numbers of wading birds - up to 400,000 wading birds, ducks and geese over the winter, more than any other bay or estuary in the UK. The area also hosts the largest common seal colonies in the UK, with the sandbanks littered with baby seals in the summer and some grey seals too.

In recognition of its global importance to people, place and wildlife The Wash was recently backed by the UK government, as part of the English east coast wetlands, for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage site, potentially putting it amongst places such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Galapagos Islands.

It’s not by chance that there are so many birds in this area. The UK’s east coast is a major part of the extraordinary ‘East Atlantic Flyway’. This bird ‘superhighway’ extends from South Africa through to the Arctic Circle and consists of several crucial wetlands which are used by the birds en-route. Similar to aeroplane flightpaths, with designated stopovers for re-fuelling, migratory birds also have dedicated flyways, passed down through the generations. Birds making these long journeys

congregate in areas where there are essential food supplies.

For centuries these pitstops have been used by birds such as bar-tailed godwit, knot and pink-footed geese. Alongside other well-known sites such as the Wadden Sea which spans the coastline of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark (and is incidentally a UNESCO World Heritage Site) The Wash provides another wellearned stopover.

The 170,000 hectares of the English east coast wetlands network is the same size as two New York cities and extends some 800 miles, from the River Thames through to the Humber Estuary, taking in The Wash with it. 155 bird species use this superhighway, dropping down for food and rest before re-commencing their journey to breeding or wintering grounds.

The Wash is the beating heart of the Norfolk coastline “

With the uncovering of the mudflats on a receding tide comes a veritable buffet, an invertebrate supermarket for the hungry birds. Within the mud are huge numbers of shellfish, marine worms, and young fish, all of whom make a tasty and much needed meal. With space to rest close by in the vast swathes of saltmarsh it has everything a weary bird traveller needs. The Wash is a haven, providing welcome respite and refuelling.

It isn’t just the birds that benefit from this feast. The Wash also supports a thriving fishing

industry that goes back generations. People have lived and worked here for centuries, harvesting cockles, brown shrimp and mussels. It’s a thriving working environment, supporting local communities. This at first glance may seem at odds with its status as a wildlife haven, but after years of working together conservation and fishing have struck a

Saltmarsh is also a soft sea defence. The vegetation on the edge acts as a buffer, breaking the force of the incoming tide and reducing the chances of flooding onto nearby land. It also means that the flow of water returning back to the sea slows too. Saltmarsh also plays its part in combatting climate change. It stores more carbon than any other habitat, burying it deep down underneath layers of sediment, which can remain locked away for centuries. It’s believed that one hectare of saltmarsh can store two tonnes of carbon per year.

Struggling: the Curlew is the largest wading bird in the UK and lives on estuaries in winter and breeds in moorland and farmland in the summer, but there are big declines in breeding populations and ranges.

Photo credit: Ben Andrew RSPB-images

Oystercatcher.

reserve

on the

Natural carbon capturer and flood defender

The east coast of England is one of the most vulnerable coastlines in the UK. Sea levels are rising due to climate change, threatening many habitats and communities.

Hugging the coastline of the Wash are a host of RSPB reserves where you can enjoy the sights, sounds (and scones!) of The Wash first hand.

On the north Norfolk coast is RSPB Snettisham with RSPB Titchwell Marsh just a stone’s throw away. Both havens for tens of thousands of over-wintering wading birds, ducks and geese. Titchwell is a reserve of big skies and sandy beaches with important reedbed habitat for birds such as marsh harrier and bearded tits. It’s perfect for families too with facilities onsite, such as toilets, shop and café. Family friendly events and activities are hosted all year round, with pond dipping and children’s trails on offer.

RSPB Frampton Marsh in the west of the bay in Lincolnshire supports huge numbers of breeding wading birds, including redshank. Nationally redshank are declining as a breeding bird in the UK, but conservation efforts here are providing the necessary space they need to nest. The reserve also has a fabulous café overlooking the reedbed lagoon, with freshly baked homemade

cakes. Visitors can while away the time watching the geese and ducks splashing about, interrupted sometimes by the drama of an incoming marsh harrier scanning for prey. Both reserves are great for accessibility too, with free mobility scooters for hire for use on the reserve.

Several walking routes traverse the coastline surrounding the Wash including the King Charles III coastal path (see page 24) and the RSPB reserves make a great refuelling stopover for weary walkers too.

Jo Taylor is communications officer for the RSPB.

FIND OUT MORE

Plan your visit to an RSPB reserve on the Wash

RSPB Frampton Marsh

RSPB Freiston Shore

RSPB Titchwell Marsh

RSPB Snettisham

Flood defence adaptations and conservation are delivered here side-by-side, as wetlands provide a costeffective and nature-friendly solution to reduce erosion and flood risk, as well as being rich landscapes for people and businesses, providing nursery grounds for fish, carbon storage, and space for recreation.

Carbon capture and

sequestration on saltmarsh occurs through CO2 being removed from the atmosphere on-site by plant growth. The majority of carbon is stored in the soil, when plant material is buried by the accumulation of new sediment.

As well as existing marshes, creation of new saltmarsh can rapidly lock large extra amounts of carbon, particularly if sediment accumulates quickly. On average, measured sequestration rates from UK saltmarsh schemes are comparable to rates from woodland creation schemes.

Saltmarshes are a highly effective carbon store.

Photo

Snettisham

sits

stunning coast, tucked into the huge Wash.

Sanderling at Freiston.

PAUL DICKSON TOURS

IN CROMER

Wondrous habitats for nature recovery

From spoonbill to natterjack, a recent study recorded nearly 11,000 species of wildlife in the nationally important landscapes of the coast. Five leading habitats support this web of amazing wildlife, and the next stage of the work is to connect and support them.

Grazing marsh and freshwater wetlands

Taken together, the grazing marsh and freshwater wetlands (including dune slacks, streams, spring lines and wet features) contain an impressive amount of natural species, comparable to some of the best wetland sites in England. 37% of the invertebrate species in England that use freshwater wetland habitats have been recorded within the North Norfolk Coastal Area, and the invertebrate and plant communities of these habitats include 151 species with a conservation status and 46 localised species.

Seven rivers feed into the coastal plain: most are chalk streams or chalk-fed, and all have diverse habitats with important biodiversity in their upper reaches. However the lower reaches of most of these rivers are impacted (by canalisation, nutrient enrichment), reducing biodiversity connectivity and water quality. Where to see: Burnham Overy Marsh, Rivers Babingley, Ingol, Heacham, Hun, Burn, Stiffkey, Glaven.

Dune, heath and dry grasslands

These contain a wealth of important biodiversity. 40% of all species in England that use such habitats are known from the area, including 143 species with a conservation status and 48 Localised species. The North Norfolk Coastal Area has significantly more priority invertebrate species than most other nationally important comparator coastal dune landscapes, and is similar to the otherwise best site in England (Sandwich Bay in Kent). Dune systems are highly diverse and support a wide range of rare and important species, many of which are specifically adapted to challenging low-nutrient, arid or salt-laden environments.

Extensive dune and shingle landscapes have developed providing a dynamic natural coastal barrier defence along the North Norfolk coast. Where to see: Blakeney Point.

Sandy beaches

Sandy beaches make a considerable contribution to the important plant and invertebrate biodiversity of inter-tidal areas at a landscape scale, including supporting some 26 localised species and 6 species with conservation status. These species occur both on the open sandy substrates themselves and on tidal debris of the strand line. Beach strandline habitats in particular support a relatively high proportion of the English fauna associated with this feature. Sandy beaches come under considerable pressure from human visitors, posing a significant risk to nesting birds in particular in these habitats. Managing access to key

areas by visitors and dogs is therefore important to avoid negative impacts on species of shoreline nesting birds (particularly oystercatcher, ringed plover and little tern).

Where to see: Holkham Gap.

Saltmarsh and brackish habitats

These hold more important biodiversity than many nationally important similar sites and are as good as the best saltmarsh sites in the country. 53% of all species in England that use such habitats are known from the North Norfolk Coastal Area, including 54 species with a conservation status and 101 localised species. With around 3,900 ha of saltmarsh, the Norfolk Coast has significantly more priority invertebrate continued on p18

Burnham Overy Staithe.

Photo credit: Rupert Gibson

The sand dunes at Blakeney Point.

Holkham and Wells next the Sea.

Little tern

Treasures of time and space

There’s so much to see, from natural heritage like the starry skies to deep history – this is just a taster. Let us know what else you discover!

Industrial archaeology

Horsey Windpump

The Broads drainage mills were built to drain the marshes dry enough for grazing cattle. The mill at Horsey dates from 1912 and in addition to its conservation role, the National Trust looks after this much-loved windpump on the Norfolk Broads. Having stood still and silent for over 75 years since 1943 when it was struck by lightning, Horsey Windpump has been brought back to life in recent years and is now complete with a winding cap. If you are lucky, you might even get to see its sails turning. The windpump is literally the focal point. You can explore the building and climb to the top for wonderful views, but exploring at ground or water level is equally rewarding. There’s a new accessible route to the waters of Horsey Mere, or you can take longer countryside walks, going as far as the coast. If you want to take to the water, you can explore with Ross’ Wildlife Boat Trips.

species than most comparator sites – including nationally important estuarine saltmarsh systems, such as the Thames. Where to see: Stiffkey saltmarshes.

Bog and mire

Relatively small areas of the area contain these acidic wetland conditions. Acidic bogs and mires contain a significant amount of priority species across their different microhabitats and on sites where the conditions (i.e. substrate and water chemistry) support them they are without doubt very important sites for biodiversity. Where to see: Dersingham Bog.

Archaeology sites

From Romans to WW2

The Norfolk coast is dotted with dozens of archaeological sites. Of particular note is the site of the Roman fort of Branodunum, just outside Brancaster. The fort, built in the 230s, later became part of the Saxon Shore fortification system. A geophysical survey by Channel 4’s Time Team in 2014 revealed huge granaries, barrack blocks for the soldiers, and a possible bath house.

It’s also rich in 20th Century archaeology, with many World War 2 air defences partially and fully intact at regular intervals along the coast. At the edge of Stiffkey saltmarsh there is the remains of a Cold War military installation known as The Whirlygig. This was the site of a United States Army Air Force rotary launcher which launched Radio Controlled Aircraft Targets (RCATs) for the practice firing of anti-aircraft guns.

Study shows how landscape supports nature

This ongoing study by the University of East Anglia has audited more than 10,000 species in north Norfolk and pinpointed the best ways and places to take action to protect and enhance nature.

The project looked at the 105-mile length of coastline to get a database ready for land

Celestial spots Dark nights and starry skies

The Norfolk coast boasts some of the darkest skies in the country, and this darkness plays a key role in creating tranquillity and protecting nature. The lack of artificial light helps the coast retain its rural character, while the darkness creates a closeness to the surrounding natural landscape. Clear night skies in the area allow visitors an unrivalled view of the night sky. There are Dark Sky Discovery sites on the coast (see map p20-21) chosen because they are proven points where stargazing is possible, with good access and

managers so they can understand the impact of their decisions, and how to join up management.

It looked at how nature co-exists, and what each species needs – and came up with some clear ideas about how to join up management so that farmers can provide connectivity for species.

Key facts

• 10,759 species have been recorded on the Norfolk coast from 1980; at least 1,274 species are conservation priorities.

• The Norfolk coast holds some of the largest

and best saltmarsh (nearly 3,900 ha), freshwater grazing marsh (more than 1,130 ha) and dune landscapes (541 ha) in the UK: all are vital to this biodiversity.

• These Norfolk habitats support as many, or more, priority species than comparable major complexes elsewhere in England and Wales. Sea level rise, climate change and the growing need for managed realignment together pose serious challenges to these habitats and their wildlife.

• Funded by a public-private partnership of farmers, conservation NGOs, Local Authorities and Natural England, the audit collated over a million species records, and worked closely with expert taxonomists and site managers to gather the data and make recommendations.

What next?

Part of the area has now been chosen to host one of Natural England’s latest Landscape Recovery pilot schemes. The project, which will convert over 1400 hectares of arable farmland on the Holkham Estate into new habitat managed for nature, will fill in existing gaps in the habitat mosaic in that area. On completion, it means a total of 13,470 hectares of land will be managed for wildlife.

More information can be found at nncg.org.uk

Happisburgh.

continued from p17

Above: Salt marshes at Stiffkey. Inset: Dersingham Bog National Nature Reserve.

Horsey Windpump.

views. Sometimes you can see the seven stars of the Orion constellation and the Milky Way (the combined light from the millions of stars in our Galaxy). Star gazers are also able to search around the many dark rifts from huge interstellar

dust clouds, search out elusive galaxies they have never seen before and enjoy crystal clear views of our planetary neighbours. But even without the stars, enjoy dark nights – better for the health of humans, animals and our planet. darkskydiscovery.org.uk cprenorfolk.org.uk

Deep history coast Connecting with the first Europeans

North Norfolk’s Deep History Coast is the 22-mile stretch of coastline between Weybourne and Cart Gap which has revealed spectacular finds. Happisburgh is the oldest archaeological site in northern Europe and West Runton yielded the oldest and largest fossilised mammoth skeleton ever found in the UK. The exciting West Runton Mammoth find is the most studied of its kind and ongoing discoveries have also revealed the bones of rhinos, hyaenas, wolves and bears. Finds along the Deep History Coast have provided the earliest evidence for human occupation so far discovered in northern Europe. They place early humans here in Norfolk some 350,000 years earlier than had been thought, at over 850,000 years ago. They also inform and provide a focus for the emerging story of Doggerland - an area of land, now lying beneath the southern North Sea, which connected Great Britain to mainland Europe during the last Ice Age. north-norfolk.gov.uk

Local churches

Spectacular beacons of flint

Repositories of living history, the churches of the Norfolk coast are magnificent beacons that overlook the sea and landscape. There are many to discover, but here are a few as starters. The dominant tower of St Nicholas’ Blakeney can be seen from the marshes rising on a ridge – closer inspection reveals a curious lantern at the east end of the church, possibly a miniature lighthouse for ships of old. St Margaret’s Cley (pictured below) once overlooked the town’s quay but today the view is of village green and meadow. Its light interior contains a spectacular display of medieval stonework and visitors are greeted by an ornate porch. Across the valley at Glandford is a later arrival to the coast, St Martin’s, a highly decorated Victorian addition. Listen out for its pealing bells. St Nicholas’ Salthouse perhaps sums up the bond between our use of the landscape and our love of something beyond – a wonderful marriage of view, space and place, rising high above the village.

Photo

20 Norfolk Coast and Broads Explorer Map

North Norfolk Safaris

Illustrative map by Kate Dougan 2024. Prints available from KateDougan.Etsy.com

Norfolk Coast and Broads Explorer Map 21

Taking the first step

The England Coast Path now bears the King’s name. Tim Lidstone-Scott was there at the start in Norfolk: he recalls meeting the future monarch at the opening over 30 years ago –and the work of the many people who helped create this amazing path.

The Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path National Trail started life in the late 1960s as the thirteenth ‘Long Distance Path’ to be proposed after the first and ground-breaking Pennine Way.

Long Distance Paths (now known as National Trails), AONBs (now National Landscapes) and National Parks owe their existence to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Thank goodness for the far-sighted author of the act, John Dower.

Norfolk County Council first proposed the route in 1969, initially following the coast round to Great Yarmouth: the entirety of this has now come to pass as the King Charles III England Coast Path (see inset box p24, Path opens access to whole coast)

It didn’t happen all at once. In 1970 JF (Willie) Wilson was employed as a field officer to undertake a feasibility study for a route following the Roman Road known as the Peddars Way and then along the north Norfolk coast to Cromer. After much consultation this route was proposed by the Countryside Commission to the Secretary of State for the Environment.

Three months later in November a Peddars Way Association was formed by the Ramblers Association and launched in Swaffham. This Association was to become an integral part of the development story of the Long Distance Path. Willie Wilson unfortunately passed away in 1982 so never saw the completed route. A small area of native woodland was planted in his memory on NWT land at Thompson Water beside the Peddars Way.

Around this time Norfolk was creating some of the county’s other, lower profile long distance paths. Lower national profile, but still important in the provision of long distance walking and indeed non motorised commuting in Norfolk. A small countryside team led by Graham King, supported by the late Alan Scowen, was beginning to establish some of the routes we now take for granted: The Marriotts Way, Weavers Way and the Angles Way (in partnership with Suffolk CC). More were to follow as walking and cycling became recognised as both health-giving and needed by residents.

In 1984 I was employed to lead a Manpower Services team in the construction of the Norfolk

HRH Prince Charles at the official opening of Peddars Way / Norfolk Coast Path National Trail, Holme-nextthe-Sea, near Hunstanton on 8th July 1986.

Coast Path. My role included helping individuals in the team prepare for full employment in the commercial world, including advising on completing job applications.

We were supplied with a secondhand Sherpa van, initially stored at the former Highways Depot in Holt. The north Norfolk Coast was a much quieter place in those days and we never locked the van. We had a workshop in the old school room at Holkham, and for a short time a shed on National Trust’s Branodunum, one of the Saxon Shore forts built by the Romans during the 3rd century (see page 18)

The Manpower Services Commission (MSC) was a non-departmental public body created by Edward Heath’s government in 1973. The MSC had a remit to co-ordinate employment and training services in the UK through a ten-member commission drawn from industry, trade unions, local authorities and education interests.

Photo credits: Clive Tully, Alamy

continued from p23

The MSC field officers that managed the various teams across Norfolk, including mine, had a rather strange view of how best to encourage a work ethic. One of the tasks identified for the team was cutting grass on the sea bank from Burnham Overy round towards Burnham Deepdale. I pointed out this was something a tractor and mower could do in a few hours, and all we had were hand sickles, and by hand it had to be. It can be imagined how this went down with the team members who were country born.

The path was officially opened by HRH Prince Charles on the 8th July 1986 at Holme Dunes where the Peddars Way and the Coast Path meet.

To prepare for the big opening day I recall being summoned to County Hall to contribute my thoughts on the plans: in particular how HRH could open the path by erecting a finger post. It turned out he couldn’t, but what he could do was put in place the fingers and knock in carefully sanded dowels designed to slide in with a few taps from the royal hand. We also had duplicate dowels should one get lost or broken.

The finger post itself slotted into a preprepared concrete base dug into the sand a few days earlier and hidden just below the surface. Plain clothed police paid close attention when we rocked up to uncover the base and slide the oak post into its housing.

I was fortunate to be included in the group of people designated to meet Prince Charles. He only spent a very short time speaking to each of us but within this short time he showed acute awareness of the issues of leading a team of people looking for work. Most of the men and the one woman on the team were intelligent, hardworking and a great bunch to work withindeed I probably learnt more from them than they from me.

The first guidebook published to coincide with the opening by HMSO for £4.95 was written by the late Bruce Robinson (1936-2016) regional sports journalist and sub-editor at the EDP with a particular interest in the Peddars Way.

I became Long Distance Path Manager, and two years later the Countryside Commission renamed Long Distance Paths National Trails.

Carefully routed: from the new path you can spot sea birds like oystercatchers.

Path opens access to whole coast

The King Charles III England Coast Path will be the longest managed coastal path in the world: all the way around the country’s coast and 2,700 miles long when complete. The new Norfolk section of the path was opened in March this year, giving the public access to some of the county’s coastline for the first time.

The opening of this 33.6 miles (54.1km) section from Hunstanton in Norfolk, to Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, means the entire Norfolk coast is now accessible to walkers. It introduces seven miles of new access between Snettisham and King’s Lynn, crossing the seaward edge of Sandringham Estate.

James Marshall, Natural England Deputy Director for Norfolk & Suffolk, said: “This new stretch will give people from all over the country access to our beautiful local coastline, connecting them with nature and providing health and wellbeing benefits. The trail will also support the local economy - bringing walkers and visitors to the towns and villages for daytrips, refreshments and places to stay.”

The path provides multiple opportunities to spot sea birds and other nature. RSPB Snettisham, views across The Wash, and Wild Ken Hill conservation estate are all part of the route. The Wash attracts large numbers of migratory and overwintering birds such as knot, dunlin and oystercatcher. To protect wildlife the path has been carefully routed to avoid disturbance. The trail passes by the towns of Hunstanton, Heacham and King’s Lynn. King’s Lynn offers historical and maritime heritage to explore along its elegant quayside by the Great Ouse. From King’s Lynn the trail follows the Peter Scott Walk, named after the groundbreaking conservationist who lived in the area.

Parts of the path are quite remote, with no public facilities or connecting paths for several miles. However, there are services and transport links in the centres of King’s Lynn and Sutton Bridge.

Natural England worked on this section of the King Charles III England Coast Path with its partners including Norfolk County Council, Lincolnshire County Council and RSPB.

National Trail officers from across the country started meeting together during the early 1990s and went on to influence how the Countryside Commission and later the Countryside Agency created policy associated with the routes, including the first detailed user surveys which for the first time started counting walkers and attributing spend whilst visiting the routes. This

proved to be extremely powerful information in the funding battles that were to follow.

Tim Lidstone-Scott led the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path National Trail team for 30 years.

FIND OUT MORE norfolk.gov.uk/norfolkcoastpath nationaltrail.co.uk ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/ramblers-groups/ areas/norfolk-area

Photo credit: Ben Andrew.

Cole, Rachel Lockwood, Jane Hodgson, Stephen Page

Working wild and

Artist Mary Blue has crossed the world to paint out of Wells, making element-inspired canvasses that speak to nature and her love of the coast.

Awild and untamed spirit is ever present within the salt marsh and coastal terrain of Norfolk. It ignites my imagination and offers me a deep sense of peace, an escape from the emotional upheaval that we all experience as humans, a respite that is so needed – a sort of deliverance from our everyday modern life. I came to north Norfolk in search of love and I have found it in the streams, eddies, tidepools and marshes I paint.

Winter is always being replaced by spring, just as summer replaces the blossom and so forth. This is keenly felt on the coast, and it offers me solace. The changing tides, the migratory birds, the cycles of the moon all connect me to the coast in a way that affirms life much the same way women bring forth life.

For me, the north Norfolk coast is a sanctuary and my paintings seek to address a sense of power, peace, and an undercurrent of deep joy all wrapped within the fragile nature of life. The laws of the universe that are embedded into the natural world are beyond beautiful and reveal a richness and harmony in nature that extends beyond what is visible.

I am drawn to the weather, tides, moons that cradle the coastline. The affluence of late sunlight gilding the fields or the lustre of the morning bloom. I seek potential in the power of the landscape that is timeless and evokes light through the play of colour that I have inherited from my American sensibility as it interplays with the misty air of eastern England, where East Anglian landscape painters like Cedric Morris, Thomas Gainsborough and John Sell Cotman have laid a foundation for me to see the weather. With the greening of the meadows in spring as we move away from the winter grey the seals inhabit, my mind wanders to the solitary sea birds

Power, peace, and an undercurrent of deep joy: one of Mary’s works selected for the Royal Academy in 2023.

Credit: Mary Blue

We have arrived in this new century where humanity needs to take decisive

action with how we treat the natural world

that find refuge here, and roams wild with the waves that inform my work.

Changing cultures has been challenging. I often get things wrong, and yet I continue learning and adapting as it’s part of living. We have arrived in this new century where humanity needs to take decisive action with how we treat the natural world. I paint to reflect the weather,

the changing tides and that has become so much a part of my life as it echoes the substantial changes in the way we move forward.

Being surrounded by the elements along the Norfolk coast has taught me patience, perseverance and self-reliance; all delivered on a soft breeze or a gale force wind, as we have both.

I hope my work will enable a shift in thinking

‘At the crossroads of impermanence, beauty remains’: Spring Hawthorne. Credit: Mary Blue

deep

Patience, perseverance and self-reliance: all came by working on the coast, the artist says.

Surrounded by the elements: painting outside or ‘en plein air’.

about water issues by inspiring others to steward the natural world and engaging an audience with an emotional resonance. It’s a delicate balance between commerce and what is right for the planet. I believe we can manage it successfully, but it does require a deeper understanding.

I like to weave layers of jewel-toned colours together, exposing the overlooked hidden effects of nature. I paint brilliant light and deep shadow, the far horizon and the passing of time. I am drawn to the delicate, the broken, the most fleeting, these are timeless and possess a powerful resonance. At the crossroads of impermanence, beauty remains.

In recent months, I have begun to paint the weather in all its myriad forms here along the Norfolk coast which is a huge tradition that is part of every Englishman and woman as they chase the satisfaction of British summertime, where the cold darkness gives way to a brilliant cloudless blue and the rush of the salt air caressing your face. This is my Norfolk coast, my end of the world.

Mary Blue is an artist living and working on the Norfolk Coast.

FIND OUT MORE

maryblue.co.uk contemporaryandcountry.com @marybluecreates

From the ground up

Veronica Sekules on the latest from King’s Lynn’s pioneering Groundwork Gallery

GroundWork Gallery is about to launch its fourth year of artist in residence programmes. Focusing on Extraction, this theme started in 2021. For our first year we hosted three artists, one of them via the University of the Arts London’s Art for the Environment Residency Programme, our first partnership which lasted for three years, culminating in our current exhibition Art for the Environment (ended in June).

The extraction focus was initially inspired by a huge initiative which had begun in Montana in the United States. Two writers had become angry about an unprotected lake the depth of a skyscraper filled with pollution from copper mining. Called the Berkeley pit, it caused them to launch a campaign against the willful extraction of earth’s resources, involving museums, galleries, artists and writers.

GroundWork became involved, the only gallery outside the States to do so, thanks to writer and artist Karen Eng, who knew them well. Four years later we seem to be the only ones still regularly pursuing this important theme, and we have not yet exhausted its potential for study, art production or campaigning. This year’s project is called Ground Up. For the first two year’s residencies, subsidised by a grant from the Norfolk Coast Partnership, we concentrated on looking at quarrying of flint, chalk and the most controversial, silica sand. Last year we broadened the subject and focused more intently on The Ground Beneath Our Feet.

So, for our fourth year, Ground Up, we are bigger than ever and back looking at quarries and the wider contexts of land and resources dug up and taken from it. Working with two residency partners who also host artists: The Grange Projects, Great Cressingham and Broomfield, Reepham, a special wildlife and wetland site, we are about to host a total of twenty artists.

Of these, six are local and won’t be staying in our various venues, but the rest are travelling to stay with us, some of them internationally. No money changes hands, except for contributions towards food and transport.

The artists get free accommodation for several weeks, plus a chance to exhibit in the Ground Up show later in the year (October 11 to December 14). But partly what makes the whole thing desirable for them is the research week we offer as part of the whole experience. Each year this has got to be a bigger aspect, and we organise field trips and talks given by specialists in the subjects and areas relevant for extraction.

A regular highlight is a day we spend with Tim Holt Wilson of the Norfolk Geological Partnership looking at significant local geology. With the Norfolk Rivers Trust we explore some

of their restoration projects. Wild Ken Hill give us a tour of their regenerative farming sites. Peter Lemon, Managing Director of Middleton Aggregates, gives us tours of his five quarries in spite of, by his own admission, not being all that keen on art. And there are others, as we like to be responsive to the needs of the artists. So we will also broker other relationships and introductions relevant for their practice as it develops over the residency period.

Another aspect which has become of increasing and crucial importance is the community which forms. Last year, the 12 artists formed an incredibly strong bond. We had good discussions along the way and inserted some more formal talks as it became clear, for example, that a desire for more information about climate change emerged.

The artists gave each other peer support as they made work and that was great for confidence-building. There is absolutely no doubt, demonstrated by the detailed feedback they gave, that their work and ideas benefited immensely from the whole experience; from the talks and walks, the discussions and the cooking and eating together. But so did the rest of us around them benefit. Even the organisations and people representing them, who gave talks and advice, either learned more about their practice as a result of talking to a creative group of people, or gained encouragement from the enthusiasm they met.

GroundWork Gallery is sitting on something of a precious resource in having brought together and nurtured a community which is learning more together about art and environment and how they interact.

Recognising this, and seeing how each year our artist in residency programme has grown in scale and ambition, we are now forming GroundWork NetWork. This is intended to be a forum, a way to add more structure and give more status to a movement among us which is emerging organically anyway. I am hoping it will also bring in some much-needed funds. That said, we are benefiting currently from some project grant funding from the Arts Council, and that is helping us to bring more attention to the development of GroundWork NetWork as an increasing force for recognising the role of art in helping our wider society to aim for a better environment.

Veronica Sekules is director of the GroundWork Gallery

FIND OUT MORE

GroundWork Gallery, 17 Purfleet St, King’s Lynn, PE30 1ER 0044 (0)1553 340714

groundworkgallery.com

mail@groundworkgallery.com

Twitter @groundworkkl

Instagram: Groundworkgallery

Credit: Mary Blue

Credit: Mary Blue

“

Listening to birdsong or watching a sunset can have a positive health benefit

A place to connect

Wellbeing comes from taking in what the coast has to offer –and at the same time giving back. Here are some of our tips for regenerative visits that benefit both you and the area. Why not try…

Walk in the dark experience the peaceful power of the night

Walking at night is a powerful way to relax and retune your senses. You can hear more, smell more, and feel more once your dominant sight sense has to take a back seat. As well as being able to see what is going on in the beautiful night sky, you become more conscious of the contours of the paths, and have to walk more carefully. Darkness is proven to be good for us, and dark night skies are a big part of what makes rural Norfolk tranquil and special.

You could also try a biofluorescent night walk with Reveal Nature, a local company offering a range of guided walks which pick up the beautiful sights of biofluorescent fungi, flowers, insects, lichen, seaweeds and more.

To give back

At home you can make sure that you are doing your bit to reduce light pollution, in city or country, and benefit nature as well as saving carbon. Find out more

• revealnature.co.uk

guided biofluorescent walks

• cprenorfolk.org.uk

guide to reducing light pollution

Listen

out for sounds

tune in to a world of new understanding

What we hear goes in at a level which touches us deeply. Birdsong, the cries of gulls, leaves rustling, branches rubbing together, reedbeds creaking, the plinking of sailing boat rigs –

of the waves, and the sucking of the tide as it leaves creeks and pools create an unforgettable rhythm to the landscape. Close your eyes and open to the soundscape which is everywhere.

There are human voices too of course – and the noises we make, like singing and music. Close your eyes anywhere on the coast and simply allow yourself to experience what you hear. Tune in to the deeper layers around you and wonder at the richness of experience.

To give back

Travel quietly and listen out for what is around you. Listen to local stories and voices. From home you can browse amazing collections like that of local sound artist Richard Fair at Norfolk Sound Map or Sounding Coastal Change.

Find out more

• norfolksoundmap.uk

over 200 field recordings, features and interviews by Richard Fair

• wellsmaltings.org.uk

listen to a range of amazing sonic postcards from the area

• soundingcoastalchange.org/sonicmap Sounding Coastal Change’s map of the coast

Connect

get in touch and work with others

Along the coast there is a wealth of communities. From common rights holders, to theatre groups, to toad patrols; from those who gain their living from the land and sea to those who are on

holiday in the area. Everyone has a stake in and cares for this living, changing landscape. Look out for community events and support them; get involved.

For hands on help, there’s the likes of the toad patrol volunteers, who save thousands of toads and newts every year on the Norfolk roads - you can see each amphibian saved on the log on the interactive map.

More broadly, if you are feeling the weight of concern about coastal erosion, the climate crisis and extreme weather events, you don’t have to bear this alone.

For example, a group set up by Norfolk and Waveney Mind provide a climate café as a friendly space to share thoughts and emotions on the climate emergency. Their aim is to help people talk with like-minded others so that they can find, or revive their agency and compassionate resourcefulness, rather than leaning into despair, shame and helplessness. Or check out the warm and friendly exciting art scene in Great Yarmouth.

To give back

Keep an eye out for how you could lend a hand to help – from toad patrols to beach cleans to climate cafes – there is so much going on that will welcome your involvement.

Find out more

• norfolkandwaveneymind.org.uk

sUStain, a project to promote hope

• toadwatch.org interactive map and toad patrols

• norfolkbeachcleans.co.uk

listings of community beach cleans

• feathersfutures.org

bringing women together in Great Yarmouth

• freshlygreated.org.uk

• originalprojects.co.uk/yarmakers/

Sand dunes at Winterton.

Common chiffchaff singing from its perch.

Beach cleans are a good way to lend a hand.

Dark night skies are a big part of what makes rural Norfolk tranquil and special.

A wild goose chase

It’s April 1st. House sparrows are in the roof above my desk, claiming – with breathy tuts and stammers – a space to nest.

Through the open window of my bathroom, I can hear the happy twitter of a dunnock in the garden. He means to nest, perhaps, in the fairytale craze of ivy on the flint wall of my shed. Herring gulls are yelling outside too. They and the noisy oystercatchers by the village pond will nest on buildings at the river’s edge, just a hundred metres behind my home.

Everyone is poised to breed, including the many migrant birds arriving from the Mediterranean and Africa. Already, in the tangled hawthorns and grey willows along the disused railway line, many chiffchaffs are in song. Last week a willow warbler joined them, the first of several who will come. Within a week there will be swallows, sedge warblers, perhaps a cuckoo, along the quiet North Norfolk riverbank where I walk.

I love the spring. I love the hairy bittercress and rue-leaved saxifrage blooming shyly from inhospitable cracks in walls. I love the peacock butterflies and commas, warming themselves on

‘The geese became my flock’: Nick with barnacle geese.

sunny banks, gathering the energy to court and breed, after long, cold months of hibernation. I love the wild and restless jousts of hares in Norfolk fields.

Yes, I love spring’s heady ride. I open like a bud in it. But four years ago – during the Covid lockdowns – I gave my heart to winter and her Arctic voices. 2020: what a strange and troubling year it was. Each of us has stories of survival, learning, love and loss from 2020. As for so many, the winter lockdowns were a gruelling time for me. Starved by circumstance of work, of income and even friends and family, it was a bleak and lonely time.

In my old flint shed – where dunnocks will nest this spring, perhaps – I have a bicycle which my mother bought in summer 1979. The dark red of a ruddy darter dragonfly, its steel frame is unfashionably heavy. Its three gears – one of which often fails to bite – and my spindly legs are little match for the undulating valleys of the Burn, the Stiffkey and the Glaven. But all that lockeddown winter of 2020 into 2021 I cycled around North Norfolk on my old red bike. Following geese.

The geese were my salvation. They kept my mind and body active through a long and lonesome season “

It is impossible to live along the Norfolk coast and be unaware of geese. They are the sound and spectacle of our winters. Two species are our mainstays. Watching birds at Cley all through my teens and early twenties, dark-bellied brent geese were a winter constant, wrapping us in their warm and throaty voices against the cold.

These squat and blackish geese, with stark white vents, visit every winter from Siberia, bringing tales of gyrfalcons and Arctic foxes for those who stop to listen. The brent geese haunt our coastal marshes through the winter, spilling a few miles inland to feed on cereal shoots.

The second core geese of North Norfolk winters are the pinkfeet. These larger, greyer geese – with blue Impressionist washes on their shoulders, and heads of cocoa brown – visit us from Iceland and from Greenland. Unlike coast-

hugging brent geese, huge flocks of pink-footed geese roam all over Norfolk from their coastal roosts, seeking sugar beet waste in harvested fields and fallen heads of maize. They are the geese that all of Norfolk knows, the geese that Norfolk people hurry out to hear. Every single time they pass.

Alone and struggling to make ends meet, I gave myself to geese all winter, pedalling out to them each day the weather let me. And writing every day about what I saw. The geese became my flock. Cycling more than a thousand miles –the distance covered in a day by pinkfeet bound to us from Iceland – my legs grew weary, wiry. I came to know each yard of North Norfolk tarmac and – on my sluggish bike – to hate the slow hill south from Wells to Egmere.

But the geese, it’s true to say, were my salvation. They kept my mind and body active through a long and lonesome season. The words I wrote on them – and the stories from goose people around Norfolk and as far away as Iceland – became a book. Like the geese themselves, my book has made wild flights through Norfolk and far beyond. I look back on that cold, demanding winter now with love and gratitude.

Next week, most likely, I will see a swallow from my desk. My heart will skip for joy. But through the long, warm days of summer, I will hold the voices of wild geese within me; until, one thrilling day in autumn, my heart leaps for the coming of the pinkfeet. And my flock comes home.

Nick Acheson is a naturalist and conservationist

Nick Acheson’s wonderful The Meaning of Geese memorably describes how in the long lockdown winter, geese flew to his aid. Here he shares more on nature’s healing through the seasons on the coast. The Meaning of Geese A Thousand Miles in Search of Home by Nick Acheson Paperback £12.99 themarshtit.com twitter @themarshtit instagram @thewillowtit chelseagreen.co.uk/book/ the-meaning-of-geese/

Photo credits: Nick Acheson

From peas and pansies to ‘Dumplings’ and a golden spice

Norfolk is home to farming invention, as well as natural riches. Bring diversity to your diet with some of the area’s unique flavours, which go back centuries – and are healthy too.

Peas please me

Get your finger on the pulse

Bright green frozen peas might seem like an unexciting plate filler. But not when you go behind the scenes in Norfolk, where the work by hundreds of growers to harvest and freeze them is still a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week operation, that normally lasts eight or nine weeks. Now a new kind of local pea is paving the way to a healthy future. A local company is pioneering plant-based protein alternatives which are high protein, a source of fibre, gluten free and British made – with an innovative range using 100% yellow peas.

Founded by a group of forward-thinking investors, agri-tech engineers and local Norfolk farm groups, Novo Farina offer plant-based innovations, locally sourced ingredients and a passion for sustainable ingredients that provide exceptional taste and value for money. Their high protein ingredients – including pea flour, pea mince and pea panko crumb - are designed to deliver on taste, texture and versatility whilst being kinder on the planet. You might find them in one of your meat-free dinners. Find out more: novofarina.co.uk

Unusual flavours

From sea vegetables to edible flowers

Lavender, marigold, viola, seaweed and samphire: just a few of the fresh delicacies that can add flavour and beauty to your plate. These local chefs started by growing micro herbs and pea shoots in a small greenhouse in their back garden for the restaurant they worked in, and went on to create a company, Nurtured in Norfolk. There’s a huge range of garnishes, from flavoured herb oils like wild garlic and lovage, to tiny tasty micro cress including wood sorrel and lemon balm. And if you fancy a taste of the sea, seaweed, samphire and sea fennel are all on offer. For dessert, garnish your cakes (and why not salads too) with beautiful petals, from cornflowers to roses.

Favourite fruits From the Beefing to the Dumpling

There are 39 apple varieties which originate from Norfolk, two pears and ten cherries. That we know this is down to the painstaking work of the East of England Apples and Orchards Project. Norfolk has the earliest recorded variety from the whole region, Five Crowned Pippin, which dates from the 1500s. Its most well-known variety may be the Norfolk Beefing, recorded in 1698. Varieties still popular today include Adams Pearmain, Norfolk Royal and Golden Noble. At least another 40 varieties are considered lost. Apples bred on the coast include the Early Nonpareil (1780, Caisteron-Sea), the Happisburgh (pre 1925), the Norfolk Royal Russet (Burnham Overy Staithe, 1983), Norfolk Dumpling (1827, then rediscovered North Creake, 1990s). The project sells trees, so you can make sure this diversity of delicious fruits continues. Find out more: applesandorchards.org.uk

Finishing touch

Grow fresh herbs to garnish and

heal

Find out more: nurturedinnorfolk.co.uk

Herbs help health and biodiversity and they taste delicious. Norfolk Herbs are growers of naturally raised culinary, medicinal and aromatic herb plants for wholesale, retail and mail order – an established family business with a nursery in the

Norfolk countryside. From agrimony to yarrow, there’s a herb for all spots in the garden and most maladies. To take those two alone - agrimony, a native herb, has clusters of yellow flowers on slender spikes, hence its other name of ‘Church Steeples’ – and finches are fond of the seeds. Yarrow is a familiar wayside wildflower and ancient herb with soft feather like foliage and small creamy white flowers in summer that are also very popular with bees and other pollinators. Then there are all the culinary herbs, from eight kinds of marjoram to no less than 28 different mints – strawberry, Thai, pineapple, banana – even chocolate peppermint!

Find out more: norfolkherbs.co.uk

Spice of life

How Norfolk rediscovered saffron

The yellow threads of saffron give a distinctive, delicious flavour to sweet and savoury dishes alike – from risotto to buns and breads. As well as giving food a golden colour, saffron contains antioxidants that are thought to help combat stress, depression and infection. The Norfolk coast is lucky to have its very own grower of the fine spice, with a HQ set in the heart of the national landscape, and a smallholding where saffron is grown naturally and in crop rotation, alongside pollen and nectar mix plants, and with other conservation measures like laid hedges. Find out more: norfolksaffron.co.uk

Photo credit: Chris Lawrence Travel Shutterstock.com Lemon Balm.

Norfolk Beefing apples.

Pea mince.

Yarrow.

Redwings Horse Sanctuary

Dog friendly!

Please visit our website for more information redwings.org.uk/visit | 01508 505246 Meet friendly rescued horses and donkeys at Redwings Aylsham, nr Norwich, NR11 6UE or Redwings Caldecott, nr Gt.Yarmouth, NR31 9EY

Open 10am to 4pm every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday

THINGS TO DO AND SEE AROUND THE COAST

MAY

Pop Up Shops

Thursday to Tuesday –changing weekly

Dalegate Market, Burnham Deepdale

Warblers

North Norfolk Coast shopping that’s not on the high street from local producers & artisans. Dalegate Market will host four artisans & producers in the beach huts each week.

dalegatemarket.co.uk/pop-up-shops

Thursford Steam Museum

Until 4 September

The world’s largest collection of steam engines and organs.

The

for the day. Listen out for booming bitterns and the gentle sounds of bearded tits and reedbed warblers. www.events.rspb.org.uk/titchwell

Otter Spotting Guided Canoe Trails

Beccles dates: 4 May

Wroxham dates: 25 May

A wildlife-filled journey from the Broads out into the jungle that awaits. Tree-lined rivers and small undiscovered corners of hidden broads are waiting to be unveiled. Booking: www.thecanoeman.com/ guided-otter-spotting-trails

Classic Sitcom Weekend featuring Dad’s Army Live 4-6 May

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham

The brigade from the Dad’s Army Museum join us to celebrate the popular series, an episode of which was filmed at Weybourne Station. www.nnrailway.co.uk

‘Comings and Goings’ John Hurst’s watercolours 8-21 May

NWT Cley Marshes Visitors Centre

This is John’s sixteenth annual watercolour exhibition at Cley Marshes. The current collection features reference to birds, in

particular those who since ‘coming and going’ have become residents. 10am-5pm daily.

www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

Birdsong for Beginners

9 May

Titchwell Marsh

Spend the morning listening to the melodious sound of the dawn chorus as you take a gentle amble through woodlands, reedbeds and past bird filled lagoons. Breakfast is included.

www.events.rspb.org.uk/titchwell

Guided Sea Kayaking

11 May

Brancaster Staithe

Explore the ever-changing creeks and get lost in a wilderness like no other, surrounded by stunning views and incredible wildlife; come and immerse yourself in truly wild surroundings.

Booking: www.thecanoeman.com/ guided-sea-kayaking

Little Vintage Lover Fair 12 May

Mannington Estate www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Cromer Crab and Lobster Festival Opening Concert

17 May

Cromer

This year the festival starts with a traditional Variety Show, designed to suit all ages. Filled with irresistible humour and as always unique songs of the sea. Olly Day returns to host. Tickets £15 each.

Book: cromerpier.co.uk; 01263 512495

Cromer Crab & Lobster Festival 17-19 May

Cromer

Celebrating the town’s famous seafood with cookery demos, various local stalls, live music, fresh Cromer crab sandwiches, children’s entertainment and more. www.cclf.org.uk

brigade from the Dad’s Army Museum take a trip to the North Norfolk Railway in May.

Photo credit: Kev Gregory/shutterstock.com

John Hurst returns to Cley Marshes in May with his latest exhibition ‘Comings and Goings’.

Bat walk and supper

23 May

Mannington Estate

A home cooked, locally sourced two-course supper followed by a walk looking for creatures of the night such as bats, owls and moths.

www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Open Studios art exhibition

25 May-2 June

Mannington Estate

www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Printmakers’ Wildlife Exhibition

25 May-23 June

BIRDscapes Gallery, Glandford, Holt

A celebration of the Printmaker’s art in all it’s many forms; linocuts, etchings, mezzotints, aquatints, collagraphs and much more.

www.birdscapes.co.uk

Swallows and Amazons Adventure Days

WildWood, Buxton/Coltishall

Star in your own family adventure with an exciting, action-packed day. Booking: www.thecanoeman.com/ adventure-days

JUN

Demystifying Breydon Water

1 June

End of Porters Loke Road

A chance for those inexperienced or wary of crossing Breydon Water to familiarise themselves with it.

You’ll travel from Burgh Castle, going as far as the Great Yarmouth bridges. Cost £12. 10.30am-1pm.

Booking essential: 01493 842794

Otter Spotting Guided Canoe Trails

Beccles dates: 22 June

Wroxham dates: 4 June

Buxton dates: 1 June

See 4 May for more info

Ranworth Ramble

5 June

Ranworth Staithe

Explore Ranworth on this walk with a ranger (about 2.5 miles), taking in the views. Find out about the seasonal wildlife, the history and management of the area. 10am-12pm. Cost £6.

Booking essential 01603 756094

Landscape Painting Workshop

6 June, 10am-2pm

Stonegate, Egmere Rd, Walsingham

A landscape painting workshop with artist Mary Blue.

www.reefmakeanddo.com

Rails & Ales

7-9 June

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham

Steam and diesel locomotives in action along with heritage diesel multiple units, plus a chance to sample local ales and ciders at the line’s three stations and on board selected trains.

www.nnrailway.co.uk

Guided Sea Kayaking

9 June

Brancaster Staithe

See 11 May for more info

Guided Kayak and SUP Trail

11 June

Coltishall

Take your pick of kayak or SUP as we head upstream to the quieter stretches of the river Bure to explore the nature around us!

Booking: www.thecanoeman.com/ guided-trails

Eel Sett Guided Walk

12 June

St Nicholas’ Church,

Potter Heigham

The walk is about 4.5 miles on footpaths and some minor roads.

Visit a traditional eel sett and a bird hide overlooking the nature reserve at Hickling Broad. 10am-1pm.

Cost £6.

Booking essential 01603 756097

The Importance of Being EarnestOpen Air Theatre

12 June

The Orchard, Dalegate Market, Burnham Deepdale

The Pantaloons return for the first of their summer shows, with their hilarious take on this classic Oscar Wilde story. Comedy for all the family, a brilliant evening of comedy theatre. www.dalegatemarket.co.uk/theatre

Bushcraft Canoe Trail

15 June

Wildwood Campsite, Coltishall

This 2-day, 1 night expedition takes you on a journey into the wilderness; combining canoeing and bushcraft to create the perfect adventure weekend suitable for all experience levels.

Booking: www.thecanoeman.com/ guided-bushcraft-trails

Wild Afternoon Tea

15 June

How Hill, Ludham

Find out about edible wild plants on a gentle amble around How Hill National Nature Reserve. Then enjoy a three-course wild afternoon tea, served in the serene garden of Toad Hole Cottage. 1-4pm. £18 per person. Booking essential 01603 756096

Wild About Mannington Day

15 June

Mannington Estate

A celebration of Norfolk wildlife and bioblitz. Wildlife art exhibition, talks and other activities. www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Fathers’ Day Family Archery

16 June

Sandringham Estate

Fancy taking a shot at a fantastic fun activity? Our fully trained GB instructor will be with you throughout your archery experience. £30 for a 30

min session – 1 family per session (up to 6 attendees). Suitable for ages 4+. www.sandringhamestate.co.uk

Summer Solstice Walk

21 June

Long Rd car park, Irstead

A walk of just under 2 miles on footpaths (including a section of the Weavers’ Way) and some minor roads. Enjoy the nature reserve at Barton Broad and the panoramic view. 7.30pm-9pm. Cost £10. Booking 01603 756097

Swallows and Amazons

Adventure Days

23 & 30 June

WildWood, Buxton/Coltishall

See 26 May for more info

Cromer Pier Show 2024

29 June-28 September

Cromer Pier, Cromer

The award-winning Cromer Pier Show is back for 2024. You can be sure of laughs by the bucket load, thrilling specialty acts, traditional seaside innuendo, powerhouse vocals, music, and spellbinding dance routines. www.cromerpier.co.uk

Summer Exhibition

29 June-28 July

BIRDscapes Gallery, Glandford, Holt

A mixed exhibition by gallery artists. www.birdscapes.co.uk

Demystifying Breydon Water

30 June

End of Porters Loke (road)

See 1 June for more info

JUL

Flowers Art Exhibition

3-21 July

Mannington Estate

www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Outlaw Half Holkham Weekend 6-7 July

Holkham Estate, Wells-next-the-Sea

A swim-bike-run festival in stunning surroundings featuring the awardwinning triathlon event, running events for kids and adults, and a new

off-road sprint. Take part, volunteer or just come to watch! Booking: www.outlawtriathlon.com

Vintage Transport Festival

6 & 7 July

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham Historic road vehicles descend on the railway to create a colourful spectacle alongside steam and diesel trains. At least 4 trains will be running both days to provide a half-hourly service. www.nnrailway.co.uk

Thursford Gala Day

7th July

Visit the Thursford Steam Museum and enjoy a showcase of mechanical organs, classic vehicles, leading performances, and vintage steam engines. www.thursford.com

SHARP Archaeological Excavation

7 July-2 August

Boneyard Field, Sedgeford

The excavations are open to the public Sunday-Fridays 10am-4pm. Regular tours during the day and a variety of week and day courses, including archaeology taster days. bookings@sharp.org.uk www.sharp.org.uk

Vintage Week What’s that Wader? 10, 17, 24 July

Titchwell Marsh

A morning’s workshop on wading birds. Improve your ID skills on similar and confusing species including birds in silhouette and on the wing. Learn more about behaviours, breeding and migration. www.events.rspb.org.uk/titchwell

Sheringham Little Theatre weekend 12-14 July

Mannington Estate

12th Lee Vasey Band. 13th Opera Anywhere - Gilbert and Sullivan HMS Pinafore. 14th Family Activities. www.manningtongardens.co.uk

The Bookshop Band: The Emerge, Return Tour

Friday 12 July, 7.30-9.15pm

NWT Cley Marshes

Join us for an intimate and magical concert with The Bookshop Band, celebrating the release of their 14th studio album, Emerge, Return. www. norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

52nd Summer Exhibition 13 July-7 September

Dersingham Pottery & Gallery

Hand-thrown porcelain and stoneware by June Mullarkey. Paintings, prints and cards by Ben Mullarkey. Open most days. www.dersinghampottery.co.uk

Otter Spotting Guided Canoe Trails Beccles dates: 13 July

See 4 May for more info

Marshes And Fens Guided Walk 17 July

South Walsham Staithe

A walk of about 4.5 miles on footpaths and some minor roads, visiting an ecologically important fen and enjoying views across the River Bure to St Benet’s Abbey. 10am-1pm. Cost £6.

Booking essential 01603 756097

Bushcraft Canoe Trail 20 July

WildWood Campsite, Coltishall See 15 June for more info

Holt Festival 20-27 July

The Holt Festival 2024 is proud to present another year of superlative talent and entertainment. A 7 day programme of superb music, comedy, talks, poetry and drama to enjoy! www.holtfestival.org

SHARP Festival of Archaeology 21 July

Boneyard Field, Sedgeford

All sorts of activities on offer, suitable for all the family. There are tours, mini-battles, historic crafts, displays and demonstrations. Entry free. bookings@sharp.org.uk www.sharp.org.uk

Guided Norwich Canoe Trail 23 July

Norwich

From witches to monks; travel through time with us along the Wensum whilst taking in the stunning views of the city and learning about the wildlife and nature we pass. Booking: www.thecanoeman.com/ guided-norwich-trails

Ranworth Ramble 24 July

Ranworth Staithe

See 5 June for more info

Swallows and Amazons

Adventure Days

28 July

WildWood, Buxton/Coltishall

See 26 May for more info

Vintage Sunday

Sundays 28 July-18 August

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham

The line’s magnificent train of beautifully restored Victorian carriages will run alongside standard services. www.nnrailway.co.uk

Singer Barbara Dickson and comedy actor Nigel Planer will both be appearing at this year’s Holt Festival in July.

Join The Bookshop Band for an intimate and magical concert in July.

Photo credit: Martin Tompkins

Enjoy a ‘Wild Afternoon Tea’ at Toad Hole Cottage in June.

Photo credit: Martin Charles Hatch/shutterstock.com

34 Events

Guided Kayak and SUP Trail

29 July

Coltishall

See 11 June for more info

Postcards from the Garden 31 July

Stonegate, Egmere Rd, Walsingham

A painting workshop with Mary Blue, and learning about the history of postcards and writing reflections with Sally Bannister. www.reefmakeanddo.com

AUG

Summer Family Forest Fun

Select Dates in August

Sandringham Estate

A laid back, traditional forest school in the beautiful ancient woodlands adjacent to the Play Area. Bugs, crafts, sensory learning, swamp, scavenger hunts, hammocks, swings and slack line, campfire (if conditions allow). Booking essential. www.sandringhamestate.co.uk

Life Changing: A wildlife year at Cley with David North 1 August, 1 -2.30pm

NWT Cley Marshes

This fascinating talk will explore some of the seasonal wildlife spectacles of our coast, from geese-filled winter skies to the spring arrival of terns and warblers, with a special focus on NWT Cley and Salthouse Marshes. www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

Guided Sea Kayaking

1, 15 & 25 August

Brancaster Staithe

See 11 May for more info

Wells Carnival 2024 2-11 August inclusive

The Buttlands, plus various venues in Wells-next-the-Sea

Ten days of activities including live music, entertainment etc with Carnival Parade Day on 10th. Full

details on our website or visit our Facebook page: wellscarnival www.wellscarnival.co.uk

Rockpool Rummaging 2 August, 11am-12.30pm

West Runton Beach

A chance to rummage in rockpools in search of life and investigate the secrets of the seashore. If you don’t know a barnacle from a belemnite, the experts will be on hand to identify your finds.

www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

Classic Ibiza

3 August

NT Blickling Hall & Gardens, Blickling

An open-air celebration of White Isle-inspired house music, reinvented by a 32-piece orchestra, headline DJs and live vocalists. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ blickling-estate

Guided Norwich Canoe Trail

3 & 20 August

Norwich

See 23 July for more info

Otter Spotting Guided Canoe Trails

Beccles dates: 17 August

Wroxham dates: 6 & 31 August

Buxton dates: 4 & 18 August

See 4 May for more info

Searching for sharks

6 August, 11.30am-1pm

NWT Holme Dunes

Join us searching for shark egg cases, more commonly known as mermaid’s purses, as we identify what sharks can be found off the coast of Norfolk. www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

Sea dipping

6 August, 2-3.30pm

NWT Holme Dunes

We will be plunging for prawns and dunking for dabs, discovering

the secrets of the sea. No need for swimming costumes, we will be the ones getting wet!

www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

What’s that Wader?

7 & 15 August

Titchwell Marsh

See 10 July for more info

Gone Wild Festival with Bear Grylls

8-11 August

Holkham Hall

Our goal is to get families spending time together in the outdoors. Where else can you learn how to light fires, go climbing, throw your mum down a 50-foot mud slide, then party together while watching great bands?

www.norfolk.gonewildfestival.com

Rain or Shine Theatre

9 August

Mannington Estate

The Importance of Being Ernest. www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Swallows and Amazons

Adventure Days

11 & 14 August

WildWood, Buxton/Coltishall

See 26 May for more info

Guided Kayak and SUP Trail

12 & 26 August

Coltishall

See 11 June for more info

Sand, Sea and Sky

13 August

Stonegate, Egmere Rd, Walsingham

A watercolour painting workshop with Mary Blue and sea glass bracelets with Nic Millabund. www.reefmakeanddo.com

The Burnhams Market CRAFT

17 August

Village Centre, Burnham Market

A celebration of local crafts, artisans and makers. Heritage, shopping and demonstrations combined. Dogs welcome!

www.theburnhamsmarket.co.uk

Cromer Carnival 17-23 August

Carnival Field, and around town, Cromer

Cromer Carnival has existed in its current form for over 50 years now. There will be the traditional parade on the 21st, a week long funfair, exciting shows and displays, and a range of stalls and food outlets. www.cromercarnival.co.uk

Eel Sett Guided Walk 21 August

St Nicholas’ Church, Potter Heigham

See 12 June for more info

Merry Wives of WindsorOpen Air Shakespeare

22 August

The Orchard, Dalegate Market, Burnham Deepdale

The Pantaloons return for the second of their summer shows, with their hilarious take of this Shakespeare tale. Comedy for all the family, a brilliant evening of comedy theatre. dalegatemarket.co.uk/theatre

Nature Tots

23 August

RSPB Strumpshaw Fen

Enjoy stories, crafts and activities, linked to our seasonal theme. Each session also includes opportunities to play and get messy with our mud kitchen, water play, bug hunting and other nature inspired activities. Suitable for 2.5-5 year olds.

www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-andevents/reserves-a-z/strumpshaw-fen

Dinos In The Dark

24 August

ROARR!, Lenwade

Jurassic explorers will love the opportunity to discover the 85-acre Park by night. From trekking through Valley of the Dinosaurs by starlight, to handling nocturnal creepy crawlies in the Secret Animal Garden, visitors are in for a wild night. www.roarr.co.uk

Autumn Trail Revealed 25 August

Titchwell Marsh

Explore the most eastern side of the reserve only open to the general public for a limited period. Wander past ponds teaming with dragonflies, damselflies and wild flowers and learn about our habitats and conservation. www.events.rspb.org.uk/titchwell

Natural treasures

30 August, 10.30am – 12pm

NWT Hickling Broad

Join us to learn about the treasure hunters of the natural world! Discover the interesting behaviours of creatures that enjoy collecting, explore their homes and weave your own nest to take home, to keep your treasures safe. www. norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

North Norfolk Food and Drink Festival

31 August-1 September

Walled Garden, Holkham Hall, Wells-next-the-Sea

Stall holders offer their products for sale including fresh meat and game, vegetables, cakes, artisan beer, bread, tarts, juices, cakes and bakes, chocolates and more. Entertainment ranges from the cookery theatre to children’s activities and face painting. www.northnorfolkfoodfestival.co.uk

SEP

Charity Day

1 September

Mannington Estate In aid of Save the Children. www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Guided Sea Kayaking 1 September Brancaster Staithe

See 11 May for more info

Otter Spotting Guided Canoe Trails

Wroxham dates: 3 September

See 4 May for more info

Try Rockpool Rummaging with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust in August. Photo credit: Matthew Roberts

Independent repair and service specialists for Land Rover Vehicles

We offer servicing, repairs, MOT’s, vehicle upgrades and stock a range of 4x4 tyres for vehicles dating back to 1948 right up to the present day.

We are stockists of Allmakes, Britpart and genuine Land Rover parts, with over 17,000 stocklines.

We offer a daily delivery service across Norfolk and north Suffolk and aim to deliver within 24 hours of receiving your order.

36 Events

Wild at Night

5 & 11 September

Titchwell Marsh

Explore the reserve as dusk falls. Listen out for bats, look for biofluorescent fauna and flora, watch some of our wildlife settle down for the night as other species awake. Bat detectors and torches provided.

www.events.rspb.org.uk/titchwell

Sandringham Game and Country Fair

7 & 8 September

Sandringham Estate

A weekend of country sports and pursuits, displays and workshops, the very best in countryside activities and entertainment. www.livingheritagecountryshows. com/sandringham-game-country

Marshes And Fens Guided Walk

11 September

South Walsham Staithe

See 17 July for more info

An Evening With Bats And Moths

13 September

How Hill, Ludham

Discover night creatures on a walk of just under 2 miles on footpaths and some minor roads, overlooking How Hill National Nature Reserve.

7pm-9pm. Cost £10.

Booking essential 01603 756096

Brancaster Staithe

Sea Shanty Festival

13-15 September

Brancaster

Get ready to be swept away by the captivating tunes of sea shanties in a weekend of music, fun, and coastal delights.

Bushcraft Canoe Trail

14 September

WildWood Campsite, Coltishall

See 15 June for more info

Autumn Trail Revealed

15 & 29 September

Titchwell Marsh

See 25 August for more info

Whirling Wader Breakfast

18 & 19 September

Snettisham

Join our guide in our iconic hide to experience the sight and sound of birds whirling over The Wash as rising tides push them ever closer to the beach. Breakfast included. www.events.rspb.org.uk/titchwell

Steam Back to the Forties

21 & 22 September

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham

The railway’s popular 1940s Weekend returns for its 29th year –come and enjoy the atmosphere of this momentous decade.

www.nnrailway.co.uk

Swallows and Amazons

Adventure Days

22 September

WildWood, Buxton/Coltishall

See 26 May for more info

Lay of the Land: East Anglian Landscape Now 25 September-31 October

Fermoy Gallery and Shakespeare

Barn, King’s Lynn

A free exhibition open to the public from 11am to 4pm.

Deepdale Festival 2024 26-29 September

Deepdale Camping & Rooms, Burnham Deepdale

A small but perfectly formed music festival with a Heart of Folk across 3 stages hosting more than 40 acts. www.deepdalecamping.co.uk/festival

Dark Sky Adventure

28 September

How Hill, Ludham

Explore the night world around

How Hill National Nature Reserve, on an adventure with night creatures, astronomy and sensory discovery, rounded off with a touch of night magic! 7pm-9pm. £8.50 u16, £12 adult.

Booking essential 01603 756096

OCTWild at Night

2 October

Titchwell Marsh

See 5 September for more info

Book Bash Literary Festival

4-6 October

Mannington Estate With the Book Hive.

www.manningtongardens.co.uk

Titchwell’s Big Weekend

5 & 6 October

Titchwell Marsh

Celebrate everything Titchwell over this fantastic weekend. We’ll have specialised walks, workshops, talks and giveaways on offer. Plus great food, drink, music and local crafts. www.events.rspb.org.uk/titchwell

Fungi Foraging

18 October & 27 October

Little Plumstead

Ever fancied learning more about the mystical, ancient world of fungi? What about if a particular mushroom was safe to eat? Spend a day with the experts and find out.

Booking: www.thecanoeman.com/ fungi-foraging

Whirling Wader Breakfast

19 October

Snettisham

See 18 September for more info

Otter Spotting Guided Canoe Trails

Beccles dates: 26 October

Wroxham dates: 19 October

See 4 May for more info

Fungus Family Fun

20 October

How Hill, Ludham

Experience the world of magical mushrooms and terrific toadstools.

Drop-in activities free; guided walk £13 for child + adult, £22 for family (up to 4 people) booking essential for guided walks. 10am-3pm.

Booking for walks 01603 756096

Kayak Hire at Burnham Overy Staithe

Explore the Creek and the surrounding salt marshes. Visit the stunning beach at Scolt Head island. Single kayak – £35.00 per day. Double kayak – £45.00 per day. Buoyancy aids and dry tops available – £5 per day. For more information and to book please visit our website: www.burnhamoveryboathouse.co.uk

Broadland Ghosts’ Hallowe’en Trail

24-31 October

Museum of the Broads, The Poor’s Staithe, Stalham Spooky family fun discovering some of the stories of Broadland’s ghosts. Meet our storyteller who will tell more ghost stories of the Broads. Be arty with Hallowe’en themed makes. www.museumofthebroads.org.uk

Hallowsteam!

30 October-2 November

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham Steam trains and special activities. www.nnrailway.co.uk

NOV

Santa’s Magical Journey

November-December

Thursford, Fakenham

Journey through Fantasy Land and come face to face with penguins, polar bears, giant-sized teddy bears, elves, and a mischievous snowman family as you make your way to visit Father Christmas. www.thursford.com

The Norfolk Lights Express Selected dates Nov, Dec and Jan

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham The popular illuminated train returns to provide an immersive show for the whole family. www.nnrailway.co.uk

Thursford Christmas Spectacular 8 November-23 December

Fakenham

Experience one of Europe’s biggest Christmas shows. With a cast of over 120, a 130ft stage and a 1,400 seated theatre, the three-hour show is filled with non-stop singing, dancing, music, comedy and speciality acts. www.thursford.com

Biofluorescence Walk

13 November

How Hill, Ludham Join us for an adventure into the colourful world of biofluorescence. Suitable for 8+ years. Under 18s must be accompanied by a paying adult. 6pm-7.30pm. Cost £12.50.

Booking essential 07710 806109

Christmas Craft, Food And Gift Fair 15, 16 & 17 November

Sandringham Estate Craft, food, gifts and festive fun are all essential ingredients of a successful Christmas event, accompanied with an array of music throughout the weekend.

www.livingheritagecountryshows. com/sandringham-christmas

Santa Specials Weekends 23 November-22

December and selected other dates

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham Take a steam train ride to meet Father Christmas – there’s a present for every child and seasonal refreshments for the whole family. www.nnrailway.co.uk

DEC

Mince Pie Specials

Selected dates 27 December-5 January

North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham A post-Christmas treat, a ride aboard a cosy steam train complete with a mince pie and mulled local cider. www.nnrailway.co.uk

dog

Sourdough

TAP ROOM

Weybourne Forest Lodges is a unique development of self-catering timber lodges surrounded by lush pine forests.

This is a peaceful place to chill out and escape from the crowds. We are 5 minutes drive from the coast at Weybourne and near the North Norfolk Railway (Poppy line) which runs between Holt and Sheringham. We have over 100 acres of our own unspoilt forest which adjoins Sheringham Park. Well-behaved dogs welcome.

Where to stay