Back from a three nighter in North Walsham in Norfolk at the Beechwood hotel, a place we’d often looked at but had never actually got round to trying. Encouraged by a deal, we fell for the DB&B rate, although the thought of a true four course dinner three nights in a row ‘fuelled’ a little trepidation in the elderly visitors – that’s us by the way, how we yearn for the robust appetites of our younger selves.
The hotel proved to be a fine choice. A four poster room, pre-meal drinks in the bar every evening, lovely very well prepared and presented meals and, considering the timing of the visit, pleasant ambience throughout the house, with the addition of the Agatha Christie connection – too tired to recount it I’m afraid, google it if you want to know more (other search engines are of course available). Plus, I almost forgot, very pleasant cream tea on arrival, which was a nice and relaxing start to the stay.
We took a short stroll into the town centre and were, in all honesty, a little underwhelmed. There was quite a bit of infrastructure work being undertaken, no doubt for the busier tourist season to come, but the town generally looked a little tired and seemed to have seen better days. We did however get to see the inside of St. Nicholas Church. The 15th century building is another example of the benefits of the wool trade and associate weaving history – go to this site if you want to read up on it but I would at least draw your attention to the fifteenth century font cover. Richly carved and decorated with a fascinating telescopic mechanism, it hangs from a carved oak beam and is a fascinating artefact in its own right. We had to return on the last morning to grab a couple of pictures (no camera with me initially) but the collage is posted here in the interest of chronology and poetic licence.
The first day promised little or no rain so, having read about the possibility of a few seal sightings, we decided to traverse across to Horsey Gap to see if we could get lucky. Car park charge was a minimum of two hours, which I thought was far too long for a short stopover. How wrong I was. Walking through “The Gap” onto the beach we were met with a group of around forty grey seals grazing on the sands. Apparently, Horsey is home to one of the largest colonies of Grey Seals in the UK. Numbers have been steadily increasing with over two thousand seal pups born along this beautiful stretch of coastline in recent years. Moving along the beach with a few other visitors (all holding to the rules with regard to proximity and interference), we came across a genuinely surprising beach vista, with literally hundreds of seals lining the coastline almost as far as Winterton – certainly as far as we could see by line of sight.
We took the opportunity to climb off the beach and on to the coastal dune paths above. We were fortunate to meet up with a “Friends of Horsey Seals” volunteer who could answer all the questions that had been fermenting during the walk:-
- Although there were pups still present in the colony, breeding season had largely finished by the end of January
- The seals were in fact moulting, prior to returning to the sea. Although gathering in large numbers, when back in the ocean the seals are largely solitary creatures (apart from mating). Females wean pups for around four weeks, after which the youngsters are on their own
- Grey seals can be both protective and feisty. However, we noticed a fair number of dead cub bodies that hadn’t made it. We assumed they had been attacked but they don’t really have natural predators and were likely, sadly, to have been late arrivals and what we are used to calling the ‘runts of the litter’ – not enough nourishment to survive apparently
- The seals also have a playful nature, with many of them using the waves to ‘body serve’ back on to the beach. If we’d simply been informed about that, we would have been sceptical, but here they were doing precisely that.
- The grey seal shares our shores with another species the smaller, and some say prettier, common or harbour seal. Both could be found at Horsey.
Two hours more than enough??? We had to rush back to avoid the fines and could have stayed much longer, all the better for being totally unexpected!
From there we moved on to the Horsey Windpump, which had been our original port of call. Recently restored, Horsey Windpump is five floors high with 61 steps and overlooks Horsey Mere and the surrounding Norfolk Broads landscape. We knew beforehand that the Windpump wasn’t open but we still enjoyed the visit, with a lovely short walk to the Mere and beyond. As occasionally occurs, a potted history will now follow below…..
The present structure was built in 1912 on the foundations of the 18th-century Horsey Black Mill. The windpump was working until it was struck by lightning in 1943. It was acquired by the National Trust in 1948 from the Buxton Family and has been restored. The mill’s damaged sails were removed in 1956, and replacement sails and fantail were installed in 1962. The Great Storm of 1987 caused further damage, and repair works were required before the building could reopen to visitors in 1990.
Final stop was a quick visit to Happisburgh where we parked up at the beach car park, close to the lighthouse but a fair track from the village centre, such as it is. According to the (very good) village website, it has an exciting long-term future, despite the ongoing coastal erosion. We didn’t really spend enough time there to justify an opinion, but the Church, community pub and independently run lighthouse were all viewed. The lighthouse in particular is worth a mention, saved from closure by the Friends of Happisburgh Lighthouse; originally scheduled for closure in 1987, it was visited by the Queen in July, 1990. First operational in 1790, the light mechanism is now controlled by a light sensor, which comes on automatically at dusk. And although St. Mary’s Church is often cited as one of the best churches (Jenkins’ “England’s thousand best churches” for example), it is the mound, bereft of headstones but the mass grave of the crew of the HMS Invincible foundered offshore on 16th March 1801 on its way to join Nelson’s fleet (119 of the crew are buried here) that seems most affecting.
The next day proved to be a little less settled as far as the weather was concerned, so we made the decision to (re)visit Blickling House, primarily because it was only located around ten miles away. It was also a venue we had visited at least twice before, including one that involved the house interiors but it was so distant a memory neither of us could remember a thing about it. That proved to be true of the exterior as well, as we soon realised. Researching on our return, I discovered that the James Taylor gig we attended in the grounds of the Hall was July 2004 so the house tour was at the very least the year before that; twenty years ago, I think we can be forgiven the memory lapse!
Shortly after we arrived it stopped raining, but as the first available slot for a guided tour of the Hall was midday we took the opportunity to enjoy an early coffee despite the upturn in the weather. The Hall wasn’t scheduled to open until March and there were other logistical reasons for the “guided tour only” regulations but we can only give positive kudos for both the idea and its execution. The guide proved both informative and extremely entertaining, which I would contend is a particularly difficult feat to accomplish – her passion for both the building and its history were patently obvious in her infectious delivery. We only saw half a dozen rooms but the tour lasted over an hour and the guide managed to cover both the historical context and personal anecdotes that made the tour a lovely experience. A maximum of twelve per tour also played to our preferences / prejudices! A particular shout out to the Long Gallery, whose library of 12,500 books would grace and/or exceed many an Oxford college. Apparently, it’s the largest book collection cared for by the National Trust.
We managed a swift pint (in my case) at the Bucks Arms, where I was able to confirm that it was indeed the location that I tried took for an overnight stay on the occasion of the James Taylor gig. Apparently, for any large scale event in the Hall grounds they are booked up within hours of the concert being announced – so I was a tad optimistic I suspect! Anyway, back at the hotel, we enjoyed the last of our lovely evening meals. A very enjoyable stay, where we did enough without feeling the need to run about like a blue ar**d fly in a feeble attempt to fit everything in. A final brief morning stroll to get a couple of the aforementioned shots of St. Nicholas Church (and the hotel exterior) and it was time for the journey home and don’t spare the metaphorical horses. And who said anything about birthdays. Well, we didn’t but this still came our way the last night in the bar whist having a nightcap!!