Chester - City Walls, the Dukes of Westminster and Christmas shopping!

Mosaic in Chester amphitheatre

When we first started planning these -chester walks, three and a half years ago, both myself and BAM (Best Aussie mate) had our sights set on visiting the 'original' Chester, not far from Liverpool and Manchester, in the north west of England.

I'd only ever been in Chester railway station - not the city itself - many moons ago when, as a student, I use to make the arduous journey by boat and rail, between Dublin and London.  This was in the days before budget airlines and, whilst it seems like an epic journey by 21st century standards, it was quite a common way to do things in the early 1990's.

Chester castle walls

Chester is one of those defining junctions between England, Wales and Ireland, that tourist brochures euphemistically call 'gateways', .  Although comfortably ensconced in the lush, green fields of England, the city still has a whiff of the frontier about it - with it's impressively intact city walls and its refusal to expand too far into the surrounding countryside, as the bigger cities of Lancashire have done. 

Lodging and victuals

We were incredibly lucky in our choice of accommodation in Chester, as we arrived quite late on a Friday evening, battling through the wind and rain to find ourselves at the Albion Inn on Park Street, just inside the city walls.  The innkeepers, Christina and Mike Mercer gave us a really warm welcome, as we dropped our bags in the room, had a drink at the bar and listened to the live music - they even played Waltzing Mathilda to welcome BAM, which was really sweet!

Chester city walls circuit (2 miles/3.2 kilometres)

As it's winter, we planned a shorter walk than usual, so we would have time to explore Chester a little bit and make the most of the limited hours of winter sunshine.  We had quite a late start and a leisurely breakfast, before setting off around the walls, a two-mile circuit around the city centre.  I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised by Chester - I'd heard about the city walls before, but I hadn't expected it to be so quaint.  The city was full of pre-Christmas shoppers, which added an extra buzz to the city's Saturday morning hustle and bustle.

Chester and the River Dee

Chester city walls

Christmas shoppers on Northgate Street

Aldford to the Iron Bridge (0.4 miles/0.6 kilometres)

We had a few different options for our Chester walk, including a path starting in Wales, which was tempting but, in the end, we decided to follow the path closest to Chester's Roman heritage - near the remains of Watling street, along the River Dee from Aldford to Chester.


This path is part of the Marches way, a 218-mile path through the Welsh 'marches', all the way from Chester to Cardiff.  It's hard to imagine Roman soldiers marching along in this, rather quiet, corner of West Cheshire!

Trees on Blobb Hill, Aldford

Christina Mercer, the landlady of the Albion Inn, very kindly offered us a lift to the start of our walk at St John's Church in Aldford.  Not only did she save us a lot of time, but she also personalised the whole experience by telling us about her father, who trained horses and worked for the Duke of Westminster at the nearby Grosvenor estate. 

From the village it's a short walk across Blobb Hill to reach the River Dee, which you can cross by way of Telford's Iron bridge.  We've come across Telford before, as he was an important engineer in the West Midlands and designed the main road linking London and Dublin, via Holyhead.  He also designed bridges and canals and you can read more about him in my blog post on Wroxeter, Shropshire.  There was a lot about this walk that reminded us of Shropshire and Shrewsbury.

The River Dee gets it's name from the Latin for Chester, Deva Victrix which means something like 'Victorious Goddess' - it flows all the way from Snowdonia to the Irish Sea at Liverpool bay.

Aldford Iron Bridge

Iron Bridge Lodge

Alford Iron Bridge to Eaton Stud (1 mile/1.6 kilometres)

These days, the path along the River Dee is a rather peaceful one - road, rail, the 21st century are all quite far away and we found ourselves getting lost in the splendour of the natural colours and a discussion on the Impressionist painters of the 19th century.  I've been to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam recently and I was surprised to find out that the invention of the 'paint tube' in the 1840's meant that artists could leave the studio more and paint en plein air.  This revolutionised art in the 19th century and enabled the Impressionists to create their masterpieces of speckled sunshine and mottled light.

The mid-winter light on the River Dee was certainly very inspiring and we were lucky to have great weather for walking - cold and sunny, as we made our way around the edge of the Grosvenor estate.

River Dee at Aldford Bridge

Suitably impressed by nature

Glimpse of the Grosvenor estate

Eaton stud to Eccleston (0.7 miles/1.2 kilometres)

We couldn't see much of Eaton Hall or the Duke of Westminster's estate, as we were passing by, until we came to the village of Eccleston, which lies on the estate grounds and has a really beautiful church, St. Mary's, where members of the Grosvenor family are traditionally buried.

The current Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, was born in Omagh, Country Tyrone, where my Mum used to live.  He spent most of his early childhood in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland and he's the sixth person to hold the title Duke of Westminster.

View of Eccleston village, Cheshire

Gerald frequently appears in the top ten of the Sunday Times Rich list and has a fortune estimated at around £8 billion.  Ironically, he's one of the few British-born rich people on the UK's 'rich list' - the majority of the UK's top ten richest people are Russian/Indian/Uzbek oligarchs!

BAM walking to St Mary's Church, Eccleston

Grosvenor is a Norman name and comes from the French for 'big hunter', le gros veneur.  The Grosvenor family also own property in Mayfair - which is where Grosvenor Square, site of the US embassy in London, get its name.  I guess, in some esoteric way, the Grosvenor family have always managed the relationship between England and her neighbours to the west!

Generations of Grosvenors are buried at St Mary's Church in Eccleston

Eccleston to Heronbridge (1 mile/1.6 kilometres)

It's another uneventful mile from Eccleston to Heronbridge, which is on the boundary of Chester's Roman settlement.  The walking path passes under the A55, also known as 'the North Wales expressway' - a major road linking Chester to Holyhead (and onwards to Ireland).

Interesting rock walls near Heronbridge

Heronbridge to Chester (2 miles/3.2 kilometres)

From Heronbridge, the path follows a loop in the River Dee around Queen's Park and into the city of Chester.  There doesn't seem to be too much on the left-bank of the River Dee, so we concentrated on the ornate buildings on the other side of the river, in Boughton, Chester's eastern suburb.

View of Boughton from Queen's Park, Chester

We finished our walk by crossing the pedestrian bridge, which leads to the site of the Roman amphitheatre.  We were both very impressed with Chester and would like to go back again, to explore the city a little bit more.

Queen's Park pedestrian bridge in Chester

 Access for wheelchair users:

Path along muddy river bank

The path from Aldford to Heronbridge is along the riverside and completely inaccessible.  For wheelchair users, I would recommend Chester itself, as the city is small and easy to get around - some parts of the city walls seemed to be more-or-less accessible.  

Also, Queen's Park, which occupies a bend in the River Dee, had accessible paths, although one end was closed off by a gate when we were there.  
 
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Godmanchester - Rain, Revolution and Animal Rights

Despite the fact that there aren't so many chesters in the East of England, it was quite a coincidence that we ended up in Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire - as our last two chesters were also in the East of England - Great Chesterford in Essex and Brancaster in Norfolk.  Going to Godmanchester, really means going to Huntingdon, so were found ourselves on the Friday rush-hour commuter train to Peterborough, jumping out at Huntingdon and launching into a cold and wet autumnal evening. 

Despite last year's flooding and our adventures wading through water in places like Irchester, we haven't had a lot of rain on our chester walks.  Huntingdon made an interesting departure from this streak of luck.  We got soaked to the bone on arrival, as we walked from the station to the BnB, then from the BnB to dinner and back again.  After such a gorgeous summer, it was a sure sign that winter is on its way!

Lodgings and victuals

Braywood House

A warm welcome at the BnB certainly made up for the inclement weather and we were really happy to find ourselves at Braywood House on St Peter's Road in the north of the town.  Braywood House is a beautiful building, dating back to 1828, it was built as the home of the Governor of Huntingdon.  The building used to house the county gaol and 'house of correction' and the current owners have made an effort to retain the correctional theme in the names of the bedrooms. 

We had a rather extravagant, but very tasty, meal at The Old Bridge Hotel, an 18th century townhouse by the River Ouse.  A nice bottle of wine helped us brave the elements once more, as we walked back across town to Braywood House. 

BAM (Best Aussie Mate) seems to be somewhat of magnet for her fellow Australians and we had an interesting conversation around the breakfast table, the following morning, with a couple of Aussie Mormons from Adelaide, who were in England visiting relatives and Mormon places of interest!

Braywood House to Godmanchester (1.3 miles/2.1 kilometres)

Huntingdon High Street

Huntingdon is a funny kind of place.  We got a real sense that it has seen better days and somehow hasn't quite achieved its full potential.  It's, perhaps, most famous as the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, who was born in a house on the High Street in 1599.  His former school now hosts The Cromwell Museum. 

Flagstone commemorating Cromwell

I've always found Cromwell fascinating - occasionally revered by the left in Britain, as a true revolutionary who overthrew the monarchy and established a British Republic - he has a really bad reputation in Ireland, having engineered the massacre of many native Irish people in towns like Drogheda and Wexford.  I've written about his attempt to ethnically cleanse Ireland in my sister blog, Learning about the World. 

It was very weird being in his birthplace and I wondered how much Huntingdon's connection with Cromwell was responsible for the eclipse of that town's prosperity in favour of places like Cambridge and Peterborough.  Historically, Huntingdonshire was its own county within England - now it's part of Cambridgeshire, which seems like a kind of punishment for producing England's only dictator!

Godmanchester to Brampton Mill (1.7 miles/2.8 kilometres)

Godmanchester

Boathouse in Godmanchester

Bridge over the River Ouse

Crossing the pedestrian bridge to Godmanchester and everything changed - suddenly we were no longer in the town, but in a rather pleasant little village with quirky buildings, a boat haven and pretty little riverside park.  For the rest of our walk, we were following the Ouse Valley Way - a 150-mile footpath that runs from the source of the River Ouse in Northamptonshire, to the Wash at King's Lynn - linking up with the Norfolk coastal path that we walked along in our Brancaster walk. 

There are several rivers in England named Ouse - probably related to the Celtic word for 'slow flowing river' and possibly related to the modern English verb 'to ooze'?  The one we walked along is called 'Great Ouse' to distinguish it from all the lesser ones, in other parts of the country.  One of the Ouse's tributaries is the River Cam - the river we saw on our last Chester walk, in Great Chesterford and the one which gives Cambridge its name.  Somehow our walking becomes an interconnecting tapestry of rivers, ancient paths and English history!


The largest meadow in England

From Godmanchester we crossed Portholme - the largest meadow in England and site of the former Roman settlement of Durovigitum a major crossroads on Ermine Street and the Via Devana route between Colchester and Chester.  It's a beautiful open space, with a slightly ancient feeling, despite being hemmed in by the modern trappings of road and rail. 

Brampton Mill to Buckden Marina (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

Sign post near Brampton Mill

Due to diversions on the foot path, we somehow missed Brampton Mill - although it looks like a lovely spot for lunch or a quiet pint.  As we settled into the Ouse Valley way, our conversation turned to the relationship between humans and dogs.  This is something I blogged about recently in Learning about the World and myself and BAM found ourselves questioning the morals of the human/dog relationship and the way we treat animals in general, not to mention plants and our environment.

By coincidence, I found out later that Brampton Mill is not that far from Huntingdon Life Sciences - an animal research laboratory that has attracted a lot of attention and protests from animal rights activists, due to their alleged mistreatment of animals.  In 1997, BUAV - the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection secretly recorded a documentary in the Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory called It's a Dog's Life, which showed cruelty against dogs and this was broadcast on the popular British TV station, Channel Four. 

Blackberries

Subsequent intimidation campaigns directed at laboratory staff and suppliers, has resulted in prison sentences for animal rights activists belonging to SHAC - the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty animal rights group.  I believe that animals should be treated with dignity and fairness but I'm not convinced that violence is the answer to the animal rights question - perhaps there a wider need for a cultural shift in terms of how we view animals and how we treat them.  Animal research laboratories are an obvious target for animal rights groups, but what about the everyday cruelty that animals, in particular dogs, experience from incompetent and neglectful owners?  Surely that merits some debate?

Buckden Marina to Little Paxton (3.9 miles/6.4 kilometres)

Wooden lodge at Buckden Marina

Buckden Marina is a very peaceful place and we were fascinated by the wooden lodges that surround the marina, making us feel as though we'd suddenly arrived in the wilds of Canada!  Whilst it seems like a really relaxing place to have a second home - the price tag of £160,000 for the most basic lodge, probably pushes it out of our 'casual spending' budgets!  Still, if we win the National Lottery . .



Path through Paxton Nature reserve

Apart from the distant buildings of Offord Cluny, there isn't much sign of civilisation in this remote corner of Huntingdonshire and the rest of our walk to Little Paxton was a dreamy, wandering path along the river and through the Paxton Pits Nature Reserve.  Originally a quarry for extracting gravel, Paxton Pits is now a wonderful area of lakes and woodland, teeming with all kinds of wildlife.  Its proximity to the village of Little Paxton meant that we soon started seeing dogwalkers and afternoon-strolling families.

Little Paxton to St Neot's railway station (2.5 miles/4.1 kilometres)

View of Paines Mill Foyer, St Neot's

From Little Paxton we crossed the River Ouse and followed a path along the Lammas meadow to the centre of St Neot's.  Named after a Cornish monk, St Neot's is the very definition of  'commuter town'. I found it hard to feel any connection to the place, although the view of the Paines Mill Foyer from the meadow was quite picturesque.

After a quick meal at The Weeping Ash on New Street, we made our way past housing developments to the railway station and our train back to London.

Access for wheelchair users:

Narrow footbridge over the River Ouse

Unfortunately, as the Ouse Valley way follows a very narrow riverside path, it wouldn't be at all suitable for wheelchair users.  I would recommend some walking around Huntingdon and Godmanchester as far as Portholme which, being a meadow, is not accessible.  I would also recommend a circular walk Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, as this is accessible and a really lovely place to spend a morning or afternoon. 

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Great Chesterford - Pink houses, Pargeting and Kebapche at the Plough

Little did we know, as we were doing the Brancaster walk in Norfolk at the end of May, that we would be in for such a glorious summer in the south of England.  In stark contrast to last year, with all its rain and flooding (see the account of our Irchester walk in July 2012), this summer's walking has been incredibly easy-going, with our main concerns being our supply of water and sun-cream! 

So, it was with no small amount of excitement, that we found ourselves on a bright Friday evening, trundling along the West Anglia main line, which runs from London's Liverpool Street station, all the way to Cambridge.  We seem to be on a bit of a roll this summer, as far as East Anglia is concerned, and this was our second walk in the East, although our first Chester walk in the counties of Essex and Cambridgeshire.

Second walk in East Anglia

If Great Chesterford is really in Essex, then it's most certainly in the posh part of Essex and a million miles away from Essex's more famous metropolises, like Basildon, Tilbury and Harlow.  Great Chesterford is a pretty village but has the feeling of being a commuter or 'sleeper' town - there isn't much in the village in the way of shops and I doubt that a lot happens in Great Chesterford, although it does have a couple of nice pubs.

The Crown House Hotel, Great Chesterford

We stayed at the Crown House Hotel, which was quite pleasant and a lot quieter than in erstwhile years, when it was a major drinking den for those involved in the Newmarket races - apparently, previous crowds at the Crown House in Great Chesterford were so rowdy that a law was brought in to stop Sunday drinking at the Newmarket races.  We were much better behaved and had a very quiet and uneventful stay.

Germaine Greer lives in Great Chesterford, which is a bit of a coincidence - not only because I have mentioned her in a previous Chester blog, but also because I wanted to see her at Latitude Festival in Suffolk, only a week before, but missed her because she was delayed in traffic.  Seems like we're fated to keep missing each other!

Essex Village signs

Great Chesterford village sign

We really loved the village signs in Great Chesterford and Hadstock, which was later on our route.  It's the first time we've really noticed village signs on our Chester walks and, apparently, the tradition originated in Norfolk and then became popular all over the country - especially when the Daily Mail ran a competition for the 'best village sign' in 1920 and the winning designs were exhibited in Australia House in London! 

The signs depict elements of local life and are very beautiful to look at.  There is a Village Sign society which has its own website.   We'll certainly keep an eye out for more of these on future Chester walks!

Great Chesterton to Burtonwood Farm (1.75 miles/2.8 kilometres)

Still being in 'London' mode when we left for the walk, I'd assumed that I would be able to pick up essential supplies, including bottled water, in the village shop in Great Chesterford.  Unfortunately, there was nowhere to buy water, so I found myself setting out on, possibly the hottest walk we've done so far, rather poorly equipped to deal with the rising temperatures!  Luckily BAM (Best Aussie Mate) is much more organised than I am and had an extra bottle of water that she could lend me, until we got to a more shopper-friendly place!

Pink cottage, Great Chesterford

Leaving the hotel, we walked down Church Street, past All Saints church, then followed South Street onto the High Street until it met with the B184 road. Another interesting thing we've noticed in East Anglia is that many of the houses are 'whitewashed' in pink - it's a tradition which originates in Suffolk and, originally, pig's blood was mixed with the lime whitewash, to give houses in East Anglia their lovely pink colour.  We saw quite a few pink buildings on our Great Chesterford walk.

Click on the following link to read an interesting article about a woman in Suffolk who was forced to 'pinkwash' her house!

Once we'd crossed the main road, we followed Cow Lane, past Little Paddocks Kennels and Cattery, then turned right on the lane which runs past Burton Wood towards Burtonwood Farm.

Burtonwood Farm to Hadstock (2.4 miles/3.9 kilometres)

Countryside Essex/Cambridgeshire border

The path we followed on this walk is called the Icknield Way and forms part of the longer Ridgeway that runs across England, from Exeter (where we have also been, as part of our Chester walks) to the Wash, where it joins the coastal path we walked on in Norfolk! 

It's believed to be the oldest path in England and was of strategic importance, as a walking and transport route, when the Romans arrived in Britain, in the first century of our Common Era (CE).  It's also the reason why Great Chesterford was founded, as a staging post on this route and an important Roman town. 

Path through Paddock Wood

At Burtonwood Farm, the Icknield Way divides in two sections, which we decided we would do as a loop - eventually returning to the farm and back to Great Chesterford, where we started.  We walked the loop anti-clockwise, which meant that we would soon pass through the village of Hadstock, hoping to top up our dwindling water supply.  The countryside is pleasant in this part of England, but unremarkable and we marvelled, yet again, at how quiet and empty East Anglia seems to be, in contrast to other parts of England that we have walked in. 

Hadstock to Linton (1.6 miles/2.6 kilometres)



Hadstock Village sign

Our hopes of finding a shop in Hadstock were quickly dashed, but luckily the kind owner of The King's Head let us fill up our water bottles in his pub.  We had a rest on a well-placed bench on Back Hill and talked about the relationship between humans and dogs, as we watched some dog-owners arriving in their cars for a meet-up on the village green.  It was a very pleasant walk along Bartlow Road and Chalky Road, which is just a track really, leading us across the Essex/Cambridgeshire border to the nearby village of Linton. 

Linton to Burtonwood Farm (2.9 miles/4.6 kilometres)

Linton is another pretty little village, although this time well-supplied with shops, restaurants and other facilities.  We noticed lots of interesting designs on the buildings in Linton - a kind of etching or relief-decoration in the plasterwork, which is known as pargeting.  Again, this seems to be an East Anglian tradition and, with the pink houses and village signs, added to a very educational day in terms of architectural traditions in this part of England!



Pargeting on a building in Linton, Cambs

We stocked up on water again and made our way down to St Mary's Church, where we had a rest and some lunch in the churchyard.  Unfortunately, on opening my walking pack, I realised that an open bar of chocolate had melted all over the interior, leaving quite a sticky, yummy mess that BAM did her best to clean off, with hand wipes and pieces of tissue!  Once we'd recovered from 'Chocolategate', we set off again, crossing the River Granta on Horn Lane. 

We then walked along the High Street and crossed the main Cambridge road, before leaving the village along a small lane, interestingly named, The Grip.  For such a small place, we were surprised to find out that Linton has its own Zoo, run by the Simmons family from Hertfordshire!

Not long after the Zoo, the Icknield Way heads off through the countryside again, a rather pleasant walk along hedgerows and the edge of wheatfields, until you find yourself back at Burtonwood Farm. 

Burtonwood Farm to Great Chesterton (1.75 miles/2.8 kilometres)

Icknield Way, oldest path in England

We don't often retrace our steps on these Chester walks, so it was interesting to see how different the path from Burtonwood Farm to Great Chesterton looked like, with a reverse view and at a different time of day.  We were very lucky to stumble upon The Plough public house, where we had a really tasty evening meal, before catching our train back to London.  We highly recommend their Bulgarian kyufte and kebapche!



Access for Wheelchair Users



Relatively traffic-free Bartlow Road

Unfortunately, this walk is only partly accessible for wheelchair users.  It's fully accessible from Great Chesterford to Burtonwood Farm (but not beyond that).  I would also recommend the accessible part from Hadstock to Linton, perhaps doing a loop and returning along the Linton Road, although this might be fairly busy with traffic.  Certainly the Bartlow Road and Chalky Road sections are fairly quiet.  All three villages are relatively accessible and interesting to explore, because of the range of architectural features mentioned above. 

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Brancaster - Marshes, Motivation and Martyrdom

Norfolk isn't known for its Roman heritage, so it was with a certain sense of occasion that myself and BAM (Best Aussie mate) set out early on a Friday evening for Branodunum a.k.a. Brancaster, on the North Norfolk coast. 

I've noticed the affix -dun in many place names that have Roman connections and I'm guessing it has something to do with the Celtic word dún meaning 'fort'.  Indeed, Brancaster was one of the nine Saxon shore forts built by the Romans to secure Britain's coastline.  We visited another of the Saxon Shore forts during our walk in Portchester, on the south coast of England.

Lodgings and victuals

To get there, we trundled along on the London to Cambridge train, joining the front carriages at Ely, which continued to King's Lynn.   At King's Lynn we jumped on the Coasthopper which travels along the North Norfolk coast, to Brancaster Staithe, where we had booked B and B accommodation in a reassuringly suburban-looking house.  We ate dinner at The Jolly Sailors  - a lovely pub that was full of cheerful weekenders, enjoying the local ale. 

Burnham Deepdale to Brancaster (1.9 miles/3.1 kilometres)

We decided to start our walk at Burnham Deepdale, which is at eastern end of North Norfolk's three-village conurbation.  This area is well-known to walkers, as the path we followed to Hunstanton, is part of the Peddar's Way and North Norfolk Coast path - one of the UK's national trails, running 93 miles from Knettishall Heath in Suffolk to Cromer in Norfolk.  Burnham Deepdale is a well-known stopover on this route, famous for its tipi accommodation. 

St Mary's round-tower church, Burnham Deepdale

Books for sale at the church entrance

Starting at St. Mary's round tower church, we turned down a narrow public footpath to join the coastal path, turning left to head west, in the direction of Brancaster and the opposite direction to how the coastal path is usually walked!  The coast around Brancaster is ambiguous and the land barely sees to be at peace with the encroaching advances of the sea.  It's a very beautiful part of the world and we were lucky with the weather, which remained sunny for the duration of our walk.

Boat on Brancaster Marsh

A confusion of land and sea

The coastal marsh at Brancaster is teeming with bird-life and we saw a few 'twitchers' with their binoculars, as we walked along the board-walks and negotiated the thin path that clings to the coast.  I've done a lot of coastal walking before, mostly in Cornwall and Devon, but this was quite different, as Norfolk has no cliffs, making the walk much easier to what I'm used to. 

Lobster pots at Brancaster Staithe

There are lots of interesting buildings along the coast

A boat named Jessica

It didn't take long to reach Brancaster Staithe again and the site of the Roman fort at Branodunum.  We then followed the path to Brancaster, a pretty little village with an impressive church and a suspiciously 'continental' feeling about it!

Cottage in the marsh

Brancaster to Thornham (3.6 miles/5.8 kilometres)

At Brancaster the path turned inland for a few miles, taking us towards Norfolk's incomprehensible interior.  We've walked in many parts of England, especially in the south, and few places feel as 'empty' as Norfolk.  Once away from the coast, it's field upon field and not a settlement visible for miles around.  It's amazing that somewhere that feels so remote is, actually, not that far from London and the cities of the East Midlands. 

The church at Brancaster

Hedgerow flowers

We enjoyed our jaunt inland, admiring the hedgerow flowers, as our thoughts turned to the subject of 'motivation' and a recent course I've been on at work.  As we crossed the Chalkpit Road and passed two rather large, eerie looking barns, on the top of a kind of ridge - the coast looked ever so far away, with shimmering boats visible in the distant reaches of the Wash. 

The turn-off for Chalkpit Lane

Mudpath to barns

Norfolk country lanes devoid of traffic

 

Thornham to Gore Point (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

At Thornham we were back in civilisation, celebrating our return from the interior with a chocolate break and a friendly chat with a local man, who was walking his, rather elderly, dog.  Beyond Thornham, we joined the sea again and the landscape really became spectacular, as we entered the Holme Dunes National Nature reserve. 

Sign post in Thornham

Village life in Thornham

There were a surprising amount of people around, walking, bird-watching, enjoying the weekend sunshine - our conversation turned to research that I've been doing on the work of Dr Kinsey, for my partner-blog, Learning about the World - BAM told me about an interesting radio documentary she'd listened to, about religious sects in New Zealand, who are advocating the return to a more traditional role for women.  It seems the world goes around in circles sometimes! 

Boat house near Holme Dunes

Path along the top of a dyke

Gore Point to Old Hunstanton (2.1 miles/3.4 kilometres)

The walk became more desolate again, as we passed Gore Point and made our way to the beach huts at Old Hunstanton.  It got rather hot in the dunes, as we dodged golf balls and marvelled at the view of the beach posts, installed to prevent coastal erosion.  There is a beautiful lighthouse in Old Hunstanton which is available as a holiday rental cottage. 

Beach posts preventing erosion

Holme Dunes nature reserve

Lighthouse at Old Hunstanton

We also came across a signpost for the Hunstanton Wolf Trail, with a picture of Saint Edmund (the Martyr) looking rather displeased at the fact that his body is full of arrows!  Legend has it that Edmund's decapitated head was thrown into the forest, where it remained lost, until a wolf cried out 'Here! Here! Here!' revealing its location!

Edmund and the Wolf

Old Hunstanton to Hunstanton (1.4 miles/2.2 kilometres)

It was a pleasant last mile or so, along the coastal road to Hunstanton, a seaside town that was abuzz with Saturday strollers, enjoying the first signs of (what promises to be) a short summer!  We indulged in some pub grub and beer before catching the Coasthopper back to King's Lynn, making our London-train with only a minute or two to spare!

Interestingly, our bus back to the station was named in honour of Margaret Read, a local woman who was burnt at the stake in King's Lynn in 1590, accused of witchcraft.  Legend has it that her heart burst out of her body and left an imprint in a local building, which can still be seen today! It was an interesting end to a very interesting day!

Access for Wheelchair users:

Unfortunately, not much of this walk would be accessible for Wheelchair users- the coastal path is narrow and on bumpy ground, sometimes following board walks through the marshes or travelling through sand dunes and other physical obstacles.

Probably the best part of the walk, which is accessible, would be from Brancaster going inland on the country lanes - we did come across a rather big gate at Chalkpit Road, which seemed inaccessible, but I'm sure that alternative routes and lanes could be used and it seemed as though the path from Thornham to the sea was pretty accessible, at least, until the stile which marks the boundary to Holme Dunes.

There is some nice coastal walking around Hunstanton and this might be another doable option for Wheelchair users.  Norfolk itself is quite flat and many of the country lanes are almost traffic-free.

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