I’m off to Wells-next-the-Sea for a week with the family later this month. Any recommendations for fun days out in the area? An Alan Partridge walking tour of pedestrianised Norwich, maybe?
ATM: North Norfolk – dig it all
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Now you’re talking my language, Sal – my mum has a place just outside West Runton and Mrs F and I visit about once a month.
How old are the kids, and do you have a car?
Did Mousey blog in vain? 14 and 11, potential user of car, but quite likely reliant on coastal bus routes as well.
It’s beautiful up there but everywhere shuts early – at least it did when I was there about 15 years ago. Don’t expect food after 9pm anywhere except the chippy on the seafront.
Good to know – I think our AB&B is near the Quay, so it might be chippy tea after a walk on the golden sands several times.
Absolutely beautiful area, one of my favourites to visit, and we’ll be back there ourselves later in the year.
If you’ve got kids I’d recommend a boat trip from Blakeney Point to see the seals, and Hunstanton has a fab old-school seaside feel. A steam train trip from Holt is a must, and Burnham Market has what might be the best hat shop ever!
Basically we love the area and would happily move there.
4 suggestions to look into – thanks, Nick!
Burnham Market (Chelsea next the Sea to the few remaining locals) does indeed have a great hat shop. Also can recommend No 29 restaurant if you’re feeling flush.
Ah, Burnham Market – gawp at the Chelsea Tractors and Porsches, marvel at the high-end Jewellers and a butcher selling Wagyu at £45 a gram. To think I almost bought a house there way back in the last century – I’d be rich today if only I’d taken the leap!
Mind you, the Hoste Arms is still very good if, at least to my Languedoc eyes, frighteningly expensive
You are bang on regarding the cost of the Hoste. Took the wife recently to celebrate our wedding anniversary and the bill for one night, cost more than my first car!
Brancaster beach is a cracking expanse of sand. There is a glorious walk from Brancaster Staithe, along the lagoon, if that is the right word for it. If you have dog, try to reduce their temptation to jump in, as the mud is a luminous blue that sticks to the fur, staining for some time after. Fortify yourself with something from the Crab Hut at the beginning, or a bacon sarnie at the end, at the Beach kiosk.
In fact there are wonderful walks just about everywhere about the myriad Brancasters.
West Runton – the Rock & Roll capital of the world
(according to Saxon’s Biff Byford)
Doesn’t it have a pavilion? Or did anyway?
It has a plaque where the pavilion used to be.
Tooth decay is a terrible affliction.
Like the rest of the NN coast, Wells has gone rather upmarket in recent years but still retains a good old-fashioned seaside-resort feel. Don’t miss French’s fish & chips – won the Best in UK last (?) year.
A longish walk ( five minutes drive) takes you to my favourite beach in the UK – Holkham Bay (even if you need a second mortgage for the car park).
Days of everything closing at 9 have long gone, gastropubs abound, delis around every corner.
Steam train from Sheringham to Holt is a must as is seal watching at Blakeney. If stately homes are your thing, Holkham Hall and its grounds are magnificent. Holt is excellent for both high-end shopping and charity shops and, of course, one of Fenton’s favourite record shops.
Buy a local guide for the local walks – most are, gosh, flat and start and end at a pub.
Oh, crab fishing off the pierside at Wells attracts scores of youngsters – it’s 1953 and pure Enid Blyton.
You may be a lodestone of wrongness, but on North Norfolk you seem to be a fount of knowleldge – thank you! Holkham Hall is next door (and seems to exercise feudal control over the area). We may visit the beach, maybe or not the Hall. We have also been recmmended Houghton Hall, though that is further away.. and the walk from Sheringham to Weybourne. Should be enough for 5-6 days, I think.
Houghton Hall is indeed fine – usually some famous artist/sculptor has flung arty things across the lawns and the walled gardens are an absolute delight.
(Best fish & chips ever? Eric’s near Thornham!)
I wanted to see the Anthony Gormley thing last year but it closed on 31st October and we went on November 1st. Bugger!
Not quite sure what I thought of the Gormley. This year looks interesting
https://www.houghtonhall.com/whats-on/stephen-cox-exhibition
It’s the kind of thing I might find quite thought-provoking, but Mrs F would say “it’s just a load of rusty statues buried in the ground”. To be fair, she has a point.
If architecture is at all your thing, Norfolk abounds in excellent churches. Come a little way inland to find Trunch, Cawston, Booton, Salle, North Walsham, or further west behind Blakeney, there is Binham Priory.
Mrs F went in Cromer church this morning. Very good, apparently. The museum next door is great.
John Betjeman’s “A Passion for Churches” based in Norwich & Norfolk is still after all these years available on iPlayer.
Norfolk churches, mostly built when it was the richest county in England, are things of wonder and beauty Drive into the smallest of villages and there’s a good chance the little church there will amaze.
Oh yes, I had forgotten about that. I should watch it again.
Very timely post as my pal and I are pointing our motorbikes that way next week – cross country to Hunstanton via (What is) Chatteris, then popping in and out of places along the north coast to stay in Cromer then back on Wednesday via Great Yarmouth and Thetford Forest. Can’t wait!
Update – after weeks of sunshine it’s going to bloody rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Argh. Good for the garden, no fun on motorbike. We’ve deferred.
Cromer was actually a bit chilly yesterday. We walked from West Runton to Fellbrigg and back again this morning under a distinctly “the heavens could open at any minute” sky, and the forecast is for wetter during the week.
It did actually rain on the drive back this afternoon, roughly from Swaffham to Thetford.
Rescheduling in progress…
While you’re on, where’s best for crab?
In my limited experience of Norfolk, I would say Cromer. Although might be much of a muchness cos I recall having some very tasty crab in Wroxham.
(Then again, being inland it probably came from Cromer)
Seconded. Maybe take a slice of raw bacon and a bit of string onto the pier, and catch your own?
“I caught crabs in Cromer” t-shirts available in all sizes.
Best Cromer crab is bought in Norwich Market. Fact
Apart from that tiny place in Cromer itself just down from the amusement arcades…. which is never open when I’m there
If birds are your thing at all, you probably already know that North Norfolk is one of the best areas in the country for birding. There are lots of locations, but I’d start with Titchwell and/or Cley, both of which have visitor centres. Seconded on Blakeney Point for seal watching.
There are some lovely walks along the coast but be careful – it’s very easy to get stranded by tides, particularly places like Scolt Head Island. My in-laws live locally and are heavily involved with the RNLI, who get far too many call-outs to rescue people who should have known better.
If you like watching sunsets, then the west-facing bit around Hunstanton is great for watching it set over the Wash – try the Mariner’s in Old Hunstanton. There are several National Trust places worth visiting if you’re members, including Blickling Hall where Alan Partridge introduced Sonja to “Bono”. Norwich itself is well worth a visit if you haven’t been before; it’s also the only place with a decent number of shops. Whenever we go we always drop by Looses Emporium, which is a real Aladdin’s cave.
Exactly. Titchwell for twitching twits tweeting. And a couple of pints of Wherries later.
I’ll just dump my thoughts here for now, I’ll probably add more later.
From Wells, take the bus to Blakeney. From the Quay slipway, take a boat to see the seals, or take the circular walk along the sea wall to the award-winning* village of Cley. Warning: the shorter Friary farm circular walk is currently closed due to nesting wildlife.
Holt is a pretty market town with upmarket shops and prices to match. Holt Vinyl Vault is an Aladdin’s cave, several rambling rooms of vinyl, pricey, but you’ll probably find something if you’re looking for a specific item and prepared to put in the hours.
From Holt, take the steam train to Sheringham. The town centre is now slightly down-at-heel, not that prices reflect that. There’s a theatre but no pier, no beach to speak of (big pebbles), the lifeboat museum is closed due to erosion of the cliff above. But, from Sheringham you can switch to the diesel train which takes you all the way to Norwich.
Take the train or bus to West Runton. The village pub, which was the Pavilion where the Sex Pistols once played, serves decent pub grub in the large garden. There’s also the Shire Horse centre if you like things equine. But my advice would be to walk the 10 minutes down to the beach, turn right and walk the 2 miles to Cromer.
Cromer is a busy little town with a RNLI museum (currently closed due to leaks), a decent pier, half a dozen sensibly-priced charity shops, a pop-up record shop full of bargains (Another Planet in West Street), and a Banksy. Cromer’s a bit more down-to-earth than Sheringham, and a lot more so than Holt, but is buzzing. Award-winning* fish and chips at No. 1
National Trust estate at Felbrigg Hall, at Sheringham Park (though you’ve probably missed the rhododendrons in full bloom), Roman Camp (where you could go and take in the view of Beeston Bump from my stepdad’s memorial bench), Blickling (take the bus from Cromer).
Also: 10 miles inland from Wells, near Fakenham, is Pensthorpe nature reserve.
I will doubtless think of more.
(*) nearly everywhere in Norfolk is “award-winning”. There must be an awful lot of awards.
Sculthorpe Moor nature reserve, near Fakenham. The Hawk & Owl trust is there, too.
Natural Surroundings between Blakeney and Holt. I’ve never been, but my mum recommends it.
I’m going up there this weekend. I can’t wait!
Thank you – it does show the merit of the ATM posts – there really is a wealth of up to date knowledge about places – we are a well-travelled bunch.
I sometimes wish it wasn’t a two-hour drive from home, but it is different enough that it means when we go, it feels like we’re on holiday, even if only for a weekend.
If the Cairngorms were less than 11 hours away, I’d love to go there for weekends, too. Anyone got a teleportation machine going spare?
Ballater or Brancaster: that’s a teaser….
If Scottie’s free to beam me up, I can have both, surely?
If it wasn’t 2 hours drive, then it would be rammed* every sunny weekend, wouldn’t it?
*autocorrect turned that into ‘rimmed’. Naughty, naughty Auntie Edith…
You’re probably right. My mum’s neighbours come up for the weekend from Norwich, which is all of half an hour away!
Blickling, Felbrigg, Cley-next-the-Sea and Cromer Pier. North Norfolk in a crabshell.
They like their stately homes and country piles in north Norfolk, don’t they?
I’m sure I read somewhere that Wreckless Eric (and his equally talented wife Amy Rigby) moved to Cromer fairly recently.
Yep. Regularly to be found hanging out in Another Planet. The whole shop is the size of my living room, so it can get quite cosy in there.
And Rick Wakeman recently got married in Cley apparently.
From today’s Times:
William Thomas French opened his Wells-next-the-Sea chippy in 1921 and the quayside shop has been run since 1984 by his grandson Marcus, who has worked there since he was seven. And while epic family history doesn’t necessarily guarantee epic fish and chips, queues outside the shop suggest that in this case they do. Locals tend to consume their cod and chips across the road on the quayside, in defiance of the gulls (fish supper from £9; frenchs.co.uk). But if you’d rather sit at a table, try Platten’s, two doors down; its upstairs dining room overlooks the quay and the salt marsh beyond. It even has a two-bedroom apartment upstairs. “
Another vote for Cley – nice walks and a gorgeous deli. Personally I’d avoid the chippy at Wells – unless there’s more than one. Our lad and his mates ate there a few weeks back and were all queasy on the way home.
Norwich does these lavender scones with lemon curd – NNs spin on the cream tea. Bloody horrible.
Mundesly has a nice beach, Winterton too – though that may be a bit south for you. Good dunes, beach cafe, fish and chips served in newspaper (at least they were 6/7 years ago)
Sheringham was nice – tiny Mexican place on the sea front.(Guac and Mole).
Have a lovely time.
There’s at least three chippies in Wells, I’d be surprised if French’s was the culprit…
Absolutely, it wouldn’t have been French’s, I’ll not name the other chippy on the quay but French’s is the one with a queue for a reason.
The deli in Cley is where pies go to die. They sell the best pork pies you will ever eat anywhere, period. And I say that as a converted veggie.
Walk in, buy this, buy that, buy something else, don’t look at credit card bill. It’s a great deli and the nearby smokehouse is brill too
OMG. Got to go there.
We had a lavender cream tea up that way about 20 years ago (there’s a lavender farm near Hunstanton I think). Didn’t go for the lemon curd though – think we stuck to the jam. The farm itself was lovely if you like that sort of thing.
Spent a week or so near Downham Market a few years ago – that’s quite a pretty place.
I was born and bred in Norfolk.
You must visit Holt, a truly beautiful little town.
Sheringham Park if you fancy a nice walk through a park with lots of loveley flowers and activities for the kids as well.
Avoid Sheringham town, go to Cromer instead and enjoy a dressed crab if you like seafood, you will not find better on the UK.
Cley is a nice small village worth a visit with a couple of good pubs amnd a nice walk down to the sea.
Blakeney is also well worth a visit.
I live 3 miles away from Wells, if you see a fat bloke on a Bianchi bike say “hi”, great record shop in Holt (The Vinyl Vault) another in Fakenham (Top Tracks), the wildlife is stunning if you’re interested enough to rise early for it, Holkham Gap for what I think is the best beach in the UK and I’d second No 29 in Burnham Market to eat out at. French’s for the best F&C, although a trip west along the coast road will take you to Eric’s for the sit-in experience. If you like birds the whole coast from RSPB Snettisham to Cley is probably the best stretch in the country but unfortunately you’ve just missed the best part of the year for birding.
I’ve not yet been to Top Tracks but I’ll see if I can persuade Mrs F at the weekend. Fakenham is usually somewhere we go ‘past’ rather than ‘to’.
It’s very much a quality over quantity shop, there aren’t boxes and boxes of records but I thought the choice was excellent and priced realistically. The antiques/collectibles shop on Norwich Street has also started selling records but his stock is more “optimistically” priced.
If you like meat, specifically pork, then I’m told by my Wymondham buddy that The Pigs in Edgefield is where to be.
Don’t buy anything from Charlie Gimbert.
Thanks for all your comments, everyone – a wealth of options awaits next week! The seal watching and the steam railway in particular, though there are enough foodie recommendations to get me salivating already. I will try to report back on what I find.
I was up there at the weekend, a last visit before the madness and traffic jams of high summer.
The selection in Cromer’s only proper record shop was rather depleted because the owner was away on tour. His wife was manning (personing?) the shop and showed me the unsorted stock in the back room. Whoever has been donating disco and Motown singles to the numerous charity shops in town must have run out of items to donate, and it was slim pickings. I only spent about 15 quid, and that included a double LP for a fiver.
As long as the weather holds, you’re in for a lovely time.
I’m off to West Runton again next weekend, which reminded me of this thread.
How did you get on, Sal, and is there anything you found which isn’t listed above?
Sal is still in the queue at French’s
Hi fenton (bet you love red deer). Yes, we are back in Bonn after a week in Wells – all good places. Although I asked about all sorts of places to visit, when we got there, we enjoyed it so much we spent the whole time in the town and didn’t leave once, apart from to go to the Nelson pub in the village where Horatio was born, for a fine meal, and the chance for my daughter to play impromptu violin with a local folk band!
We had an excellent cottage through Air B&B with its own garden, 2 minutes walk from the Quay, and my family spent more time than was good for my bank balance exploring every shop on Staithes Street – we did all like that the only chain shop in the whole town was the Co-op supermarket. It misses on having a proper bookshop, but I bought a rather fine book on oceans (The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works : Helen Czerski) from one of those lifestyle shops that sell knicks and indeed knacks as well as pottery, clothes and others odds and ends, and a wartime saga about girls working at the Clarks Street shoe factory. Of course we tried out French’s (reasonable, but no better than Tommy Tuckers in Witham, I’d say) , as well as the pizza place Flour (rather good). There was a wine shop in the old Ships Chandlers at the other end of the quay whose prices were wincemaking, but hey, we were on holiday.
Possibly the best thing was the beach, from where we did plenty of sea swimming as well as beachcombing and sand castle building, sometimes approached quite closely by seals, despite prominent notices warning people to stay away from them.
Our friends, who lived in the same street as a former Lord Mayor of London (massive gaff behind high walls), are amazing octogenarians who still run a weekly open meal for anyone who wants to come, and who set up and ran a monthly cinema club in Wells – pretty much everyone in Wells knew who they were… gave us a very warm welcome, and played host to my Mum, which she needed.
Every time we thought about taking a bus along the coast – about an hour to either Cromer or Holt via the train from Sheringham, out came the sun and beckoned us back to the beach. We will go back, and maybe explore then, but for now our buckets were filled deep in Wells.
I once spent a week with Helen Czerski (and some other Physics people I’ve since forgotten) at the Cavendish Labs in Cambridge. It must be a decade or more ago now.
I’m due back there next month. I’ll probably be eating my lunches with Jonathan, the man who found the hole in the polar ozone layer, again.
I wonder if they think to themselves “wasn’t Steve the 1996 Stilton Cheese Rolling World Champion?” but are too shy to mention it?
I’m going next week! Sunny Hunny, along the north coast, stay in Cromer, back via Great Yarmouth and Thetford Forest.
Am in Hunstanton from the 9th for a week. Great minds, etc.
Ah, the poor man’s Southwold. Seriously, Old Hunstanton beach with it’s striped cliffs and crab-filled pools, it’s 1953 and George is wondering why Timmy is looking suspiciously at that chap with the long raincoat and foreign accent…
I can’t wait!
We’ll be with the in-laws in Old Hunstanton this weekend. Might see you there!
Will keep ‘em peeled!