North Norfolk: Will We Get There?

Ruth and I are due – fingers crossed – to be Actually Going on Holiday next Monday. (Or on a ‘staycation’, given that that word seems to have been recently redefined to encompass holidaying within the UK, by people who think it’s not a proper holiday unless you fly somewhere and roast yourself on a beach for two weeks).

We had booked a week in north Norfolk for May 2020, following an enjoyable stay in the area in May 2019 (of which more below), but the first COVID lockdown meant that we couldn’t go, so we rebooked for May 2021. At the start of 2021 we were both somewhat gloomy about whether we’d even be able to go this year, but thankfully the dates announced in the government’s ‘roadmap’ have allowed self-catering breaks with members of your own household from 12 April. We’ll just miss the next roadmap date of 17 May when we would have actually been able to eat INSIDE a pub or restaurant, but we’re so pleased to be going at all that that’s frankly a small price to pay. And it’ll no doubt mean the trip works out cheaper.

We had an encouraging email from the company we’ve booked with and are just waiting for that arrival information sometime this week.

I won’t say anything more about the upcoming booking in case I jinx it, but will say a few words about the May 2019 holiday as I don’t seem to have published the post I drafted at the time.

Where we stayed

The Triumphal Arch

We were looking for somewhere within reach of the coast near Holkham, as Ruth had sung the praises of the beach there, plus my parents had been to Wells-next-the-Sea a few times and liked the area. While searching for places to stay in the area, I came across the Holkham Lodges, four little holiday lets, all only sleeping two. The Triumphal Arch, where we stayed, is just outside the southern boundary of the estate, placed towards the southern end of the long straight avenue that runs through the estate. The other four are converted estate lodges. The rentals are arranged through SALT Norfolk.

The arch is adorable and undoubtedly the most quirky place I’ve stayed in. The ground floor has a little kitchen and dining table; there’s then a narrow stone spiral staircase leading to the upper floor, which houses the living area, bedroom plus a bath all in one space. Off the staircase midway are a toilet on one side and a shower area on the other. You would only want to be holidaying there with a partner, as the side of the shower area is a large full-length window overlooking the kitchen below. The holiday accommodation comprises the right-hand side of the lower portion in the picture above, plus the whole of the top floor. We arrived to a charming selection of welcome gifts, including a fairly intimidating artisanal loaf of bread that took an inordinate amount of effort to slice.

Welcome gifts

View from the upper room

Looking down the staircase from the upper room

Despite its inconvenience we both loved it and decided that we would stay there again, albeit it’s possibly better for a short break (we only booked three nights on this occasion) than a full week as the quirky charm of the steep spiral staircase and cramped bathroom conditions could start to pall a bit. The arch is in beautifully peaceful surroundings.

The journey there

The mini-break didn’t start all that well as when I went out to pack the car I discovered that both my car’s wing mirrors had been stolen overnight. While I steamed and vented for a while, Ruth sensibly phoned Motor Serv and sourced me some more, which we duly collected, and I phoned the Wolverton FastFit Station to see if they could do a quick bit of fitting. To cut a longish story short, they did, and after a restorative portion of churros at Café Olé we eventually set off, though we had to cancel the lunch with Ruth’s parents that had been planned for that day as we were running too late by that stage. We did stop at Oxburgh Hall to make use of our NT cards, and had a brief look around and a cream tea.

Oxburgh Hall

First full day

On the first of our two full days there, I went out for a pre-breakfast walk and was charmed to see a hare coming up the road towards me. Never seen one close up before. (S)he stopped when (s)he must have sensed me, but didn’t immediately run the other way. I hadn’t realized how different they look from rabbits – much bigger, with darker fur and striking eyes.

Once breakfasted, we drove to the car park on Lady Anne’s Drive and walked past the funky little ‘Lookout’ to Holkham Beach. Beautiful – huge expanse of sand.

The Lookout

The beach at Holkham

After spending some time walking around there we decided to walk to Wells-next-the-Sea, which takes you along the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path through a woodland area to the Wells Beach Car Park, and then down Beach Road into the town. We passed a caravan park while walking along Beach Road, which Ruth thought might have been where she once stayed with a friend’s family as a teenager. We had a brief look around Wells and a cup of tea, and then walked back.

Walking to Wells

We had decided we wanted to have dinner at The Victoria Inn in Holkham, I think because we’d seen it reviewed in The Times’ Weekend supplement a while back. Because I wanted to have a drink with dinner, we were obliged to do the walk of around three miles across the park (our stay at Holkham Lodges entitled us to walk around the estate, which was a nice perk). It was a very pleasant walk, but as we’d done quite a bit of walking during the day I seem to remember it feeling like a bit of a trek.

Evening walk across the Holkham estate

I'm sure we had a nice meal but I can't actually remember what I ate. I do remember that some of the meal was taken up with Ruth trying to organise us a taxi back to our rental property. She did manage it, and it duly turned up and drove us home, probably at some expense but neither of us could face the walk back.

Second full day

The first part of our second day was taken up with visiting Walsingham, which I wanted to do for unclear but no doubt deeply spiritual reasons. I seem to remember the Catholic comprehensive in Nottingham I attended for a couple of years organizing trips to Walsingham, but I never went on one, not finding the thought very appealing at 13. In middle age, these places can seem more interesting.

We parked in the public car park in the village and had a wander around. There are two shrines at Walsingham (as well as various other churches and chapels): one Anglican, one Catholic. The Anglican shrine (the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham) is in the village itself; the Catholic shrine (the Slipper Chapel) is about a mile away at Houghton St Giles but you can walk to it, as we did, along the Pilgrim Way, part of the route of the former Wells and Fakenham Railway. The two shrines form an unexpected contrast to each other as the Anglican shrine is very ornate and ‘high church’ (photo below of one of its chapels) while the Slipper Chapel is an unassuming building with a plain and simple interior.

Chapel at the Anglican shrine

Me near a cross

We had a drink at The Bull, but it wasn’t serving food so we ended up returning to the Anglican shrine and having lunch in the café there. After lunch we walked the mile or so along the Pilgrim Way to the Catholic shrine and had a look at the Chapel and a browse around the shop. We ended up having to cut our time there a bit short as we were running out of time on the car park ticket - I may go back sometime.

Drink outside at The Bull

Setting out along the Pilgrim Way

The Slipper Chapel

The reason Walsingham is awash with shrines to the Virgin Mary is that she allegedly appeared nearby to one Richeldis de Faverches, in 1061. The British Pilgrimage Trust lists various possible Pilgrim Ways to Walsingham; you can download the routes in GPX format for your smartphone. There’s moving with the times.

Before leaving Walsingham we paid a quick visit to the ruins of Walsingham Abbey.

Later that day we visited the grounds of the Holkham estate and had a meander around the huge walled garden.

The walled garden

The journey back

The following day we packed up and visited Holt for an hour or so, before driving south to visit Ruth's parents for the postponed lunch. As we got further into inland Norfolk Ruth became gloomy and started muttering about sugar beet country. We were both agreed that we really like the north Norfolk coast, though, and are hoping to return.