As we’re about to set off this coming Friday for our fourth trip to north Norfolk, I thought I’d better sort out blogging our third, now a year ago.
I’m not really sure now why we opted to stay in King’s Lynn. It would be a better spot for a long weekend than for a week’s stay, as it isn’t conveniently located for the north Norfolk coastal villages and beaches, something we hadn’t fully realized before we booked, though we ought to have done. Between where the Great Ouse discharges into the Wash at King’s Lynn, and the village of Snettisham, there are no coastal footpaths, only marshland with farm tracks and isolated properties (with names like ‘Estuary Cottages’) marked on the map. Sidebar: seemingly you can walk this stretch of coastline if you are a robust enough personality to plough merrily on through ‘No Access’ signs – I am not but this woman clearly was. Aside from the isolation and trespass element, it would be a long walk in what sounds like not especially rewarding terrain. This Eastern Daily Press article from 2020 noted a possible plan for opening up this bit of coastline to walkers, but I don’t know whether this was ever made official. On my newly-purchased OS Explorer 250, there were no public footpaths marked across this stretch of land, so we didn’t attempt it.
King’s Lynn is an interesting old town and has some impressively old-looking buildings and quaint cobbled streets. The quayside area is smart and has clearly had some money spent on it. The town’s main shopping area isn’t and had a faintly depressed air. We didn't spend any time in it other than to catch buses from the bus station and buy groceries.
The town is apparently known locally just as 'Lynn', with the 'King's' bit being just for tourists and maps.
In another instance of carelessly inadequate research, I had purchased OS Explorer map 236 (pictured) as the one covering the King’s Lynn area. It does indeed include the town, but right at the top of the map – most of the map’s coverage is inland area. The type of fenland landscape shown in the part below is no doubt interesting but not really where we had planned to spend our time, despite such enticing labels as 'Marshland' and 'Black Ditch Level'. The long straight channel of water is 'Middle Level Main Drain', which joins the Great Ouse just past the top right of this snip.
Thankfully I did open the map prior to the trip and realised my mistake, so just had to purchase map 250 'Norfolk Coast West' as well. All set.
Where we stayed
The Vault, St James Street, King's Lynn
Good things: it was a decent spec and is well placed for what seemed to be the most attractive bits of King’s Lynn including the old quayside. Slight whinges (they weren't major, though enough to make us probably not stay there again): despite the high ceilings it has a slightly ‘shut in’ feel, probably inevitably given that it's right on the street so the windows have blinds over them; it had an annoyingly flimsy dining set which not only involved mounting stools (never my favourite) and but also necessitated sitting quite still and taking care not to knock anything in case the whole thing collapsed. Why on earth the owners haven’t put in a proper dining table I’ve no idea – the floor space is quite limited but I would have thought there was room for something more solid even if it was small. It also had – like our Devon rental the previous autumn – an induction hob; I’m sure these are really great and if you have one at home, obviously you can take time to work it out and get used to it. However, they're not easy to get to grips with in a hurry as to the uninitiated, the rings have an annoying habit of just turning themselves off whenever they feel like it. Think that’s about it. Also, Ruth’s head fell foul a couple of times of the metal bar visible in the Booking.com photo of the bedroom.
Journey up and arrival
On the way up, we stopped off at Wicken Fen, a nature reserve and SSSI south of Ely. There’s a café there, where we had lunch before going for a bit of a walk around the reserve. It was a nice sunny day and a very interesting landscape.
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| The restored windpump |
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| Looking towards the modern windpump |
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| Boardwalk on Sedge Fen |
After arriving and parking up we went for a short late afternoon walk to the river. The Great Ouse at King's Lynn is a massive tidal drainage channel, quite different from the pretty meandering river I've often walked along near Wolverton.
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| The Great Ouse north of Milton Keynes |
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| The Great Ouse at King's Lynn |
First day: around King's Lynn
We had a look around the Minster and the Museum. We had lunch at Marriott’s Warehouse, a restaurant on South Quay. In the afternoon Ruth joined a ‘Stories of Lynn’ history tour while I went for a walk around, taking in Tower Gardens and The Walks.
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| The Minster |
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| Gravestones in the Minster churchyard |
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| Marriott's Warehouse on South Quay |
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| Purfleet Quay |
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| Hanseatic warehouse on St Margaret's Lane |
Second day: walk from Snettisham to Hunstanton
We took Lynx bus 34 to Snettisham, and walked to Hunstanton. This was a walk of just over eight miles, including a mile or so spent walking from the bus stop in the village to the beach.
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| Snettisham Beach |
This was quite a warm walk, from memory, and Ruth certainly got a bit sunburnt. At Hunstanton (it's apparently pronounced "Hunst'n") we had lunch sitting outside at the Golden Lion Hotel. We had a quick wander around - Hunstanton is a traditional ice creams and amusements-type place - and a look at the red and white cliffs, before catching the bus back to King’s Lynn. We went back to Marriott's Warehouse in the evening for dinner.
Third day: Ely
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| First sighting of the cathedral walking from the station |
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| Inside Ely Cathedral |
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| Peacock's Tearoom |
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| Riverside walk at Ely |
Fourth day: Burnham Market
Think it was raining, and we felt at a loose end. Took another bus ride, on the Lynx Coastliner 36 service to Burnham Market. We got off the bus by No Twenty9, which I had assumed from Google Maps was a regular café but turned out to be a quite posh restaurant. We ate an expensive but delightful lunch, including pudding.
After lunch we walked from Burnham Market to Burnham Overy Staithe, along roads – couldn’t see a direct footpath – and took the path leading out over the marshes to dunes. Ruth walked all the way out to the dunes to catch a glimpse of the sea; I hung back a bit partly to take photos and partly as I was a bit twitchy about missing our bus back. Curse that cautious nature. We did indeed manage to catch the bus, from a stop by The Hero pub.
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| Boats at Burnham Overy Staithe |
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| Path leading through marshes towards the sea |
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| Marshes |
Fifth and final day: boat trip and scary drainage stuff
We went for a boat trip on the ‘Baden Powell’, out into the Wash. Great trip – only two other passengers, two women (we weren’t sure whether they were friends or a couple). One was a garrulous type who shortly after introductions, confided loudly that her companion was terminally ill – presumably seeing our slightly taken aback expressions, she followed this up quickly with “It’s OK, she’s fine with people knowing”. Companion looked on but said nothing.
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| Ruth having a go at steering |
The three or so chaps who comprised the crew were lovely and gave us all a turn at steering. I think they told us a bit about the process of trying to get funding to maintain the boat, though I've forgotten the details. One of the guys commented that KL’s high street and shopping centre were ‘grim’ and that it was a shame if it puts people off the town.
In the afternoon, we decided to go for a bit of a walk along the river south from the town. This was quite interesting, though not all very attractive and it's a faintly intimidating landscape - perhaps because of the openness; also because of the human intervention in terms of water control in this area. We found ourselves following the Fen Rivers Way for part of the walk; this apparently runs from King's Lynn to Cambridge.
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| Ruth crossing the Relief Channel Tail Sluice |
Some way after the Palm Paper factory we came upon a big contraption spanning a smaller waterway joining the Great Ouse. There's a walkway across it. As we stepped onto it, a recorded message bellowed something at us - I forget what, but something about danger and taking care, I think. Just what my finely-strung nervous system needed. Turns out this structure is the Relief Channel Tail Sluice, built at the downstream end of the Great Ouse Relief Channel. According to this Eastern Daily Press piece from 2012, the Relief Channel was built after the 1947 floods to store excess water from the Great Ouse. The Tail Sluice was completed in 1959 and opened by the Duke of Edinburgh.
We didn't continue further beyond the Tail Sluice as it wasn't looking feasible to make it into a circular walk, so we retraced our steps to King's Lynn and had a lovely cream tea at Cobbles on the quayside.
For our last evening, we went for dinner at the Bank House on King's Staithe Square. Posher than Marriott's Warehouse but I think it left both of us with a slightly "meh" feeling. No memory of what I had.
We made our way home the following morning. I shall close this with some of the pointless pieces of ornamentation dotted around The Vault, starting with this velour trio:
And this contraption in the bathroom:
And this, enhanced by my Buff:
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