Small Train Ahead

Moving day complete and the first full day on our new site near Felbrigg in North Norfolk. Our evening stroll yesterday led us to an attractive copse maintained by the Woodland Trust, not huge but abundant with birdsong. I head for the same copse for my morning stroll with the boys.

After checking the map we decide to visit Aylsham, we have seen Blickling Hall in the National Trust book and think the park looks worthy of a visit. Lynnie does a skilled job of navigating us through the lanes. When we started off her map reading was on a slight time delay, she could accurately tell me where we had been, but not where to go. She now has it timed perfectly and can give a commentary on the various interesting things that are coming up. We park in the National Trust car park by Park Farm at the north end of Blickling Hall Lake.

The car park is on Weavers Way. Every new location has a new long distance walk. Weavers Way is about sixty miles long going from Cromer to Great Yarmouth. We head west following the way markers around the top of the lake and through the park, bringing us to the front of Blickling Hall, a magnificent Jacobean mansion said to be Anne Boleyn’s birthplace. We stop briefly to look from afar and then continue past the church to turn right along Silvergate Lane.

In Silvergate village we turn left, still on Weavers Way. A right turn and we follow the lane passing Able Heath on our right and take the next left track leading to Green Lane. We follow it to join Marriott’s Way, a twenty-six mile path between Norwich and Aylsham. We walk along the disused railway line running parallel to the B1145 (or as it is known locally the quarter to twelve), until it reaches the Bure Valley Railway Station.

Bure Valley Railway is a 15-inch narrow gauge heritage steam and diesel railway. It uses the route of the old track between Wroxham and Aylsham. The old passenger service closed in 1952 and goods service in 1974, in 1983 the track was lifted. It reopened in July 1990 on a narrow gauge running a frequent service. Notably the route has the only operational railway tunnel in Norfolk.

From the station we mooch around Aylsham. The town has the feel of a small market town with a number of family run businesses. St. Michaels and All Angels church dominates the town. There is a notice in the church saying there is a broadband receiver on top of the church to enhance the community’s communication.

We walk north from the church to rejoin Weavers Way, on meeting the road we cross and turn right towards Flash Pit Farm following the footpath back to Blickling Hall. On entering the park we walk along the edge of the lake and return to the car.