East Anglia 2009 - Sandringham

After Cromer we moved to the Caravan Club site at Sandringham. Just as we had finished setting up the caravan, awning etc. the next door neighbour pointed out that we had a puncture in one of the car tyres. To cut a long story short we ended up having 2 new rear tyres at great cost. Oh well, better safe than sorry!

As the title suggests we are close to Sandringham House, about a mile away. Sandringham is the country retreat of Her Majesty the Queen, and has been the private home of four generations of British monarchs since 1862. The house, set in 60 acres of stunning gardens and is at the heart of the 20,000-acre Sandringham Estate, 600 acres of which make up the woodland and heath of the Country Park.

We visited it at the first opportunity while the sun was shining. Below is the main entrance. We were only allowed around part of the ground floor, but this gave a good idea of how the Queen lives whilst there. One of the interesting features was that the air in the rooms was filtered 24/7 and so little dusting was required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sue by the outside thermometer.

 

The museum – the fire alarm went while we were there and no one made any effort to evacuate the building. It took a while for the supervisors to shoo everyone out! Needless to say it was a false alarm.

A working model of an Aston Martin given to one of the Queen’s children. Superbly made.

A Roller with a different mascot.

Note the RR is in red. Henry Royce died in 1933. The same year the RR emblem was changed from Red to Black. Not out of respect for Henry Royce as the legend has it, but because customers thought that red clashed with the body colours of their cars. Henry Royce had agreed to this before he died.

This carpenters tool box brought back a few memories. I had to make one for college albeit not this large.

The grounds – almost like our back garden!

On another day we visited  Hunstanton. En route we visited Norfolk lavender. We didn’t see that much lavender, but what we did smelt very nice.

The cliffs at Hunstanton and you thought Norfolk was flat!

At Hunstanton cliffs the strata are superbly exposed and there is a spectacular colour contrast between the rusty brown carstone, the brick-red Hunstanton red chalk formation and the overall white and grey colours of the ferriby chalk formation. The carstone is widely used for building in the area.

Hunstanton gardens – they would look a lot better in bright sunlight.

The nearest main town to the caravan site is King’s Lynn.

Down by the water there is lots of history, but there are other places that we could have done without seeing. It took us 10 minutes to extract ourselves from the local council estate!

The Purfleet Quay – this guy’s name is Captain George Vancouver guess where he sailed to?

   

King’s Lynn Trinity Guildhall dates back to 1420’s.

One of the local houses/warehouses built around the 1400’s.

Bircham windmill - The windmill was built in 1846 and worked until the 1920s when the sails were removed and the tower abandoned. It was bought by the current owner in a very dilapidated state.Initially the two adjoining cottages were renovated. Then, because the mill was dangerous, with timber falling from the top, it was decided to put a new cap on and restoration began. The cap went up in 1979, followed by the sails in 1981. The interior of the mill was also restored, with three floors being completely replaced and all the machinery and stones gathered from farm sales and other derelict mills.The mill is now fully restored and in working order.

The photo says it all – Sue had a cup of tea instead.

While at Sandringham there was a carriage racing event to decide who goes to the World Championships in Hungary. A few photos.

 

 

  

I decided to take some photos of the site and was attracted to the flowers at reception. Then I saw our name on the blackboard – we had mail!

East Anglia 2009 – Cromer

Cromer is an old town with a long and unique history. Today one is reminded of the archetypal Victorian seaside town with a pier and many old buildings in the windy backstreets just behind the sea front.

We were staying at Seacroft Caravan Club site about a mile out of town. This was a private site taken over and updated by the Caravan Club. I think it is one of the best Caravan Club sites we have stayed on.

 

Cromer Pier – a nice traditional pier.

At the end of the pier is the new lifeboat house with this stained glass window.

Cromer’s most famous resident was Henry Blogg.

Coxswain Henry Blogg (1876-1954) was the RNLI's most decorated lifeboatman. During his 53 years of service Blogg was awarded three Gold and four Silver RNLI medals for gallantry, as well as the George Cross and British Empire Medal. With the assistance of his dedicated crew, he launched some 387 times and helped to save 873 lives around the Cromer coast.

In 2006 the Henry Blogg museum was opened to illustrate the history of Cromer lifeboats.

Yours truly at the museum.

Within  a reasonable distance of Cromer are two National Trust houses. This is Felbrigg Hall.   Extract from the NT website -

One of the most elegant country houses in East Anglia

• Remarkable Stuart architecture and fine Georgian interior
• Prolific library and Grand Tour collection
• Stunning walled garden, orangery and orchards
• Many lakeside, parkland and woodland trails to explore

Sue in the walled garden

Walled garden

We had hoped to visit many of the towns and villages along the north coast of East Anglia, but with so much to do we really only saw Sheringham and Blakeney.

Blakeney is an attractive village and small port at the mouth of the River Glaven. There are many narrow lanes of flint cottages, a fine church and medieval Guildhall. There are boat trips to view the seals on Blakeney Point.

Flint house

Throughout our trip we have been geocaching and on many occasions we have been taken to lots of interesting places. Here I am on top of an ‘esker’ near Blakeney. Eskers are casts of sub-glacial tunnels or ice-walled canyons near to an ice margin – that’s the short version.

In fact East Anglia had more hills then we expected and this was all due to deposition after the last Ice Age.

We have been to Blickling Hall before but it was well worth a second visit. We had met Margaret and Roger for lunch at the Saracens Head, near Erpingham which was very nice and then Sue and I went to BH.

Blickling Hall - Magnificent Jacobean house with gardens and park

• Famed for its long gallery, fine tapestries, paintings and rare books
• A Garden for all seasons
• Excellent wedding and conference venue
• Reputedly home to the headless ghost of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second queen

Rear garden

 

What’s a ‘sitooterie’? Pretend you’re Scottish.

East Anglia 2009 - Lowestoft

We are doing the grand tour of the East Anglian coast, starting in early June and finishing in early July. At the time of writing we are just south of Lowestoft staying at White Beach Caravan Club Site, Kessingland. Below are the sands of Lowestoft beach.

The water fountains in Lowestoft. If you look hard you’ll see the water!

This is the most easterly point in Britain. The wind turbine behind Sue is named ‘Gulliver’ and is 30 metres in height.

South of Kessingland, where we are caravanning, is the village of Coverhithe. The coast here is eroding rapidly and it is estimated that the church ruins here will start falling into the sea in about 70 years time.

End of the road – or is it a large pothole?

We spent a very pleasant afternoon in Beccles. We didn’t know what to expect, but we found it to be a busy market town. There are quite a few Georgian houses many with a Dutch influence. We parked at the quay which is a lively place, on the edge of town.

There are quite a few of these Beccles town signs.

I don’t think this sign has moved with the times.

Georgian house front entrance. Many of these houses have blue plaques.

Houses on the Old Market in Beccles – we can highly recommend The Farriers for a cup of coffee/tea.

The Old Town Hall with the Bell Tower behind.

We enjoyed a visit to The Upstairs Gallery, which has won many awards.

These are some of the art works that are for sale.

A couple of days later we visited Linda and Adrian Crocket who live in Worlingham, just on the outskirts of Beccles. We spent a very pleasant evening with them and were well fed and watered.

Back to Lowestoft and on a rainy afternoon we visited the ‘scores’.

The Scores are a unique feature of Lowestoft. They are a series of narrow lanes created over the years by people wearing paths in the soft, sloping cliff as they travelled between the historic High Street and the Beach Village. The origin of the word 'score' is thought to be a corruption of 'scour', or possibly from the Old English 'scora', which means to make or cut a line.

Sue at Mariner's Score. Earlier this was called Swan's Score due to the Swan Inn which stood there. This was the inn where Cromwell stayed when he visited the town to put down 'malignants'. I am pleased to say that Sue is still alive and kicking.

Maltser’s Score – this is a ‘crinkle crankle’ wall or serpentine wall. Those of you who follow this blog will remember the ‘CC wall’ in Wimborne.

The Flint House 1586 the oldest house in town.

Earlier in the year we had made arrangements to meet our friends Roger and Margaret Watts. At the time of meeting they were touring the broads on their boat ‘Shalla’ one of the River Cruiser Class, specially built for the Broads.

We met at Oulton Broad and spent the day with them and their friends Rob and Marilyn who arrived in their cabin cruiser.

Sailing in Shalla.

At Oulton Broad.

From the left – Rob, Stuart, Roger, Margaret and Sue.

Roger heaving a sigh of relief after weekenders in a cabin cruiser (see left) nearly demolished his boat. I didn’t know he knew so many naughtyical (spelling intended)terms.

Linda and Adrian visited us on our campsite at Kessingland and we all had a picnic in the caravan.

Southwold is a must when visiting this area. the first visit we had was mainly to the pier and a walk around the area. The second visit was to the old lifeboat house (ex Cromer) and a more comprehensive walk around town.

Southwold lighthouse.

 

Going down to the beach, the pier is in the distance.

 

Southwold beach huts featured on nearly every postcard.