Parametric data
- Route name:
- Norwich
- Start point:
- Norwich.
- End point:
- Hoveton.
- This route on OS maps:
- https://explore.osmaps.com/route/3289403/ ...
- OS Explorer sheet ref(s):
- 237 and OL40.
- Distance:
- 10.5 miles walked, 7.4 miles flown.
- :
- 4.8 hours.[1]
- Ascent:
- 81 metres.[2]
- Stiles:
- 0 (zero).
- Landmark of note:
- Bridge under the Bittern Line.
- Feasible excursion:
- Via Bear's Grove level crossing.
- Waypoints:
- Thorpe St Andrew, Dussindale Estate, New Rackheath, Salhouse.
- Refreshments:
- Coffee from Norwich station. Packed lunch near Rackheath.
-
: -
20°C,[3] 🌤️
Misty and humid at first, but a breeze soon picked up.
-
Avoiding roads: -
Not good, even with the Bear's Grove diversion.
-
Footpath construction: -
You're on tarmac most of the walk.
-
Footpath condition: -
By Larch Wood, very overgrown.
-
Vistas: -
This is Norfolk at its flattest. Pause on the bridge across
the River Bure.
Blackberries:-
They were over when I walked. Annoyingly, they still
obstructed the path (see
notes).[4]
Route map.
Walk notes.
Rather too many of my rural perambulations are inadequately planned. By contrast, my walk today is the result of lengthy deliberation: how to leave Norwich. An easy enough task, you might imagine. However, the most direct and straighforward routes are unviable. For example, Plumstead Road looses even so much as the faintest trace of a footway east of Thorpe End. It's a break only of ¼ mile but the weight of 40 mph traffic makes it no go for pedestrians. Combine this with an almost complete lack of off-road footpaths, and you have a real head-scratcher to solve. Please mail a suggestion to me. Better yet, mail the NCC and ask them to sort it.[7]
There's nothing to be done but swing south towards the river and 2+ miles of A1242. It is extended, dull and suburban, but so are all my walks from a rail terminus. The moorings below St Andrew's provide seating and some relief for the eye (being officially part of the Broads National Park) but, at this early stage, I press on. This route does, at least, have navigational simplicity. No need for GPS until I hit the A1042 and need to confirm a short stretch of the ring road past Sainsbury's up to Dussindale Drive. Over the next mile you can enjoy the highlight of the entire walk: 1980s high density housing development. Fascinating.
All good things must come to an end, and Norwich does so exactly here. What looks like an ordinary rail bridge is actually a portal into another world; one with way fewer Ford Fiestas parked on brick laid drives. It may be Green Lane by name but those hoping for something more idyllic than Dussindale should note that the A1270 is dead ahead, and you've little else besides for nearly a mile. A bit noisy, then, not much to look at and little shelter from the wind but, with the sun making an appearance, it's time for lunch; nature supplying second course.
Of Rackheath, there may be little to note besides its corner
shop and chippie: facilities of interest to a hiker facing a
further four miles before the shops at Wroxham 🍟
More funeral directors are needed in Rackheath because, from
Mousehold Farm until the first houses in Salhouse, you have no
footway to speak of, and even the overgrown verge becomes too
narrow to put both feet on simultaneously. A Norwich bound HGV
with my name on it approaches at 40 mph 🚛
In 1879
newly born great Uncle
William Welham Clarke
faced no such threat. His arrival in Salhouse contrasted
with that of his three younger siblings who were born in
Lingwood
(five miles south east of Salhouse). Another puzzle to sort
out, if I live to tell the tale. The ultimate fate of Uncle
Welham is still a gruesome one, for he spends eternity alongside
Basil Rathbone
in New York state. Do you most fear The Hound of the
Baskervilles or the Salhouse Road?
You may have noticed that the road headed north east from Salhouse to Salhouse Broad is called Lower Street. Don't mistake it for the village by that name near the start of the first section of this series of walks. The East Anglian rustic does all he can to confuse alien travellers.
Although the quirkily named Howletts Loke also lacks a footway, fear not. No juggernaut will thunder past, even on a bad day. Indeed, now beyond the 8 mile mark, this walk briefly departs from public roads in favour of unmade footpath. It's not altogether good news because this particular stretch, near Larch Wood, is overgrown with bracken, nettles and brambles. Routes that are regularly walked do not generally fall into this state. It shortly becomes apparent why this one is neglected but, with hindsight, the best option might be to bail out of it via the Bear's Grove level crossing and the B1140, even at the expense of adding ⅓ mile to the walk.[8] Unaware of what lies ahead, I continue on the footpath round Welldon Wood, being obliged to deploy my secateurs at a couple of points. It's slow going.
The first question is "Going where?" The answer is a blind bend
in the A1151, about
eighty metres short of the Turnpike Bridge
at the southern end of Wroxham. The second question is
"Where next?". This, too, has a straightforward answer: walk
north in the Wroxham Road facing a continuous stream of
traffic headed for Norwich. You have no alternative public right
of way 😱
In 2004 this bridge was treated to a £500,000 upgrade aiming to
"bring long-term benefits to people using the roads ...". Well,
this hiker is a people using the A1151 but I see no footbridge
that might conveniently have been added at that
time.[9]
If you don't like the A1151 then it's hard bananas because you
have over a mile of it before turning off the Stalham Road. The
scenery becomes slightly monotonous, consisting only of A) fish
and chip restaurants and B) small craft hired for boating
holidays on the
River Bure🛥️
My grandfather,
Alexander South Clarke, youngest brother of Welham, was fond of
messing about
on the Norfolk rivers in a converted ship’s lifeboat:
Rubina. When he went off to war in 1915 he left it moored up on
the broads. He returned in 1919 to find it missing. Like most
men of the time he, by habit, wore a cap. I picture it that
afternoon being flung to the ground.
At the station, use the underpass to access trains bound for Sheringham. Missed it last time I was here.
