| Coasting along |
| North Norfolk's coastline is home to windmills, stately homes
and a pub with no bar. All you need to do is cruise the coast road |
This route along the North Norfolk coast is arguably East Anglia's most picturesque, dotted as it is with lovely villages, white-topped windmills and magisterial stately homes set in lush, mature woodland. There's plenty of fun for kids, too, in the seaside town of Hunstanton (known locally as ‘Sunny Hunny' as it is said to receive more hours of sunshine than anywhere else in the UK) and plenty of places for shopaholics to browse to their hearts' content. It's also home to some of the best birdwatching spots in Britain - but we're keeping that for another day
(so turn to page 95). Wildlife lovers can enjoy a bracing trip out to sea to spot a seal or two.
1. Sunny Hunny
Hunstanton is a super seaside spot which offers a variety of delights for all ages and tastes, with its sandy beaches and clear, shallow water. In summertime it's all about family fun, with a tractor train carrying visitors along the seafront, where you can visit the play centre at Jungle Wonderland or go ten-pin bowling. Sea Life offers a diver's-eye view of the undersea world via its Ocean Tunnel, and there's a working seal sanctuary where you can watch the pups being nursed back to health during their twice-daily feeds. Visitors may even enjoy the chance to touch rock-pool creatures.
If you have shopping in mind, head to Old Hunstanton and to Le Strange Old Barns, which is Norfolk's biggest antiques, arts and crafts centre - a great place to buy original paintings and crafts by Norfolk-based artists.
2. The pub with no bar
Here's a good excuse, if ever one was needed, to visit a fine old English country pub: the Lord Nelson in Burnham Thorpe is
of historic importance for two reasons. First, Lord Nelson was born in the village in 1758, though he left when he was just 12 to go to sea. He returned for five years between 1787 and 1793 to live with his father, the rector, and gave a farewell party for the villagers in
the pub, then called The Plough. Twelve years later he died at Trafalgar and the pub was renamed in his honour shortly after.
Second, another unique feature of this pub is that it has no bar, just a serving hatch, which is how all pubs used to work in this country. The food is well worth sampling, as are the local ales, but bear in mind that the pub is very popular on sunny days. To reach Nelson's birthplace, continue along the same road on which you arrived from Hunstanton and take the next right: after about a quarter of a mile you'll find a plaque on a wall in front of a white house.
3. A past affair
This place could have put the ‘stately' into stately home - for sheer opulence and splendour you can't fail to be impressed by the marble hall and the state rooms, while the fountain at the front is a fine example of the house's Palladian style. It is home to the Earl of Leicester; also on the estate is a Bygones Museum, which has a wonderfully broad-ranging collection of artefacts encompassing everything from vintage motor cars to household items.
4. Wandering in Wells
As its name implies,
Wells-next-the-Sea isn't quite
on the beach, though you can get there on the narrow-gauge Wells Harbour Railway (tel 01328 710964). There are some fine Georgian houses on the green and you can potter down the narrow streets which are lined with old flint buildings. There's not an
enormous amount of shops here but there are some very interesting places along Staithe Street and Freeman Street, including a 1950s shop (tel 01328 722362).
5. Seal-spotting
There are two firms which run seal-spotting trips from Morston, so you've a good chance of getting a seat, even in summer. The trip will take you out to Blakeney Point, which was Norfolk's first nature reserve and was bought by the National Trust in 1912. There you can see grey and common seals basking on the beach, as well as many migrant birds, including all sorts of terns.
6. Cley Mill
Perhaps Norfolk's
most picturesque village,
Cley-next-the-Sea has a charming windmill which doubles as a
guesthouse. You can still climb up to the top for the view, and there's information displayed about how the mill worked. Cley itself was once a prosperous port (which is hard to imagine, given its size today), exporting wool and grain to the content, via the river Glaven. Today, there are some fine places
to eat in the village, a smokehouse for seafood and an excellent traditional food store.
7. Crab-wise Cromer
It's all about the crab in Cromer - the town's famous for
this delicious seafood, so we
recommend either buying some dressed crab to take back to the van or, if it's tea time, heading for Rumbletums restaurant. Once that's taken care of, it's definitely worth scuttling into the town centre, where there are plenty of shops. Cromer has its own museum and a pier with a theatre at the end of it. If you decide to stay for a show, or just want to pass the time, then a promenade along the beach is particularly pleasant.
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Distance 80 miles
Time All day
Refreshments
The Lord Nelson, Burnham Thorpe
Tel 01328 738241
Rumbletums, Cromer
Tel 01263 514894
Attractions
Sea Life Centre
Tel 01485 533576
Le Strange Old Barns
Tel 01485 533402
Holkham Hall
Tel 01328 710227
Temple's Ferry Service
Tel 01263 740791
Bean's Boat Trips
Tel 01263 749505/740038
Cley Mill
Tel 01263 740209
Tourist information
Hunstanton
Tel 01485 532610
Wells-next-the-sea
Tel 01328 7100885
Cromer Tel 01263 512497
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