NORFOLK |
| Blickling Hall |
Off B1354, 1.5 miles north-west of Aylsham |
The late 14th century moated building went through many
transformations at the hands of many owners, including Anne Boleyn's father and James I's
Lord Chief Justice, who was largely responsible for its present appearance. In the 18th
century the earls of Buckinghamshire put in hand many alterations to the grounds. The
state rooms include the Peter the Great Room, which contains a huge tapestry of the
Russian ruler. The Long Gallery is noted for its ornate plaster ceiling, and there is a
grand double staircase. |
| Caister Castle |
Off A1064, 1 mile west of Caister-on-Sea |
The substantial moated remains of Caister Castle, begun
by Sir John Fastolfe in 1432 and still dominated by its soaring tower. A museum beside the castle houses veteran and vintage cars.
Nearby is the site of a once-thriving Roman port, abandoned centuries ago as Saxon
invaders swarmed in. |
| Castle Acre Castle |
Off A1065, 4 miles north of Swaffham |
Although records of the castle begin with building work
by William de Warenne, son-in-law of William the Conqueror, the earthwork itself is known
to have been there long before the Normans arrived. Castle Acre's richness in ruins gives
it not only a Norman castle but a medieval priory too. Castle Acre Priory, although
intended to house only 25 monks, soon spread over the meadows with a 13th century church
and extensive monastic quarters. The prior's lodging with its oriel windows, and a private
chapel in the storey above, today houses a small museum. |
| Castle Rising |
Off A149, 4 miles north-east of King's Lynn |
A massive Norman keep sits within equally massive
earthworks which may well have been Roman in origin. The walls of the keep are up to 9ft
thick, and within the arched entrance a staircase leads up to a vestibule and an arch
which once opened into the Great Hall, and to other rooms including a domestic chapel.
Here Edward III kept his mother in reasonably comfortable imprisonment for 30 years after
her part in his father's murder. |
| Cathedral City Built On Cloth |
City Centre Norwich |
Norwich Cathedral's lofty spire is one among more than
20 towers and spires that thrust above the city's rooftops. Another landmark is the tower
of the 1938 City Hall, rising above the market place. The River Wensum winds round the
city, enfolding narrow streets and alleys that display many an old-world shop front.
Complementing the Castle Museum's art collection is the gallery of modern and ethnographic
art in the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, at the University of East Anglia. |
| Cockley Cley |
Off A1065, 3.5 miles south-west of Swaffham |
A fortified village of the Iceni tribe in Boudicca's
day has been reconstructed on what is believed to have been the site of an original Iceni
encampment. It is complete with timber watchtowers and drawbridge, the chief's roundhouse,
chariot house, and a snake pit for malefactors. Later centuries are recalled in the
remains of a Saxon church thought to date from the time of St Augustine's mission to
England, and in a 15th century cottage which houses a museum of local historical and
archaeological exhibits. |
| Felbrigg Hall |
Off A148, 2.5 miles south-west of Cromer |
The Jacobean building was for three centuries the home
of the Windham family. Furnishings and pictures from the 18th century are among its
interior glories, and the windows contain insertions of medieval stained glass from St
Peter Mancroft in Norwich. There is some elegant rococo plasterwork, and a Gothic library
imitating one at Blickling Hall. The grounds have a walled garden, an orangery, and
woodland and lakeside walks. |
| Grime's Graves |
Off A134, 7 miles north-west of Thetford |
Before the Breckland region became the second largest
forest in England, it was an open wasteland of sandy heath. Still longer ago, in Stone Age
times, it had been populated by men who left behind their flint axeheads, tools and
primitive ornaments. Much of that flint came from Grime's Graves, which were not graves
but underground flint workings rediscovered in 1870 and explored during the 20th century.
Shafts between 13ft and 26ft deep descend sheer into the ground, dug out by those
primitive inhabitants with picks made from deer antlers. |
| Holkham Hall |
On A149, 2 miles west of Wells-next-the-Sea |
The hall itself, built in the mid-18th
century by Thomas Coke, looks classically austere from the outside; but inside it explodes
into an exuberance of marble, mosaics, monuments and art treasures - including statues
from Italy and paintings by Rubens, Claude Van Dyck and Gainsborough. A collection of more
than 4000 items from bygone days features fire engines, steam engines, motor cars,
ploughs, tractors and tools. There is also a display of copper and pewter cooking
utensils. |
| Houghton Hall |
Off A148, 1 mile north-west of West Rudham |
Sir Robert Walpole, England's first prime minister, who
served under George I and II, commissioned this stately home built of stone shipped from
Whitby. The 18th century designer William Kent was responsible for the interior
decoration, including the finely carved woodwork and marble fireplaces. The hall is set in
parkland containing a herd of white fallow deer. It is the seat of the Marquis of
Cholmondeley, whose collection of some 20,000 model soldiers and other militaria is on
display. |
| Mannington Hall Gardens |
Off B1354, 2 miles north-east of Saxthorpe |
Set around a moated 15th century house of battlemented
flint and stone, the gardens are entered over a drawbridge. One corner of the house is
splashed in season with the colours of wisteria and winter jasmine, and nearby the
Heritage Rose Gardens display hundreds of different roses. A lake with an attractive stone
bridge borders one of the garden walks leading into the woodlands, and a network of nature
trails crisscrosses the estate. The house is open only by prior arrangement. |
| Oxburgh Hall |
Off A134, 2.5 miles north-east of Stoke Ferry |
The gatehouse and north front are the only surviving
parts of the original exterior, most of the rest is early 19th century. The King's Chamber
above the gate - so-called because it is reputed to have been used by Henry VII - contains
panels embroidered in gros point and petit point by Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of
Hardwick when the queen was in the custody of Bess's husband at Tutbury, |
| St George's Guildhall |
King Street, King's Lynn |
The huge Guildhall of St George was used as a theatre
in Elizabethan times, and it has also been a corn exchange, courthouse, powder store and
wool warehouse, The brick-vaulted undercroft, now a coffee bar, was once a storage place
for goods hauled straight off the quayside on the River Great Ouse. Above the undercroft
is a modern theatre which still has its 15th century roof in which beams cross diagonally
like a pair of scissors, unsupported by the usual horizontal tie-beams. The whole complex,
known as the Fermoy Centre after a major benefactor, has become the focal point for the
annual King's Lynn Festival. |
| Sandringham House |
Off A149, 8 miles north-east of King's Lynn |
An earlier house was converted by 1870 to its present
Jacobean style. Inside there are many royal portraits,and domestic touches such as Queen
Mary's tapestry work. Presents from distinguished visitors include tapestries from Alfonso
XII of Spain and silver ornaments from the Russian Imperial family. The tradition of
riding and shooting is illustrated in several paintings and in a collection of guns, each
labelled with the name of its owner. Even the views from the windows give no idea of the
full extent of the gardens. |
| Shirehall Museum |
On B1105 in Little Walsingham, 6 miles north of
Fakenham |
The Shirehall today incorporates a display illustrating
the history of pilgrimages to Walsingham. The original shrine of Walsingham was designed
as a replica of the Holy House in Nazareth where the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary.
Later, more buildings sprang up as monastic orders moved into Little Walsingham. Today
there remain only ruins of the medieval priory and friary, dominated by the great arch of
the priory church's east window. In 1897 pilgrimages were resumed, and between 1921 and
1938 an Anglo-Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham was built in Italian style. |
| Thetford Priory |
Off A134 in Thetford |
The Cluniac Priory of Our Lady, founded early in the
12th century and richly endowed by the Bigod family, later became the burial place of
several Dukes of Norfolk. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII was petitioned
to convert it into a college of secular canons; but he refused and over the centuries it
fell into ruin. The most substantial remains are the 14th century gatehouse and the
prior's lodging. |
| Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens |
Off A1064, 9 miles north-west of Great Yarmouth |
The present hall was built in 1876 upon the remains of
a previous mansion, of which the red-brick cellars, garden walls and summerhouse survive.
Today it is the centre of a collection of mammals, birds and reptiles - with special
emphasis on Asiatic species including the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, muntjac deer, and
the alarmingly named mugger or marsh crocodile. |
| Wymondham Abbey |
Off A11 in Wymondham |
Two massive bell towers, one at each end, dominate the
impressive remains of Wymondham Abbey, founded in the early 12th century. The building
that still stands is only about half the size of the abbey before its dissolution. Much of
the interior is Norman, with sturdy columns supporting the 15th century nave which soars
up to a hammerbeam roof complete with carved angels flying out over the congregation. The
ornate high altar has behind it a radiant screen surmounted by a large gold canopy
shimmering with figures of Christ and the saints. |
