Places to see in ( Dereham - UK )
Places to see in ( Dereham - UK )
Dereham, also known as East Dereham, is a town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, about 15 miles west of the city of Norwich and 25 miles east of King's Lynn.
For the purposes of local government, Dereham falls within, and is the centre of administration for, the district of Breckland. The town Dereham should not be confused with the Norfolk village of West Dereham, which lies about 25 miles (40 km) away.
The railway arrived in Dereham when a single track line to Wymondham opened in 1847. In 1848 a second line, to King's Lynn was opened. In 1849 a line from Dereham to Fakenham was opened, this line being extended to the coastal town of Wells-On-Sea by 1857. In 1862 the town's railways became part of the Great Eastern Railway. The town had its own railway depot and a large complex of sidings, serving local industry. In 1882 the line between Dereham and Wymondham was doubled, to allow for the increasing levels of traffic.
The railway between Dereham and Wymondham has been preserved, and is now operated as a tourist line by the Mid-Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust. This charitable company also owns the line north towards County School railway station, it has started to gradually reopen the line towards North Elmham and aims to eventually relay the line to Fakenham.
The town of Dereham lies on the site of a monastery founded by Saint Withburga in the seventh century. A holy well at the western end of St Nicholas' Church supposedly began to flow when her body was stolen from the town by monks from Ely, who took the remains back to their town. Notable buildings in the town include the pargetted Bishop Bonner's Cottage, built in 1502, the Norman parish church, a windmill which was extensively renovated in 2013 and a large mushroom-shaped water tower. The Gressenhall Museum of Rural Life is nearby. The town also hosts the headquarters of the Mid-Norfolk Railway, which runs trains over an 11.5-mile railway south to Wymondham, as well as owning the line 6 miles north to North Elmham and County School Station.
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Norfolk Tourist Attractions: 15 Top Places to Visit
Planning to visit Norfolk? Check out our Norfolk Travel Guide video and see top most Tourist Attractions in Norfolk.
Top Places to visit in Norfolk:
Norwich Cathedral, Hickling Broad, Happisburgh Lighthouse, Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, Castle Acre Priory, Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Wymondham Abbey, Sheringham Museum at the Mo, Strangers' Hall Museum, Cromer Pier, Blickling Estate, Holkham Hall, Cromer Parish Church, Thursford
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Places to see in ( Holt - UK )
Places to see in ( Holt - UK )
Holt is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk. The town is 22.8 miles north of the city of Norwich, 9.5 miles west of Cromer and 35 miles east of King's Lynn. Holt is on the route of the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the national rail network can be made via the Bittern Line to Norwich. Holt also has a railway station on the preserved North Norfolk Railway, the 'Poppy Line', of which it is the south-western terminus. The nearest airport is Norwich.
Holt Hall was owned by Henry Burcham-Rogers, who inherited it from his father John Rogers in 1906. Henry Burcham-Rogers kept the hall until his death in 1945. Holt Hall is currently a field studies centre run by Norfolk County Council. Byfords is thought to be the oldest house in Holt (the cellar dates back to the 15th century), a survivor of the great fire of Holt in 1708 and a further fire in the building in 1906.
Blind Sam is the name given locally to the Queen Victoria Jubilee Lantern located in Obelisk Plain. From the year of Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887 until 1921 it stood in the Market Place, where it had two functions, to provide light to the Market Place and to provide drinking water from two fountains at the bottom. The pineapple-topped obelisk at Holt is one of a pair gateposts from Melton Constable Park, the other having been given to the town of Dereham in 1757. Each gatepost had the distances to various places from Holt and Dereham respectively carved into the stone.
Holt Country Park is a short walk from the town. It has had a chequered history, including a horseracing course, heath, farmland, forestry and woodland garden. It has now been developed into a tranquil woodland dominated with Scots pine and native broadleaves. The Lowes is an area of heathland of around 120 acres (0.49 km2) to the south of Holt set aside by the Inclosure Act of 1807.
Holt railway station, opened in 1887, was served by the Midland and Great Northern Railway. Most of this network was closed by British Railways in 1959 but the short section from Melton Constable railway station via Holt to Sheringham (services continuing on to Cromer and Norwich) escaped closure for a few more years – finally succumbing in 1964 when the branch was cut back to Sheringham (now the nearest national rail-head, served by frequent services to Norwich along the 'Bittern Line').
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Breckland market towns, Norfolk, UK
Spread across the unique Breckland landscape... characterful market towns with great independent shopping... riverside Thetford - Viking capital of England, home of Dad's Army, Swaffham - Norfolk's harvest town, set-in-aspic Attleborough, Dereham - the heart of Norfolk
Places to see in ( Brandon - UK )
Places to see in ( Brandon - UK )
Brandon is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is in the Forest Heath local government district. Brandon is located in the Breckland area on the border of Suffolk with the adjoining county of Norfolk. Surrounded by Forestry Commission and agricultural land it is considered a rural town.
According to Eilert Ekwall (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names) the likely origin of the name is Brandon, usually 'hill where broom grows', the earliest known spelling being in the 11th century when the town, gradually expanding up and along the rising ground of the river valley, was called Bromdun.
From prehistoric times the area was mined for flint as can be seen at Grimes Graves, a popular Brandon tourist destination. Much more recently, the town was a major centre for the production of gunflints. The Domesday Book records that the manor of Brandon in 1086 had 25 households. In medieval times and beyond Brandon was renowned for its rabbit fur.
The town's current population is recorded as 9,636 people in the 2011 UK Census. Brandon has three schools; two primary, Forest Academy and Glade Primary School; and one High School, IES Breckland. Brandon's population has steadily increased since the Second World War due to immigration. After the war there was an influx of servicemen from Poland who settled in the town and also in nearby Weeting, Norfolk. The Cold War saw many American service people and their families billeted in and around the town. The Greater London Council oversaw the building of a large Council estate off Thetford Road and Bury Road in the 1970s and many London families were relocated to Brandon during that time.
Brandon is situated on the A1065 Mildenhall to Fakenham road. It often suffers severe congestion due to large amounts of commuter traffic, holiday traffic travelling to the Norfolk Coast and HGVs. Several bus routes and National Express coach services pass through the town as well. Brandon railway station has an hourly service to Cambridge and Ely to the West and to Thetford and Norwich in the East.
Regular bus services operate from Brandon to the neighbouring towns of Bury St. Edmunds, Mildenhall and Thetford. There are also infrequent services (at school and shopping times) to Downham Market, King's Lynn and Norwich. Flowing in an easterly direction the Little Ouse river is navigable through the town.
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Places to see in ( Wells next the Sea - UK )
Places to see in ( Wells next the Sea - UK )
Wells-next-the-Sea is a port on the North Norfolk coast of England. The civil parish has an area of 16.31 km². Wells next the Sea is 15 miles (24 km) to the east of the resort of Hunstanton, 20 miles (32 km) to the west of Cromer, and 10 miles (16 km) north of Fakenham. The city of Norwich lies 32 miles (51 km) to the south-east. Nearby villages include Blakeney, Burnham Market, Burnham Thorpe, Holkham and Walsingham.
Wells next the Sea has long thrived as a seaport and is now also a seaside resort with a popular beach that can be reached on foot or by a narrow gauge railway that runs partway alongside the mile-long sea wall north of the harbour. The beach is known for its long flat terrain, abstract sand dunes, varied unique beach huts and a naturist area situated to the west at Holkham. A land-locked brackish pool called Abraham's Bosom is used for pleasure boating and canoeing. The beach is backed by dense pine woods which are part of the Holkham National Nature Reserve.
Wells next the Sea stretches nearly a mile inland. The majority of shops and other such businesses are now found on Staithe Street but up to the 1960s commercial premises were also to be found along High Street which continues south towards St Nicholas's Church.
A feature of Wells next the Sea is the area known as The Buttlands, a large green ringed by lime trees. Large elegant Georgian houses overlook The Buttlands, as do the Crown Hotel, Globe Inn and the Wells Catholic Church. If you exit The Buttlands down the hill at its south-west corner you can see Ware Hall, which was rebuilt over a period of years from the 1970s by Miss May Savidge, who brought it in parts when she moved from Ware in Hertfordshire.
Formerly the town was served by Wells-on-Sea railway station and was connected to the British Rail network by two lines. The line westwards towards King's Lynn was never reinstated after damage in the 1953 East Coast Floods, while the line to Norwich via Fakenham, Dereham and Wymondham was a victim of the Beeching Axe of the 1960s.
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STEAMTOWN/LMMES (1993)
In August 1993 we visited Steamtown at Carnforth in Lancashire. One of the attractions for visitors at that time was the 5in/7.25in Lancaster & Morecambe MES track. railwaybook.com
Kings Lynn - Norfolk England
The Virtual Tourist walks around Kings Lynn in Norfolk England
Michael Portillo visits Wymondham Station
A short extract from the second series of ''Great British Railway Journeys' filmed at Wymondham Station, Norfolk in July 2010. Former MP and now TV presenter Michael Portillo visits The Brief Encounter Restaurant and chats to proprietor David Turner, before boarding a train for Norwich. Produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC and first transmitted on 7th January 2011. A DVD box set of the first series of 'Great British Railway Journeys' and a lavishly illustrated book accompanying both series are now available from major retailers.
For the latest information on visiting Wymondham Station, please go to our website -
wymondham-station.com
Wymondham, Norfolk
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A visit to the beautiful market town of Wymondham in Norfolk on a wonderfully sunny day in early March 2011.
Wymondham's most famous inhabitant was Robert Kett (or Ket), who led a rebellion in 1549 of peasants and small farmers in protest at the enclosure of common land. He took a force of almost unarmed men and fought for and held the City of Norwich for six weeks until defeated by the King's forces. He was hanged from Norwich Castle. Kett's Oak, said to be the rallying point for the rebellion, can still be seen today on the B1172 road between Wymondham and Hetherset, part of the former main road to London.
I make references to fires in all of my walks around medieval towns as they date from the time of the last great fire. The Great Fire of Wymondham broke out on Sunday 11 June 1615. Two areas of the town were affected, implying there were two separate fires. One area was in Vicar Street and Middleton Street and the other in the Market Place, including Bridewell Street and Fairland Street. About 300 properties were destroyed in the fire. Important buildings destroyed included: the Market Cross, dating from 1286; the vicarage in Vicar Street; the 'Town Hall' on the corner of Middleton Street and Vicar Street; and the schoolhouse. However, many buildings such as the Green Dragon pub did survive and many of the houses in Damgate Street date back to 1400, although this is now masked by later brickwork.
The fire was started by three Gypsies - William Flodder, John Flodder and Ellen Pendleton (Flodder) - and a local person, Margaret Bix (Elvyn). The register of St Andrew's Church in Norwich records that John Flodder and others were executed on 2 December 1615 for the burning of Wymondham. Rebuilding of the destroyed buildings was quick in some cases and slower in others. A new Market Cross, the one we see today, was started and completed in 1617. However, by 1621 there were still about 15 properties not yet rebuilt. Economic conditions in the 1620s could have been a contributory factor to the delay in rebuilding.
Kett's Rebellion was evidence of an undercurrent of ferment in 16th-century Wymondham. Comparable discontent showed itself in the 17th century when a number of Wymondham citizens, including Thomas Lincoln, John Beal and others, moved to Hingham, Norfolk in the wave of religious dissent that swept England in the years preceding Cromwell's Commonwealth.
In 1785, a prison was built using the ideas of John Howard, the prison reformer. It was the first prison to be built in this country with separate cells for the prisoners and was widely copied both in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The collapse of the woollen industry in the mid-19th century led to great poverty in Wymondham. In 1836 there were 600 hand looms, but by 1845 only 60 existed. During Victorian times the town was a backwater and never experienced large-scale development. The town centre remains very much as it must have been in the mid-17th century, when the houses were rebuilt after the Great Fire. These newer houses, and those which survived the Great Fire, still surround shoppers and visitors as they pass through Wymondham's narrow mediaeval streets.
Wymondham in the Second World War was home to one of MI6's Radio Security Service direction finding stations; the type at Wymondham was a Spaced Loop design newly developed by the National Physical Laboratory. Unfortunately, this was soon found to be unsatisfactory and was converted to the more traditional Adcock type.. The station at Wymondham was located at latitude=52.583333, longitude=1.121667, just north of Tuttles Lane and east of Melton Road. Based on information from one of the WW2 operators it transpires that another spaced loop station was later installed alongside the first in 1944 after the Normandy invasion. This may have been due to increased interest in transmissions from western Europe where the shorter distance made the spaced loop more reliable.
As you can see in this film, in the town centre, there is a market cross, which is now used as a Tourist Information Centre and is owned by the Town Council. The original building was destroyed in the Great Fire of Wymondham in 1615; the present building was rebuilt between 1617-18 at a cost of £25-7-0d with funds loaned by local man, Philip Cullyer. The stilted building was like many others designed to protect valuable documents from both flood and vermin. According to T.F. Thistleton Dyer's English Folklore [London, 1878], live rats were nailed by their tails to the side of the building by way of a deterrent. This bizarre superstition ended in 1902 after a child was bitten, later to die of blood-poisoning.
Wymondham Abbey is the Church of England parish church.