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Real Norfolk Countryside.


Vaughan

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Just realised I forgot to unload one of my cameras after our holiday in May this year!

These are not the normal forum type photos, but they are right beside the river and it is a lovely walk on a fine spring day. You can wild moor at the end of a little dyke which leads up to what was Cromes Broad, just downstream from Irstead. The path becomes a track, which then becomes a lane, which joins Sharp Street, on its way to How Hill from Catfield. You can also start from the other end, by mooring at How hill, turn left into the lane out of the car park, and then left again in about half a mile.

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1 hour ago, charlesa said:

It looks to be half way between How Hill and Irstead on the right hand side of the river travelling towards Irstead.

It is a delightful little mooring which was originally a staithe but which, unfortunately, tends to be occupied by certain "circulating" liveaboards with all their bank-side impedimenta, which is why I didn't take a photo of the riverside itself, at that point.

I started from the other end, as we were staying for a couple of weeks in a holiday cottage at the Grove Farm Barns, on Sharp Street in Catfield.

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A lovely peaceful place with excellent accommodation, which I can highly recommend. We are returning there for a couple of weeks at the end of November!

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You are right Vaughan - typical Broadland country side although the marsh in piccie No 10 is the scene of an ongoing battle with one of those very nasty water plant invasions - parrots feather - which has been a pain in the butt on that site, if its Snipes Marsh, for many many years.

It was always confined just to that marsh, and I hope it stays that way, as it is a complete pest - after about two years untouched, you could almost have driven a small digger across the mat it had formed in one dyke.

Incidentally I have always known that staithe as Johnny Crowes, not Johnny Cromes, although it is in the dyke to Cromes Broad-  this dyke is not navigable to the Broad as there is a new sluice across further up put there by BESL. There continues to be talk of opening  the dyke up as Broadsword were going to get involved, but that seems to have been deferred. There is also an old staithe further up that dyke on the bend but whether that staithe is actually Johnny Crowes or just one of the Catfield Staithes I am not quite sure.

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I think you are correct MM. I wrongly assumed that the long gone staith was also named after John Crome, a leading light in the Norwich School of Painters.

Or perhaps like so many Norfolk names it has changed in general use by lazy dialect.

Stiffkey = Stuccy......Happisburgh = Haisbro etc. etc.

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I didn't know the names of these places when I was there but yes, according to Chris B's map then pic 10 would be Snipe Marsh. I am afraid I wouldn't know a parrot's feather if it bit me on the ankle. Maybe it does?

So picture 7 would be at the top end of Cromes Broad. I think these two were also Snipe Marsh .

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There is another gate further down with a walkway, which I assume leads into Cromes Broad, but these gates were all locked at the time.

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By the way, I assume the farmland to the north of the lane is also used for game shooting, of pheasant and partridge? I notice how the headlands of the fields around the hedgerows have not been ploughed up or sprayed, to allow the young pheasants to come out and feed, where they still feel safe. This also makes a wonderful place for other birdlife, butterflies and small mammals, to say nothing of all the wild flowers! Copses, spinneys and small woods have also been kept, for the same reason.

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I am always aware that, were it not for the way it is managed for so - called "country pursuits", our rural farmland would not still look as beautiful as it does.

Let us hope that the ever-onwards march of the land-grabbers and developers, out from the NDR across the farmland towards Wroxham and Brundall, like the advance of some heathen horde, never gets as far as this beautiful place.

 

 

 

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That is correct, Vaughan. Known as Snipes Marsh -  although I believe parrots feather is confined largely to that bit of the marsh immediately in front of the cottage. You might not know about it, even if it did bite you, but if you had it in your pond you would certainly know about it!!!!!

Parrots feather - https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species/parrots-feather

Like any of these invasive plants very fast growing and if you have it, take real care NOT to spread it. I have seen it completely cover marsh dykes literally in a matter of weeks and despite annual pulling, it is virtually impossible to get rid of, as it regenerates from the tiniest fragment.

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21 hours ago, Vaughan said:

It is a delightful little mooring which was originally a staithe but which, unfortunately, tends to be occupied by certain "circulating" liveaboards with all their bank-side impedimenta,

I have been thinking about this and I have to take issue with this statement Vaughan. I travel the Ant very regularly and I cannot recall seeing a liveaboard and/or associated paraphernalia in that particular spot in quite a few years. It is seldom unoccupied because it is so popular. (I think people sometimes stop and moor there very often just so they can say they have done so!) Was the ‘staithe’ occupied when you walked there?

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21 hours ago, Vaughan said:

It is a delightful little mooring which was originally a staithe but which, unfortunately, tends to be occupied by certain "circulating" liveaboards with all their bank-side impedimenta, which is why I didn't take a photo of the riverside itself, at that point.

I started from the other end, as we were staying for a couple of weeks in a holiday cottage at the Grove Farm Barns, on Sharp Street in Catfield.

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A lovely peaceful place with excellent accommodation, which I can highly recommend. We are returning there for a couple of weeks at the end of November!

i agree this place is lovelly spent last Christmas new year in parsley

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1 hour ago, vanessan said:

Was the ‘staithe’ occupied when you walked there?

Let's just say that on the several occasions I went past there by boat this year as well as the day I walked there, the mooring and the area around it, was fully occupied by those who one might call - well established? 

Maybe I picked the wrong days?

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