Springer’s Retreat On The Rivers

[kpnut]

Tuesday 1st August  
Can’t believe it’s August already!

We we’re the last ones left at Dilham. I had planned another walk but after discussing real world things like negotiating the Dartford tunnel and M25, Sue decided she’d get going home earlier rather than later. We made our way back to Stalham, seeing no wildlife on the way, apart from numerous herons. Is it me, or are there more herons about this year?

Moored up, goodbyes followed and I then set to with jobs - the laundry, the shopping, the hoovering, the water fill, the engine checks. This action (and write-up) is getting repetitive!!!!!!!

All done, I pondered staying at home seeing as the weather forecast isn’t good, or setting off again. Conclusion was it’ll rain wherever I am, so why not get wet somewhere other than the boatyard?

I didn’t go far, just to Paddy’s Lane. I haven’t been here for a proper stopover since buying the boat in early 2021. It used to be a good last night stop if the wild moorings were all full when hiring from Richardsons. 
 

I think the reason I haven’t been is that are no obvious circular walks from here, apart from ones involving the road. But the mooring itself is so picturesque and peaceful that I think I’ll use it more often. 
We explored round Barton Turf itself, walking up Staithe Rd (Lane?) to the corner with the common. What a super resource for the village to have. Public access land, it has three ponds, a couple of benches and a dipping platform for ‘educational’ afternoons with children etc. I’ll be coming here with littl’un when she’s old enough to appreciate, or tolerate, such things. 

 

I sneaked a fruit into my mouth from what I thought was the wild cherry tree on the corner of the common. It had a cherry shape fruit, cherry shaped and sized stone, but did taste more like a plum. Maybe a mirabel plum of some sort. Anyway-delicious. I hope the local residents don’t let them go to waste. 
We carried on down Common Lane and doubled back along the next lane to do a triangle, arriving back at the corner of the common, next to the phone box (now info box), old shop (long gone), post box (for anyone needing to know there’s one accessible from these moorings) and very smart bus shelter (with timetable showing one bus, once every day with three stops, Roys, Barton Turf and Roys again). But it was dated 2015!

I do know Barton Turf is still served by a bus, probably with the same route as a shoppers’ bus, but my feeling is it’s now only once a week rather than once a day. 
 

It was an interesting little walk, and some of the gardens were really lovely. It’s a real shame the shop is closed, as it’d be a super asset to the village, similar to the one at Neatishead or the one at Upton which are well used community shops. But I suppose there has to be a local need. 

I’m not getting into the politics of lost moorings with the photo above, just a pretty place.
 

We did nothing much on our return to the boat, not even eating as I feel I’ve stuffed myself with food over the past few days. Returning yachtsmen continued on their way past us until dusk, paddling their way back to their moorings as the wind must have been 0 mph. It was such a still evening. The cloud front passed over and we were left with a clear sky with the lights of the moorings twinkling on the water. Magical. 

I did zip the canopies down mind you, knowing the forecast was not good. 
 

Wednesday 2nd August 
True to word, the rain and wind arrived at some point in the night. Just going to be a miserable sort of day, it looks set in for the day. Oh well. The waterproofs haven’t had to be used for a while, so life isn’t that bad!

[SwanR]

We do love Paddy’s Lane. That’s our frequent last night mooring if we’ve hired from Richardson’s. 

The day has brightened up with sunny spells and not too much rain late morning. Hope you’re having a lovely day Kate wherever you have decided to be. 

[SteveO]

4 hours ago, kpnut said:

I sneaked a fruit into my mouth from what I thought was the wild cherry tree on the corner of the common. It had a cherry shape fruit, cherry shaped and sized stone, but did taste more like a plum. Maybe a mirabel plum of some sort. Anyway-delicious. I hope the local residents don’t let them go to waste. 

Probably a bullace. They make great jam, if a little labour-intensive. My mother, who was of Austrian extraction, used to make zvechgenknoedel (plum dumplings) out of them. Quite delicious as I recall.

[kpnut]

2 hours ago, SteveO said:

Probably a bullace. They make great jam, if a little labour-intensive. My mother, who was of Austrian extraction, used to make zvechgenknoedel (plum dumplings) out of them. Quite delicious as I recall.

Ah rightoh Steve. I always thought they were a darker colour. I scrumped another one this morning. Wonder if I should go back for a kg for gin or jam making. Even though on common land, it would feel a bit rude seeing as I’m not a parishioner. 

[Mouldy]

53 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Ah rightoh Steve. I always thought they were a darker colour. I scrumped another one this morning. Wonder if I should go back for a kg for gin or jam making. Even though on common land, it would feel a bit rude seeing as I’m not a parishioner. 

Scrumping, Kate!  A pastime of a different age.  Just go for it! 😉

[kpnut]

4 hours ago, SwanR said:

The day has brightened up with sunny spells and not too much rain late morning.

Well, you’re quite right Jean. Soon after I posted this morning, it brightened up.
 

Donning a waterproof jacket but trainers rather than wellies, we set off to explore. 
How wrong have I been in the past about walks in the Barton Turf area. We had a lovely time. 
First stop was for another fruit off the tree and a photo of it. 

We carried on along ‘the Common’ (not Common Lane as I called yesterday) and onto Berry Hall road. Then, as Berry Hall itself came into sight we turned right onto a track called Fen Lane, we’ll marked on the map. 
This is an actual road, the sign says -open to all traffic.

And now my observation, with tongue very much in cheek, -  if this is the standard of roads open to all traffic in Norfolk, no wonder the council footpaths, the lowest of the low as regards public rights of way, are a bit unkempt. 

In reality, it’s a byway. 

But I just hope some poor HGV driver doesn’t take it literally as ok for all traffic, and decide it’ll be good enough for his truck!

It was a delightful track, alongside some unspoilt carr, leading nowhere other than the reedbeds on the fen.

I expect they are still managed on rotation and this access to them is handy. I’ll come up here again sometime with wellies in and continue along the path into the fen itself. It is marked on the map as open access land and I think it leads to a little broad more or less opposite Hunsett Mill on the way up to Wayford Bridge. 

Partway along the track I found a new bench with a plaque and a little stone spaniel, sitting faithfully alongside. Finlay joined in. 

The plaque was to someone born and died in the same years as my mum, who obviously loved being out walking with faithful friend in the area. 

We retraced our steps and carried on along the lane to the next bridleway. This took us across newly cut barley fields. I do love the smell of recently cut barley straw, sort of sweet but earthy at the same time.

This bridleway came out on the main Stalham/Wroxham road at Smallburgh and I was relieved to find a metalled pavement to walk along to the junction with Yarmouth Rd (the road that goes to North Walsham). I thought about going up to Smallburgh itself but decided against. 
Opposite the junction we went through the gap in the hedge to the footpath across wheat fields then sugar beet, to Pennygate. Finlay likes running along the path in sugarbeet as the noise the leaves makes just at ear level means I can’t whistle him back very easily, so he gets a bit of freedom. A couple of years ago, he and I did find pretty intense and stern training concerning not running in standing crops. It’s a pet hate of mine to see dogs running free in field crops, it’s our food destined for our plates, after all. Finlay now sticks to the paths across the field, running back and forth to me if I’m not going as fast as he would like.

From Pennygate there was another field path to Barton Turf church. What a wonderful little (not quite so little in reality) place.

There was a very informative leaflet about it and some info boards. For anyone into local history, it’d make a good trip. It has another very well preserved rood screen.

A sign said you could climb the tower, which I certainly would have done, even though it said it was dark and you could do with taking a torch, but I was disappointed that the door at the bottom was locked. 
The lime trees leading from the gate to the church door we’re planted to commemorate the local lads who died in WW1.  What a nice way to be remembered. 

I could already have cut short this walk numerous times and headed back to Barton Turf, but from the church I carried on across fields to Neatishead, only deciding at the last moment not to divert up into the village for a glass or two of cider at the pub. And that was only because I have plenty of food on board, along with 5 bottles of homemade cider left by one of my friends who makes it commercially. 
So instead I decided to log how long it takes to walk back from the pub to Paddy’s Lane as that might be useful in the future, to others as well as me. It’s just under two miles, and took me 40 minutes. So more or less the same distance/time as from Irstead staithe to the pub. 
I did notice that Barton Turf has a cricket ground, maybe the first one I’ve noticed on the Broads. 

And I saw some of my favourite flowers growing in the verge -scabious. So that was a cheerful sight. 

The final photo shows the Barton Turf village sign with the smart bus shelter, the phone ‘info’ box and the white house in the background that used to be the village shop. 

The house I was standing in front of to take the photo was ‘the old forge’. It got me pondering that we have lost the best of British villages now with facilities closing. They are now places for people to live and move out from on a daily basis, rather than hubs in themselves.  I can just imagine the scene as you walk down Staithe Road towards that wooden store at the staithe, with boats being loaded or unloaded, and the little pub nearby etc.

Oh well, life moves on. 

So that, after all, was an excellent circular walk around and from Barton Turf. And as a large bonus, the weather, totally contrary to the thunderstorms forecast, was very warm and sunny, if slightly breezy. 
 

[kpnut]

2 hours ago, Mouldy said:

Scrumping, Kate!  A pastime of a different age.  Just go for it! 😉

I think officially I’d actually be foraging seeing as it’s on common land.
But it still feels a bit like stealing, which I suppose is what scrumping really is, and is a bit near a load of houses for my liking!!!

By next august I’ll have made enquiries and go then instead. 
The demijohn I have with me this trip is destined for blackberry gin once they’re ripe. 

I often fill clean poobags/pockets/rucsac up with ‘stuff’ I find. There’s a wonderful tree, I think with the same fruit, on the boardwalk at the base of Burgh castle.

I’ve got kgs of mirabel plums in my freezer from last year. I just happened to have a gardening bucket in my car when I parked near a tree one day. Elderflowers are quick to pick for wine and cordial as you don’t need many. And one day when the potato harvester was out round us and had set his grading screen wrong, so lots of the smaller ones had landed up on the floor, I purposely went that way again the following day with a rucsac!!! I can’t stand seeing food being wasted!

 

[SwanR]

What a wonderful write up of your day. Very interesting to hear all about the countryside. 

[grendel]

4 hours ago, kpnut said:

First stop was for another fruit off the tree and a photo of it. 

as you are headed to Margate, just after you leave the thanet way on the road to margate (a28 canterbury road) there will be some trees of yellow bullace (otherwise known as shepherds bullace) on your left (where there is a tractor path paralleling the road) in the past I have picked buckets full of them for liqueur making (vodka rum or brandy) even resorting to climbing on the roof of the car to reach the higher branches.

[CambridgeCabby]

5 hours ago, Mouldy said:

Scrumping, Kate!  A pastime of a different age.  Just go for it! 😉

Stealing an iPhone from an Apple Store is modern day scrumping i believe 

[kpnut]

Oh yum Grendel. I’m certainly going to look out. If the season continues as it is, there may well be some left in mid September. 

[kpnut]

I’m beginning to lose track of the days now. Yesterday I moored up on Griff’s Corner, upstream of Neaves Mill, sharing with one other boat and then a third overnight. Again, the weather was lovely for walking. We first walked down to LBBY to ask about fuel, none in yet. There were quite a few boats going to and fro under the bridge late morning and lots of people milling about. The bakery was open but I resisted temptation. They do sell a very tasty sausage roll though. 

We walked along the permissive riverbank path to St Benet’s and sat a while watching boats coming and going. I hadn’t realised how windy it was until a boat came in with the tide and the wind together and shot along the quay. He decided to turn round and give it another go, much more sedately. 
We walked up the concrete track and turned right before reaching the lane. There’s a track running parallel to the lane with ‘inroads’ onto the fen. I couldn’t find the first but went to the end of the track and followed the second.  I was hoping to be able to be out on the fen itself with binoculars and camera, but the track didn’t go far before a Private’ sign. 
We retraced our steps and walked along the lane to the junction with Staithe Road, turning left towards Ludham. It is a pretty little lane, quiet enough to walk the dog off lead. 

After a stop at the Kings Arms I decided to explore round the back of Ludham, walking past the garage and then turning left. There are so many houses along there, Ludham is evidently bigger than it looks, with a primary school as well. 
We walked out of the built up area, and then back down Pound Lane. Halfway along there’s a public footpath marked on the map across a field and I found that easily enough, going in the general direction of the church diagonally across a wheat field. The path was well marked by the farmer.

But at the far end, it seems a house has been fairly newly built across the exit of the path. Very odd!

I had to retrace my steps, continuing on the lane. Once at the junction I thought I’d investigate the exit of the path, in case I had been mistaken. But there was just no evidence of it at all. Oh well. Nothing lost. I’d had the bonus of a more unusual view of the church while out in the field. 

I made my way back across to Johnson street on the newly marked ‘red arrows’ waymarked safe route from Ludham bridge moorings to Ludham, passing Ken’s shed at the end of Hall Rd, and buying a bag of tomatoes for 70p. 
I was nearly tempted with another stop at the Dog Inn but it was gone 5pm and I decided against. 

Helen, if you’re reading this, this is the path up to Neave’s Mill and then back on towards Horning that you missed on the walk you documented round Horning Hall. Don’t walk up past the moorings, but opposite the end of the lay-by there is a gate to lead onto this path. It follows parallel to the moorings but on the far side of a dyke. 

The evening was beautifully sunny and I was moored in just the right spot to enjoy the calm river flowing past. 
 

Two general observations -

it’s not very busy,

and the weather forecast has been rather more pessimistic this week than the reality (so far!) 

[YnysMon]

17 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Helen, if you’re reading this, this is the path up to Neave’s Mill and then back on towards Horning that you missed on the walk you documented round Horning Hall. Don’t walk up past the moorings, but opposite the end of the lay-by there is a gate to lead onto this path. It follows parallel to the moorings but on the far side of a dyke. 

Thanks Kate.

It's a bit worrying that it's not busy given we are now into the school holidays. 

[oldgregg]

I don't think anyone is having a particularly good season.

The weather has been fairly rubbish so short-notice boating holidays to soak up the rays will not have been much of a thing, but I think with many people not having been abroad for quite a while then they're choosing that option.

With hire prices having been ramped up to the levels they have over the last two to three years, I can't say I'm shocked. There are lots of offers out there for late notice bookings but seasoned boaters mostly don't want to play that game. I expect there will be some price adjustments to come.

[kpnut]

Well, it’s hot and sunny in Upton right now. 

[kpnut]

I’ve had a nice walk round from Fleet dyke, following the river round to Upton, with my waterproof jacket tied round my waist as a big inconvenience!

Now sunbathing at the White Horse in Upton. It really is extremely hot. 

On my walk, I could see firstly St Benets Abbey with plenty of folk visiting, then St Benets level drainage mill in the process of restoration, and Thurne mill which is often operational. 

all quiet on the river

As I walked past the black mill on the river, (it does have a name but I can never remember it, Highs mill?) I noticed that the little cottage attached has been knocked down and a lot of piling work is being done. Hopefully that’s another mill on its way to being saved. 

And then Clippesby mill came in sight with its newish scaffolding in. That one was recently sold, with the asking price including all the hardwood required for the refurb already in situ. 

And sandwiched inbetween, poor old unloved Oby mill, the Dalek mill. I have a soft spot for this one, being one of my very first mooring spots when I first hired. It looked forlorn even then, with its Heras fencing at a jaunty angle. But now the fencing is overgrown and it’s lost its black plastic protective cap last winter, and it’s just been deteriorating for the past numerous years. Part of Broads heritage eventually sadly falling into oblivion. Surely there must be some grant or similar for industrial heritage?

I should have taken a photo of the activity at Eastwood Whelpton boatyard, they were very busy preparing boats. I stopped for a quick word about  sailing sessions with Annie. I have promised myself I WILL do this sometime. Just when I plucked up the courage to book for next Wednesday evening, it’s not running next Wednesday. But I WILL sometime, she convinces herself!!!!

Suitably refreshed by a treacle tart from the shop and a glass of cider from the pub, we’ll be on our way back to south walsham and fleet dyke. 
 

The forecast is for horrid tomorrow, so makes today even more enjoyable. 

[LizG]

I saw you this morning in Horning, but you turned round when you saw the racing 

[kpnut]

To finish off today’s walk - 

We didn’t go back via Pilson Green/South Walsham and fleet dyke moorings as I’d planned. I thought it’d be nicer going back across the marsh. So we headed down the road from the pub to the concrete track. At the end of the most concretey bit, there’s another track, this time grassy, that goes off to the left. It skirts the NWT Upton Broad reserve. We walked slowly along, aiming to spot as much wildlife as possible. Well, that was my aim, not sure about Finlay. 

Our sightings - 

plenty of meadow brown butterflies

plenty of peacock butterflies, feeding on the hemp agrimony flowers

plenty of very large dragonflies, I expect brown hawkers (as I couldn’t see the green head of a Norfolk hawker), too quick for a photo

plenty of cows, some with calves

plenty of whitetailed bumble bees  

three herons

two swans

one crow

one muntjac deer

and not one partridge in a pear tree!

After a little detour further on, we came across this bird hide. It looks out over the marsh rather than onto Upton broad, somewhere I’ve never visited as you can’t take dogs in that part of the reserve. I think rather than a hide to watch birds, it’s a hide to hide birds, judging by the amount of evidence of them in there!

All that was left to do was the trudge along the long grass of the riverbank path and to check Finlay for ticks on getting back to the boat. And to comb out all the stickybuds and burrs in his hair. 

[kpnut]

4 minutes ago, LizG said:

I saw you this morning in Horning, but you turned round when you saw the racing

I didn’t really turn round ‘cos of the racing, I came along to Horning to see if there was an electric post free on the main staithe to give the batteries a good top up and charge up my hoover. 
Were you in the safety boat?

[Lulu]

7 minutes ago, kpnut said:

plenty of whitetailed bumble bees  

three herons

two swans

one crow

one muntjac deer

and not one partridge in a pear tree!

You didnt see the skinny ostrich then? 

[kpnut]

40 minutes ago, Lulu said:

You didnt see the skinny ostrich then? 

No Sam. 😄

I think if it was a crane or egret you saw they sometimes come in for the winter/spring and go off somewhere else in summer.

[SwanR]

I've seen some of those pretty butterflies this week in our garden. I don't recall ever seeing them here before.

[FairTmiddlin]

55 minutes ago, SwanR said:

I've seen some of those pretty butterflies this week in our garden. I don't recall ever seeing them here before.

Seems that the glut of Peacock butterflies, is down to our mild winter, where lots of them overwintered here.

[LizG]

12 hours ago, kpnut said:

Were you in the safety boat?

No I was setting sail at the house in 96 and then sailed past you when you had turned round. I would have waved but you were looking forward

[LizG]

The brown butterfly in your picture is a Gatekeeper. In addition to Peacocks there are large numbers of Red Admirals about. Butterfly Conservation did a press release the other day about them!