Springer’s Retreat On The Rivers

[kpnut]

I met my boat at Sutton staithe where the family were getting fuel and a pump out. Due to a bit of a delay with that, I took littl’un off for a wander (more of a carry, how much of that can my back take?) while mum and dad did some cleaning up. 
They’ve had a wonderful week. Most of my tomatoes have been eaten and they zipped around visiting many more places a day than I ever do. 

Once the refuelling etc had been done, I drove round to Stalham to meet my boat again!

And again took littl’un off, this time in the pushchair hoping she’d nod off for a while. No chance with me stopping to chat so much! 

I eventually got going, ending up on a wild mooring down Fleet Dyke and only realising after dark that I had a meet-up planned on Ranworth Island with the bathtub group. I hadn’t said I’d get there, but had wanted to. Oh well. 

Waking to a fantastic forecast for the day, there was no decision to be made! A big walk round Upton Marsh, especially considering that someone has been to town on cutting the grass this week. It still smelt of nicely drying hay.

I’m going to log a report on the council website, but this time to thank them very much indeed. By cutting it back right to the bottom of the floodbank it’ll be ages into next spring before it grows enough for the tall vegetation to bend over in the wind or rain to block the way. 
It was cut like that, using these machines I presume, all the way round to Upton Dyke.

It certainly hadn’t been done last week as my daughter couldn’t get down with the baby. 

I waved to NeilB as he passed me so where between Upton Mill and Oby Mill but he didn’t see me.
While sitting at the river end of Upton dyke on one of the two newly installed benches, I found out that there’s a ‘horse box’ cafe at the boatyard so couldn’t resist a cup of tea. I did manage to resist the lovely sounding cakes though. I got permission to take a photo and post it for anyone wanting to try it out. The young lady said there’s no fixed date for closing for the winter, just see how it goes with footfall. And I forgot to ask about opening times. I also found out there’s toilets and showers there, open during the day. I expect most of you knew that though, I’m just late finding out!

I intended walking back along the concrete track across the marsh but took the path skirting the side of the NWT reserve instead, where we both ate our fill of blackberries on the way and I lost count of the dragonflies. They certainly like the warm sunshine and it was very still down there, being so sheltered. 

Does anyone know what this is?

I saw a few on some rose bushes in the hedges. I assume it’s something’s home. 

[CambridgeCabby]

We passed them on Barton Broad on Saturday morning as we were heading for Ranworth 

[kpnut]

54 minutes ago, CambridgeCabby said:

We passed them on Barton Broad on Saturday morning as we were heading for Ranworth 

I think that was the earliest they’d got going on any day. 

[quo vadis]

Seen you today but can’t remember where oh the joys of getting old 

[kpnut]

1 minute ago, quo vadis said:

Seen you today but can’t remember where oh the joys of getting old 

An yes you did and I thought it was you as you passed me on the long wild mooring on Fleet dyke. Yours is a beautiful boat. 

[kpnut]

2 hours ago, kpnut said:

I saw a few on some rose bushes in the hedges. I assume it’s something’s home. 

It’s called a Robin’s pincushion and is made by a type of gall wasp. I’ve never seen one before. 

[kpnut]

That was a really peaceful night and on waking, it looked a promising morning, with the mist rising off the river. 
I was eating my breakfast after taking the dog out when a sound I couldn’t quite place started up and got louder and louder. It didn’t sound at all like a boat or an aeroplane. Turned out it was one of the tractors I’d seen yesterday coming down the path mowing another swathe nearer the riverside. I quickly jumped out of the boat to make him aware of my rhond anchors; I wouldn’t have wanted him to wreck his mower on the metal, or cut my lines!
Now the bank is cut fairly close to the river, I took my shears down to the only wild mooring I hadn’t had a go at earlier in the year, the one nearest to the ‘bend’ moorings. 

I fancied mooring at the new moorings on Womack Island but with the two boats there moored in the way they were, there was no more room. I’ll save that for another day. We went down to Womack dyke where I had the moorings to myself. Even this evening it’s only half full. 

The riverbank path to Potter Heigham was fine, even if rather narrow compared with the new motorway track on Upton marsh! The cottage on the corner of Womack dyke is still for sale.

I noticed the bridge height gauges on both sides of the bridge said 5’9” while Project Troll said 6’1” (one minute previously). 

I had a pot of tea and a cheese scone in the ‘garden’ of Bridgestones before setting off again, having a look at the boats for sale on the way. 

It’s always funny watching Finlay crossing the little metal bridge onto the causeway at the cottage at the end of the chalets. He sort of bends his legs; if he were human it’d look like he had bandy legs! I took a video, although I think he’s probably getting used to it as it didn’t look so pronounced today. 

 

Tonight is just one of those beautiful relaxing evenings that you don’t want to end, although it’s just started gently raining. 

[Lulu]

Sounds like it was a perfect day  :)

[SwanR]

There were some beautiful colours in the sky late evening. Hope you have a lovely day today. 🤗

[kpnut]

It rained a bit in the night so the wellies had to come out for the dog walk this morning.
Casting off in slight drizzle, we made our way to Womack Island just for a 10 minute nosey. There could be a nice little nature boardwalk there as there is a bit of a path beyond the moorings barrier. 
The weather cheered up as I came up the Bure, passing St Benets which was full. That was a shame as my granddaughter’s sunglasses are somewhere in the undergrowth at the end of the concrete track by the farm buildings and I’ve promised to go and have a hunt for them. Another day maybe. 

My plan was to go through Wroxham bridge sometime this afternoon, but there was a boat just leaving Horning staithe so I slotted in to their space on the pub end and plugged into the electric (48p) to charge up my handheld hoover and use Hetty the big hoover. I carried the bit of rubbish I’d accumulated round to the bins at the start of a good walk, past the radar museum, and stupidly then crossing the sugarbeet field towards the radio mast. After the rain overnight and the irrigation gun this morning, the beet leaves were soaked and so were my feet! Finlay restrained himself in the stubble field where a family of partridge were picking corn and even sat when he saw a big old cock pheasant sauntering into the hedge just in front of him. But then he couldn’t manage any longer and had to dive in to investigate, coming out full of sticky balls. 
The next field also had its own hazard; chicken muck dust blowing in my direction from the muck spreader trundling up and down. Oh well, that’s what showers are for I suppose! I’ve seen those fields full circle now, from ploughing last autumn before the rain started for the whole autumn, winter and spring, through to testing how near the grains were to harvest back in July and now they’re cleared and being prepped for the next crop. 

Back at the staithe a lot of people have been brought out by the sun, with folk eating icecream on the benches. Tempting! 
I helped a dayboat moor up behind me on the pub moorings, offering for them to moor against me if they were told they had to move (they just wanted to access the shop, not the pub) and I also suggested that when they leave, they went out stern first to stop being stuck going to and fro on the quay as I’d seen earlier when waiting for my mooring space to vacate. 
When the corner of my boat then got hit (gently) on their way out, going forwards, I put it down to one of those things, and the helm not taking any notice of the advice the lady I spoke to had passed on to him, but it did annoy me to then hear peals of laughter. There were about 6 people on board, so no need at all for one boat to even touch the other. So I made a point of taking the boat reg etc while telling them what I was doing, and inspecting the corner while they were still in view! 

It’s so nice here in the sunshine, I’m staying put till the morning. 

[YnysMon]

Are you thinking of going through Wroxham bridge tomorrow Kate?

[SwanR]

We were sat outside the Swan last week and saw a few dayboats having trouble getting away from the bank. Irritating if they took no notice of your advice. We also saw a large cruiser force its way in even though the gap was nowhere near big enough. 🤦‍♀️

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, YnysMon said:

Are you thinking of going through Wroxham bridge tomorrow Kate?

I think there are spring tides on Thursday this week.  May be wrong to though.

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, YnysMon said:

Are you thinking of going through Wroxham bridge tomorrow Kate?

I hope so Helen. Hoping to meet up with daughter and co for a day out in the car somewhere. They’re now on holiday up near Holt. 
But 

15 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

I think there are spring tides on Thursday this week.  May be wrong to though. 
 

How did this jump into the quote?

I’m keeping a wary eye out. Clearance has been between 6’7” and 6’9” for the past week, so you’re probably right Malcolm that we’re on the way back to springs again. 

[kpnut]

I’m so pleased I decided to stay at Horning in the sunshine last night as early evening there was a knock on the window and I had two lovely visitors. Thanks, Steve and Nik, for walking along to introduce yourselves after all this time of chatting on the quiz. We’ve waved a couple of times in passing, but not had a chance to meet in person. 

Agenda for today was to get through the bridge about 9am which happened to coincide with low tide. After a really relaxing cruise up from Horning, mainly in sunshine, I had enough time to fill with water at Barnes and then go on to Hoveton viaduct moorings, where I boiled some eggs for breakfast and took the dog out.   I moored as near to the railway bridge as possible as it’s shadier. I ‘shut up shop’ so to speak to keep the heat out as Finlay had to be left to man the boat while I met my family for a trip to the delights of Wroxham Barns. We fed goats and sheep, petted pigs, calves and alpacas, terrified some Guinea pigs that were put in a oversize tray for us to ‘play with’. It was obvious they didn’t want to be there so we left them to it, cowering in the corner, having told the lady in charge that they seemed frightened. She thought otherwise. A shame as Guinea pigs can be really sociable and full of character, and are an ideal little pet for a child in my opinion. 
Then there were rides to go on and some bouncy stuff that was surrounded on all sides by my nemesis, sand, so I didn’t venture in there! I bought gluten free licorice for a friend. All in all, a nice morning but not one I feel the need to repeat too often. Entertaining kids in that way is not really my thing. Grumpy Nana 😄 but a lovely morning with family, who can beat that, especially when a bit unexpected. 

Not wanting to be too far from the bridge in case the decision has to be made to go back through on tomorrow morning’s tide and wanting to be further from the railway bridge than I was, I cruised up to castle staithe by Caen meadow. I’ve never moored here before, it’s very peaceful apart from the geese who are starting to congregate on the big field that dips down to the water a bit further up. I’ve seen a number of flocks flying over the marshes this week so they must know that summer is gone. Or maybe they’re overwintering geese coming in? 

And I’m now hearing the high pitched whistle of kingfishers. 

We took a walk to visit the Paris church. There’s a mausoleum in the churchyard which was unexpected.

The organ pipes are rather decorative in their own right.  

There were some fantastic stained glass windows that had been propped against a wall for ages before some fundraising allowed them to be restored. They were originally made by a man who made stained glass in many cathedrals, William Wailes from Newcastle. 

And on reading up about the church later, it seems I missed a sight carved into the door - a Sheela-na-gig. Look it up rather than me describing it!

[NorfolkNog]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

cruised up to castle staithe

Used to be a great pub but converted to housing quite a few years ago now 

[grendel]

lovely quiet spot, been there several times

[kpnut]

59 minutes ago, NorfolkNog said:

Used to be a great pub but converted to housing quite a few years ago now 

We’ll, I didn’t know that. I was wondering where the castle was. There’s a castle like house you can see the back of from Skinners Lane. 

[NorfolkNog]

3 hours ago, kpnut said:

We’ll, I didn’t know that. I was wondering where the castle was. There’s a castle like house you can see the back of from Skinners Lane. 

This is the boy.You would cross Skinners Lane and the railway, so possibly not the one you were thinking of. It's on the main road as you walk up from the staithe. Almost unrecognisable as a pub now and housing has been built over the right hand side where the car park was. Shame as it was a good, popular pub back in the day but has been lost like so many others. 

[Norfolkangler]

12 hours ago, kpnut said:

And I’m now hearing the high pitched whistle of kingfishers. 

Its amazing once you have identified the shriek of a kingfisher how many more you see. Its instinctive to look when you hear the call and before you know it, the kingfisher has flown right past you. I have had them land on my rod whilst fishing on more than the odd occasion. No matter how carefully I try to get my phone out for a photo its to late and they are gone.

[kpnut]

7 hours ago, NorfolkNog said:

Almost unrecognisable as a pub now

I walked past it yesterday. I’d say that does look like a typical town corner pub, especially what I presume is the blocked up door on the corner. 
Or maybe it’s a new porch extension that has been sympathetically designed to stay in keeping. 
Was it called the Castle? I’m still intrigued as to why it’s called Castle Street. 
Anyway, thanks. 

[NeilB]

27 minutes ago, kpnut said:

I walked past it yesterday. I’d say that does look like a typical town corner pub, especially what I presume is the blocked up door on the corner. 
Or maybe it’s a new porch extension that has been sympathetically designed to stay in keeping. 
Was it called the Castle? I’m still intrigued as to why it’s called Castle Street. 
Anyway, thanks. 

Ta da !!  

"Then we have the puzzle of the origin of the name of the old Castle ale-house. Was Castle Street named after the public house or was the pub named after what once possibly stood at the other end of the road? From old records we know that Castle Street continued on past where the Victorian school was built as far as Holly Cottage, at that point narrowing and being called Church Land. The contention is that the name Castle Street derives from the road leading to the fortification or castle at the top of Caen Meadow and where the monastery was subsequently built."

Taken from here https://wroxhamhistory.wordpress.com/wroxhams-other-castle/

[NorfolkNog]

4 hours ago, kpnut said:

I walked past it yesterday. I’d say that does look like a typical town corner pub, especially what I presume is the blocked up door on the corner. 
Or maybe it’s a new porch extension that has been sympathetically designed to stay in keeping. 
Was it called the Castle? I’m still intrigued as to why it’s called Castle Street. 
Anyway, thanks. 

Agree Kate, I've seen many worse conversions and at least it wasnt demolished as many are sadly.

Yes, always been the Castle https://norfolkpubs.co.uk/norfolkw/wroxham/wroxch.htm

 

[kpnut]

All that history. And I’ll enjoy reading the link you put on too Neil. 

[NorfolkNog]

3 hours ago, kpnut said:

I’ll enjoy reading the link you put on too Neil.

Ditto