For this walk I set off from Shotesham, starting my walk outside All Saints Church. This is one of four churches all close to Shotesham, dating back to when there were four manors and parishes in existence. Pevsner notes that the parishes were joined in 1731, by which time two of the churches were already ruins. All Saints is a medieval church, with the earliest parts of the building dating to 1300, the rest dating mostly to the late C14 and early C15 with restoration work carried out in the late C19. It was a very grey day and cold, only about 3C but very still and the daffodils which cover the steep slope below the church were not yet open to add a touch of colour to the day. I walked down through the village away from the church as far as the pub. If I was going to pick a village to the south of Norwich to live in, I think it might be Shotesham; such an attractive village and surrounded by good walks with plenty of footpaths and of course, a pub.
Just past the pub I picked up a footpath, part of the Boudicca Way walk. This is a long distance walking route which covers around 36 miles between Norwich and Diss, following the old Roman ‘Pye’ road, now the A140. I was glad of the chance to walk uphill for a while and warm up a bit as the footpath climbed away from the road. It was very eroded, the wet winter weather having had an impact, washing away sections of the path. There was evidence of spring though, with patches of lemon yellow primroses alongside the path and plenty of bird song to be heard. I could see lots of activity too, stopping to watch a dunnock or hedge sparrow, appropriately sitting on a hedge just next to me, in full song.
Further along the path becomes a tarmac roadway so the walking surface was good for this stretch at least. I walked past a cottage, sitting alone in the fields and wondered what it must be like to live somewhere where you can’t see another house; not something I have ever experienced having always lived somewhere suburban, with other houses all around.
It was a still day with no breeze and I could see some strange cloud formations in the sky to the east, dark patches of cloud seeming to hang in the sky like a watercolour wash which had run into the rest of the painting. I could also see patches of blue sky in the distance to the north but without any wind it wasn’t very likely that I would see any sunshine. Along this stretch of the walk I heard a skylark, eventually locating it rising above the field just in front of me, gradually spiralling higher and eventually out of sight.
As the track turned away from the solitary cottage I came into a farmyard, very large industrial looking farm buildings giving way to more traditional brick-built farm buildings, which did not appear yet to have become barn conversions but were still being used as part of a working farm. The farm is Abbots Farm and the farmhouse itself a very large brick building which looks Victorian and has a walled garden behind the building; it is certainly evident on the C19 OS map, the older farm buildings and farm house clearly marked on the map. Consulting Pevsner after my walk I discovered that the farmhouse was built in 1860, designed by architect Anthony Salvin who was also responsible for restoration projects such as the re-facing of Norwich Castle in 1835-8.
I came out onto the road, walking towards Upper Stoke. Alongside the road on my right was a deep ditch, filled with water in places where it had drained from the winter fields, now sitting green and stagnant, also containing the all too common evidence of human activity, empty beer cans and fast food wrappers bobbing in the water. I watched a wren fly across in front of me to perch in the hedge alongside the ditch then looked up to see a buzzard circling right above me before gliding away. In the woodland to my right, Abbots Plantation, I could hear a woodpecker drumming on a tree.
I crossed the Poringland road in Upper Stoke and continued along Chandler Road. As I walked around the sharp bend in the road I could hear jackdaws in the trees to my right, chattering and calling to each other, flying out and back to the trees as I walked past. I was still following the Boudicca Way, joining the footpath across the fields again on High Ash Farm land. This is a lovely spot for walking, the farm being managed with wildlife in mind and a number of footpaths and permissive paths taking you round the fields and woodland edges. Here the paths were very muddy, having had a lot of traffic over the winter with lockdown limiting people to local walks and High Ash being close to the city. In places the mud was just sticky but in others it was really wet and before long what had been a clean pair of boots when I set off were thoroughly coated in mud.
I took a short detour along Hallback Lane up to Arminghall village finding a handy bench in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church where I could stop for a cup of tea. St Mary’s is another medieval church, mainly C13 but it was restored in 1876 so whilst it still has the lancet windows of the Early English medieval style, it seems that these are not original.
I looked out across the uneven ground of the graveyard at the weathered gravestones
although there were also plenty of newer ones, so the church is evidently still in use. The bunches of daffodils placed beside several of the more recent gravestones gave some colour to an otherwise very grey scene. I noticed one gravestone, leaning against the wall of the church, in memory of John Brereton, Apothecary of the City of Norwich who died in 1710. I later found an entry in the Norfolk Record Office archives for the will of John Brereton, Apothecary, dated 1710 but the document is on microfilm so any further investigation will have to wait until the office is open again after Covid 19 restrictions have been lifted. John Brereton did not enjoy a long life, his age on the gravestone as far as I could make out being just 30 years.
Carrying on back down Hallback Lane I picked my way through the muddy patches, eventually turning away from the High Ash land to continue following the Boudicca Way. I watched as two pairs of horses and riders rode along on the High Ash fields, passing each other, the riders exchanging greetings. One pair I noticed had the horses on a tight rein, the horses on their toes, snorting and ready to go but the others were more relaxed, walking with the horses on a loose rein. I think I would prefer to be on the latter these days, just sitting back and enjoying the scenery while the horse does all the work.
This was a new stretch of the Boudicca Way path for me, walking north and coming alongside the gaping hole of the sand and gravel quarry on my left, huge machines for digging and transporting the sand and gravel standing idle today. This is not a new activity, two gravel pits being marked in the area on the C19 OS map, although nothing like the scale of the current activity.
In the distance I could see buildings in the city of Norwich, with County Hall in the foreground and the spire of the cathedral just visible. I dropped downhill, losing the view and coming to a gate on the far side of the quarry which had been adorned with feathers. Some sort of offering perhaps, to placate whichever deity is responsible for pandemics?
After crossing a field the Boudicca Way comes out onto the road, crossing the Southern Bypass. Not the most pleasant part of the walk with either a very narrow verge to walk on or the road, crossing both rail and river bridges before coming down into Old Lakenham. The Boudicca Way heads off across the fields before the bridges but I carried on through Old Lakenham.
I stopped to look at St John’s Church in Lakenham, up on top of a hill and barely visible from the road. The churchyard is surrounded by trees and seemed very dark on a grey day with still no sign of the sun and the church itself, mainly built in the C15, has a brick south aisle which was added in 1825 and does little to enhance the building, the windows also currently covered with some sort of plastic sheeting. It is still in use though, flowers and tokens present on some graves.
The final part of the walk took me through an industrial estate and housing estate before coming out on the Ipswich road, crossing over to Marston Lane. I was on familiar territory from here, walking past Marston Marshes and up the path alongside the golf course on my way back to home and lunch.
Pevsner, Nikolaus and Wilson, Bill, Norfolk 2: North West and South Norfolk, The Buildings of England, Yale University Press 1999.
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