Walsingham Walk 3 Green Way circular walk to Great Snoring 3 FARMING NOW AND THEN Nowadays, some Simmental-cross and Aberdeen Angus beef cattle and cross-bred sheep may be glimpsed in the fields of some Walsingham Estate farms. But for the last fifty years farming in this part of North Norfolk has been dominated by arable crops, especially wheat, sugar beet, with its spinach-like top-growth, and oil-seed rape, together with some barley and potatoes. The early part of this century saw a growing emphasis on conservation and public access. It wasn’t always as it is today. And further major changes in farming practice are anticipated. In Tudor times a great variety of crops was grown on the light soils of north west Norfolk: barley, wheat and rye with oats, peas, vetches and buckwheat grown for fodder. The area around Walsingham was noted for its saffron. Amongst livestock, large, lucrative Norfolk Horn sheep flocks flourished, often owned by the lord of the manor. The late eighteenth century saw an agricultural revolution, spearheaded by such men as Jethro Tull, ‘Turnip’ Townshend of Raynham, and Thomas William Coke (later Lord Leicester) of Holkham. The Norfolk four course rotation of wheat, turnips, barley and clover made a fallow year unnecessary. Two of the four crops WALK 3 SUMMARY were fed to stock for the production of meat and dairy produce for sale. Farmyard Parking: village car park (pay & display) manure was returned to the land and fertility and soil structure were maintained. Length of main walk: 5 miles (approx) Duration (average walker): 110 minutes Broadly, this system of farming with folded flocks and yarded bullocks survived Optional detours (Gt Snoring, Houghton): until the inter-war years of the twentieth century brought a break from the four extra time needed Surfaces: mostly surfaced by-ways, plus a course system. Profits were low and less labour was needed to support fewer wide, grassy lane, rutted and muddy in places livestock and an increasing acreage of sugar beet. Up until the 1950’s tractors Dogs: on leads, please gradually replaced farm horses. From the 1960’s soil fertility was maintained by the addition of artificial fertiliser, as little farmyard manure was available. High input-high output crops such as sugar beet, potatoes and cereals predominated. Cross the lane into the field and turn safely atop the bank on the field edge Read more: Life on Two Norfolk Farms Bob Scott left along the field edge, with the for a further two minutes when you Norfolk - A Changing Countryside Susanna Wade-Martins hedge on your left-hand side, going can then descend to the by-road via a downhill parallel to the lane for a slope used by farm vehicles. minute or two. Keep to the field 00 minutes crossing Station Road, keep straight edge, turning at the field corner. You 15 minutes With your back to the Bull pub set on into Back Lane. Within a few are now walking above the Little Retrace your steps (but at the lower off across the High Street, past the minutes you pass the last house on Walsingham to Houghton road, which level of the road) to the T-junction, Pump into an arched entrance your right, Pilgrim Cottage. Keep can be busy. In about five minutes and turn right (signposted East between 53 and 57 High Street. This straight on to a T-junction with you will see the T-junction with the Barsham) onto the Houghton/ is Swan Entry. At the top of Swan another little-used by-road, Blind side road down to the RC National Fakenham road. Entry turn left onto Cokers Hill and, Dick’s Lane. Shrine and Slipper Chapel. Keep Traffic hazard! Follow the road as it bridges the 45 minutes the track of the former Great Eastern stream-like River Stiffkey. Water The Green Way ends at a crossroads Railway Line which ran from East meadows on either side are used on the edge of the village. Dereham to Wells-next-the-Sea. This seasonally for grazing. section of the line, from Fakenham to [OPTION: explore Great Snoring Walsingham, opened in 1857 and Cross the main road opposite a gap village and church. At the top of the closed in 1964. in the hedge on your left, and go Green Way cross over the road and through it onto a grassy section of continue straight ahead. At the end 75 minutes path edging pasture (part of the of the high, flint wall surrounding the Keep on the Pilgrim Way for another Abbey park). Follow the path to an Manor House turn left through a gate fifteen minutes, heading in a north- attractive Estate lodge and gate, then onto a public footpath. As you near easterly direction towards Little head up a track between the cottage the churchyard look up to your left Walsingham until the path ends by a and a wood. You are now on the and note the decorative chimneys of 70 minutes crossroads. [Estate sign board] Green Way, an ancient route between this Tudor Manor House. [OPTION: explore the small village of 90 minutes Little Walsingham and Great Snoring. The splendid church lies ahead. Visit Houghton and St Giles Church with Turn right onto Blind Dick’s Lane The first part of this track alongside possible] its fifteenth-century rood screen. the wood may be muddy but it (tarmacked), and then first left onto For the main walk turn right at the Visit possible. Turn left onto the main improves. The wide, grassy track another by-road [Back Lane but top of the Green Way, following the road. The church is soon found on climbs up towards Great Snoring past unlabelled at this end]. This passes signposts to Houghton St Giles. your right-hand side.] grazing pastures and arable fields. behind the ruins of the Franciscan Continue along this little-used by- Substantial trees and hedges border Cross the main road, taking a by-road Friary. At the crossroads turn right road, ignoring a left turn to East the lane. down to a ford (with footbridge) over down Station Road, through Friday Barsham. In fifteen minutes the road the River Stiffkey. Market Place to the High Street, 25 minutes wends gently downhill between the passing the Black Lion Hotel. By the At the junction after the ford turn At a copse (Boundary Plantation) the handsome Canister Hall Farm and Walsingham Village Stores turn left right, and then almost immediately track may appear to fork into a field, farm cottages. From here there are onto the High Street and after a few left, onto a farm lane, Stanton’s Track. but keep right on the main track. Two minutes you will arrive once again at Very soon you pass under a bridge. minutes later keep right, alongside the the Common Place. Mount the wooden steps on your southern edge of the plantation. Note right-hand side by the bridge. At the 100 minutes that Walk 5 diverges left here. From top, turn left onto a well-surfaced [excluding detours in Great Snoring this point the Green Way in parts can path, the Pilgrim Way. You are now on and Houghton St Giles] be more deeply rutted and mired, but keep on it. BEETLING ABOUT The square tower of the late fifteenth You won’t usually see a ‘beetle bank’ as you walk on the lanes and by-ways century St Mary’s Church, Great around Walsingham because they are hidden mid-field and may be surrounded Snoring, comes into view across the by a growing crop. Beetle banks (strips of land often sown with grasses such fields. [Two storeys of this tall, square stunning views across the Stiffkey as cocksfoot and Yorkshire fog) provide over-wintering sites for predatory tower were once used as the priest’s valley. In a further ten minutes you beetles and spiders, and winter cover for grey partridges. In turn these living accommodation, complete with arrive in Houghton at a crossroads. creatures eat insects such as aphids (greenfly and blackfly) that attack crops, fireplace and privy] Traffic hazard! especially the young, tender growing tips of wheat and barley. Effective beetle banks therefore reduce the use of pesticide and fungicide crop spraying.