5 MAPS, WALKS & INFO From Beaches … Whether you want to be king of the sand- castle, ace of seaside spades or just enjoy some

DISCOVER LOWESTOFT traditional downtime in the deckchair, Lowestoft’s brilliant collection of award-winning

Fa Golden sands, glorious green spaces & history all around beaches has something for everyone. Feel the

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LOWESTOFT super-soft, golden sand between your toes on Edged by brilliant award-winning beaches, National Park and an Ga y M South Beach by the piers, alongside the colourful cabins at its

F Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the north home of Britain’s most a t un Victoria Beach ri E e easterly resort really is an all-round breath of fresh air. , or stroll south to discover the rural calm and

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im curvaceous charm of the boat-dotted beach at * The Pocket Guide to The

a Enjoy bucket-loads of traditional seaside fun. Ride rollercoasters. Meet T . a y t

e Similar to o Corton/Gunton Sands n north of town, its vegetated meerkats. Go time-travelling on vintage vehicles. Explore architectural gems and w d H o sand and shingle-scapes seem worlds away from the gentle 1920s ’ s n

t ancient alleyways. Taste fresh fish and chips. Savour quiet moments by Morton i s

M h t elegance of Kensington Gardens back around the Cliff corner. &

o Peto’s historic Lowestoft quayside. Watch boats by , or the birds by e

os r Further south sand-dune and shingle stretches at Co B y the marshes maybe? Discover the elegant tranquillity of Lowestoft’s heritage seem wilder t r

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Eas un parks and enjoy the buzz of its newer ones too - like The Ness, the UK’s most

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t easterly park, a celebration of Lowestoft’s maritime past. Find a thatched church To The Broads t r

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Reso a train stop, short drive, bus or bike ride - or even a walk away (see overleaf) - from i

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n Lowestoft’s award-winning beaches, s Oulton Broad

a A Superlative Spot is the area’s largest shallow lake &

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t • Gulliver (126m), amongst UK’s tallest on-shore wind turbines i MENU es From Kippers… Oulton Broad, the largest shallow lake in The Broads • Fresh Fish & Chips

There’s been something fishy about the • One of the UK’s oldest lifeboat stations (1801) Catch of the Day Lowestoft coast for centuries. Kessingland World’s oldest motorboat racing venue Artisan-smoked • was once one of the richest sea-ports in Red Herring (Oulton Broad 1903) Suffolk and clifftop old Lowestoft had an • Bloaters Stay This Way … • Britain’s oldest established coastal entire beach village full of fisherfolk below • Kippers lighthouse still in use its High Street, reached by steep alleys called • Buckling Traditional hospitality at seafront hotels and ‘scores’. The thriving Victorian port saw steam- guesthouses; beachside camping and caravan parks . . ❷ ❶ drifters land great catches of herring which were full of family fun and games; self-catering cottages; smoked, pickled or packed in barrels and soon shipped out again by boats on the broads; chalet parks and historic pubs; . . ❸ ❹ the new-fangled railway. Today you’ll still find fishing boats as well B&Bs in town, on the farm and even a boutique as pleasure cruisers, bobbing about Lowestoft’s harbours and some hotel or two. There are so many ways to stay and local artisans, proud to preserve traditions, amidst the last remaining enjoy Lowestoft. Which will you choose? net-racks, -stores and smoke houses on The Ness. GETTING AROUND To Big-dippers By Road: A12 (Ipswich), A47 (Great Fancy whizzing down into the watersplash or enjoying the family fun of the Yarmouth/), A146 (/Norwich) Key . fair? Pleasurewood Hills landscaped theme park will surely be right up your By Bus: suffolkonboard.com ❺ North Lowestoft street. The seafront boasts mini-rides, jolly seaside arcades By Rail: Line (Lowestoft) ❶ Sparrow’s Nest Park (1897) and attractions too, but in its infancy, the resort’s most thrilling ride eastsuffolklines.co.uk ❷ Belle Vue Park (1874) ; Wherry Line (Oulton . was probably the journey to get there. Trips by passenger train - or Broad South & North, ) ❻ ❸ Lighthouse (1874) P paddle-steamer from London or Yarmouth to Lowestoft’s wherrylines.com; nationalrail.co.uk ❹ The Ness - the UK’s most P piers - delivered pleasure-seekers right to the heart of By Air: Norwich Airport/London Stansted easterly park (2020) fashionable new seaside culture to sample ‘the most Airport ❺ England’s Most Easterly Point invigorating air in the British Isles’. From delightful By Water: The Broads/River Waveney/ ❻ Christ Church (1869) LOWESTOFT gardens to goat-cart rides, South Pier concert parties, ; . ❼ Station Square P Punch & Judy shows and phrenologist’s booths, top lowestofthavenmarina.co.uk; ❽ Bascule Bridge (1972) Victorian and Edwardian resort Lowestoft had loads Oulton Broad: yachtstation.co.uk ❼. to offer. Look out for seaside legacies today. ❾ Royal Plain/South Pier (1846) By Bike: On National Cycle Network Route . 517. Lowestoft Cycle Map: 10 Heritage Quay ❽ suffolkonboard.com/cycle 11 Claremont Pier (1903) P A Town of 2 Halves Long Distance Walks: . . On ; 12 Benjamin Britten’s birthplace 10 With its old town to the north along with the lighthouse and much of its maritime history, and Oulton Broad on ❾ 13 South (Victoria) Beach the soft sands and Victorian villas of its resort (Kirkley) to the south, Lowestoft looks split down discoversuffolk.org.uk 14 Kensington Gardens (1922) the middle by Lake Lothing - once a freshwater creek and England’s leading shipbuilding port OS Maps: Outdoor Leisure OL40, for timber vessels. At its west end, Lock saves Oulton Broad from saltwaters. Until OS Explorer 231 15 Pakefield Church & Beach P 1830 - when seaside Kirkley was still mainly farmland - Mutford Bridge was the only route into

Festivals? Concerts? Events? . Railway Station Lowestoft for wheeled vehicles. Joined-up Thinking thesuffolkcoast.co.uk P Car Parks Bus Station N Resort & Port P But it was to be one man’s vision which made all the difference. in the Making Great Entertainment – All Year Round! 11. NW NE Victorian entrepreneur Sir Samuel Morton Peto (1809 -1889) Hamilton Check out the vibrant programme at Lowestoft’s historic . started developing Lowestoft’s harbourlands and laying down a Dock Marina W E Theatre. Enjoy West End productions, touring theatre, cinema films 12 railway. He created a harbour village, a steamboat service to 1906 and concerts by its prestigious orchestra-in-residence, The Royal . SW SE Denmark, restyled his local Jacobean mansion, , 13 Philharmonic! Together with smaller-scale productions hosted by into an Italianate palace - and planned a resort to rival Brighton. Waveney Basin

The Seagull and Lowestoft Players, there’s something for everyone. S Employer of the world’s largest labour-force, contractor for the 1883

Houses of Parliament, Nelson’s Column and over 3,000 miles of The Pocket Guide to railway throughout the world, Peto soon moulded a town of Resort Lowestoft is produced by . establishes First Light Festival 14 two potential halves into one amazing whole. East Suffolk Council. (Kirkley) Founded in 2019, this fab Engineers & More Entrepreneurs c.1860 24-hour, family-friendly Ships and sailboats, trams and trolleybuses, TV sets, off-shore energy, multi-arts festival takes place food processing and aquaculture science – Lowestoft has turned its Railway Station right on Lowestoft’s beautiful excellently industrious hands to move with the times. Within living 1855

coast over summer solstice memory, Somerleyton boatyard owner Christopher Cockerill, invented Trawler Basin/ © 2021 Drab Ltd/Xtrahead Content, design & production: weekend. Don’t miss it! P the hovercraft, then there’s the International Boatbuilding College wearedrab.co.uk / xtrahead.co.uk Railway arrives firstlightlowestoft.com (Lake Lothing) and world-leading Centre Illustration: wearedrab.co.uk Photography: xtrahead.co.uk 15 . for Environment, Fisheries and 1847 Visit & Discover More PARKS, PIERS & PROMS Aquaculture Science laboratory Lake Lothing 3 mile Lowestoft Museum miles/5km s/5 HERITAGE WALK 3 s k (Pakefield). Lowestoft has also welcomed e L m linked to sea k I s lowestoftmuseum.org La Lound N on

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L lowestoftmaritimemuseum.org.uk K Kensington Gardens A47 FINISH: Gordon Road. crossing and flood protection. Beach village East Anglia Transport Museum Somerleytonke or Pakefield n La Lowestoft: (originally Fritto At London Road eatransportmuseum.co.uk Corton the leading light North, go left past shops to Charles homes in A47 A seaside garden to garden tour via England’s most Normandale’s ‘Spirits of Lowestoft’ sculpture terraces. Originally pairs of Italianate upturned boats) R iv easterly point to Peto’s Kirkley beach resort. e on Station Square ❼. Note historic façade of c.1791(-1960s) r W villas stood between them and the sea. a created for Queen veney R Sparrow’s Nest Park ❶ former Tuttles department store on corner iv Start in Pass historic Wellington Gardens (right). e r W Bathing av eney Gunton Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, named after Lifeboat Society (left). Straight ahead, spot ATM’s Kingfisher At Claremont Pier 11 (once over 200m A47 machines A47 founder, Robert Sparrow. Take north exit to Cart Score mural (right), celebrating Carlton Marshes new long, welcoming steamships until , originally and spiral steps to Belle Vue Park ❷ wildlife habitats at Oulton Broad (see overleaf). 1939) turn right, then left along Kirkley at Lowestoft c.1768 e Arboretum Hill, home to the Royal Naval Patrol Service Cross Bascule Bridge ❽. Left onto Royal Lak Lothin LOWESTOFT Cliff Road. On right, ‘Ashurst’ villa ake Lo g L th Oulton ing Memorial. View iron bridge over The Ravine, but exit Plain ❾ with its fountains, originally flanked (1864) recalls Victorian styling of South Broad A12 Lowestoft by thatched lodge and mysterious ‘Witches’ Stones’ by The Royal Hotel, now home to the East Kirkley Pier’s original reading room. Past 1930s A12 Porcelain A146 (top of Cart Score). Point Pavilion. Keep left past Royal thatched tearoom (left), see no. 21 produced Pakefield Turn left past lighthouse ❸. A plaque recalls earlier & Suffolk Yacht Club building Kirkley Cliff 12 birthplace of composer, 1757 (-1802) A146 lighthouse (1676), built here by Trinity House when (1902) (left), for South Pier Heritage Sir Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). Norfolk Samuel Pepys was Master. Left down Lighthouse Score Quay 10 to view marina, harbours, Cross back to prom by South A12 steps, over Whapload Road to sea-wall, passing old lifeboat station and floating museum, 13 with its 1930s . . (Victoria) Beach Top Tip ❹. Lowestoft Beach Village net racks at The Ness Mincarlo, Lowestoft’s last surviving beach chalets. The monument by the Suffolk ❺. Follow the beach path south Turn right to find the Euroscope at Ness Point sidewinder fishing trawler. Retrace boating pond at Kensington from Kensington Gardens 14 A12 Continue past ‘Gulliver’ (wind-turbine) to climb steel steps to South Pier entrance and Triton Gardens 14 once topped the Royal Essex to Pakefield’s contrastingly

London steps at end of sea-wall. Follow road alongside fishing statue (1850), commissioned by Peto Plain drinking fountain. Don’t miss rural cove, thatched church dock to roundabout. Go right (Whapload Road) to view from Prince Albert’s favourite sculptor, the Japanese Garden en route to Kessingland Christ Church ❻. and Lowestoft’s oldest inn 15. 1953 flood level marked on door of John Thomas. Follow South Beach prom, pavilion café.

Retrace steps to roundabout. Cross diagonally to passing Triton II (left). Right are fine Victorian THESUFFOLKCOAST.CO.UK

DECKCHAIR DREAMS… What a Cracker! Somerleyton » Ashby » Lound LOWESTOFT’S AMAZING Lowestoft’s Georgian soft-paste TREASURES OF So, what’s on your seaside bucket list? Nature porcelain factory made souvenirs HERITAGE COAST & COUNTRYSIDE Watch 3 Be king – or queen – of the (sand) castle for the resort’s earliest visitors as Get tickets for showtime at the Marina Theatre What will well as devising ‘Mandarin’ you spot today? Go on the Nature Trail patterns to decorate Spot sea lupins on Kessingland beach their wares in Carlton Marshes Cliffs, dunes, marshes, butterfly meadows, Water vole Get stuck in to some candy floss by South Pier popular Chinese Lowestoft’s Wildlife Oasis heathland, woods, lakes and even hills, there Kingfisher style! Head for Book a horse-ride along Pakefield beach really is something for everyone amongst Lowestoft Museum A boat trip on Oulton Broad Dragonflies, marsh marigolds; widgeon, Lowestoft’s north Suffolk nature reserves. Orchid to see its superb Chinese water deer and grasshopper Download trail maps and check out what flora Watch the coast at Pakefield’s Coastal Watch tower Barn owl collection. warblers or Britain’s biggest spider - what and fauna you’ll find with the seasons at iles/12km m lowestoftmuseum.org 5 s Be amongst the first to watch the sun rise over England . C will you discover at Carlton Marshes by the 7 I suffolkwildlifetrust.org R Common lizard C Somerleyton Station U Run rings around the world at the Euroscope (Ness Point)

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extended Reserve by Dragonfly A NR32 3JP L K * Oulton Marshes What’s that Flat/ gentle inclines. Field/ the Broads National Park is now creating NR31 9AU Terrain: on the Horizon? * Lound Lakes Butterfly even more amazing marshland habitats to woodland footpaths. Some tarmac * Gunton Warren NR32 4PQ give nature a home. Take your binoculars Take the foot-ferry by Peto’s Marsh harrier roads/pavements. Stiles, gates. * Gunton Meadow NR32 4TZ and tour the reedbeds, pools, scrapes Marsh and go and see! Cross to Directions: eastsuffolklines.co.uk/walks

and dykes of Carlton, Share and Peto’s the Waveney River Centre to Truly Amazing An Italianate stately home near the River Marshes, all just a short footpath stroll Burgh St Peter and St Mary’s Visit Somerleyton Hall’s super-stately ‘zigurat’ church tower is only a Waveney, moving wartime memorials and a from Oulton Broad station. rooms and historic yew maze. Its great short walk away. golden church - the area around the idyllic thatched estate village of Somerleyton on the gardens have greenhouses attributed to ancient former island of Lothingland has of Crystal Palace fame. Oulton Broad » Lowestoft via Lake Lothing somerleyton.co.uk STEP BACK IN TIME 14 many precious stories to share. BROADS & BRIDGES EXPLORER OLD LOWESTOFT Kessingland’s wild dune coast HERITAGE WALK Highlights include: Somerleyton railway swing bridge (1905); Somerleyton parklands, COUNTRYSIDE & CLIFFS ADVENTURE

13 village and hovercraft momument; thatched journeyed up to stay at No.45. Before heading down 12 Ashby St Mary’s Church (Anglo-Saxon ship Martins Score ❺ where fishing boat floor-plaques rare burial discovered nearby); Sir Ninian Comper’s trace Lowestoft’s nautical history, view No. 59, and golden restorations in St John the Baptist Church, 1851 purpose-built chemist shop frontage 11 Lound; USAAF wayside memorials.

No. 55 (fine Adam doorway). Wesleyan Chapel Lane

Info panels: Somerleyton; inside Ashby and Lound

recalls the influence and 1764 visit of John Wesley churches. es/6.5 who preached here and declared: “A wilder mil km s 4 L congregation have I never seen”. I N iles/ Out of Africa E m 2.7

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modelled on Rider Haggard’s adventurer, .5 6 A Lowestoft’s oldest inns. Not far behind The Crown is

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❼ (left), Town Hall Stores wall-painting (right) and ❼ so he’d surely be delighted to hear that rhinoceros, Footpaths, tracks, tarmac/ W Spot the red herrings on this energetic little adventure Directions: eastsuffolklines.co.uk/walks peer down Mariners Score ❽ arched gateway with ❽ hippo, mammoth, sabre-toothed cats and even pavements. Steps.

(includes 320 steps!) up and down Lowestoft’s ancient ❻ Directions: suffolkcoastandheaths.org ‘scores’, in the footsteps of famous folk like King George II, sea-view. Cromwell, here in Lowestoft to quash early man lived in prehistoric Kessingland some 2 ‘lakes’, 4 parks, 7 bridges, 1 wonderful walk with Oliver Cromwell, Charles Wesley and cheeky local Royalist sentiment in 1643, had his HQ at The Swan 700,000 years before he did!. What’s fascinating insights into Lowestoft’s shipbuilding, Author of King Solomon’s Mines, Sir Henry Rider fisherman, Happy Welham. Inn (formerly at No. 41). No. 36 High Street ❺ more, you’ll still find animal ancestors transport and wartime heritage. Great for waterfowl ❾. View North Haggard (1856-1925) found Kessingland just 4 miles (c. 1500s) is Lowestoft’s oldest house here today at Kessingland’s awesome zoo watchers too. Don’t forget the binoculars! Christ Church ❶ reveals 1953 flood levels High Street south of Lowestoft to be a real treasure. Discover this The door of Flint House (now a pub), then at No. 176, ATM’s park, Africa Alive! former sea-faring town now within the Suffolk Coast Highlights include: Lowestoft Museum in Oulton which sealed the fate of Lowestoft’s Beach Village. Barn Owl mural 10 celebrating Carlton Marshes africa-alive.co.uk Herring Fishery Score to High Street. & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, whose Broad’s waterside Nicholas Everitt Park; Mutford Climb Nature Reserve. ❹ Did you know? Turn right - royal faces on No. 104; fanciful pinnacle on Arnold’s Walk 11 long-lost port once made it one of the richest coastal Bridge/ Lock and Edwardian railway swing bridge; Past Arnold House, go right, down Whapload Road It was Rider Haggard who Spurgeons towns in Suffolk and whose beach is designated a Lake Lothing; Normanston Park; Great Eastern Linear No. 90/91’s gabled shop-front (1880) by (footpath, signed for Maritime Museum). Keep right introduced marram grass to Turn right, down score (cottages here a rare ❸ Special Site of Scientific Interest. Park (trackbed walk between old Eastern Counties Score ❷ down steps with old fish curing works/net stores (right). Kessingland to stabilise the Lighthouse Score 12 Coachworks and North Lowestoft station sites); survival), then halfway down, follow herring waymarker Turn left at bottom, then right up shifting soil in his garden – ❷ Highlights include: Gunton Cliff; Belle Vue Park, Royal Naval Patrol Service left, to regain High Street along serpentine wall of home in 1916 to ‘Happy’ Welham who drank like a fish it soon spread! Dunes, vegetated Maltsters Score ❸ to the Triangle Market. shingle, fossil-cliff coastline; farmland Memorial; Sparrow’s Nest; The Ness/Ness Point; and charged passers-by tuppence to see an Turn right. Descend Wilde Score to Wilde School ❹ unexploded naval shell! ❶ and marshes of the Hundred River Bascule Bridge; Royal Plain war Enjoy now Heritage Workshop Centre, home to Beach light house 13. Turn right to Valley; St Edmund’s Church - memorial. Climb to top to view Walking, Cycling Village model and viewpoint (lowestoftheritage.org). park 14. 15th century beacon tower and descend into Sparrow’s Nest or Horse-riding? Info panels: Inside Lowestoft Regain High Street. Turn right passing Flint House ship’s wheel pulpit. Did you know? Find more great Museum (free entry). Oulton (Wilde family 1588-1740s) and Rant Score which local ideas at Info panels: Kessingland Beach. Broad; Lake Lothing; Sparrow’s George II, forced into moorings by rough seas, once St Mary’s round tower church at Blundeston was immortalised discoversuffolk. Nest Park; The Ness. org.uk by Charles Dickens in ‘David Copperfield’.

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