MONTHLY MONDAY WALKS # 12 Monday 5 November 2018 Start and Finish: Runton Road Cliff Car Park, Cromer. Weather: Sunny with cloud at times, overcast towards finish on the coast. 15 degrees , yes, 15 degrees! Positively warmish, hot for November. Walkers: Gus Williams, Mike Cox, Malcolm Page, Jeff Watkinson, Andy Haggith, Mike and Paula Lane, Bernie Kerrison, Paul Marcus Lovewell and Dawg, plus one new very welcome walker - Sean Tearle. First off, welcome Sean to your first walk with our little group. I hope you enjoyed the walking and the company along the way. The group gathered at the Car Park as arranged at about 10.20. Andy H of course left it till the very last minute to make his entrance, along with his passenger Jeff. The morning was bright and sunny and to start with a lovely 13 degrees, but it warmed up as the day went along. So, we made our way south through Cromer, jewel of the Norfolk Coast apparently, a mainly Victorian seaside town, much loved for its crab, pier, sandy beaches and of course the rich fishing heritage. It also boasts a fine lighthouse and a proud tradition of Royal National Lifeboat Institute service. We made our way through quite busy ve- hicular traffic to pick up the Weavers Way on Hall Road, which we followed down past Cromer Hall. What a spectacular building, built in 1829 in the Gothic Revival style by architect William Dunthorne. Constructed of flint, with stone dressings and a slate roof. Rumour has it that The Hound Of The Baskervilles, written by Arthur Conan Doyle was written after Doyle visited Norfolk to aid his recovery from typhoid fever. Here he must have heard the story of the ‘Black Shuck’, the hell-hound of Norfolk, leg- end. Doyle’s description of Baskerville Hall, bears an uncanny resemblance to the as- pect of Cromer Hall as it would have been in 1901. Doyle set the Baskervilles in Dev- on, but for me he was inspired by his visit to Norfolk in relation to the Hound and the Hall. But, back to the walk. We continued south past the Zoo (I abhor Zoo’s of all sorts. They should be banned—there is no place these days for locking up wild animals for our supposed enjoyment. Horrid places making a profit out of the imprisonment of our fellow creatures!) Rant finished, but something I feel strongly about, does it show? We then left Hall Road and made our way up over a grassed meadow to the railway line (Norwich—Cromer) then through woods to Hall Road again. Steps lead down to Hall Road then up the other side into woods. We carried on out of the woods and onto open farmland (sugar beet looks a bit withered this year), and through Driftway Farm then a hard track till we reached the B1436 Felbrigg—Roughton road. Now I thought this would be a quite country lane. What a mistake! We had about 750 metres of busy two way traffic to contend with and no footpath. I took the lead facing oncoming traffic with my fingers crossed. Most vehicles slowed down as they approached us, but we had the occasional twonk who decided that pedestrians did not count for much and sped past as close as they could without actually colliding with any of our party. I was re- lieved to reach the small hamlet with no name at Boundary Farm and we turned off left through the hamlet initially heading north east then east towards Crossdale Street. Just past the poultry farm we left the road (peace at last) and made our way south again into a wood. Here the walk leader (me) had to respond to a call of nature, I al- lowed all of the group past saying “keep left through the wood”. Having ‘spent my pen- ny’, I followed the walkers into the wood. Where the footpath split, for some reason, they had all decided it would be a good idea to bear off to the right. Luckily I spied them through the trees and I chased the group, whistling and calling out some choice phrases such as “Cooeee! You have gone the wrong way!” At least I think that’s what I called, I might be wrong. Having attracted the attention of them all, we had to do a bit of off roading through thick undergrowth to eventually reconnect with the track that runs east towards the southern outskirts of Crossdale Street village. It’s a bit like herd- ing fog with this lot……… The track runs east through an immense solar farm, acres of the stuff to both sides. But at least it caused me to reflect on how such an array would be shown on an Ordnance Survey map, so I’ve looked it up. I will try and include the symbol towards the end of this review. Therefore, we left the solar farm behind, crossed the A149, and into a very overgrown footpath, bounded on both sides by a thick hedge. Again, I led off, whacking right and left with my trusty Leki, beating back the brambles and stinging nettles, forging a way through for the group to follow. The things I do!!! And don’t let anyone tell you that net- tles do not sting in the Autumn, if anything they are more potent when dried out. At last we exited the tunnel of stings and scratches onto a nice open track leading to Thorn Hill Plantation and the railway line again. Over the railway line and onto a lovely quiet track across fields towards Northrepps. A lone roe deer was spotted off to our right, the first this autumn for me. A zig and a zag brought us into sleepy Northrepps where we entered the village through the church graveyard. The church is dedicated to St Mary, the fine church tower is an excellent example of the East Anglian Perpendicu- lar style. The masonry and stone craftmanship is phenominal. (Crafts’person’ship for those insistent types, perhaps there were female masons and builders in the 15th and 16th century). Worth a visit just to take in the splendour of the stained glass depictions of St Michael, St Gabriel and St Raphael in the magnificent east window in the south aisle. Above these is a host of angels. The church also boasts the remains of a 15th century rood screen, said to have been salvaged from a barn. Much of the carving on the screen is probably Victorian. If you do visit, take time to examine the royal arms in the west aisle, said to be dedicat- ed to Charles l, look closely at the poor lion, he’s missing his naughty bits, but not so the unicorn. On that note—lunch at the Foundry Arms, Northrepps. Here we all are at the Foundry Arms at Northrepps. From left to right: Malcolm Page, Paul Marcus Lovewell and Dawg, Sean Tearney, Mike and Paula Lane, Gus Williams, Jeff Watkinson Andy Haggith, Michael Cox and photographer extraordinaire Bernie Kerrison. I am not quite sure what Paul Marcus is doing to his Dawg, but Barnaby is none too happy about it. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Lunch was eaten in the beer garden at the back of the premises. Rolls and sandwiches were washed down by various liquids purchased from the pub itself. Some local busy- body tried to grass us up to the landlady “There’s a bunch out there eating their own food you know”. Really some people! I had already asked if we could eat our food in the beer garden and was given the OK by the landlady. Not all pubs allow this to happen, but there were only two men in the bar, so we probably quadrupled the lunchtime tak- ings. As promised this is the symbol for a solar farm on an OS map, fancy that, a sun above a grid pattern. I wonder how long it took to think that one up? After lunch we left the pub and walked off north through the village, the sun was still shining, and fully refreshed we headed past Grove Farm, where a large ram took a fan- cy to me. He followed me the whole length of his pasture headbutting each fence post as he went. I don’t know what he was thinking but even with my Welsh heritage I have to say that I did not fancy any of his lady friends, so they was safe, no worries Mr Ram. We dropped down Toll’s Hill and into Overstrand, over the now disused railway line to link up with the Norfolk Coast Path on the cliffs above the beach. Here I again lost part of our party, I was leading the group, not too far ahead and I turned left to follow the cliff path only to discover that for some reason the tail end of the group had turned right and was heading off towards Mundesley. I had to send Coxie and Malcolm off you get them back on track. Having gathered them all together I decided to be ‘tail end Charlie’ to make sure they all stayed on the route. It was a lovely walk, the sea (somewhat misty and grey to our right), and the very green Royal Cromer Golf Course to our left. Here the Paston Way, the Norfolk Coast Path and the England Coast Path run together into Cromer. Dropping down past the lighthouse we walked past the Hen- ry Blogg Museum. This museum celebrates the most decorated lifeboatman in RNLI history.