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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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ENRICHING KING’S LYNN, ENJOYING FELBRIGG HALL, and the BRIGHTON OF THE NORTH - July 5, 2006

July 5, 2006

Left King’s Lynn YHA early and drove through town – stopped at the Cathedral and after talking about it, decided that no one was parking there, it was so early in the morning, it was a long ways to the pay station, we were going to be only five minutes in the cathedral, and the parking attendant SURELY wouldn’t come by and ticket the car. Wrong. Fifteen pounds wrong, to be exact. The turkey must have been watching us and waiting for until we went inside the cathedral – we couldn’t have been more than five minutes, as we didn’t even leave the towers above the entrance on the west end!! Ah well.

Here you see Gail talking to the perfectly delightful “mine host” of a B&B in Great Yarmouth—he told us wonderful stories, and showed us around his B&B. When you’re next in Great Yarmouth, don’t stay ANYwhere but the Spindrift - it’s clean (every day by the owners), comfortable and economical…only about 50% more than our bare-bones hostel in the off-season.

UPDATED with photos…..

King’s Lynn has a beautiful cathedral (see our car about to get a ticket!)

whose southwest tower fell and had to be rebuilt (and later buttressed, as the ground isn’t very good for foundations), and then whose spire on the southeast tower fell across the nave, so that IT had to be rebuilt – all of this more than 500 years ago! Amazing. The river is tidal and fluctuates 20 feet or so each day – there are “flood gates” on all the streets leading up from the quay. At the front of the church are marks for all the notable floods – up to three or four feet deep! Here you see the quay just in front of the Youth Hostel….there is a wall just behind this spot, and a flood gate ready to close to block the street in case of an extra high tide.

Then we started around the north coast. Lots of little towns, every one with a church and most with huge towers standing above the relatively flat ground. Many tilting. Our big stop was Felbrigg Hall, the finest country house in Norfolk, they say.

The front was built in 1620 on the foundations of a Tudor house. In 1680 the west wing was added

In 1750 this west wing was extensively remodeled with serving hall, stairwell and service buildings added. The last squire inherited in 1933, but he was a lifelong bachelor and his brother was killed by the Germans in Crete in 1941, so that much of the estate was willed to the National Trust when the last squire died at 63 in 1969. Everything is just as he left it – no signs on things explaining what they are because he wanted it to appear as if he’d left for the day and would be back. Largely it does seem like that - a bit like Bateman’s in that respect. We didn’t go see the walled garden or the dovecote, and there are 500 acres of woods to explore, plus the parish church and more. Time was fleeting, and we continued on around the north shore of Anglia and through more villages, until we reached the biggest holiday town out here – Great Yarmouth.

One might call it the Brighton of the north, I suppose – two piers with all their glitz and grunge. Huge sandy beaches and a town filled with hotels both large and small and guest houses everywhere! The YHA is in a Georgian hotel building and it’s really nice.

We walked up the beachfront, watched little old men lawn bowling, and ended up chatting for 30 or 40 minutes with a delightful guy from Ascot (near Windsor outside of London) who bought this guest house five years ago and is building a solid business with his friendliness, clean rooms, good food and fair prices. He showed us around, told us stories, and was just a wonderful host. We’ll send his name to the Let’s Go books with a solid recommendation. Tomorrow we’ll see the rest of the sights of Great Yarmouth and then off to Blaxhall.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/09 at 03:22 PM

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