Norfolk

After 6 hours driving through the rain we reached our little site at Snettisham. There are 4 other motor homes, and it is all very quiet.

The journey was the busy A1 then we headed for Kings Lynn. It was interesting to see the flat fields of cabbages and other veg as we across Lincolnshire. There were many depots for loading the veg onto big lorries but no sign of people working in the fields. Perhaps nothing is ready to harvest yet. The dykes and ditches were much in evidence and we crossed the Ouse, very wide at that point. We past Battlefields Lane where there had been a battle during the English Civil War, 17th Century.

Snettisham is a pretty village near Sandringham, one of the Queen’s castles/palaces - no idea what it looks like as it was well hidden in the estate. The homes here are pretty brick with hollyhocks round the door. Judging by the cars with roof boxes parked outside, a lot must be second homes.

We had a wander, after a cup of tea, down a lane to the village, past the olde worlde school, across beautifully maintained playing fields to St Mary’s church. It looks very grand for the size of the village so I must research it. I’d have lived a look round but it was shut. The gravestones were difficult to read as they were sandstone and had been easily weathered. They were not really old though, 1820s inwards.

It’s so much warmer down here despite the wind and rain showers. That’s the difference with East Anglia and Northumberland - when the sun goes in at home it is cold. Of course in winter it is as bitterly cold in this part as the north. We used to say the wind came directly from Siberia.

I copied this from the church web page

Snettisham is one of the most imposing and notable of over 650 Medieval churches in Norfolk and is a perfect venue for concerts with its majestic size and glorious acoustics.

Situated on rising ground behind the village, it is built of flint with freestone dressings believed to have come from Barnack, near Peterborough, or possibly from Caen in Normandy. It was erected in about 1340 on the site of a Norman church (no evidence of which remains) and the windows contain beautiful tracery of that period.

“Snettisham was a place of some importance in Medieval times which explains why this church is a large one but originally it was much bigger and of cruciform shape. The spire, one of the few in Norfolk, is 175 ft high with attractive flying buttresses. It is second to the spire of Norwich Cathedral, which is 315 ft high. A conspicuous landmark, it is also a seamark for vessels in the Wash. It was partly blown down by a gale in 1895 and rebuilt.

The beautifully painted Medieval pulpit, a Tudor brass lectern, a 12th century bell, brass memorial plaques and an impressive three arched porch are among some of the significant features of this remarkable church ”