To Norwich from Bramerton Common and return

In many ways, today’s walk and this page of Jordanwalks represent a fresh start, but it included a trip down memory lane. We were starting a new path, which is always exciting but we were doing so after more than three months in which our only walks had been from our own house. The lockdown rules had eased a little and we could travel short distance from home, though not yet to stay anywhere else overnight. The Wherryman’s Way is entirely within our home county of Norfolk, but yet new to us. Perfect! Furthermore, because of the hard work Richard has done during the latest lockdown, we have now updated Jordanwalks to the new version of Google sites, so in writing up today’s walk I have also had to learn how to create new pages, not to mention adding maps and photographs…

We decided to take just one car and it took us almost exactly an hour to drive from home to our chosen parking place at Bramerton Common (TG294061) on the River Yare to the east of Norwich. We had chosen to park here rather than in Norwich because it was free, and we were just the second car to arrive. We hadn't known the name of this place until we got here, but I was delighted because it gave us an immediate connection to the Wherryman's Way, as reported in the Guardian's description of the walk, here. It appears that one Billy Bluelight, whose actual name was William Cullum, used to stand here in his running gear, and challenge passing boats that we would beat them to Carrow Bridge in Norwich - and he did! The statue of Billy Bluelight is just down the road at Woods End but it could equally well be here. Billy must have been a strange sight, though I think the goggles are a later addition.

We followed the route of the Wherryman's Way into Norwich; I will describe the route in more detail for the return leg. On our final approach to Prince of Wales Bridge near Norwich Station, we took a short diversion for my trip down memory lane, a visit to Wensum Lodge where I gave my first Open University nearly thirty years ago ... and the day before my first training! I owe a huge amount to Shelagh and Jill for appointing me, to those who had written the amazing teaching materials, to the team of tutors I worked with, and especially to that first group of students. However, I also learnt a lot from the building. Wensum Lodge comprises a collection of mostly medieval buildings, including the 12th Century Music House, the oldest secular building in Norwich, and it is an idiosyncratic place. If you can teach physics in a room with a wildly sloping floor, you're doing OK! It was good to be back.

I'd spotted a new pedestrian bridge, the Lady Julian Bridge (opened 2009) on Google Maps. We crossed this to a recently developed area of restaurants and appartments, then followed the walkway by the River Wensum to the Prince of Wales Bridge by Norwich Station, the point re had reached on the Wensum River Parkway and therefore on the Cross Norfolk Trail on 3rd January. I was determined to take photographs looking back the way we'd come on that occasion, which necessitated waiting for a somewhat tedious sequence of traffic lights in order to cross the busy road - twice! We then retraced our steps a short distance to a bench, one of many such seats by the river but happily right opposite Wensum Lodge , and we stopped for lunch.

After following the river for another few hundred metres, we took the steps up to Carrow Bridge, by the City Walls and Carrow Road Football Ground - and the end point for Billy Bluelight's regular race. We left the River Wensum (in name) at this point and followed rather busy roads out of the city, crossing the railway and the River Yare, and passing Norfolk's ugly County Hall. Opposite St Andrew's Church in Trowse, we parted company with the Boudica Way and forked left onto Whitlingham Lane. This appears to be the place to park if you want to visit Whitlingham Country Park but don't want to pay the rather steep parking charges; as we walked close to the River Yare (occasionally visible on our left) and past "Trowse Mountain" (Norwich's articifical ski slope) on the right, the row of parked cars was pretty much continuous apart from where there were double yellow lines.

Eventually we turned down a road which took us to Whitlingham Country Park, where the busy car parks and long queues for outdoor refreshments (all that is currently allowed, and we didn't bother) made us realise that plenty of people are willing to pay for parking here. It was lovely to see so many people out enjoying the fresh air and the residents of Norwich must have been grateful for the Country Park in recent months. We passed Whitlingham Little Broad then, curious about the relationship between the rivers Wensum and Yare, took a short diversion along a path between the Little Broad and the Great Broad which led to the River Yare (now on the far side of the former gravel pits from which the broads were formed), very close to the confluence with the River Wensum. Looking at the photograph we took upstream from here you'll see that the River Wensum (on the right) is obviously the larger river (and it has also come further upstream of this point) with the River Yare being a tributary joining from the left. So why the combined river is called the Yare downstream of this point I have no idea. Just think, we might have been walking towards Wensum Mouth instead of Yarmouth...

We returned to the route of the Wherryman's Way, resisting the tempatations of an ice cream van (which had also developed a queue ); it was a bit too cold for us to be tempted by an ice cream, or maybe we were full of hot-cross buns after lunch. This morning they had been sailing model boats on the Great Broad; they had gone but there was still a good selection of swans, geese and ducks waiting for food from small children. We were delighted to discover that for at least some of the length of Whitlingham Country Park, we were following a path by the Broad rather than the road (which is the route of National Cycle Route 1). Our route took us past a marker representing one of the trail's eponymous wherries and the Mark Goldsworthy tree sculpture "Big Day Out". The comic figure is carrying or wearing the equipment necessary for a range of outdoor activities; I do wonder if it is his goggles that led to the representation of Billy Bluelight at Bramerton having been similarly attired. We had to leave the lakeside in order to avoid becoming separated from the road by an inlet of water, but the scenery remained attractive as we climbed slightly through woodland.

And then...the road turned to the right and passed under the A47, emerging by the partially derelict Whitlingham Farm. This would probably have become several des. res. barn conversions were it not for the A47, and the sewage works we were approaching. It took me a little while to realise that (the quite attractive but rather unattractively located) Whitlingham Hall straight ahead of us is not the same Whitlingham Hall that has been converted to des. res. apartments. We turned left and climbed up past the enormous sewage works. Other walkers' opinions seem divided about the smell; our take would be that there was a slight but definite aroma, but it wasn't too offensive.

Past the sewage works we continued to climb, taking a path alongside a row of trees and eventually reaching two attractive areas of woodland at the top of the hill (don't believe that Norfolk is entirely flat). We descended on a track, with good views ahead of us to the Kirby Bedon and Bramerton area. We reached a minor road and turned left and continued to descend through trees, with buds just bursting, to the River Yare at Woods End. The pub and restaurant here are now called the Water's Edge and the food looks good, but in common with all hostelries at present, they're closed by government Covid regulations. We passed the statue of Billy Bluelight and walked the short distance along the road to our parking place at Bramerton Common. This is a most attractive place and unsurprisingly there were more people about than there had been when we left the car this morning.

Following leg