Oby to Damgate and return via Acle
Walked by Sally and Richard, Saturday 4th September 2010
Approximately 9 miles of walking including 3 miles progress along Weavers' Way and 0.75 miles on an official diversion
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
My only real criticism of today's walk is that it wasn't long enough! After pretty dreadful weather for most of August, we'd been enjoying an 'Indian Summer' since the beginning of September. I'd been away for a Conference in Northumberland but, amazingly, the weather held for the weekend too. The walk was particularly memorable for the large numbers of beautiful dragonflies that we had for company. Once again we drove by way of the A47 to Acle, then along the A1064 and the B1152 and left to park in the lay-by near Hall Farm, Clippesby. We walked in a sort of extended figure of eight - west to the Weavers' Way then south along it to Damgate; back by way of Acle then, from just north of Clippesby Drainage Mill along a concessionary path back to the car.
The path from the lay-by down to the river took us by way of Manor Farm Cottages and Harrison's Farm ( as last time) then alongside South Oby Dyke. The moorings here are private and it was beautifiul. As we reached the River Bure (turning left, leaving the Tall Mill Drainage Mill to our right) there was a veritable procession of cruising boats, several of which, crewed by young people dressed as pirates, were clearly going at speeds greater than the maximum allowed 6 m.p.h. Later on it was much quieter. There were sailing boats visible behind us, but none on the stretch of river we were walking on, perhaps because the wind direction was unfavourable. Actually I find the concept of sailing along a river a rather odd one (you must have to be tacking the whole time) though I know that some people love it.
We passed Oby Drainage Mill and Upton Dyke on the opposite bank of the river, complete with its awkward bend at its entrance. Shortly before Clippesby Drainage Mill we passed the concessionary path that would form our return route to the car, then we followed the long bend in the river round to Acle Bridge, with several boat yards opposite.
The usual route of the Weavers' Way crosses the A1064 here, then follows the opposite bank of the river to Acle Dike. However flood defence works (again!) meant that this section of the river bank was closed; at least we knew about it in advance this time and the alternative route, along a path a few metres from the A1064, was better than I'd expected it to be, with blackberries for sustenance. We turned left and cut down to the top end of Acle Dike (and yes that is how you spell 'dike' here - for some reason, to the north it is 'dyke', but from here 'dike' seems more common), past the contractors' depot for the drainage works.
From Acle Dike, we followed an overgrown but attractive path across the marshes, crossing first the A47 (there's a muddy bit here), then the railway line before turning right away from the Weavers' Way, along a track that became a road through the village of Damgate.
We said 'hello' to some people who were talking outside their house, then turned right, underneath the railway line and the main road, and up the hill to St Edmund's Church, Acle. The Church is very attractive, with a round tower that becomes hexagonal at the top (which seems quite common round here) and a thatched roof. The centre of Acle is nothing special, but it's pleasant enough; I was just commenting to Richard that it's a small town that doesn't pretend to be anything else when he pointed to the plaque telling us that it had won the best kept village award. Hmmm.
We stopped for lunch at a conveniently placed bench on 'The Green', then left Acle by way of 'Old Road', past the fire station and back to the busy A1064. We crossed the road (quite a challenge on a sunny summer afternoon) and followed the footpath alongside the road back to Acle Bridge. The sign in Acle town/village centre and the sign at the Bridge Inn both led us to believe that Acle Bridge was once rather more attractive than the current modern structure and this indeed appears to be the case - it was once a low three arch bridge, much like the old Potter Heigham bridge. In researching this, I discovered that Acle was once on the coast, and grew up as a fishing village. Great Yarmouth did not exist, the area it occupies being a sand bank, and all the marshes between Great Yarmouth and Acle were under the sea.
We stopped for refreshments (I had tea and Richard had ice cream) at the Bridge Stores, sitting watching the cruisers at the boatyard being prepared for their next customers. Then we retraced our steps along the River Bure, now with a few sailing boats, past Clippesby Drainage Mill to the concessionary path. This meandered its way across the marshes, with cows grazing, sweetcorn growing on the other side of the drainage ditch to our right, and typical broadland views of drainage mills and the tops of sailing boats in the distance. The path was well kept and delightful, with huge numbers of dragonflies - so thank you to the owners (the Cook family). We passed through a narrow belt of trees and found ourselves back at the car.
We wanted to avoid the awkward right hand turn from the B1152 to the A1064 at Billockby and we also wanted to see some of the other broads, so we drove to Rollesby and back by way of Filby, stopping at Rollesby Bridge and Filby Bridge to admire Ormesby Broad, Rollesby Broad, Ormesby Little Broad and Filby Broad. These (with Lily Broad) are the 'Trinity Broads', navigable in their own right (there's a sailing club at Rollesby and boat hire from Filby) but separated from the rest of the broads by a sluice at Muck Fleet. They were peaceful, unspoilt and delightful; a real contrast to the River Bure with all its cruisers and to the rather touristy places (e.g. Potter Heigham Bridge) that I've muttered about previously. The parking at both Rollesby Bridge and Filby Bridge is free and there's a short board walk to a bird hide at Filby Bridge. What a pity that there aren't footpaths to enable to Weavers' Way to come in this direction. (Click here for our photos of Trinity Broads.)
