Rockland Staithe to Loddon

The weather today was colder than when we walked the previous leg of the Wherryman's Way a week ago, but it was dry and we had another enjoyable walk. We had no real choice of parking place at the Rockland Staithe end, so we left home early. By 8.45 we had left one car at the pay and display car park at Loddon Staithe at TM362989 (£4 for all day parking and a convenient - and spotless - public toilet) and driven to Rockland Staithe (TG328046) where there was plenty of space. I went to watch a couple of canoeists at the Staithe. By the time Richard joined me, he'd realised that he hadn't got his gloves; I realised that this was because he was wearing the wrong coat! This would have been a problem had it rained, as the coat he had with him is not completely waterproof, but it didn't rain so the only problem was the lack of gloves. Fortunately, Richard was able to put his hands in his pockets, and we put the oversight down to the early morning start.

From the Staithe, the route took us onto the edge Rockland Marsh, with grazing cattle in the distance and soon we were skirting Rockland Broad. Initially we could only see the vegetation on the edge of the Broad, but soon we had good views of open water, We were right on a fold of the map so the lie of the land (or, to be more accurate, the lie of the water) didn't immediately make sense, but what we actually happens is that the Broad is linked to the River Yare by way of Short Dike, a long straight section of water about half a kilometre in length, and we walked beside the Dike, passing a solutary moored boat, to get from Rockland Broad to the River Yare. We then followed the river bank to the Beauchamp Arms, a peculiar place which appears to have been recently painted blue and whose interior is in the process of renovation.

We were approaching the atmospheric remains of Buckenham Ferry Drainage Mill on the opposite river bank, but after passing the Beauchamp Arms we took a path around the pub then followed the tree-lined access route back to the road, passing lots of swans on the marshes. The road runs roughly parallel with the river but about a kilometre to the south, through the hamlet of Langley Green (where a stall outside a house had a dizzying array of plants for sale) and Langley Abbey (which now appears to be the home of the Norfolk Polo Club and perhaps also a wedding venue). We passed a memorial, noted a small parking area at the end of Langley Dike, and walked the length of the Dike, past moored boats, and back down to the river.

We live quite close to British Sugar's Wissington ("Wissey") Sugar Factory on the other side of the county, and the characteristic aroma of sugar beet processing is well known to us. We'd caught occasional wiffs of the smell earlier in our walk, and the Cantley Sugar Factory had been visible most of the time. We were now much closer, and the next section of the walk took us towards and then past the enormous factory on the opposite side of the river. We were walking a distance behind three other walkers, but after a while one of them turned around and walked back past us, whilst the other two continued ahead of us. They were walking slightly faster than we were, so we never caught up with them. For most of the time we were separated from the river by reeds, so we couldn't always see it, and our attention was drawn to an attractive windmill across the marshes to our right. This is Hardley Drainage Mill, actually built as a drainage pump so not technically a windmill. The landscape is dotted with the remains of many of these drainage mills, but Hardley is unusual as it has both cap and sails.

Nearer at hand, we passed The Reedcutters Pub on the opposite bacnk, then we followed the river round a bend to the right and past the Sugar Factory, As with Wissington, the smell from these close quarters is less pleasant then when at some distance. Leaving the factory behind us, we passed through the garden of "The Round House", which doesn't appear round at all, then reached Hardley Drainage Mill and a well-positioned bench where we stopped for an early lunch. Following renovation completed in 2013, the Mill is apparently operational and, in normal times, open Friday to Monday from April to September whilst the visitor centre next door provides light refreshments for walkers on the Wherryman's Way. But it appears it has all been closed up since the beginning of 2020 because of Covid; how sad. We were however able to see a little of the pumping mechanism from outside, as well as noticing that the tower is distinctly lopsided.

We continued walking alongside the river, now heading towards the remains of Limpenhoe Drainage Mill, round a bend in the river and on the other side, but before rounding the bend we were forced to take a diversion away from the main river so as to get to the other side of Hardley Dike by walking up one side of it and down the other. This was actually a welcome diversion from the twists and turns of the river, which get a bit samey. There were boats moored on both sides of the Dike, on their own private moorings, with a few people beginning to work on their boats and landing stages, and a place at the end where cars were parked (again worth noting, though not sure whether it is supposed to be private for the boaters). There were also attractive views down the length of the Dike and to Hardley Church and Church Farm, which is about half a kilometre to the south-west of the end of Hardley Dike.

Back on the River Yare, we passed Limpenhoe Drainage Mill, which lined up nicely for some photos of this Mill and Hardley Drainage Mill in the distance. We continued to the major obstacle and therefore major diversion away from the River Yare, namely the River Chet. In order to get to the other side of this, you need to follow it all the way to Loddon! At the confluence of the two rivers is the restored Hardley Cross, which marks the ancient boundary of the legal powers of the City of Norwich and the Borough of Great Yarmouth. There is a landing stage here too (though sadly nowhere to sit down to have lunch) and good views to Norton Drainage Mill on the other side of the River Chet, where we should be on our next leg of the Wherryman's Way. For now, we continued on a path on an embankment following the meandering River Chet, though separated from it by reeds. At a point where the river broadened and we came close to the water's edge, we sat on the bank for our lunch. We could hear occasional vehicles on the road we will be following when on the following leg and later, when we had resumed our meandering progress, we could see a dog-walker on the opposite bank.

The "normal" route of the Wherryman's Way continues alongside the River Chet all the way to Chedgrave, but the back between the river and Hardley Flood is considered dangerous so the route is diverted away from the river. The diversion is properly signposted and some walkers we passed near Hardley Wood were obviously very disappointed not to be able to walk close to Hardley Flood - and we speculated with them that the diverted route may become the standard one. However at the point where we left the river there were clear signs of work in progress, which would give hope that they do intend to reinstate the original route eventually. To be honest we didn't mind the diversion, as it provided some variety of landscape, including Hardley Hall and views to Hardley Church (again), now about half a kilometre to the north, and there were also views to Hardley Flood. After about a mile of walking on a track, the diversion follows Hardley Road for a kilometre or so before being signposted back to the river. We'd intended just to continue along the road to nearly Chedgrave, which would definitely have been a shorter route, but we had plenty of time so followed the diverted route to Chedgrave Common and so back to the River, where we stopped to eat an apple.

After a short walk by the River Chet we again left it to return to Chedgrave, the name given to the village to the north of the Chet, whilst Loddon is the small town to the south. The route took us past Chedgrave's unusual church, with a thatched tower, but which we initially thought might have been converted to a house - it hasn't, but a 1990s extension is (to quote the Norfolk Churches website in quoting the revised Pevsner) "like a two-storey house hitting you in the face." We then walked down the main road past Loddon Mill (formerly a water mill, now a wellbeing centre) and back to Loddon Staithe and the car park.