On Friday the 26th September 2025 Mel, George and I drove up to Summerfields Park in Scratby,Norfolk. Parkdean being Parkdean won't let you into your accommodation early as they want to squeeze every bit of money out of you and expect you to pay for early access.
So we parked up and walked on down to Scratby beach.
Scratby was first recorded in the Domesday Book as "in the hundred of East Flegg and the county of Norfolk."
The village grew in size in 1848, due to the discovery of 16th century gold coins in nearby California. As a result, the-then small village grew in popularity as a seaside resort alongside Scratby.
Down on the beach I could see a full size grey seal and a pup in the distance.
Sadly the mother was dead, the pup looked very sorry for itself. Some dog walkers had already called seal rescue so hopefully the pup will be okay.
We went back to the site and as expected, nope we cant get into the accommodation so we drive a short way to Tesco for some shopping.
On the way back close to our site we stop off at Scratby Garden Centre to see the animals.
There is also a Premier store here.
After we eventually got into our accommodation a Runton Bungalow,we unpack. The Bungalow is okay, sligtht smell of damp but will do for a couple of days. We decide to drive to Hemsby to look about and maybe grab dinner.
The village's name means 'Hemer's farm/settlement'.
Hemsby, along with much of the Norfolk coast, was targeted by the Vikings, who initially raided the area in search of precious materials and slaves. The village was founded at some point during this time. The settlement grew steadily and is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name of Haimesbei with a description of "a hamlet covering 43 meadow acres with 50 households, 3 slaves, 2 salt pans and 160 sheep".
Everywhere here for food is closed or is cash only, so having no cash on us we leave the food and will get something on site or maybe in Scratby.
In late February 2023, the beaches experienced another bout of severe erosion. Access has become so limited that as of 27 February, the lifeboat cannot launch. The beaches were one of the major tourist draws in the village, with miles of sandy coastline. Large sand dunes form a natural barrier between the beach and the village behind it. One of the more unusual features of the beach is a scattering of anti-tank blocks across the beach, and a concrete bunker, left over from the World War II coastline defences. These were cast by the Royal Engineers as tank defences; the platoon sergeant was Owen (Tom) Hanbury who settled in Hemsby.
Erosion is a major problem in the surrounding villages of Winterton-on-Sea and Caister where sandy cliffs are being destroyed by the forces of the sea. Hemsby's dunes are also being eroded; previously the wide beach had made the effect less noticeable, but the rate of erosion has increased significantly in the past two years, threatening homes, the local lifeboat station and the village's tourist industry. In 2013 a campaign was started to save Hemsby Beach: 'DIY' sea defences are being built to try to stem the erosion.
We drive back to Scratby and try the fish n chip shop there but this was also cash only. So we have food in the Parkdean clubhouse. This was overpriced and very disappointing quality.
Mel and George play bingo before we retire to our accommodation for the night.
Saturday 27th September 2025
The next day we drive to Great Yarmouth, we try parking on the seafront but it is extortionate prices so we drive into town and park in a multistorey there at Market Gates Shopping centre. We walk about looking through some interesting shops and stop for a coffee at a cafe on Regent Road. This was run by two lovely women from Porto in Portugal. The coffee was amazing, I was chatting to them and talking about wanting to visit Portugal soon and will try the Pastel de Nata when I visit. She insisted I tried one of their's for free and said they are baked freshly by themslevs daily. Very kind of them and it was delicious!
At the end of Regent Road we visted Britannia Pier.
The pier was first proposed in 1856 and work began in September 1857. A.W.Morant was the engineer. The 700 foot structure opened on 13th July 1858. The length of the pier was reduced by a ship collision in 1859 and storm damage in 1868. It was demolished in 1899.
A replacement was started on 13th December 1900 to the design of Joseph and Arthur Mayoh. The 810 foot pier deck and temporary pavilion opened in 1901. This pavilion was replaced with the grand first pavilion which opened on 21st June 1902. This was, however, destroyed by fire on 22nd December 1909.
The second pavilion designed by Douglass & Arnott was completed in 1910, but was itself burnt down on 17th April 1914, allegedly by the Suffragettes, who had been refused permission to hold a meeting there. Within three months a third pavilion had been built, opening on 27th July.
Great Yarmouth (Gernemwa, Yernemuth) lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare. Its situation having attracted fishermen from the Cinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, and the town numbered 70 burgesses before the Norman Conquest. Henry I placed it under the rule of a reeve.
The Floral Hall Ballroom was opened in May 1928 but was wrecked by fire on 3rd August 1932. A new Grand Ballroom opened in 1933, but this too was destroyed by fire on 20th April 1954, along with the third pavilion. The pier was closed and sectioned during the war. It re-opened in 1947 after repairs.
The present pavilion opened on 27th June 1958, but the Ballroom (called the Ocean Ballroom from 1947) was never replaced.
Previously owned by First Leisure plc, the pier was sold to the present owners, Family Amusements Ltd, in 1995.
We walk down the seafront and pass the lovely looking Empire.
The Empire Theatre was opened in 1911. It was built by the local firm, Harman’s. It was designed by the architect, Arthur Samuel Hewitt, who also designed the Windmill Theatre, further south on Marine Parade. The theatre’s auditorium contained stalls and one horseshoe-shaped circle, which curved round to almost reach the proscenium. The theatre was equipped with dressing-rooms and a band-room under the stage, which was 40 feet wide by 48 feet deep, and had a proscenium opening of 25 feet, and a fly-tower with grid and fly-rails, which are all still in existence, although the building is no longer used as a theatre.
The Empire operated as a cinema until the late 1960s, when it switched to bingo. However, it continued to screen late night shows after the evening bingo session had finished and it also showed morning cartoon shows between 10am and 1pm during the summer season from May to September. When the ABC Regent closed to become a bingo club, there was a short period during the late 1980s to the early 1990s when the Empire became a full-time cinema again. From 2006, the Empire was used as a nightclub, called ‘Zen’, until that closed down in 2009. Since then it has been left empty and the downstairs area (most recently used as a cocktail bar) has been repeatedly flooded.
The building has been owned by the Jay family since 1937. The Empire Picture Playhouse is a Grade II listed building. It is of historic interest as an early purpose-built cinema, which retains some features indicative of its original use. It is of special architectural interest for its elaborate façade and as an example of early cinema architecture in Britain.
The Empire, located on Marine Parade, Great Yarmouth, will shut from 13 September.
"The reasons for this closure are complex and, sadly, reflect a wider trend affecting venues across our area and the nation," a statement explained.
Director, Jack Jay, said they hoped to reopen in a re-launch next year, but added that the venue was "unsustainable" in its present guise.
"The decision to close is something we've been deliberating and agonising over for months," he told the BBC.
"It's the perfect storm of rising costs, rising wages, margins getting shrunk, and unfortunately it feels like a bit of a change in direction in the whole night life scene."
Sad to see these great buildings close down.
We walk up as far as Joyland and then decide to walk back.
Mel stops to play some classic seaside prize bingo and wins twice. We stop for food, George and I had chips and Mel opted for hot doughnuts.
We drive back to Scratby, George is in the room playing his new Fifa 26 game on the PlayStation and Mel has a nap, whilst I go back for a walk along Scratby beach again.
I just love watching the waves crash in and the sound is so relaxing.
As I walk along a seal stick its head out of the waves before disappearing again.
That night it was more bingo at the clubhouse before going home tomorrow.
Sunday 28th September 2025
We decide to visit Thetford on our way home today. So after an hour and fifteen minutes we are parking up in a free carpark on Pike Lane. I've been meaning to visit for years.
We walk down Pike Lane and reach the Dad's Army Museum. Its normally closed Sundays is open today for a guided tour.
The Dad's Army Museum is a museum located in Cage Lane in Thetford in, dedicated to the BBC comedy series Dad's Army. Many of the outdoor locations were filmed in the local area. The museum is housed in the old fire station at the rear of Thetford Guildhall, which itself stood in for Walmington-on-Sea Town Hall in several of the episodes.
It is run by volunteers who, throughout the year, attend many 1940s events in East Anglia with Jones' Van.
Thetford Guildhall, where the museum is based, featured in the 1972 episode "Time On My Hands", in which a German Luftwaffe pilot dangled from the clock tower when his parachute became caught in the clock's hands. The Guildhall was also used in a 1974 episode, "The Captain's Car".
The Dad's Army Museum was opened by Dad's Army co-writer David Croft on Friday, 7 December 2007, and includes a reconstruction of Captain Mainwaring's church hall office, several display areas, a shop and the Marigold Tea Room. The museum displays many unique photographs (many from the collection of the Dad's Army Appreciation Society) along with other memorabilia and items connected with the series.
Uniforms on display include a replica of the red, be-medalled full dress uniform worn by Lance-Corporal Jones in the series, and others worn by the Home Guard.
We leave the museum and stroll through the town and walk down Riverside walk crossing a bridge over the Little Ouse River.
Here is the statue of Captain Mainwaring.
The statue is shown seated on an elegant wooden bench, with his back to the river. It is set in a small lawn framed by bricks with a brick arrow winding through it, and a Union Jack under the seat. The care taken in the details of the costume, his cap, glasses, belt, gloves, folds in the sleeves, gaiters and laces on the boots cannot overcome the difficulty of animating the statue. In spite of this David Croft, who wrote the 78 episodes of the famous BBC sitcom Dad’s Army with Jimmy Perry, said he thought the statue was “absolutely marvellous” and was a “frightening” likeness of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard captain, played by Arthur Lowe.
We cross back over the bridge and walk up King Street where we stop for a drink and George visits Greggs bakery.
The site of Old St. Giles Church - Thetford
Of the 21 churches that once existed in Thetford only three are still standing. St Giles' is one of the churches of which no traces remain. The church was situated at the back of the building that houses (by the junction of King Street and St Giles Lane). Listed in 1291 and 1368, by which time it was used by the Canons of the Augustinian priory. It is believed to have served as a parish church until the 1470s when it was let to a hermit who lived in it and performed services there for his own benefit. The building was converted into a barn in 1598 and later became a wheelwright's shop. It was still standing in the 18th century. Any remains presumably lie below the yard at the back of the shops in King Street.
At the top of Well Street is the Thetford War Memorial with the Dads Army Museum seen beyond.
Crossing over into Castle Street we walk up until we reach Rampart Way where we walk up Castle Hill.
Thetford Castle is a medieval motte and bailey castle in the market town of Thetford in the Breckland area of Norfolk, England. The first castle in Thetford, a probable 11th-century Norman ringwork called Red Castle, was replaced in the 12th century by a much larger motte and bailey castle on the other side of the town. This new castle was largely destroyed in 1173 by Henry II, although the huge motte, the second-largest man-made mound in England, remained intact. The motte, recognised as a scheduled monument, now forms part of a local park, and the remains are known variously as Castle Hill, Castle Mound and Military Parade.
In the 11th century the largest towns in England were concentrated in the east and south-east of the country, especially in East Anglia. Thetford was an important settlement during the period and the second largest town in East Anglia. Thetford comes from "Thaetford", or "the ford", and was a key point on the ancient Icknield Way. Thetford was also an important international trading hub and a centre of pottery production. An earth and timber fort had been built on this site during the Iron Age period but had been left to decay and by the late Saxon era the town had been protected by a burgh, or ditched enclosure, that surrounded the town.
The first castle on the Thetford site was Red Castle and was probably built shortly after the Norman conquest of England by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey The castle was a ringwork design and was positioned across the line of the defensive Saxon ditch, in the process enclosing and cutting off the local church from the inside of the town, and building over part of the local cemetery.
By 1100, the town of Thetford was controlled by Roger Bigod, the Earl of Norfolk. Roger Bigod decided to build a new motte and bailey castle, positioning it so as to guard both the town and the local crossing of the Icknield Way over the River Thet and the Little Ouse.
At the heart of the castle was a huge motte, or artificial mound, sunk into a deep surrounding ditch, and protected on the north site by two sets of complex ramparts, which were probably part of the original Iron Age fortifications of the site. At 19.6 m (64 ft) high — 22 m (72 ft) from the base of the ditch — and 100 m (330 ft) wide across the base, this is the second largest man-made mound in England. The castle would have probably included a large timber keep on top of the motte, and a rectangular bailey fortification, approximately 105 by 95 m (344 by 312 ft), stretched away from the motte, exploiting the former Iron Age fortifications on one side. The new castle would have loomed over, and dominated, the former Saxon town.
The castle earthworks were built up from local chalk; the ditches dug around the fortification would not have provided enough for the mound itself, and local tradition suggests that much of the earth was quarried instead from the nearby Gallows Pits in the town. The castle was constructed by hand, using workers digging with wooden shovels, and probably without pickaxes. It is estimated that the motte would have taken around 24,000 man days of effort to build.
The Bigod family continued to build their grip on the region, taking advantage of their powerful castles at Thetford, Framlingham, Bungay, and Walton. Roger's son, Hugh Bigod, played a prominent role during the civil war years of the Anarchy, rebelling against King Stephen from his strongholds in East Anglia. It appears likely that a stone wall had been built around the bailey around this time, and recent work has speculated that a stone keep was also erected on the site. At the end of the war, however, Henry II took the throne and attempted to restore royal power across the region. In 1157, Henry seized Bigod's castles; he ultimately returned Framlingham and Bungay, but retained Thetford Castle for his own use. Hugh Bigod then joined the revolt by Henry's sons, seizing the castle, but in 1173 Henry's forces captured the castle and destroyed (slighted) the fortifications. The mound, however, proved effectively indestructible. Thetford was one of at least twenty castles belonging to the rebels that were slighted in the aftermath of the conflict.
These stairs were huge and steep, my legs felt like lead by the top!
Thetford declined after the 12th century, and the castle rapidly became disused, although as late as 1558, the Castle Yard was in use and still said to have been surrounded with a stone wall. In 1772 the east bank of the outer bailey was destroyed. In 1823 a group of elm trees were planted near the top of the mound.
Interest continued in the origins of the castle, which for a period were forgotten. Local medieval tradition suggested that the mound had been made by the devil, after he completed the dykes at Narborough and Newmarket, but by the Victorian period academics had concluded that the mound was either of Celtic or Norman origin, with late Victorian scholars correctly concluding that the Norman period was the most likely. Other traditions claimed that the mound covered a palace filled with treasure, or six silver bells from Thetford Priory. Archaeological investigations into Red Castle by G. Knocker between 1957–58, and during the early 1960s by R. R. Clarke and Barbara Green revealed the design and date of this castle site.
We return to our car just across the road and drive home after a nice weekend away.
