Blakeney Neighbourhood Trail – a lot of history on a short walk

This Easter, the Arts Society Glaven Valley is launching the Blakeney Neighbourhood Trail which provides a short walking trail (less than a mile and mostly easy walking) for families and individuals to enjoy the singular history and delights of this pretty village, and discover its medieval past, port and buildings.

In my last column, I wrote about the wonders of Norwich Cathedral and the skills of the master masons and craftsmen who built Cathedrals in the middle ages.

David Hughes (Image: Glaven Valley Arts Society)

Many of those geniuses also worked on some of the grand churches that we see amidst us in North Norfolk.

There are over 600 medieval churches in Norfolk, and North Norfolk has a very good share of them!

Two examples in the middle of our patch are St Margaret at Cley next the Sea and St Nicholas at Blakeney – both grand examples of coastal churches described by one author as “like galleons waiting to weigh anchor and set off to sea”.

The Blakeney trail leaflet (Image: Supplied)

In the 14th Century East Anglia was hugely wealthy, and the ports at Blakeney, Cley and Wiveton were thriving and important.

St Margaret’s at Cley was, when it was built, a harbourside church and if you look, you can still see evidence of the nearby harbour wall, now more than a mile inland.

In those days, the River Glaven formed a wide, shallow estuary that flooded at high tide giving a safe anchorage inland.

Blakeney was an important fishing centre in medieval times, hosting an annual fair and even supplying the Royal Household.

Around the North Sea and in Icelandic waters, Blakeney sailors contended with piracy and warfare as well as the natural hazards of the sea.

Maggie Williams (Image: Supplied)

In Tudor times there was a thriving trade with London, the North East and the Low countries.

Coal, salt and a wide range of goods came in, corn and saltfish went out.

In the mid-1800s however, the building of embankments to enclose marshland made the ports less viable and by the 1870s the prospects were bleak.

Despite that, Blakeney shipowners became successful in acquiring larger fleets, trading with Europe, the West Indies and Australia, although not out of Blakeney.

By the First World War even the coastal trade had come to an end. In its place came holidaymakers, birdwatchers and artists.

The Blakeney Trail takes you to 14 locations around the village where you can see and experience its history.

You can download a copy of the trail from the Arts Society website at www.theartssocietyglavenvalley.org.uk or by using a QR code that you will find on the Trail notice board in the car park at Blakeney Village Hall NR25 7PG

The Trail has been put together by a small team of volunteers led by our treasurer, Maggie Williams who lives in Sheringham.

Maggie spent much of her working life in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs – she says she finds it much less taxing to work on local arts and history projects such as this.

Our next talk on Tuesday 18 April will be by Dr Nicholas Courtney on the subject of Oliver Messel – the man who put romance into Caribbean living.

He dazzled and delighted audiences on both stage and screen over four decades of the 20th Century.

When his romantic style was overtaken by the kitchen sink drama of the mid-1960s Messel decamped to Barbados where he reinvented himself as an architect.

Dr Courtney will look at Messel’s life and architectural works and the inspiration behind ‘The Messel Style’ that has remained a major force in the architecture of the Caribbean to this day.

Come along to Cley Village Hall at 1.45pm for a 2.15pm start. The cost is £5 to non-members.