The picturesque Paston Way runs through Trunch. The following article is by Wikipedia.

Paston Way is a footpath is entirely within the English county of Norfolk in the United Kingdom^[1]. The footpath is twenty miles in length, the portals to the path are Cromer at its north western end and North Walsham at it south western end.

The Paston way takes its name from the Paston Family who during the Medieval and Tudor periods were the dominant and wealthy landowners in which much of the trail passes. The Paston Family in turn had taken their name after the north eastern coastal village of Paston. Their origins were from Wulston, one of William the Conqueror’s men who arrived with him in 1066.

Description of the Route

Section 1

Knapton Cutting

Starting at the south western end, the path begins at the Parish Church of St Nicholas in the town of North Walsham. This is also the paths conjunction with the Weavers Way. Leaving the church the route heads northwards along the old Mundesley road out of the town. On the outskirts of the town the path follows the track bed of the disused Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway Company which linked North Walsham to Cromer. The path crosses the North Walsham & Dilham Canal at Swafield.Knapton Cutting, as this part of the trail is known, is also a nature and Butterfly reserve. This section is an area of wild flowers, brambles, scrub and undisturbed grassy banks, which make it an ideal habitat for butterflies. Nineteen different species have been recorded. Another couple of miles through quiet lanes brings the path to Knapton. Knapton Parish church is called St Peters and Paul’s and marks the end of the first section of the route.

Section 2

It is worth a visit to see the roof inside Knapton Church with its ornate Double hammer beam roof ^[2].

From Knapton the path heads south east across several open fields towards the village of Edingthorpe. The approach to the village is up a gently sloping farm track towards Edingthorpe Parish church which is called All Saints.

Section 3

The ‘way’ continues on from All Saint’s north west towards the coast and the village of Bacton. A little way along this section a detour can be made at church farm. Take the path north to Paston. Visit the parish church of St Margaret’s. inside can be seen the impressive Paston Monuments to the family that gave the trail its name. Retrace your footsteps to church farm and then continue on down the winding lane to Bacton Church.

Section 4

Paston Way passing the Bacton Gas Terminal

Bacton church is called St Andrews which is approached via an attractive avenue of trees which is in sharp contrast to the Bacton Gas Interconnector Terminal that dominates the horizon behind.^[3] . The ‘Way’ passes through the church yard and out across open farm land towards the North Sea coast at the western end of the village. The next three miles take a route along the beach passing by the Gas terminal. At Mundesley the rout follows the main coast road to the northern tip of the village and to All Saints Church.

Section 5

The route now head back in land towards the next village of Gimingham this part of the trail passes through the valley of the River Mun . The countryside along this section is pleasant and very peaceful. One usual sight to the north of the ‘Trail’ is the giant white sphere which can be glimpsed occasionally. This is the Trimingham Early warning station which is in fact part of RAF Neatishead. The path enters the village of Gimingham past the rebuilt old corn watermill and the preserved steam engine. Like Mundesley, Gimingham parish church is called All Saints. It is south down the main street from the engine. From this point there is an optional tour which takes in the villages of Trunch, Swafield, Bradfield and then back on it self to Trimingham and its unusually named church St John the Baptist’s Head. ^[4].

Section 6

From Gimingham the path heads towards Southrepps via a lane known as Jack o ‘Lantern’s Lane. The lane is reputed to be the territory of the Lantern man who lure’s all travellers to their doom. The parish church of Southrepps is called St James. Note the corbel’s and gargoyle’s high up on this church. At this point if you wish to visit the church and village you must walk south into the village and then retrace your footsteps back to re-join Paston way.

Section 7

From Southrepps the path takes a route to the south of Frogshall Hamlet along the ancient farm lanes towards the coastal village of Overstrand. There are two detour made on this section the first is to the village of Northrepps.

Detour A

Northrepps parish church is called St Mary the Virgin, retrace your footstep back to Paston Way or pass through the village turning east over Hungry Hill and take the second detour .

Detour B

Sidestrand has been for ever be personify as “Poppyland” ^[5] having been described as such by Clement Scott In 1883. The Daily Telegraph printed an article which Scott had written about a visit to the north Norfolk coast. He became enamored of the district and gave it the name Poppyland. His writing was responsible for members of the London theatre set visiting and investing in homes in the area. It is in this part of the world that he is perhaps best remembered, but ironically, he was unhappy at the result of his popularization of the area. Sidestrand small parish church is called St Michael and All Angels. This church was moved stone by stone 1880 a third of a mile inland to prevent it from falling into the sea due to coastal erosion. Previous to this date the church had already suffered the loss of its tower in 1841 when it was washed down the cliff after a heavy storm.

Section 8

Return back to Hungry Hill and to Northrepps and then turn north towards Overstrand down Toll’s Hill, once the site of a warning beacon during the time of the Napoleonic wars. The route now enters the village and back to the shoreline there. Overstrand Parish church is called St Martin’s.

Section 9

The last section of Paston way is between Overstrand and Cromer. The route follows the coastline here although an alternative is to follow the coast road. This part of the coastline is reputed to be the stalking ground of Legendary hellhound Black Shuck. And so on to Cromer and the Parish Church of St Peter and Saint Paul. The tower of the church is 160ft high and is well worth a visit and also marks the end of Paston Way. The path links with the North Norfolk Coastal Path/ Peddars Way and the UK National Trails Network.

Gallery of Churches

Saint Nicholas, North Walsham	Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Knapton	All Saints, Edingthorpe	Saint Margaret, Paston
Saint Andrew, Bacton	All Saints, Mundesley	All Saints, Gimingham	Saint Botolph, Trunch
Saint Nicholas, Swafield	Saint Giles, Bradfield	Saint John the Baptist’s Head, Trimingham	Saint James, Southrepps
Saint Michael and All Angels, Sidestrand	Saint Mary the Virgin, Northrepps	Saint Martin, Overstrand	Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Cromer

Gallery of Route

Knapton Cutting

Knapton Cutting

Between Northrepps and Southrepps

External links

The Paston Way

References

Organised by Trunch Village Society, this year’s festival was again a very successful event for the village.
More than 500 visitors came to see 15 open gardens and 59 scarecrows. Refreshments were available in the Village Hall, the Methodist Church and the Social Club, and the irresistable smell of hog roast from outside the pub wafted over the village. The pub itself was packed – not only when the occasional shower flooded the streets…
You can see more pictures here>>>

Trunch Friends Report July ‘09

We had gorgeous summer weather for our strawberry tea this year. The committee had worked very hard to provide a splendid traditional tea of strawberries, cream, scones and jam for the 25 members and 6 guests.

Carolyn Williams who spoke on “The Origins of Nursery Rhymes” entertained us and involved us in discussion on the subject.

Most of us had enjoyed singing and reading nursery rhymes to our children, and we were not all aware of the hidden meanings they contained. She told us of their historical aspects, and the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, which had lead to many of the rhymes being written. We were treated to a potted history lesson of the rhymes up to the Tudor period, including gory details of beheadings and torture!

I was glad that my children had had pretty illustrations in their nursery rhyme books, and had never asked me the question, “Why?” !!!
A Reminder for some of our members:-

A Visit to Cromer Lifeboat Station has been arranged,

We shall meet there at 2pm on

Tuesday August 11^th

~~~~

Our Next Meeting will be on Tuesday, September 8^th Village Hall at 2.30pm

“Hedgerow Harvest”

A talk by Charlotte Philcox

(BBC Radio Norfolk Gardener)

~~~~

This topic may be interesting to a wider audience and is open to all who care to come.

Barbara Ayre.

The village of Knapton had its summer festival “Knapton Together” at the weekend of 4 and 5 July.

Open Gardens and Studios, a Flower Festival in the church, a display of vintage vehicles, Crafts and Gifts Fair and glorious sunshine attracted lots of visitors.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul Parish Church

The present church dates from mainly the 14th century and is famous for its carved angels. The promenant feature of this church is the roof,  a double hammerbeam. The beams and spandrels are richly carved with three tiers of angels which have outspread wings. More angels are carved on the kingposts and on the wall plate.

The theme of the Flower Festival was “Weddings”. This photo shows a flower arrangement by Mundesley Village Flower Shoppe.

Some of the gardens were absolutely stunning, and all highly individual.

And who would expect Stonehenge or the stone circles of Avebury in Knapton?…

Norfolk has miles of beautiful coastline to walk around

(Source: BBC local news)

Norfolk’s stunning scenery, from remote beaches to woodland, is being portrayed through the eyes of author Tony Rothe.

The north Norfolk author has created a walking guide that goes all around the county’s coastline. Each walk is fairly short and aimed at the part-time walker, a gap in the market that Tony spotted.

“This is very much appealing to the leisure walker, people who want a short walk rather than go out for three or four hours walking seriously,” he said.

Tony has always enjoyed walking and Norfolk’s scenery, so combining the two in his book, A Boot Up the Norfolk Coast, was a dream come true.

Living in Norwich as a child, he was never happier than when staying at his parents’ caravan at Beeston Regis. He would spend many hours walking on cliffs and beaches, cycling through the countryside, or just absorbing the stunning coastline views.

When he retired, Tony was given a book of Norfolk walks as a goodbye gift and this was the catalyst that inspired his guide.

A Boot Up the Norfolk Coast is available in book shops at £4.99 and is published by Halsgrove.”

Trunch’s neighbouring village of Gimingham had its village fayre today. Many activities were on offer, which guaranteed much fun for kids, adults and dogs.

dog competition

three graces

waiting for the prize

some were very well protected

nice to meet you

Ready, Jackie?

Thanks for the refreshment

Gimme shelter

winners

Best icecream by far!

amazing icecream van

Lots of visitors attended today’s Summer Fete on the Rectory grounds. And the weather kept dry …

Trunch Rectory

Charming stallholders offering great bargains

and the raffle was really worth taking part!

garden offers

spoilt for choice

How can you say ‘No’ to that?

she wanted to win that bar of Snickers – and she did!

And who smashed up all the crockery?

And finally: strawberry cream  scones with tea and coffee in the gardens

They couldn’t have chosen a better day for their first Open Gardens Festival! Under splendid sunshine, 20 gardens were open to the public on Sunday 14 June. The event was organised by the Overstrand Gardening Club to celebrate the 10th year of the Club. All profits went to the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

If you, like me, usually just drive through Overstrand to go to Cromer, you would have be amazed by discovering “the real Overstrand” full of history and of past glory, with large and beautiful houses and gardens.

In the 19th century, Overstrand became very popular amongst wealthy visitors, mainly due to the London journalist and travel writer Clement Scott.  He  came to Overstrand in 1883, christened the area ‘’Poppyland’’, and wrote about the church tower on the cliff edge and its “Garden of Sleep”. While in Overstrand he stayed at the Mill House with miller Alfred Jermy and his daughter Louie. Louie became “the Maid of the Mill” in his articles about ‘’Poppyland’’.

Scott had many London contacts in the theatrical world, and his writings led a number of them and others from London society to come to Overstrand. Some bought land in the village and had houses built there, and for a while the village was the place to visit. A large hotel was built on the cliff edge, though this slid into the sea in the 1950s.

Whilst the large houses of the gentry have largely passed from private ownership to other uses, the visitor to Overstrand can still appreciate the development that took place at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Today, the vast grounds of The Pleasaunce have been split up into smaller plots with modest modern houses, but thanks to today’s residents, you can still experience the beauty of the former landscaped gardens.

“THE PLEASAUNCE, OVERSTRAND / LADY BATTERSEA‘S ITALIAN GARDEN AT THE PLEASAUNCE, NORFOLK”

(see source here)

“Among the gardens on the eastern seaboard of England, where the great East Anglian shoulder thrusts out into the North Sea, there are few which can compare in beauty with The Pleasaunce, that exquisite gem of horticulture founded by the late Lord Battersea a few miles from Cromer.

One recalls one‘s first visit, when the man who called it into being, famous alike as politician, sportsman and artist, himself acted as guide, and afterwards quietly asked a guest still struggling with his impressions and emotions to suggest improvements. In reply one could speak only of learning, not of teaching.

The Pleasaunce was, and remains, an artist‘s garden. It was the original, the finished work of a man on whose walls hung some of the best paintings of Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Moroni, Burne-Jones, Bassano, Rubens, and Whistler; a man to whom the import- ance of line, form and colour was a law, Cyril Flower had brought both training and imagination to bear on the task which he had set himself. Despite this, he was not troubled by horticultural tradition, It was nothing to him that seventeenth-century architects and landscape gardeners had tied themselves to severe axial lines, terraces, elaborate water- devices, fountains and statuary, for these things were not art as he understood it, He had no sympathy, indeed, with the formal system as such. His respect for form did not blind him to the demands of Nature. He could not visualise the garden as a mere appendage of the house, although he was quite prepared to associate the two in harmonious ways. Above all things he set before himself the task of making a garden which should be beautiful in all its parts—a garden that conformed to the laws of art in line and colour and yet was entirely informal, creative, stimulating and original. He achieved success in a very remark able degree—so much so, indeed, that The Pleasaunce became one of the distinctive gardens of modern England.

Visitors to The Pleasaunce will find roses, hardy herbaceous plants, alpines, shrubs and aquatics used with equal taste and skill. They will see delightful pergolas, loggias and summer-houses. They will find enchanting ponds and pools, the banks of one of them planted with beautiful shrubs, beyond which a summer-house looms (Fig. 650), the water carpeted with nymphaeas.

The many beautiful walks will particularly arrest attention. It was in his treatment of walks that the creator of the garden displayed his greatest skill and originality. He was one of the first, if not the first, to edge walks with small borders of rock, planted with attractive alpines; and these stone-lined paths remain one of the most pleasing features, But there is much of the now familiar (and in many other places gravely overdone) crazy-paving, and some walks are wholly flagged. Of the wider walks, some are bordered with bright-hued shrubs, such as golden yew and golden box, clipped to a neat yet not excessively formal shape; and these give a note of both colour and distinction.”

(from: Marie-Luise Gothein’s History of Garden Art. This great book was first published in German in 1913.)

Meg Starling, Soprano

Another lovely concert, “Tea with Haydn”, took place in St Botolph’s church on Saturday 30 May, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn.

Anna Hopkins, David Morgan

Nine composers were featured with Joseph Haydn as the “guest of honour”. The programme included music from Purcell, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Beckschaefer, Villa-Lobos and Albeniz.

Catherine Brown

It was the style and impact of each composer’s work on the evolution of music that had determined the choice of the programme. The concert was very enjoyable due to the high professionalsim of the 6 soloists.

During the break, refreshments were served to the audience.

Organist David Morgan

Trunch Concerts co-organiser Roy Abrams with David Morgan

The next concert will be  “One Piano, Four Hands”, a recital of piano duets by the highly acclaimed duo of Isabel Beyer and Harvey Dagal

Date: Saturday, 18th July, at 7.30pm

The church of St Botolph’s has a magnificent atmosphere and a perfect accoustic. Musicians always are very impressed by this wonderful venue.

There will be three concerts at St Botolph’s this months. Proceeds go as usual to the Church Restoration Appeal.

The first concert took place on 2 May and was performed by a group of German and Norfolk musicians. The main performance was the famous Mozart Quintet K452.

Two of the German musicians were doctors, one was a teacher. A lady in the audience asked the pianist during the intervall if he was a teacher or a doctor.

“A doctor”, he said.

“That’s exactly what I thought”, she replied, “you look so serious!”

The next concert will take place on 16 May, played by the musicians of the Abrams Family .
Roy Abrams, a cellist,  lives in Trunch. He will be joint by his sons Julian (guitar), Douglas (violin), a grandson (guitar) and the well-known artist and pianist Mary Howard.

The third concert is on the 30 May, performed by Flautissimo and Friends, the well-known local musicians Anna Hopkins, David Morgan and Meg Starling (compositions of Purcell, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Villa Lobos).

All are welcome!