From Wells to Wells

Taking advantage of a special Summer offer to pitch up in the grounds of Holkham Hall, we made our way to the Norfolk Coast.

The Holkham Estate is still family-owned and has been in the Coke (pronounced Cook) family from the early 17th Century. The house was built by the 1st Earl of Leicester from 1734. The estate has been at the forefront of agricultural and ecological innovation since and is now thriving not only in farming but other diverse business interests.

We pitched in the gorgeous parkland with herds of fallow and red deer, didn’t see the red deer which was disappointing as we see enough fallow at work.

The park has miles of tracks that can be cycled and the village of Wells-next-to-Sea is a stone’s throw away, so we unloaded our bikes and headed into Wells. The village has a couple of pretty streets and an attractive village green with a couple of pubs, but we were looking for crabs. Big, fat juicy dressed crabs for lunch. The harbour was full of families and their kids crabbing off the harbour wall, we found a seafood stall where we bought a dressed crab and a seafood platter of peeled and shell-on prawns, mussels and a small dressed crab with a small salad. We sat on the harbour wall eating and watched the world go by.

We then cycled out to the beach which is about a mile from Wells, parked up and walked along the beach. The beach is vast, backed by a pine forest, planted by one of the Earls from Holkham to help stabilise the dunes, you see, I said the Coke family were at the forefront of ecological innovation. The beach is lined with gaily painted beach huts and goes on for miles, it is huge and sandy and links up with Holkham Beach along the coast.

We returned to our bikes and cycled along the road to Holkham Beach. After navigating the boardwalk, we arrived at the ‘beach’, well we could see the beach in the far distance and the sea, well not in sight, yes, it was that far away!

We didn’t walk out but headed back to the Holkham Estate and cycled round the park, taking in views of the house, lake, the original icehouse before returning to the motorhome for a well earned rest in the late afternoon sun. The weather had been warm with a warm breeze but as evening drew in the breeze started gusting fiercely. This carried on through the night so much so that Charlie had to get up at 3 am to wind the awning in as we were close to losing it. The night was quite disturbed as it was too warm to close the roof vents or windows so everything inside and out was banging and crashing in the wind.

The next morning was clear, hot & sunny but still with a strong gusty breeze. We cycled back into Wells for provisions and once back at Holkham, we cycled to the 6-acre Walled Garden. Although the recent high temperatures had taken its toll, as with most people’s gardens, it was still a beautiful mix of flowers, vegetables, herbs and exotic fruit.

After the Walled Garden, we stopped off at Holkham’s Cricket Pavilion, where by some strange coincidence, they were selling beer and a local cricket match was about to start. After a quick drink, we then headed to Holkham Hall to tour the house and a really interesting exhibition on the house and the estate.

The family still live in the house so the tour is of the grander rooms and some of the bedrooms, which are still used today when the family have guests. The walls are lined with many family portraits going back generations and one name pricked something in my memory. Portraits of Lady Margaret Tufton, who became Countess of Leicester on her marriage to Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester who built Holkham Hall and her sister, Lady Anne Tufton, who later became Countess of Salisbury on her marriage to James Cecil, 5th Earl of Salisbury were hanging on the walls and I knew that the name Tufton appeared in my research into Charlie’s family tree. Lack of phone signal in the house meant I couldn’t access my research but once on the outside….

Once I had signal, a couple of minute’s research revealed that my memory had served me well.

Lady Anne Tufton, later to become Countess of Salisbury was the daughter of the 6th Earl of Thanet and Charlie’s 8th Great Grandmother! There was her portrait of her at her sister’s house – Holkham Hall! Next stop Hatfield House.. Anne’s stately home!

After that revelation and no, we didn’t invite ourselves back for Afternoon Tea, even though the 1st Countess of Salisbury was Charlie’s Aunt (8th Great-Grand Aunt), we cycled to the beach for a swim.

Again although very warm, the breeze was still heavily gusting, and once we had parked up the bikes, we then had the long trek to the sea. The wind whipped up the sand providing free exfoliation and after another long walk into the sea so we could actually swim, we lay on the beach for 20 minutes. But it started to feel like a trial to lie there whipped by the sand, so we began the long walk back to the bikes. We felt really sorry for any families with small children, after a long day on the beach, a 30 minute trek back to the car, isn’t great for hot, tired and hungry toddlers.

After a shower to wash off the sand, it really does get everywhere, we retired to the motorhome after BBQing our dinner to watch the F1 highlights out of the wind.

We left on Monday morning, back to the reality of washing and work!