Walsingham Walk 3 Green Way circular walk to Great Snoring

00 minutesWith your back to the Bull pub set off across the High Street, past the Pump into an arched entrance between 53 and 57 High Street. This is Swan Entry. At the top of Swan Entry turn left onto Cokers Hill and,

crossing Station Road, keep straight on into Back Lane. Within a few minutes you pass the last house on your right, Pilgrim Cottage. Keep straight on to a T-junction with another little-used by-road, Blind Dick’s Lane.

FARMING NOW AND THENNowadays, some Simmental-cross and Aberdeen Angus beef cattle and cross-bred sheep may be glimpsed in the fields of some Walsingham Estate farms. But for the last fifty years farming in this part of North Norfolk has been dominated by arable crops, especially wheat, sugar beet, with its spinach-like top-growth, and oil-seed rape, together with some barley and potatoes. The early part of this century saw a growing emphasis on conservation and public access. It wasn’t always as it is today. And further major changes in farming practice are anticipated.

In Tudor times a great variety of crops was grown on the light soils of north west Norfolk: barley, wheat and rye with oats, peas, vetches and buckwheat grown for fodder. The area around Walsingham was noted for its saffron. Amongst livestock, large, lucrative Norfolk Horn sheep flocks flourished, often owned by the lord of the manor.

The late eighteenth century saw an agricultural revolution, spearheaded by such men as Jethro Tull, ‘Turnip’ Townshend of Raynham, and Thomas William Coke (later Lord Leicester) of Holkham. The Norfolk four course rotation of wheat, turnips, barley and clover made a fallow year unnecessary. Two of the four crops were fed to stock for the production of meat and dairy produce for sale. Farmyard manure was returned to the land and fertility and soil structure were maintained.

Broadly, this system of farming with folded flocks and yarded bullocks survived until the inter-war years of the twentieth century brought a break from the four course system. Profits were low and less labour was needed to support fewer livestock and an increasing acreage of sugar beet. Up until the 1950’s tractors gradually replaced farm horses. From the 1960’s soil fertility was maintained by the addition of artificial fertiliser, as little farmyard manure was available. High input-high output crops such as sugar beet, potatoes and cereals predominated.

Read more: Life on Two Norfolk Farms Bob ScottNorfolk - A Changing Countryside Susanna Wade-Martins

Cross the lane into the field and turn left along the field edge, with the hedge on your left-hand side, going downhill parallel to the lane for a minute or two. Keep to the field edge, turning at the field corner. You are now walking above the Little Walsingham to Houghton road, which can be busy. In about five minutes you will see the T-junction with the side road down to the RC National Shrine and Slipper Chapel. Keep

safely atop the bank on the field edge for a further two minutes when you can then descend to the by-road via a slope used by farm vehicles.

15 minutes Retrace your steps (but at the lower level of the road) to the T-junction, and turn right (signposted East Barsham) onto the Houghton/Fakenham road. Traffic hazard!

WALK 3 SUMMARYParking: village car park (pay & display)Length of main walk: 5 miles (approx)Duration (average walker): 110 minutesOptional detours (Gt Snoring, Houghton): extra time neededSurfaces: mostly surfaced by-ways, plus a wide, grassy lane, rutted and muddy in places Dogs: on leads, please

3

Follow the road as it bridges the stream-like River Stiffkey. Water meadows on either side are used seasonally for grazing.

Cross the main road opposite a gap in the hedge on your left, and go through it onto a grassy section of path edging pasture (part of the Abbey park). Follow the path to an attractive Estate lodge and gate, then head up a track between the cottage and a wood. You are now on the Green Way, an ancient route between Little Walsingham and Great Snoring. The first part of this track alongside the wood may be muddy but it improves. The wide, grassy track climbs up towards Great Snoring past grazing pastures and arable fields. Substantial trees and hedges border the lane.

25 minutesAt a copse (Boundary Plantation) the track may appear to fork into a field, but keep right on the main track. Two minutes later keep right, alongside the southern edge of the plantation. Note that Walk 5 diverges left here. From this point the Green Way in parts can be more deeply rutted and mired, but keep on it.

The square tower of the late fifteenth century St Mary’s Church, Great Snoring, comes into view across the fields. [Two storeys of this tall, square tower were once used as the priest’s living accommodation, complete with fireplace and privy]

45 minutesThe Green Way ends at a crossroads on the edge of the village.

[OPTION: explore Great Snoring village and church. At the top of the Green Way cross over the road and continue straight ahead. At the end of the high, flint wall surrounding the Manor House turn left through a gate onto a public footpath. As you near the churchyard look up to your left and note the decorative chimneys of this Tudor Manor House. The splendid church lies ahead. Visit possible]

For the main walk turn right at the top of the Green Way, following the signposts to Houghton St Giles. Continue along this little-used by-road, ignoring a left turn to East Barsham. In fifteen minutes the road wends gently downhill between the handsome Canister Hall Farm and farm cottages. From here there are

stunning views across the Stiffkey valley. In a further ten minutes you arrive in Houghton at a crossroads. Traffic hazard!

70 minutes[OPTION: explore the small village of Houghton and St Giles Church with its fifteenth-century rood screen. Visit possible. Turn left onto the main road. The church is soon found on your right-hand side.]

Cross the main road, taking a by-road down to a ford (with footbridge) over the River Stiffkey.

At the junction after the ford turn right, and then almost immediately left, onto a farm lane, Stanton’s Track. Very soon you pass under a bridge. Mount the wooden steps on your right-hand side by the bridge. At the top, turn left onto a well-surfaced path, the Pilgrim Way. You are now on

the track of the former Great Eastern Railway Line which ran from East Dereham to Wells-next-the-Sea. This section of the line, from Fakenham to Walsingham, opened in 1857 and closed in 1964.

75 minutesKeep on the Pilgrim Way for another fifteen minutes, heading in a north-easterly direction towards Little Walsingham until the path ends by a crossroads. [Estate sign board]

90 minutesTurn right onto Blind Dick’s Lane (tarmacked), and then first left onto another by-road [Back Lane but unlabelled at this end]. This passes behind the ruins of the Franciscan Friary. At the crossroads turn right down Station Road, through Friday Market Place to the High Street, passing the Black Lion Hotel. By the Walsingham Village Stores turn left onto the High Street and after a few minutes you will arrive once again at the Common Place.

100 minutes[excluding detours in Great Snoring and Houghton St Giles]

BEETLING ABOUTYou won’t usually see a ‘beetle bank’ as you walk on the lanes and by-ways

around Walsingham because they are hidden mid-field and may be surrounded by a growing crop. Beetle banks (strips of land often sown with grasses such

as cocksfoot and Yorkshire fog) provide over-wintering sites for predatory beetles and spiders, and winter cover for grey partridges. In turn these

creatures eat insects such as aphids (greenfly and blackfly) that attack crops, especially the young, tender growing tips of wheat and barley. Effective

beetle banks therefore reduce the use of pesticide and fungicide crop spraying.