One thing that we continue to do is to explore our home county of Norfolk. I am not a Norfolkian by birth, but by choice – I chose to come back here after university etc! (By birth I am a Northerner, having been born in Macclesfield, Cheshire – please note, I have never had anything to do with Scumchester, and when I were a lad, I lived in Cheshire – NOT Gunchester).

Norfolk is the fourth largest county in England – and is very diverse in geography; historically it was where the English Wool Industry of the medieval period was centred – it accounts for the Wool Churches and Worstead (wool) is a small village in Norfolk. With that in mind, we love to go exploring in Ziggy, and last weekend, we set out for Cawston. We had visited the pub previously, on our way back from Waxham to see the seals, but that was more because I suffer from alcoholic constipation – I can’t pass a pub.

We booked into The Siding which is on the outskirts of the village and we set off post work on the Friday evening to head there. It was not a long journey but the normal amount of Richard Cranium’s on the roads, Multiple road works meant that we arrived around 1830 – the site was well signposted from the road. Being old hands at this kind of thing, the electrics were hooked up, awning deployed, table and chairs were out and set up in ten minutes and a five minute walk led us to the Bell Inn. The village is certainly full of charm and character, and we stayed in the pub to have a meal – it was good value, well cooked and presented.

After a good nights sleep – nothing to do with the several pints of cider I was forced to drink while Jo got squiffy on Pimms Spritzers, I made a small breakfast and fired up the electric bikes to go for a jaunt along Marriots Way. Where we were was towards the end of the route – it finishing at Aylsham; We originally planned to head there, but, the path was quite overgrown in places – so we turned round and headed down to Reepham and the Station Cafe. Marriots way was quite and engineering feat back in the day, as large lengths of track were raised on an embankment. This does mean that there are some great views across the fields. Also, lots of wild life – in just the two hours we were out and about we saw – I say we, Jo was contentrating on staying on her bike – muntjac deer, rabbits, a hare, a few kites and one buzzard – got to love our contryside!

When we returned to the site, we decided that we wanted to go and look around the church – oh my. I knew the church had been well endowed in medieval times, but I did not realise what had survived! The main building is impressive, and shows how it had eveolved over time with multiple different styles of architecture, but inside…..

The church really was an absolute gem and well worth a visit – just for the medieval flooring and the 15th century painting of the Saint wearing Glasses. We left the church and walked around the village, enjoying its rural nature – then popping into the pub for a couple of restorative ales – I read some advertising and realised i could blag a free pint of cruzcampo…..

We also came across a plaque on the wall, by the curch and literally next door to Church Farm that told the story of Lucky Strike.

In simple terms, a USAAF Flying Fortress bomber had been shot up while bombing Kiel and the crew realised that they did not have the fuel to get all the way home – they jettisoned everything to save weight, but came down on farmland narrowly missing the church. After our visits to D-Day beaches, its seemed appropriate to appreciate the story.

We spent the Saturday evening quietly, and returned home on the Sunday. This was probably the closest Jo has got to wild camping – there were no showers, bar what was in Ziggy – actually, there were no toilets either. But there was a huge amount of peace and tranquility. We did Yarn with Tim the owner for 20 minutes or so, and found out about how his family ended up there. Its a lovely spot, and well worth a visit.