50 things to do at Halcyon. 8 - 18 Great Yarmouth

Norfolk is a beautiful and diverse county, with a long coastline, the unique wetland environment of the Broads, market towns and the city of Norwich.  Halcyon sits surrounded by nature reserves, the River Thurne and the Broads, which gives you something new to see every time you visit.  We have spent much of our time watching the world go by on the river and seeing the seasons change.  That’s not to say that you can only find the quiet of that natural world - there are plenty of different and diverse attractions within reach and here is a list of our favourites!

Great Yarmouth

The nearest significant town is Great Yarmouth.  There is plenty for all the family here and we have

had many sunny days here, many cold days here and many in-between days here.  

The beachfront is 5 miles long and sandy, with dunes at the northern end.

8. The Elizabethan House Museum, mentioned as the starting point for the walk round the town,  is a preserved merchant’s house belonging to The National Trust.  It shows elements of the social and industrial history of Great Yarmouth and also has the most extraordinary stuffed squirrel tea party.
   
   Also on the quayside, close to the Elizabethan House museum is the Lydia Eva, the last surviving steam powered drifter of the herring fishing fleet.  It doesn’t make the list because we have never visited, although it is rising up the places to go to now the museum sector is struggling more.

9. The walk will take you to the Time and Tide Museum.  This is the Norfolk County museum of life in Great Yarmouth, located in an old herring smokehouse.  It’s a well laid out and interesting presentation of the herring trade that brought wealth to the town before the tourist trade brought holidaymakers.  The onsite cafe served a delicious lunch when we went.

10. Passing the Britannia Monument, dedicated to Nelson and sited in an industrial estate, head towards the east side of Great Yarmouth to find the Pleasure Beach where there are funfair rides, stalls and arcades. Dominating the place is the steel-clad, wooden roller coaster, or scenic railway, as it should be known.  It’s quite rare in the world of coasters so get on board.

We have never spent long in the Pleasure Beach but day tickets are often available on GroupOn.  If we did spend longer, bankruptcy from the Grand National game where you roll balls into slots to race horses along the track would be certain.   If we do nothing else in Great Yarmouth, we need to beat each other in a horse race.

11. Family based competition continues in the bowling alley on Wellington Pier.  Numerous savings and deals are on offer and it’s a fun afternoon if the weather isn’t fabulous.  Bar, cafe and snacks are on sale too.

12. Following the front up from the Wellington Pier is the Winter Garden, worth looking at externally, and onwards to the Sealife Centre.  Often a deal to be found by pre-booking, it’s an interesting encounter with the underwater world.  The jellyfish are mesmerising and the giant turtle swims round the tropical ocean display where you can walk through the tunnel as the animals swim around.

13. If the weather is favourable, the crazy golf course featuring piratical scenes is fun.  Luckily, you can choose 9 or 18 holes, depending on your tenacity and the strength of the breeze.

14. On the other side of the road are the golden lights of the amusement arcades.  This isn’t Yar-Vegas by any means but the penny falls are tantalisingly close to paying out whenever you arrive.  Little hint, hang around because sometimes the right floorboard will deliver 50p in coppers.  

15. Look behind the cheap facades to see what a Victorian resort town was like.  Ornate brick built theatres and show palaces hint at the early wealth of the holiday industry.  Yarmouth as a whole has architecture to match its varied history; as a fishing and commercial port, a naval hospital and later psychiatric facility, a holiday destination and now a centre for offshore wind power.  

16. As you keep heading north along the seafront, there is a visitor centre for the Scroby Sands Wind Farm.  Eon has opened an information booth about the wind farm off the coast and its investment in renewables.  An impressive array of 30 turbines are kept in view of the interactive displays that aim to educate about renewable energy.  

17. Going north again, there are the recently refurbished Venetian Waterways and gardens.  Owned by the borough council, these grade II listed canals were dug by the unemployed in the 1920s to fill the space created after the construction of the new sea walls.  The channels were dug out of sand then developed into an attraction including gondolas, illuminations and even ice skating in the winter.  Only once has it been cold enough for the waters to freeze while we have been here and the risk assessment said no skating then!  The gardens and waterways are free to roam around, there is a cafe and a coffee hut, and boats can be hired on the boating lake.

18. That’s the end of the seafront highlights but continue back towards Caister and you pass the racecourse, with it’s stabling and gates.  All very exciting no doubt, but carry on to the Greyhound and Stock Car Race course.  Banger racing is seriously exciting and a fantastic evening out.  We particularly favour the caravan demolition derby nights, held regularly through the summer.  Who knew that there were so many caravans that needed destroying!  Get there early, pay the parking charge for the field next door and grab an indoor space near the long bar and the food kiosk. A proper family entertainment.  We haven’t been to the greyhound racing but it seems equally popular.

Rare Visitor

 

Yes it is a seal and no I do not know what it was doing on our lawn. I'm guessing it was lost and asking for directions.

Waterhen

 In 2012 we were looking for a small runabout boat to use from our house on the Norfolk Broads (Halcyon). Looking around on line, we came across a small wooden motor boat for sale in Caversham that seem to meet our requirements. It immediately thought what a great boat design and bought her.

We moved her to Norfolk and she sat in our mooring.

We used her to travel up and down the broads, mostly from Martham to Potter Heigham and was admired everywhere she went.

She also regularly took us to The Pleasure Boat Inn across Hickling broad and we jerry-rigged navigation lights so the children could drive us back in the dark.

All seemed well for several years, we knew the the ply on the deck was needing attention, but she was running well. 

 Then I noticed that there was active woodworm in the bow. I attempted some remedial treatment and started looking for help in getting here back to ship shape.

  A bit of history: Waterhen has a small plaque on her dashboard stating that she was shown at the Olympia Boat Show in 1954/55. This was the first London Boat Show and shared Olympia with a circus. The boat show was separated by a heavy canvas curtain from the elephants.

This is the advert for Waterhen that was placed in the boat show. It cost £215 without engine at a time when the average house cost £1,800, so it was not cheap.

 We don' know a great amount about the Harland Motor Company. It ceased trading in the 1970's.
We purchased Waterhen from someone who made wooden bathing platforms for boats, and he said he bought it from a couple who were travel writers who lived on a narrow boat and used Waterhen as a tender.

When it came to finding somewhere to get the boat repaired, we approached several boat yards but did not feel that they were either interested or competent to do the kind of job that this old boat deserved. Then we found a wooden boat for sale that had been restored at the IBTC (International Boatbuilding Training College) . On further investigation we found out they would take some projects on for students to work on. We offered Waterhen and they accepted her.

Here is Waterhen in October 2017. The deck and interior have been stripped out and several hull planks are in the process of being replaced. The keel has been replaced and transom needs to be replaced as does the deck. The hull planks are Canadian spruce.

The current guestimate is that she will be back in the water in two years time.

Time Goes By

I've tried out a new software toy on my Android phone, Droid Timelapse Pro. This is a short video generated over the course of an afternoon. If only I had cleaned the windows first and left it a little longer.

Next time I will try and set it up for a full day and night.

 We did get some work done as well. The final floor went down in the sun room. No more laminate flooring left to do, so now it is ready for skirting boards.

 The two sheds got another coat of green paint on two sides. As it is late spring, the other two sides have birds nesting. On the left, the empty shed has been taken over by swallows. On the right, a family of coal tits have moved in to the nest boxes.

We have made a start to the landscaping of the garden on the south side and made the first of several planters that will be in front of the deck, possibly planted with alliums.

The electricians will be in soon to finish wiring the kitchen, outside lights and bathroom.

Return of the Swallows

This time we were only at Halcyon for a weekend, leaving on Friday after work and arriving late. The plan was to complete some of the tasks left over from the previous week long visit.

This first thing I noticed on getting out to start work the next day was how noisy it was. The swallows had returned and were busy chattering away at the top of their voices. It soon became apparent they had set up home again in one of our old sheds as they swept in and out.

Task one was to purchase all of the wood required to complete the deck on the south side. This I purchased from Alpine Wood in Scratby at a very good price, much less than you would pay from a DIY store.

It did not take long to finish off the last few deck planks and the trim planks around the edge, then it was on to complete the cladding. I had been putting this off as one piece of wood that needed to be removed was proving very stubborn. I attacked it with a jig saw and a crow bar I call the persuader and this did the job.
Once removed, the cladding went up without much trouble.





Meanwhile, Helen had started painting our largest and most useful shed green. Having sanded it, she applied the first coat to one side. It will look very smart once two coats have been applied to each side and the roof has been cleaned up.

Once I had finished cladding and decking, I started to work on the finish of the cladding. Each of the windows, doors and corners need new frame edging to hide the ends of the cladding. I was expecting there to be quite a bit of cladding left over for me to make these elements up with but. for once, we seem to have bought just about the right amount. Using my table saw, I attempted to make as many elements as possible from what we had left, but may need to source a few more pieces which is a real pain.

Our next trip will again only be for a weekend and I think our target will be to work on the south garden. We have a few ideas of what we want it to look like including a boules area.

It All Starts Coming Together

Having just spent a very pleasant week in Halcyon I thought this would be a good point to look back at what the house looked like before the latest changes and where it is now. Firstly, this is how the south side of Halcyon looked last year. The remains of the old kitchen were lying around with other detritus that we had removed.

Most of the rubbish has been sent off in a skip and my friend Rafe helped lay a new deck which we almost completed in a day, only stopping because we had run out of wood.

Next is the bathroom which has been more than doubled in size.

The toilet and sink have been moved

and now a new roof has been fitted and the walls re-clad ready to be tiled.

The kitchen started out as just this unit, a couple of wall cupboards and a cooker.

we took down the wall between kitchen and living room to make an open plan space

and with the help of IKEA have a new fitted kitchen with integral cooker, hob, dish washer, fridge and sink. 

A new blog

Halcyon now has another blog specifically for wildlife seen when visiting. You can view it here.
This blog will continue to cover the work done to get Halcyon ready to share with visitors and the blog http://halcyondaysout.blogspot.co.uk/ will continue to cover places we have visited.