Last day at the hotel listening to the troubles of the owner before letting Di take a trip to the Pleasure beach amusement park, booking some ‘horsey’ rides for the girls, as I made a ‘heritage’ walk around Yarmouth, visiting the Toll House museum until I took my own car out to Horsey to catch up on some family holiday memories and then I collected the family at Joyland amusement park and spent the rest of the day enjoying ourselves culminating in a swimming session at The Marina centre before me making the long and late drive home
We all slept well and started the day a little later, getting down to breakfast well after the starting time but, fortunately, still before the rush. It was noticeable that the other guests get later as well as the week goes on! A dry, but misty, start to the day and quite warm, in spite of a breeze. We then packed up our bags and, as Di finished the task, I took certain of them down to the car. Eventually complete and I settled the bill and spoke to our host. An outwardly humorous, but quite troubled man, his son being threatened at the moment for ‘shopping’ some of his mates for a robbery and attack on a local establishment. I asked why the Burlington and Palm Court Hotels were kept with their separate identities, and it seems that it helps to keep coach parties separate from day and weekly guests and also he has an eye to retirement, when he can get better value from someone to take over if they are offered as a manageable and affordable size.
To get the best enjoyment from our short visit to Norfolk, we decide to go our separate ways today. Di took the children to the Pleasure Beach Amusement Park, and to have some ‘horsey’ rides, and I had a Norfolk heritage morning. First I walked to Old Yarmouth and went to the Toll House Museum and the site of the old Row Houses again. It seems that it was Second World War Nazi bombing raids, rather than pure neglect, that led to the end of Old Yarmouth, as the ‘Rows’ were decimated by incendiary bombs, with April 1941 as a particularly fraught time. The Old Toll House was gutted, and the interior was rebuilt later, but the building and cellars survived and still make an interesting site. I also learnt that the revolving tower had a faulty mechanism at the start of the war, and was only used for taking the lift up and down, and then it was scrapped for metal for the war effort. A shame. Back to the hotel by taxi and then off in my own car along the Norfolk coast to Horsey. Childhood memories of a mixed variety, as I had holidays in an old cottage, hired for a fortnight at a time by my family. A change for a town-dwelling family, but I, being the youngest, always found the remoteness rather boring and the Broads and beach too far to walk. As I walked off along Horsey Staithe, under the shadow of Horsey Mill, and along the windswept be-rushed banks of Horsey Mere to Waxham Cut, I could remember the scenery, the smells and sounds of the cows and the butterflies. Once at the derelict mill at Waxham Cut, where I used to catch small roach and one revered silver bream, the water was nearly yellow with the peat and I remembered also how the fish used to use this substance when you handled them, though they were quite adapted to it. I then walked across the meadows to Horsey Corner and the cottages of Seaholme and Seadene, where I used to stay. They have extensions for bathrooms now, but 25 years ago a well pump was the only source of water (except for the rain butt) and that was sited in the front garden. Bowls and jugs (cold of course) were the order of the day. I walked on, round the field, and to the village church. A Saxon round-tower church, quaintly still left open to the casual visitor and so I went inside to have a look round and left £2 in the collection box for its upkeep. There were pictures on its walls of barn owls and kestrels that have bred in its tower. Then back, past Horsey hall, to the Staithe once more, when I sank onto a bench and ate two chock-ices from the kiosk as I rested. Several nice sailing cruisers at the moorings, many traditional, and the site is now well cared for and popular as a tourist attraction. It was quite deserted in my day, but it is good to see the place much as before. A last look round and then back to the car and to Yarmouth, where I met the others at the entrance to Toyland – a children’s amusement park. Across the road for lunch at the same restaurant as we went to last year (when Debbie upturned a vase all over us!) As the others wanted to prolong our stay in Yarmouth, we agreed to stay until late tonight and drive back overnight and so we all walked together up the front, taking more horse rides for the girls. Della is ecstatic about this. Then a long stay at Pleasure Beach Amusements, before tea at a beach café as it got dark. We then went swimming in the evening at the Marina Centre and did not leave Yarmouth until 9.30pm, arriving home at 12.30am