Upton
Upton, a small village on the river Bure between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, is one of those Norfolk settlements that offer a comfortable feeling of roominess, both in its situation and its layout. Most houses in the village enjoy space around them, with larger gardens than might be expected in most village settings. Even the village pub, The White Horse, has a large beer garden behind it. There is a pleasant mix of older buildings and new in the place, linked by narrow lanes lined with grassy verges. On Church Road coming in from Acle a lovely thatched barn is seen, passed its best but still impressive. To the south of the village in particular there are huge open fields, and the walk from The Green to Acle, past Fishley Church in its splendid isolation, takes you through these prairies. To the north west there is a road called Hanging Hill, a hill only in Norfolk terms, but which offers a glorious straight avenue of trees reminiscent of northern France. The most imposing structure in the village, as ever, is the church, St Margaret’s, like the village a mix of old and new: the tower is a 20th century restoration, its predecessor having toppled two centuries previously. The body of the church is probably 14th century, in the perpendicular style, and within there are relics of that time in the font and the piscina. While the two broads in Upton, cleverly called Big Broad and Little Broad, are privately owned and not open to the public, there is a yacht station on the Bure giving easy access to the village. By the half mile Boat Dyke leading to the Bure is Palmer’s Hollow Post Mill, moved to the site in 1976, a rare example of its type. For those more interested in the natural world Upton Fen and Upton Boat Dyke Marshes are looked after by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Here will be found the usual wetland birds, including, if fortune favours, the bittern. The Boat Dyke and the Bure here are well stocked with coarse fish, the reedier sections said to offer good pike. script" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
