One of the joys of writing Tales from Iceni Territory was exploring the region off the beaten track. Following the old roads and looking for Iron Age and Roman settlements. Unsurprisingly this led me to places I'd never been and never would have visited. Often surprisingly close to places I know and routes I've driven a thousand times. East Wretham heath is just one example. I alighted on this Breckland nature reserve because it lies adjacent to the Peddars Way and was immed

If you stand at the bottom of the chalk downland at Therfield Heath just west of Royston in Hertfordshire and look due south, the...

On January 2nd 2022, Glynis and I along with the two terriers went for a walk to get our systems back in gear after the period of festive indulgence. We chose the path along the Fleam Dyke, an Anglo Saxon earthwork which lies across the line of the Icknield Way between fen and clay upland. Walking south west along the bank, we could see a slight hill on the horizon. The hill revealed a Bronze Age tumuli and I subsequently learned was called Mutlow Hill and was an Anglo Saxon

A great many visitors to Norfolk will find their way by accident or design to Binham and the ruins of the old priory and the cavernous...

If I look West from Incleborough Hill on a clear day I can see the shingle beach at Cley. If I look East, I can see Cromer church and lighthouse. Now that’s not exactly an earth shattering panorama, but in North Norfolk it’s a pretty good one as they go. And all the more for being unexpected. Sometimes there’s a container vessel steaming silently past. More often a crab boat searching out the local delicacy. The offshore wind farm sits quietly on the horizon line. Other time

You enter through a gate in a hedge a few miles south of Dereham. You then turn right along an old taxi way and then before you know it you’re on a disused runway amongst the cereal crops. You navigate carefully, thinking ‘can this be the right way?’. The view opens to the left down an intersecting runway and the huddle of post war buildings that comprises Shipdham Flying Club comes into view. You pull-up gratefully in the small car park and survey the flags and memorial to

Cafes will feature a great deal in this blog. Large and small. From the greasy spoon to the bohemian coffee shop. A cafe that knows what it wants to do and does it well is a place of beauty. One such is the Art Cafe in Glandford, Norfolk. Part cafe and part jewellery shop, it is sandwiched between an art gallery and a boatbuilding workshop, it serves good coffee, vegetarian food and is the sort of place that you know that all is well with the world when you’re there. Pub wa