Walking Through History - North Norfolk

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening and I hope you folks are enjoying the summer off so far.  I’m going to keep working through Walking Through History with Tony Robinson.  The run time for this episode is 47:10.  The episode is called North Norfolk.  The link is found here.

Today, Tony is going to be exploring the history of North Norfolk.  It is an area known for its ancient pathways, lost industries, and historical monuments.  During the Victorian Times, the royals visited the area frequently and it soon became a popular and trendy area.  However, it was the influence of powerful landowners that helped maintain Norfolk’s rural roots. 

Tony will begin his walk at the Sandringham Estate, the Queen’s private residence in Norfolk.  He moves north and goes to a seaside resort.  He crosses ancient farming land and ends in the largest farming estate of Holkham.  He continues to travel east along the coast and visits a Victorian nature reserve.  He ends his walk in Cromer by steam power.  Cromer was where the battle for the heart and soul of Norfolk took place.

His first stop is Sandringham House.  Queen Victoria was looking for an estate for her son the future King Edward VII.  When it went on sale, she bought it.  Tony meets with Kate Williams to talk about Sandringham House.  Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were strong advocates of country air and being out in the country.  However, Edward was a bit of a playboy and had a reputation among the ladies so his mistresses would come to Sandringham with their husbands for country parties.  By being in Norfolk, Edward made the place a tourist destination.  Royal spotting was a pastime in North Norfolk.

After the house, Tony goes on a walk through the estate.  The land is open to the public now, but in Edward’s time, it was closed so he could follow his other great passion shooting.  However, to have his life at Sandringham, a railway was built to this area.  Tony’s next stop is a train station that was treated as a private royal train station.  The train station has been resorted even though the train tracks have been removed.  

Tony follows the old railway line and travels across a bog.  Eventually, Tony makes his way to the sea.  The Victorians loved sea bathing and the sea was thought to have curative properties.  It was said that the sea could cure corns and cancer.  One entrepreneur had a vision to create a new style of coastal resort.  He took his idea from the Norfolk landscape itself.  However, it would take a railway to make this coastal resort work.  Others would move forward with their own ideas about creating a coastal resort.  Day one concludes and Tony makes his way through Brancaster on day two.  He explores farming in Norfolk and how the land enclosures impacted farming. 

Tony makes his way to Burnham Thorne and learns about Horatio Nelson, one of the local heroes from North Norfolk.  After this detour into British Naval History, Tony continues his walk.  He eventually makes his way to a place that is still held in common, meaning anyone can come by and use it.  He walks his way to Holkham Hall, the largest farming estate in Great Britain.  How did it become so big?  What else does Tony learn about North Norfolk?  How did it keep its rural charm even with royal patronage?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

I am very surprised that this episode of Walking Through History was divided into chapters for easy breakdown and easy viewing.  I really appreciate it, but I wish Absolute History would be consistent with dividing documentaries up into chapters across all their documentaries.  It is starting to get annoying at this point because sometimes you just want to show a clip to a class and not the full documentary.  That said, the British Railway section really should have been broken down further because Tony had moved on in his walk to a different area.  Anyway I enjoyed this Tony’s walk, the sites were something to see and the stories he told were very well done.  I would put this on my list of potentials to show to a history classroom.