Castle Walk

Total miles: 8.3 Total elevation 281ft

Approximate total time: 3 hours

Morning (part 1)

Start: Pentney Mill, Nar Valley Path

Finish: Shouldham village green

Distance: 2.9 mile

From the Mill Bridge your journey takes you south towards the valley ridge that overlooks the River Nar. Travel south on the footpath along the river until the next sharp right bend, then follow the path in the southerly direction gradually ascending towards the oasis of trees that now covers Shouldham Warren. The land you cross at the start was once fens, the haunt of duck, crane and butterbumps (a local name for the elusive dagger shaped bird, the bittern). To the superstitious medieval traveller, this watery land would have been feared; it was believed by many to be the home of evil creatures that would trick and haunt the traveller.

Such creatures included 'will o wisps', 'dead hands', 'boggles and boggarts'; many of these names and stories can be found in J. K Rowling's books. Fortunately for travellers, this area is now just silty farmland, home to rabbits and hares.

Next you will approach the high and dry sandy warren, where a forest of pine will envelope you, swallowing you into a regimented and more enclosed world. This was once a very Norman creation; an open treeless rabbit warren. Shouldham Warren, like so many Norfolk warrens, would most likely have been fenced to try and keep the rabbits from wandering away. The Normans are traditionally held accountable for the numerous rabbit warrens that have been recorded in Norfolk.

The rabbit, a creature valued for both fur and meat, is however a slippery character in terms of being held captive by mere thorns. Soon they escaped their medieval shackles and went forth and multiplied in the wider countryside, eventually hitting plague proportions in the latter centuries. The vast heathlands of Norfolk were known for sheep, and the plague of 'conies' (derived from the old French word 'conil', which in turn is from the Latin cuniculus).

Undoubtedly the Pentney poacher (The tales of which are told in a book of the same name) would have walked the route to the warren on one of his many moonlight walks.

Today the rising ground that is Shouldham Warren is not surrounded by water, but farmland, and the open warren is covered in the solitude of mature pine trees. Follow the quiet land into Shouldham, a village nestled around a lovely village green and pub.

Morning (part 2)

Start: Shouldham Village Green

Finish: Wormegay Cross

Distance: 3 miles

Elevation: 121 ft

The village of Shouldham could be considered as it is the quintessential village built around an open village green, splendid with a 17th Century community run pub. Shouldham not surprisingly was home to the Priory of the Holy Cross and the Blessed Virgin. Leave the green heading west on Lynn Road until the you reach the small Westgate Street, and head back towards the warren past the rather telling name of Fairstead Drove (this is an old English name meaning 'place of the fair'). Herds of sheep and geese would have been sold and bought at Shouldham, a local highlight of the medieval calendar after they were 'droved' from local heaths and pastures.

Cross the playing field and you can find an East Anglian speciality; a row of flat-topped scots pine mirroring the route of Warren Lane. These are the remains of a typical East Anglian landscaping feature, a pine hedge originally planned to break winds in poor soils and exposed sites. Further south, these breaks in the sandy landscape eventually gave the name Breckland. The tops were removed so they grew short and flat, however left-over generations of the hedge eventually reverted to its true form - trees.

Continue back to the warren and the forest of pine will once again surround you back towards the river. As you continue onwards through this quiet enclosed landscape, tiny soulful goldcrests call, hidden from some unidentifiable branch high above, and deer bolt across the ride before disappearing into the evergreen forest. Follow the trail back north towards to the River Nar past an ancient spring-fed pond in the centre of the warren, and down towards Church Lane into the village of Wormegay.

Afternoon

Start: Wormegay Cross

Finish: Setchey

Distance: miles 2.4

Elevation: 59 ft

The remains of a 14th century standing cross marks the Wormegay village green and the route to the village church. Wormegay once held a strategic position over the river valley, controlling a causeway across the valley.Its strategic value was not lost on the Normans who built a mott-and-bailey castle, sending a strong message regarding who was in control. On the other side of the valley was another castle, Middleton Mount.

The motte-and-bailey castle in Wormegay village is a good example early post conquest fortification. The earthworks of both the motte and bailey have survived well and still have the buried remains of the tower on the motte. Originally a large conical mound of earth, the motte would have been topped by a timber palisade.

All that remains of the castle now is the earthworks which can be seen from the road. The motte-and-bailey castle is situated on the western side of what was originally an island in the peat fen to the south of the River Nar, controlling the causeway between the island and the higher ground to the west of the fen. It is likely that it was this which spurred on the development of the village around it. The current village replaced an earlier village which was in the vicinity of St Michaels church, now just under a mile east of the castle. It is not hard to imagine a Norman knight standing atop the palisade, slowly consuming a rabbit cutlet from the warren at Shouldham, freshly cooked on an open fire, while occasionally taking swigs of mead brewed by the one of the local priories. The mead might even have been brewed in the village, as there was also once a priory here. Clearly, religious guidance was never far away.

On leaving, the traveller again journeys across the once wet fen before reuniting with the River Nar, following it downstream into the village of Setchey.