Mid-September, and there’s plenty on around Holt this weekend.
This week
Holt and Sheringham go back to the 1940s this weekend, from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September: music and dancing, dressed-up shop windows, vintage vehicles and re-enactments. On Saturday and Sunday the North Norfolk Railway runs Steam Back to the Forties on the Poppy Line, so you can ride between Holt and Sheringham behind steam, with displays at the stations along the way. Holt is five minutes from the cottage. The towns are free to wander; the trains and some attractions charge.
The Bayfield Hall Sculpture Trail opened on Wednesday for its fifth year, ten minutes away in the Glaven valley: work by more than 45 artists, set through about three acres of grounds, woodland and wild garden. It’s open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, until 18 October.
Taste of Overstrand is new this year: a food festival at Overstrand Sports Ground on Saturday 19 September, 11am to 7pm, with restaurants, pop-ups and artisan producers from around North Norfolk. Overstrand is just along the coast from Cromer, about half an hour’s drive.
And it’s the last weekend of Heritage Open Days, until Sunday 20 September, when buildings across Norfolk that are usually closed open their doors for free.
The season
Blackberries are ripe in the hedgerows, the swallows are gathering to leave, and the autumn equinox is next week. On the coast the first pink-footed geese are arriving from Iceland and Greenland for the winter. Their numbers build through October, and we’ll come back to them.
Looking ahead
- 24 to 27 September: Deepdale Festival, evenings of live music at Burnham Deepdale.
- 26 September: the Harvest Moon.
- 4 October: Apple Day at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, near Dereham.
- Until 18 October: the Bayfield Hall Sculpture Trail.
- 24 and 25 October: the North Norfolk Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala, at Sheringham and Holt.
Thinking of an autumn break? Check dates for Spinks Nest.