North Walsham

North Walsham is in Norfolk. North Walsham is home to the Norfolk Motorcycle Museum.

Understand
Through the 13th and 14th centuries Flemish weavers settled in the town making it a centre for wool and weaving industries. The town flourished as evidenced by the massive parish Church of St. Nicholas. In the 18th century the church was given an appropriately massive tower (the only higher church tower in the area being Norwich Cathedral). Unfortunately enthusiasm was greater than structural engineering skills and in 1724 the day following a long bell ringing sessions with a particularly heavy set of bells, two sides of the tower collapsed! There have been plans to re-build the tower but all have been abandoned so the tower ruins can still be seen today.

The Market Cross in the centre of town was built as a base for rent collectors for the town market stalls.

Norfolk still takes great pride in the fact that Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson (1771-1805) was born and brought-up in the county. He attended Paston Sixth Form College in the town until age 12 (when he went on to Norwich). He later went on to achieve many naval victories, maybe the most famous being at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).

Today the town is mainly residential, catering for the local population.

Get in
The town lies on the A149 between Cromer (9 miles) and Great Yarmouth (25 miles). The B1145 to the west connects the town to the A140 main road to Norwich and Cromer.

Trains run hourly from Norwich, taking 25 min to North Walsham and continuing to Cromer and Sheringham.

The is south side of town next to the Motorcycle Museum. It's just an unstaffed platform halt, with ticket machines but no kiosk, and no toilets. There's step-free access to both platforms, though the ramp is steep for Platform 2 from Norwich towards Sheringham.

Sanders Coaches operate a number of services between the town and Norwich, Holt, Cromer, Great Yarmouth and other destinations.

Get around
The town is small enough to see and get around on foot.

Eat
There are also many take-aways in the town centre.

Connect
As of May 2022, North Walsham has 4G from EE, O2 and Vodafone, but only a patchy mobile signal from Three. 5G has not reached this area.

Go next

 * The beaches at Cromer
 * Sheringham
 * Seal colonies, bird watching and nature reserves at Blakeney Point and Norfolk Wildlife Trust Cley Marshes Nature Reserve.
 * Norfolk Broads
 * North Norfolk coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).