Hockwold cum Wilton Snowdrop and River Walk

A couple of days ago, Joyce sent me a photo taken last year of the churchyard at St James church Hockwold cum Wilton with a mass of snowdrops. I just had to go and see what they were like this year. I asked her if she had a recommended walk to go with it and she sent me one. It was another lovely sunny winter's morning today, so I decided to do it with Dawn.

This was our route, although the GPS tracking went a bit funny around St. Peter's church.

According to the Norfolk Heritage Explorer site... "Hockwold cum Wilton is a large parish in the southwest of the county. The parish encompasses various different types of landscape; the fens in the west, the chalk uplands to the north and the river valley of the Little Ouse to the south. The two villages of Hockwold and Wilton are now barely distinguishable from one another, and the two villages have been treated as one since at least the 16th century. Hockwold comes from the Old English meaning ‘wood where hocks or mallows grow’, and Wilton means ‘farmstead or village where willow trees grow’. 

The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Hockwold was held by William of Warenne, and was part of a holding, or manor, that included land in Feltwell and Castle Rising. The holding has enough woodland to support 200 pigs, and 17 beehives. Wilton was also held by William of Warenne, and was a relatively larger and more valuable holding in comparison with Hockwold. Wilton had 6 fisheries, 200 sheep and was worth £10." You can read more about the history of the parish and the rich archaeology of the area here. The village is at a height of 6.8m above sea-level. We really are in fenland here.

Anyway, here are a few of my photos.

We parked on the main street close to the village green with its crown-topped mediaeval Wilton cross.

St. James, Wilton  church dates from the 14th Century and has an impressive spire.

We tried to go in to visit, but found the church locked. We admired the rows of gravestones.

And then we found the snowdrops.

What a great show! As this site (thanks Joyce) says, "A monument on the north wall is in memory of Canon Hutt and his wife Mary, a much loved and respected parson of the village in the late 1800s. His wife was devoted to the welfare of the villagers. The churchyard is covered in springtime with the snow-white blooms of the snowdrops planted by her and the village children in the early years of 1900. The descendants of the family still live in the village". 

Now on to our walk. We liked this big swinging gate on our way to join the Cut-off Channel (which continues south to the River Lark) down to the River Little Ouse. I'd not walked along the river this far downstream before. It joins the Great Ouse just a few miles further downstream at Brandon Creek.

Just along the Cut-off channel here we spotted a kingfisher and later some heron, egrets, a hawk and a buzzard.

The sluice gates on the river, dated 1962. are impressive. 

The river was flowing peacefully

We passed this pond to the north of the river. But what was that we could see over the other side?

Yes. It was a group of 3 deer.

We carried on along the river as far as this lake...

...before doubling back and leaving the river to head back to the village. We passed the New Inn, which dates from 1768...

...and stopped to visit St. Peter's, Hockwold Church, which was open.

We admired the wall painting and the impressive early 16th century timber roof with its carved saints.

Outside, we followed the sign to see the beehive in the wall.

Then it was back along South Street and past the village club, school and hall to the car.

Well that was a lovely little morning walk of about 4 1/2 miles.. The snowdrops were amazing and we saw such a lot of wildlife. Thank-you for the recommendation, Joyce!

You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.