Saturday, 19 September 2026

Heritage Open Day - Norwich Castle

Today we took a trip to Norwich on a Heritage Open Day visit to Norwich Castle.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Saturday September 19th I have booked 8 free tickets to Norwich Castle….admission is late afternoon at 3pm. It is part of Heritage Open Days. Anyone fancy joining me? ".

We said yes and joined Joyce and 5 others for the visit. The Thickthorn Roundabout was closed (so we wouldn't be able to dive up the A11 and take the Park&Ride and there were bus replacement services for the train between Stowmarket and Norwich so we joined Joyce and others in taking the train from Thetford instead, which was a pleasant change.

Here are a few photos.

At Thetford station.


We liked "The Fernal Destination" in a little nook.


Arriving in Norwich we decided to walk along the river to the Cathedral Refectory for drinks.



We discovered that the Watergate at Pull's Ferry was open for visiting as part of the Heritage Open Day, so went in.


They had exhibitions about both the history of the building and ferry and the Norwich Girl Guides, who's headquarters it is today.


We left the swans milling about in the river and headed for the cathedral.



Coffee time.


We all wanted to visit the market so went there next.


I liked this Mexican food shop. The owner was filling a jar with huge dried ancho chillies


We all admired the flowers here.


Dawn, Janice, Shaun and I then meandered to the Queen of the Iceni for lunch. On the was we passed a Rolls Royce decanting some bridesmaids. Nice colour dresses!


We crossed Julian's bridge.


We were amazed at how cheap the beer was - £1.99 for a pint of Ruddles County!


Suitably fed and watered we returned towards the castle. We were surprised to see this disused church now has a skatepark inside.


We mett up with Sue and Kieron, Joyce and Kim at the castle. It was quite busy - well they had sold out of the free tickets.


We had to wait outside the Great Hall while an audio-visual display was on.


There was plenty to see.



Dawn and Kim grabbed the thrones for the audio-visual display.



Now to visit the rest of the castle. There was a view from the mezzanine down to the Great Hall.


I went up to the parapets to see the views.






They have some fancy lighting for the historical artefacts.



The modern art gallery had pictures from 7 decades starting with this Lowry.



There were further galleries downstairs. There was so much to see. I liked this winter scene..


Then we walked back to the station to get a train back to Thetford.


A lovely day out. Thank-you Joyce for organising it and getting the tickets and everyone else for the additional company.

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