Berney Arms
| Berney Arms | |
| Norfolk | |
|---|---|
 The Berney Arms public house, which closed in late 2015 | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TG467052 |
| Location: | 52°35’17"N, 1°38’33"E |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Great Yarmouth |
| Postcode: | NR30 |
| Dialling code: | 01493 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Broadland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Broadland |
Berney Arms is a hamlet on the north bank of the River Yare, close to Breydon Water in Norfolk. It lies within the Norfolk Broads. Here is a railway station, a windmill, a farmhouse, and little else.[1] Its pub, from which the hamlet took its name, was closed in late 2015.[2] In 2020, an adjacent property opened as a bistro.
The area is not accessible by public road.
History
Berney Arms takes its name from the Berney Arms public house, which is by the staithe on the north bank of the River Yare and which served walkers and boaters passing through the area.[3] It was closed in 2015 and the owner proposed to turn the pub into a private house, but planning permission was refused.[4]
The public house was named after the landowner Thomas Trench Berney who owned the Reedham Cement Works centred on the Berney Arms Windmill. The mill was built in 1865 and is the tallest windmill in Norfolk at 71 feet tall. It was used to grind cement clinker and was later converted into a drainage mill. It closed in 1948 and is now a Scheduled Monument in the care of English Heritage.[5] At one point the mill supported a small settlement of 11 domestic dwellings and a chapel.[6] Berney sold the land on which the railway was built, on the condition that a stopping place was built to serve the settlement in perpetuity.[1][7][8]
Geography
Berney Arms is in an area of marshland, much of which is at or below sea level. It lies on the River Yare just to the west of Breydon Water. The area is part of Berney Marshes RSPB reserve[9] and within the Halvergate Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest. These provide important habitats for a range of plant and invertebrate species as well as providing important wintering grounds for bird species such as Bewick's swan.[10]
The area is also a Ramsar Site and part of the Broadland Special Protection Area. Ashtree Farm is used by the RSPB as a series of dwellings and as its base for the marshes.[6]
Berney Arms railway station is a request stop on the Wherry Lines between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, via Reedham.
The hamlet is on both the Weavers' Way and Wherryman's Way footpaths.
In popular culture
Berney Arms is mentioned in Arthur Ransome's children's book Coot Club, which is part of the Swallows and Amazon series.
In 1960, BBC reporter Fyfe Robertson made a short black and white documentary covering Berney Arms station and interviewed two residents.[11]
Outside links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dunford, M.; Lee, P. (2012). The Rough Guide to Norfolk and Suffolk. Rough Guides UK. pp. 107–109. ISBN 978-0241238592.
- ↑ "Home page". Berney Arms Web. http://www.berneyarms.co.uk/. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
- ↑ "'Remote' Berney Arms pub set for new business". BBC Look East. 13 April 2013. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-norfolk-22226021.
- ↑ "Application for Determination". Broads Authority Planning Committee. 11 September 2015. https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/213534/BA20150176FUL-Berney-Arms-Inn-The-Marshes-Reedham-NR30-1SB-Reedham.pdf.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1003957: Berney Arms windmill (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Local character area 19 – Halvergate marshes (excluding Bure loop and the west of Tunstall dyke)". Broads Landscape Character Assessment. Broads Authority. 2006. http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/broads/live/planning/landscape-character-assessment/Area_19_-_Halvergate_Marshes.pdf.
- ↑ McKie, David (11 July 2010). "The rail to nowhere". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/11/the-strangest-of-railway-stations.
- ↑ Mitchell, Laurence (2010). Slow Norfolk and Suffolk. Bradt Travel Guides. pp. 130–131.
- ↑ "About Berney Marshes and Breydon Water". RSPB. http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/b/berneybreydon/about.aspx.
- ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Halvergate Marshes
- ↑ James, Derek (n.d.). "Life in the rural Norfolk hamlet of Berney Arms in the 1950s". Eastern Daily Press. https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23640869.life-rural-norfolk-hamlet-berney-arms-1950s/.