Holkham

Holkham
Norfolk
Location
Grid reference:	TF892438
Location:	52°57’32"N, 0°48’57"E
Data
Population:	236
Post town:	Wells-Next-The-Sea
Postcode:	NR23
Local Government
Council:	North Norfolk

Holkham is a village in the northwest of Norfolk, close to the shore of the Wash. Besides the small village, the parish includes the major stately home and estate of Holkham Hall, and an attractive beach at Holkham Gap, on Holkham Bay. The village, hall and beach are at the centre of the Holkham National Nature Reserve.

Geography

The parish had a recorded population, at the 2001 census, of 236 in 104 households.

The village sits on the coast road (the A149) between Wells-next-the-Sea and Burnham Overy Staithe. At one time the village was a landing with access to the sea via a tidal creek to the harbour at Wells. The creek succumbed to land reclamation, much of which created the grounds of the estate, starting in 1639 and ending in 1859 when the harbour at Wells was edged with a sea wall. The land west of the wall was subsequently turned to agricultural uses. Aerial photographs show traces of the creek in the topsoil, and the lake to the west of the hall appears to be based on a remnant of it. Now the village serves principally as the main entrance to the hall and deer park, and to Lady Anne's Drive which leads to the beach. Among the houses of the village are several estate-owned businesses, including a hotel ('The Victoria') and art gallery.

Holkham Hall

Holkham Hall is one of the principal Palladian houses of Britain, built for an ancestor of Thomas Coke, noted agricultural innovator and later 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham. The hall is still the home of the current Earl and is surrounded by an attractive park, with a herd of fallow deer, a lake that was once a tidal creek, several monuments and drives, and its own church. Both hall and park are open to the public.

From the main coast road Lady Anne's Drive, a toll road owned by the Holkham estate, crosses the reclaimed salt marshes to Holkham Gap. This is a gap in pine-fringed sand dunes which form the outer coastline. From here, an uninterrupted sandy beach runs both ways to Wells and Burnham Overy Staithe. To the west of the gap was a nudist section of beach but as a result of complaints received by the estate management the provision for nudism ceased on 1 July 2013.

Holkham once had a railway station, found about halfway along Lady Ann's Drive (to the east). The railway line through to Holkham was built in 1864. The line made up part of the Great Eastern Railway network, which ran from Wells-next-the-Sea station, through Holkham and on to Burnham Market railway station. The line was closed in 1952.

Over the dunes at Holkham

Holkham Beach in autumn

Towards Scolt Head Island Nature Reserve (far distance)

Holkham Pines is the name of the large belt of pine trees which runs west to east inland from the beach; the eastern end is known as Wells Woods. Holkham Freshmarsh is the name which refers to the series of wet meadows which sit inland from the pine belt, and north of the A149. They are bisected by Lady Ann's Drive, which gives access to the woods and the beach. The marshes are important for their wintering population of pink-footed geese, and have been designated a National Nature Reserve.

History

A Roman road runs along the west side of the Holkham estate.

In 654, King Anna of East Anglia was slain in battle against Penda, the last pagan king of Mercia. So great was his Christian affirmation that Anna's four daughters renounced the world and became nuns, and each one was later hailed a saint. Early hagiographies relate that the youngest, Withburh (or Saint Withburga), was brought up at Holkham before she entered the religious life elsewhere in East Anglia: this is the first reference to Holkham. Withburh died in 743 in East Dereham. A church on the grounds of the Holkham estate, still used for worship, commemorates Withburh.

Mediæval manuscripts concerning Holkham have been edited by William Hassall and Jacques Beauroy.

Parish church

The parish church is just south of the coast road, hidden in the trees of the Holkham estate. It stands on a tall circular mound - which archaeologists suggest might be man-made and possibly pre-Saxon - and is dedicated to St Withburga, who founded a Benedictine nunnery at East Dereham, where she was buried (and later reburied at Ely). Excavations at Holkham have found Saxon remains near the west end which may be a tower.

Norman remains have been found incorporated into the present building which implies that as elsewhere the Normans expanded the Anglo-Saxon building. In turn this Norman church made way for an Early English building (13th century). The tower and the western part of the south aisle date from this period. The church guidebook notes that the tower gets progressively younger as it goes up. The lower section is Early English up to the sill of the belfry windows. The belfry itself is Decorated (14th century) while the battlements and pinnacles are Perpendicular (15th to 16th century). During restoration work at least six 12th and 13th century coffin lids with foliated crosses were found on site and are now on show inside the church.

The north aisle and north transept are thought to have been added later than the 13th century as burials and parts of coffin lids were found under the foundations. The church is known to have been enlarged in the 14th century and many of the internal arches are Decorated period. By the early 18th century the church had fallen into decay but the development of Holkham Hall estate led to renewed interest in the church. In 1767 the Countess Dowager of Leicester put up £1,000 for its repair. She had overseen the completion of Holkham Hall after the death of the 1st Earl of Leicester in 1759.

A major renovation of the church was completed in 1869 at the expense of Juliana the wife of the 2nd Earl. This cost £9,000. She died the following year and has a striking sculpted memorial in the north chapel of the church. There are several other memorials to various members of the Coke family from whom the Earls of Leicester are descended. The unusual mausoleum in the west wall of the churchyard was built for Juliana but her body was later transferred to the family plot on the south side of the churchyard.

Media

• Operation Crossbow (1965) featuring German attempts to make the V-1 fly: all the Peenemünde sequences were filmed at Holkham Gap. The mass grave sequence at Holkham was filmed using male extras recruited from nearby Wells-next-the-Sea and - as a result - the film used to show at the former Wells cinema for several weeks a year during the late 1960s.
• The Eagle Has Landed (1976): Several parts of the film were filmed on Holkham Beach and in the pinewoods.
• Shakespeare in Love (1998); the final scenes were filmed on the beach.
• The Beach (2000): The music video of "Pure Shores", by All Saints, for the film was filmed here
• The Avengers television series used Holkham for a number of beach scenes. The episode "The Town of No Return" (1965) was filmed at Holkham Gap.
• Parts of the ITV1 drama Kingdom, featuring comedian Stephen Fry, were filmed on Wells and Holkham Beaches.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Holkham)

• Information on Holkham  from GENUKI
• The Holkham Estate
• DiCamillo companion guide
• Holkham Camp Norfolk, roman-Britain.org
• North Norfolk History

References

Books

• Falkus, Malcolm; Gillingham, John (1987). Historical Atlas of Britain. Crescent Books. ISBN 0-517-63382-5. 
• Stirling, Anna Maria Diana Wilhelmina Pickering (1908). Coke of Norfolk and his Friends. London, New York: John Lane, the Bodley Head.  Available Google Books.