Holme next the sea

The Norfolk coast, like much of the east coast of England is suffering from coastal erosion which over time is set to dramatically change the landscape and, if the Climate Change models are accurate, then much of Norfolk could one day disappear.

However, back in 1998 at Holme Next the Sea, coastal erosion uncovered something very interesting, and caused a great deal of excitement among archaeologists. The remnants of an ancient wooden structure appeared out of the sands which they duly named “Seahenge”. This structure consists of a ring of split oak trees tightly fitted together to form a circle with a small entrance. Inside the ring was a tree stump which had been dug up and re-planted. Nothing too remarkable about this except it was re-planted upside down. This whole structure was built 4,500 years ago, just shortly before the Pyramids were built. Now I was always under the impression that, apart from the people that built Stonehenge, at this time Britain was full of primitive tribesmen with none of the technical expertise found in the more sophisticated civilisations such as Egypt. Yet with primitive tools and no modern machinery they managed to build this incredible wooden structure.

I pulled on to the field which would be our latest stop on the mission and paid my £6 for the pitch. I asked the owner where we had to go to find Seahenge.

“Peterborough” he told me.

“Peterborough ?”

“Yes, Peterborough”

“But I thought it was discovered here in Holme next the Sea”, I said in a rather distressed manner.

“It was” he replied “and then they dug it up and moved it to Peterborough because they didn’t want the sea and air to corrode it”.

I was gutted.

“They didn’t take all of it though” he informed me “Cuz I have a bronze axe that was used to build it in my shed”

I rolled my eyes, gave him the kind of look that says something like “yeah, pull the other one.” But then I saw his shed! If he didn’t have a Bronze-age axe in his shed then its about the only thing he didn’t have in it. This building, approximately 20 foot long by ten foot wide, must have had an artefact from every era since the dinosaur. It was amazing! It had old pots, farm machinery, furniture, and tools from every major new farming advancement since they invented farming. In fact, it had just about everything needed to start his very own museum of the complete history of Norfolk. Just to find this axe would probably take months, but I quickly informed him to let me know when he has a sort out because I would very much like to be there.

After finally getting over the disappointment of not seeing Seahenge we decided to walk down to the beach anyway to just get a feel of what it must have been like. It’s the 5^th August in the height of the holiday season on a lovely warm day, and here we are the whole family walking in a warm shallow sea on yet another deserted sandy beach. Behind us we can sea a handful of people about a mile away and the town of Old Hunstanton about 2 miles away in the distance. Ahead all we can see is sandy beach and a few people again about a mile or so in the distance. Just the feeling of all this space to us was amazing!

Ollie loved his time on the beach; what better for an active dog than a totally deserted beach where he could run, chase birds, and dig without disturbing anyone. This dog could dig for England, which was a bit of a problem if you were directly behind him as it didn’t take him long to cover you from head to toe in sand, as Tom could testify to!

I must admit I was disappointed not to find anything that even indicated an ancient structure was ever here, no plaque or monument, just an empty beach. We found a few bits of wood and stuff which we tried to convince ourselves were part of another undiscovered ancient structure but it just wasn’t quite the same.

We walked back along the coastal path. The Norfolk coast seems one long bird sanctuary with a combination of sand dunes and marshes. As such, it’s home to a number of birds, wildlife, flowers and some really smelly bogs. We crossed a small wooden bridge built over one particular black bog with small green things growing on it. I remember thinking something like “This is one hell of a smelly bog” and then the dog jumped in it!

“It doesn’t look to me like he’s enjoying that!” said a passer by sternly as I was trying to hold the dog upside down under the cold water tap outside the toilets.

“I’ll give the little sod not enjoying it” I half muttered in reply.

Back at the Motor home Kim and Laura spent hours cleaning him up in a more humane way. Only then was he allowed anywhere near inside.