Wednesday: Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, Wells

Rain forecast all day. Last breakfast at the White Horse, looking out over the rainy saltmarsh.

Breakfast

We drove half an hour through rural Norfolk, listening to Harry Cox in the car, to Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, near Dereham.

We spent a couple of hours looking around the workhouse, where there were exhibits detailing workhouse life. The workhouse was used to house the poor and destitute and often those who should have been in hospitals had it not been cheaper to house them in the workhouse.

Bricks next to where the urinals used to be with graffiti from workhouse residents

There were also galleries with many cases of other stuff of general miscellaneous historical interest, and lots of agricultural tools and machinery.

Threshing machine
200-year old farm-workers trousers, repaired often
Cat, discovered beneath the door threshold of a 15th century house in Thetford, supposedly put there to ward off witches
Washing machines in the laundry
‘The Winner’ tremolo accordion, played by George Batchelor at Baconsthorpe and Rupert Jacobs at The Three Pigs pub in Edgefield until the 1990s

There was a working farm run in the old fashioned way, with turkeys, Large Black pigs, Suffolk Punch horses, sheep, chickens.

6-week old turkeys
Large black piglets

We went to a nearby pub listed in the CAMRA guide, but it was deserted and they weren’t doing lunch and the landlord was unable to suggest anywhere that was, so we ended up getting a sandwich and a baked potato at The Bull in Dereham. Then we drove to Wells-next-the-Sea and checked into the Crown Hotel.

The Crown Hotel

R went for a run and saw a toadstool.

J played fiddle and went for a mosey around town.

Oysters, terrine, cod, cheese, coffee and chocolate truffles for dinner. Nice comfortable room.