Whitlingham
Encyclopedia
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, on the south bank of the River Yare
River Yare
The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches the river connects with the navigable waterways of The Broads....
, reached from Trowse
Trowse
Trowse, also called Trowse with Newton, is a village in South Norfolk which lies about south-east of Norwich city centre on the banks of the River Yare. It covers an area of and had a population of 479 in 233 households as of the 2001 census....
along Whitlingham Lane.
Church
The round-towered church of St. Andrew was dilapidated about 1630, and for centuries was a picturesque ruin on the verge of a lofty precipice, overlooking the river. There is photographic evidence to suggest the ruins were prettified during the second half of the 19th century, with eroded parapets rebuilt, and new window tracery inserted. The round tower collapsed in 1940 and today the fragmentary ruins are very overgrown.Broads and Country Park
The Great BroadBroad
Broad may refer to:* Broad Group, a manufacturing company based in Changsha, global leader in producing absorption chillers* Broad , English gold coin minted under the Commonwealth with a bust of Oliver Cromwell on the obverse...
at Whitlingham Park has been created through the process of gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
extraction. The extraction work at Whitlingham began in 1990 with the creation of the Little Broad. In 1995 work began on the Great Broad, with the quarry removing around 220,000 tonnes of material a year.
Gravel from Whitlingham has been used to build projects in the city such as the Castle Mall, The Forum
The Forum, Norwich
The Forum is a community building in Norwich, Norfolk. It stands opposite from the St. Peter Mancroft Church. Designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners, the Forum was built as a millennium project for the East of England and finished in October 2001...
and more recently, the redevelopment of the old Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
site into a major new shopping facility Chapelfield
Chapelfield
Chapelfield is a large indoor shopping mall located on the edge of Norwich city centre, on the site previously occupied by the Caleys chocolate factory....
.
An Outdoor Education Centre has now been built on the south bank of the Great Broad 'offering a wide range of land and water based activities', see Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre. Construction of the Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre was funded by the National Lottery
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
and Sport England
Sport England
Sport England is the brand name for the English Sports Council and is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
and the centre is run by Norfolk County Council. Norfolk County Council leases the Great Broad from the Crown Point Estate which is represented by the Whitlingham Charitable Trust.
The Little Broad has a beach. Since late 2008, following a fatal accident swimming has been discouraged. The Broads Authority
Broads Authority
The Broads Authority is the agency which has statutory responsibility for the Broads in England. Originally, the Nature Conservancy Council , pressed for a special authority to manage the Broads which had been neglected for a long time. In 1978, the forerunner to the present-day Broads Authority...
are planning to bring in bylaws to make swimming illegal, except in organised groups run through the Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre.
Both Wherryman's Way long distance footpath and National Cycle Route 1 pass through the park.
The park was visited by Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
in July 2008, at the start of his East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
n holiday.
Woods
Situated at the lower end of the country park, this area has a history of mining, including flint-knapping from 4000BC, up to the 18th century. Archaeologists have found a number of artefactsArtifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
in this area, including humanly struck flint flakes and part of a chipped flint axe-head from the Neolithic period, along with an iron-stained flint blade dating back to the Paleolithic period (500000 BC to 10001 BC). From the 18th century until the early 20th century the area produced chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
and lime
Lime (mineral)
Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...
, the deep chalk pits are still present though overgrown and a Lime kiln is reached by a signed footpath from Whitlingham Lane. Since then this area has been developing from open landscape to the woodland of today.
Railway station
Whitlingham railway stationWhitlingham railway station
Whitlingham was a station in Whitlingham, Norfolk.. The simple station has been demolished leaving no trace of its existence. However the footbridge is still in use for pedestrian use....
is situated to the north of the River Yare close to Thorpe St Andrew
Thorpe St Andrew
Thorpe St Andrew is a small town and suburb of Norwich in the English county of Norfolk.It is situated about two miles east of the city centre, outside the city boundary in the district of Broadland...
. It used to be served by trains out of Norwich
Norwich railway station
Norwich is a railway station serving the city of Norwich in the English county of Norfolk. The station is the northern terminus of the Great Eastern Main Line from London Liverpool Street. It is also the terminus of railway lines from Ely, Sheringham, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.-History:At one...
, but is now closed.