With a Camera This Time:
A Return to Norfolk (Part One)
1 June 2024
ABOVE: An early morning view of First Eastern Counties 33820 (YX63 LKK), an ADL Enviro400, in Norwich Bus Station at 8.15am, prior to a journey on route X21 to Lowestoft. All photos in this article were taken on Saturday 13 January 2024.
I'm back in Norwich for the first time in nearly three years. It's only the second week of January so I need to make the best of the daylight, which is why I'm in the city's Bus Station at 8am.
I was here in May 2021 - it was the first time I was able to have an overnighter after Lockdown. I came without a camera, but, when I wrote my first articles a few months later (including one about the Excel bus from Peterborough), I hadn't learnt how to load pictures onto the site anyway!
So I've come back, with a camera this time, as dawn breaks onto what looks like becoming a beautiful morning. I've had a night in a hotel overlooking the River Yare. Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the building, so only saw the car park - never mind, I wasn't there in daylight anyway)! I knew beforehand that it wasn't going to be the best night's sleep when I saw the "Happy Birthday" banner stuck onto the room door opposite mine. And sure enough, they came back at 3am and chatted in the corridor for an hour or two...
Norwich is a large and slightly disorientating place, and I'm not relishing the lengthy walk to the bus station. I think I have the route worked out, but I'm allowing half an hour in case I haven't! But I'm spared this, as, when I reach the first bus stop on Prince of Wales Road, just out from the hotel, a number 25 bus turns up to carry me most of the way to the centre. As will be the case with all today's buses, this is operated by First Eastern Counties. This one is a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2. It's a three-minute journey.
There's loud pop music blaring out across the near-deserted Bus Station. It's Saturday, so the number of buses in view outnumbers the number of people I can see. The next thing I notice is a set of "Train Times" posters for Norwich Station which are over a year out of date:
ABOVE: In January 2024 the train timetable in Norwich Bus Station is the May to December 2022 edition! Interesting to note the "LE" code for Greater Anglia services - left over from "London Eastern", an earlier descriptor for services in this area.
The second thing I notice is one of Sanders Coaches' new Volvo B8L MCV eVoSetis. These are unusual vehicles in being six-wheelers (well, more than that, actually, as modern buses usually double-up on back wheels at least). These buses are usually to be found on the Norwich - Cromer - Sheringham - Holt corridor. I haven't caught one yet and I really should soon!
ABOVE: An unidentified Sanders Coaches Volvo B8L MCV eVoSeti in Norwich Bus Station
But I'm here for the X21 service to Lowestoft (over the border into Suffolk), the UK's most easterly settlement. There are at least five different routes linking Norwich & Lowestoft - the X1 & X11 go via Great Yarmouth whilst the X2, X21 & X22 run via Beccles. I used the X22 when I was last here, which is another reason why I'm going for the X21 now, although the variations between the two are quite subtle. (And actually the X21 is quite a rare beast - just a couple of early morning journeys, then mainly evenings and Sundays.)
The bus, an ADL Enviro400, pulls in from the inward journey on schedule at 0810. The driver takes a stretch break and I have a chance to photograph the side display of the bus, which is still asking me to "wear a face covering", two years after doing so ceased to be mandatory.
I'm soon settled in my customary upstairs front seat, only to discover that the upstairs front windscreen of this bus is absolutely filthy! I do take some pictures along this route, but they're not usable. Am I destined to never get decent photos in this area? (I still take pictures as we go, and have included one to show you why I haven't used more...)
ABOVE: The reason why there aren't many pictures of this stretch of the journey... Through a filthy window, First Eastern Counties 33813 (YK63 LKA), an ADL Enviro400 on route X21, passes the Slade Lane junction on the Loddon Road, near Framingham Earl and about five miles from Norwich.
The sun is out now and it's going to be a lovely winter's day. Nineteen minutes out, we reach Loddon, where a sign tells me that we are already 11 miles out of Norwich, which feels like pretty good going in the time. The name "Loddon" is thought to mean 'muddy river' in Celtic, in reference to the River Chet. This small river passes through Loddon and is the smallest of the six rivers on the Norfolk Broads.
This is a brisk ride down fast, open roads, through the Norfolk countryside, which looks lovely in the weak winter sun and would look even lovelier if I had a clean window to see it out of!
The market town of Beccles, 16 miles south-east of Norwich and just over into Suffolk, is reached in under 40 minutes. The townscape is dominated by the detached 16th-Century bell tower of St Michael the Archangel Church. Wikipedia tells us that the tower is Perpendicular Gothic in style and is 97 feet tall. The church was built in the 14th Century, but was rebuilt after being badly damaged by fire in 1586. It has a 13th Century octagonal baptismal font and a 14th Century south porch. Both the church and the tower are Grade-I listed.
The X2, X21 and X22 also pass through the seaside town of Carlton Colville (albeit using slightly different routings in the area). This is the home of the East Anglia Transport Museum which, I confess, I have yet to visit. And I know that I need to do so - it has a working tramway and a selection of London Transport trolleybuses amongst other things. OK, it's now definitely on the 'to do' list - with the X22 stopping outside every half hour, and the X2 / X21 doubling that frequency, if not quite getting as close to the Museum, there's no excuse!
We reach Lowestoft just 79 minutes after leaving Norwich. There's a bit of a run around the town, or so it feels, before we reach the Bus Station.
ABOVE: The approaches to Lowestoft Town Centre, through that same filthy window!
Every year I record my northern, southern, eastern and western "extremities" from my travels. And 13 days into 2024, I have reached the eastern extremity, that cannot be beaten for the rest of the year! As the most easterly UK settlement in Britain, we're 110 miles north-east of London. The town has a population of over 70,000. Its development grew with the fishing industry and as a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches (source: Wikipedia). As fishing declined, oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea took over. While these too have declined, Lowestoft is becoming a regional centre of the renewable energy industry.
I make my own foray into renewing my personal energy by having a tea break. My next bus is the 1A towards Great Yarmouth, Hemsby and Martham at 1020.
The bus station at Lowestoft has a very tight pedestrian area, and a little crowd has gathered around the Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini that is already parked on the stand. When 'open' for business, I manage to secure my preferred front seat, complete with a window that I can see out of!
ABOVE: A view of two First Eastern Counties vehicles in Lowestoft Bus Station, as my bus pulls off the stand. ADL Enviro400 33810 (YX63 LJV, left) awaits departure on route X1 to Norwich via Great Yarmouth, whilst ADL Enviro200 44452 (YX09 HKM, right) is working local route 101 to Gunton - a single-bus operation with a journey time of 13 minutes end-to-end.
Routes 1 & 1A provide a joint half-hourly frequency on the route to Great Yarmouth, and there's no difference to the routings over this section. The journey is exactly what one would expect of a route in a semi-rural area, with stretches of fast dual-carriageway broken up with detours into residential areas.
ABOVE: Station Road, Corton, where I've a hunch it might be recycling day!
This route clings to the coast for most of its way. There are various holiday parks and lets around here.
We pull into the grounds of the James Paget University Hospitals (plural), on the edge of the town of Gorleston-on-Sea. A bus stop has been provided next to the "Vaping Shelter"; a note has been hastily taped to the latter proclaiming the Hospital to be a "smoke-free zone".
A moment later and we're on the seafront of Gorleston itself. Whilst we're back in Norfolk now, Gorleston was once part of Suffolk, and was a a port town at the time of the Domesday Book. Gorleston's port became a centre of fishing for herring, along with salt pans used for the production of salt to preserve the fish.
Nowadays the town is mainly a seaside resort. I stayed here some years ago, on the hottest day of the year, in a hotel which had windows that could not be opened, but with no air-conditioning. Not the most comfortable stay! It did have a lovely garden, though.
ABOVE: The front at Gorleston-on-Sea - the coastline is on the right, mainly just out of sight.
The heart of the town is quite attractive, with trunk and local bus routes serving it.
ABOVE: First Eastern Counties 37573 (AU58 ECX, right), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini, stands in Gorleston High Street on an X11 journey from Norwich to Belton. I haven't been able to identify the bus on the left...
It feels as though all roads lead into Great Yarmouth from here, but that's not strictly true, as the River Yare is currently separating us from the town.
ABOVE: First Eastern Counties 33806 (YX63 LJL), an ADL Enviro400, heads down Southtown Road, on the way out of Great Yarmouth, on route X1 towards Lowestoft. The industrial nature of this area is unmistakable, as might just be observed by the towers visible in the background, which seem to belong to A&W Cushion Ltd, which has been trading timber products in Great Yarmouth for "almost 100 years".
We're finally into Great Yarmouth via the Haven Bridge; dating from 1930, it can be opened to allow river traffic to pass through. As we cross, the Grade-II* listed Town Hall building is prominent. Opened in May 1882, its Assembly Room (see picture no 10 in this Gallery) was described at the time of opening as "one of the finest interiors in Eastern England and a measure, like the entire building, of the town's prosperity in the late 19th Century".
ABOVE: Crossing the Haven Bridge over the River Yare, with Great Yarmouth Town Hall in evidence on the right.
And so we pull into Great Yarmouth's Market Gates interchange - a slightly dark area adjacent to the main shopping areas of the town (get a perspective of the interchange here). Market Gates itself is a Shopping Centre. I presume that it was once the gate to the local market, but I haven't been able to find anything to confirm this.
ABOVE: First Eastern Counties 36283 (LX59 DAU), another Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, departs the Market Gates Bus Interchange in Great Yarmouth on route 8 (Caister to James Paget Hospitals). On the right is 37562 (FJ08 FYN), another B9TL, in a commemorative Great Yarmouth Transport livery. There's a better view of this bus, in the same spot, at https://eastnorfolkbus.blogspot.com/
Great Yarmouth lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum, at the mouth of the River Yare. It provides a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea, and has been a popular holiday resort since 1760. The spit of land on which is stands is over three miles long.
It's a lovely area for wildlife too. I once took a boat trip to see the Grey seal and common seal that are frequently seen offshore. The area between the piers is home to one of the largest roosts of Mediterranean gulls in the UK. Breydon Water, just behind the town, is a major wader and waterfowl site, with winter roosts of over 100,000 birds. Seabirds such as gannet, little auk, common scoter, razorbill, Gull and guillemot are prevalent here.
Back to the Bus Station, and the 1A is pausing here before continuing towards Martham. I'm staying on board as well, to find out what a sleepy coastal resort north of Great Yarmouth looks like in mid-Winter... But I'll cover that in Part Two.
To be continued...
BELOW: An approximation of the route covered in this article...
