The Ridge

When seen from the river valley or from a stroll around Whitlingham Broad, the Thorpe Ridge gives an impression of almost unbroken dense woodland. Planning policy is designed to maintain this somewhat misleading but attractive vista, and so far is quite successful. However hidden behind the trees are one or two open areas, from where good views can be had looking back across the valley to South Norfolk. This walk takes us to two of them.

We start by a short visit to the Tree Plantation, a small area reclaimed from a former pit, the entrance to which is opposite the car park for the recreation ground on Laundry Lane. There is one old and fine oak here, two horse chestnuts (one white and one pink - compare and contrast in late summer when the depredations of the leaf miner moth have devastated the former but not the latter), a tulip tree (named for the shape of its leaves, not its flowers) and several assorted native and imported species. Some of the trees are a little overcrowded and drawn, but the overall effect is pleasant. There is a lovely fragrant rose on the entrance arch. The gate is open dawn to dusk.

Crossing back to the recreation ground itself, we find ourselves on a high point from which even the unlovely Cantley sugar beet works can be seen in winter when there are no leaves on the trees. There were Bronze Age barrows here, long since ploughed out but shown on Bryant's 1826 map of Norfolk -  a line of them stretched right through into what is now Dussindale. They would probably have been visible from the river and/or the ancient road to Yarmouth, the Yarmouth Way. This road led from the Bishop's Bridge area of the city up through the woods, along what is now White Farm Lane, across the Pine Banks site and intersected with Thunder Lane more or less where North Lodge now stands at the brow of the hill. If you take a stroll along Hilly Plantation (on your right as you crest the hill) and look in the big gardens to your right, you can still clearly see the hollow way of the old road. This road was superseded by the lower road next to the river from the 16th century onwards, but was not finally extinguished as a route until the enclosure of 1801.

From Hilly Plantation the road ran past the site of the original settlement and church of Thorpe - of which more later - and then gradually descended to the area of the current railway bridge across the modern Yarmouth Road.

In the south eastern corner of the recreation field is the Beacon, last lit for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
From here we head for the woods below the recreation ground, Gargle Hill Plantation. This area is shown on old maps as Gargate Hills and other variations of this spelling, and the name probably originated in the name Gar Gate - the Gar is an alternative name for the Yare. The woods are a valuable wildlife refuge so close to the thundering St William's Way and provide a home for owls and sparrowhawks. There are paths through the woods which will bring you to the footbridge over the road. When a warden is with you, you can access the top of the allotment site from the path which continues on from the bridge towards the northern end of the school playing field, but normally the gate is locked.

Once in the allotments, we come to the small nature reserve which was created on the site of  an important archaeological discovery. It has been excavated twice and there is a board to tell you what they found. The main feature of interest was the original church of Thorpe, which would have served the hilltop settlement which had existed there since Saxon times. The Saxons liked living on the tops of hills, and the remains of dwellings and loom weights and other domestic refuse have been found here. The Church may well have been built or enlarged by Bishop Herbert, who is known to have ordered the construction of a string of churches along the edge of Thorpe Wood/ Mousehold Heath (eg Magdalen Chapel - now the Lazar House library, St Michael's Chapel and St Leonard's Priory). The site of the manor house is not known for certain but it has been argued that an area near the junction of Yarmouth Way and Thunder Lane is the most likely spot. Thunder Lane itself is thought by some to be a Roman road in origin, connecting with the Roman pottery producing centre at Brampton.

At some point in the middle of the 16th century the entire settlement - church, manor, people and all - relocated in some planned fashion down to the river. The oldest houses in Thorpe all date from this period or shortly after, and the old church in front of the Victorian one on Yarmouth Road was almost certainly built at least partially with reclaimed materials from the allotment site. (When you are next at the riverside church, look at the entrance porch. It looks distinctly more like the sort of thing Tudor nobles built on their domestic houses than it does an ecclesiastical building).

The reasons for the relocation are lost in the mists of time but would certainly have been economic. This period was one of enormous boom times for trade, and particularly for river trade. Extraction of gravels, flints, marls, chalk etc was increasingly lucrative and all are accessible from the river terrace. Finally, there was a shift in land use from arable to pasture in the parish in the 15th and 16th centuries. Old maps show the lane leading up this field as a sheep track and many areas are simply marked 'sheepwalk'. Whatever the reasons, the shift in the heart of the settlement was a significant milestone in the history of Thorpe and its people.

This site at the top of the allotments gives lovely views across the valley, possibly the clearest one you can get from Thorpe. There are beehives here now, and a small community orchard planted in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

There is also an uncommonly large den of foxes, the mother-lode of the Thorpe fox population! They live mainly in the partly-excavated but never finished 'pond', which gave them a ready made sandy bank to dig into.