HISTORIC NORFOLK

Travelling along the flat Fens under broad, open skies to Britain’s easternmost county, you feel as though you’re approaching the ends of the Earth. On the way to nowhere, North Norfolk is a place of windmills and watery vistas, of cosy pubs and flint-stone villages.

This sleepy region is less populated now than it was in the Middle Ages, when the capital Norwich was England’s second largest city, a hub for the lucrative wool trade. The peaceful landscape is dotted with medieval church spires (Norfolk has the highest concentration anywhere in the world), remnants of the county’s distant heyday.

These days, North Norfolk is famous for its beaches. The coastline, to which holidaymakers flock in summer, is head-turningly picturesque – which might explain why a wealth of historic attractions, tucked away inland, can get overlooked. Wait till the first brisk