Berney Arms is a settlement on the north bank of the River Yare, close to Breydon Water in the English county of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...

. It is part of the civil parish of Reedham, in the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

Broadland Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. The population of the local authority district taken at the 2011 Census was 124,646. Its council is based in Thorpe St Andrew. In 2013, Broadland ...

, and lies within

The Broads The Broads (known for marketing purposes as The Broads National Park) is a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Although the terms "Norfolk Broads" and "Suffolk Broads" are correctly us ...

. It comprises a railway station, a windmill, a farmhouse and a pub which closed in late 2015 (though permission for conversion to a dwelling was refused, and campaigners are seeking to reopen it as a pub). In 2020, an adjacent property opened as a bistro. The area is not accessible by public road.

Geography

Berney Arms is in an area of marshland, much of which is at or below sea level. It lies on the River Yare just to the west of Breydon Water. The area is part of

Berney Marshes RSPB reserve Berney Marshes and Breydon Water RSPB reserve is a nature reserve managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Berney Marshes is situated south of the River Bure while Breydon water is the combined estuary of the River Wavene ...

and within the

Halvergate Marshes The Halvergate Marshes are an area of grazing marsh in the east of the English county of Norfolk. They form part of the area of The Broads and lie between the River Bure and the River Yare, bordering Breydon Water on the east. The marshes cover a ...

Site of Special Scientific Interest. These provide important habitats for a range of plant and invertebrate species as well as providing important wintering grounds for bird species such as

Bewick's swan The tundra swan (''Cygnus columbianus'') is a small swan of the Holarctic. The two taxa within it are usually regarded as conspecific, but are also sometimes split into two species: Bewick's swan (''Cygnus bewickii'') of the Palaearctic and the ...

. The area is also a

Ramsar Site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) ** RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throu ...

as a series of dwellings and as its base for the marshes. Berney Arms can be reached only by train, by boat or on foot and has no public road access, with only a private track running to it. Berney Arms railway station is a

request stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

on the Norwich–Great Yarmouth line via . It is served by a limited number of services each day, with a more frequent service on Sundays. Berney Arms is on the

Weavers' Way The Weavers' Way is a long-distance footpath in Norfolk, England. Much of the Weavers’ Way footpath follows the old trackbed of the Aylsham to Great Yarmouth railway line, which was operated by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway a ...

and Wherryman's Way footpaths.

History

Berney Arms takes its name from The Berney Arms public house, which is situated by the

staithe A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( mooring locatio ...

on the north bank of the River Yare and served walkers and boaters who pass through the area. It was closed in 2015 and the owner proposed to turn the pub into a private house, but planning permission was refused. The public house was named after the landowner Thomas Trench Berney who owned the Reedham Cement Works centred on the Berney Arms Windmill. The mill was built in 1865 and is the tallest

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in so ...

in Norfolk at tall. It was used to grind cement clinker and was later converted into a drainage mill. It closed in 1948 and is now a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

in the care of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. At one point the mill supported a small settlement of 11 domestic dwellings and a chapel. Berney sold the land on which the railway was built, on the condition that a stopping place was built to serve the settlement in perpetuity. Berney Arms was mentioned in

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childr ...

's children's book ''

Coot Club ''Coot Club'' is the fifth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, published in 1934. The book sees Dick and Dorothea Callum visiting the Norfolk Broads during the Easter holidays, eager to learn to sail and t ...

'', which is in the ''Swallows and Amazon'' series.

References

External links

Berney Arms History Website
{{authority control Pubs in Norfolk Villages in Norfolk