Lenwade is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Great Witchingham Great Witchingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk about north-west of Norwich. It covers an area of and had a population of 564 in 235 households at the 2001 census, including Lenwade but reducing to a populatio ...

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 No ...

, situated in the Wensum Valley adjacent to the

A1067 road A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to: Education * A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects * A1, ...

south-east of

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north west of Norwich. The town is the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to Norwic ...

and some north-west of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. The

River Ainse (or Eyn) The River Ainse (or Eyn) is a small river in the county of Norfolk. It is a tributary of the River Wensum which it merges with at Lenwade. The River Ainse has several tributaries also. Eade's watermill The watermill located on the river at Grea ...

joins the Wensum at Lenwade. In 2001 it had a population of 464.

Etymology

The name may mean 'ford of the slowly moving river'. The first element possibly means ''lane'' in the Scottish dialect sense of 'scarcely moving river'. The second element of the name is the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''gewæd'' (

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Industry and the local economy

Much of the surrounding land is given over to agriculture. However, due to its geographical location Lenwade became the centre of the sand and gravel extraction and the manufacturing of concrete products in the Wensum valley during the middle to late 20th century. The legacy of this activity can be seen in the many flooded

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used eithe ...

s in the area. Today, these now mature lakes are popular with anglers, naturalists and bird watchers. Industry today is concentrated to the southeast of Lenwade between the A1067 road and the former railway line. Concrete products, metal recycling, joinery and double glazing items are produced in the area. Local tourist attractions include Roarr! Dinosaur Adventure theme park and the Lenwade country house hotel features in its grounds the only licensed

zoological garden A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zool ...

in the UK.

The Church of St Faith

Located on the busy A1067 Fakenham Road, the building started life as a Victorian mission church originally dedicated to All Saints. Despite its central location the church was little used and became redundant. Today, the church is fenced off and planned to become a residential development (July 2008).

Amenities

Amenities in the village include a village hall, primary school, doctor's surgery, general stores, garage, tea-rooms, butchers, bakers and a fish and chip shop. Located close to A1067 and the River Wensum is the late 18th century ''Bridge Inn''

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

. Pevsner.N. & Wilson. B. ''

The Buildings of England ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Norfolk3: North-West and South'' p25 (1999)

Penguin books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Matthew Brettingham Matthew Brettingham (1699 – 19 August 1769), sometimes called Matthew Brettingham the Elder, was an 18th-century Englishman who rose from humble origins to supervise the construction of Holkham Hall, and become one of the country's best-known ...

's c.1741 triple arched brick bridge is depicted on the pub's sign. The bridge was demolished in 1993 and replaced by today's steel bridge.

Lenwade mill

There has been a watermill on the river at Lenwade for many centuries. The present building, dating from the late 19th century, has been converted to homes

Railway history

Lenwade railway station Lenwade railway station was a railway station in North Norfolk, England. It was built by the Lynn and Fakenham Railway Company in 1882 and taken over by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) in 1893, to serve the small hamlet of ...

was built in 1882 with direct trains to

and

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

. Passenger traffic ceased in 1959, but due to Lenwade's important Anglian cement and concrete works the freight line was kept open to 1985. The former station today is a private residence and the track bed forms part of the

Marriott's Way The Marriott's Way is a long-distance footpath, cycle-path and bridleway in north Norfolk, England, between Norwich and Aylsham via Themelthorpe. It forms part of the National Cycle Network (NCN) (Route 1) and the red route of Norwich's Pedal ...

long-distance footpath.Railway history
Retrieved 4 November 2008

Public transport

Bus Services are provided by

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.

References

External links

Norfolk pubs-Lenwade

Great Witchingham & Lenwade Village Hall
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Great Witchingham