Bramerton is a village in

South Norfolk South Norfolk is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Long Stratton. The population of the Local Authority District was 124,012 as taken at the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 ...

4¾ miles (7½ km) south-east 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 Episcopal see, See of ...

, just north of the main A146 Norwich-

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

road and on the south bank of the

River Yare The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches it is one of the principal navigable waterways of The Broads and connects with the rest of the network. The river rises south of Dereham to the west to the v ...

Geography

In the 2001 census it contained 158 households and a population of 350, the population falling to 301 at the 2011 census.

History

Bramerton's derives from 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 settlers in the mid-5th ...

for a farmstead with abundant bramble or thicket. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

lists Bramerton as a settlement of 25 households belonging to

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

Odo of Bayeux Odo of Bayeux (died 1097), Earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux, was the maternal half-brother of William the Conqueror, and was, for a time, second in power after the King of England. Early life Odo was the son of William the Conqueror's mother ...

Roger Bigod of Norfolk Roger Bigod (died 1107) was a Norman knight who travelled to England in the Norman Conquest. He held great power in East Anglia, and five of his descendants were earls of Norfolk. He was also known as Roger Bigot, appearing as such as a witness t ...

and Godric the Steward. St Peter's Church is of Medieval origin and was extensively restored first in the 1460s and later in the 1860s, it is also

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. Bramerton Hall, located on the corner of The Street and Surlingham Lane, was built in the 1830s and is also Grade II listed. In the 1920s, a

Lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...

for St Peter's Church was created by John Shingles using oak wood from local trees.

Amenities

Bramerton's post office closed in 1968 alongside the village shop in 1977 and the school in 1978. However 'The Water's Edge'

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 wa ...

is still in operation and was previously known as 'Woods End'. At the north end of the village is a Dawn

Christadelphian The Christadelphians () or Christadelphianism are a restorationist and millenarian Christian group who hold a view of biblical unitarianism. There are approximately 50,000 Christadelphians in around 120 countries. The movement developed in the ...

Hall, first opened in 1952 and extended in the 1960s and then again in the 1980s. A secondary hall for youth activities was added in the 2000s. Bramerton Health Care Clinic offers

homoeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a di ...

, herbal supplements and dietary advice.

Bramerton Pits

The rock strata reaching the surface at

Bramerton Pits Bramerton Pits is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of the village of Bramerton in Norfolk on the southern banks of the River Yare. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. The site is composed of two disused gravel pit ...

, adjacent to the Common at Woods End, have resulted in the name of the village being given to an early

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

glacial stage in the geological pre-history of the British Isles. The

Bramertonian Stage The Bramertonian Stage is the name for an early Pleistocene biostratigraphic stage in the British Isles. It precedes the Pre-Pastonian Stage (Baventian Stage). It derives its name from Bramerton Pits in Norfolk, where the deposits can be found ...

is distinguished by the presence of shelly, sandy deposits indicative of a temperate climate. Bramerton Pits has been noted as a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

on account of the geology and has been excavated on several occasions.

Woods End

There has been an inn on the site since before 1700. In 1828 the area and the nearby river were painted by

Joseph Stannard Joseph Stannard (13 September 1797 7 December 1830) was an English marine, landscape and portrait painter. He was a talented and prominent member of the Norwich School of painters. After attending the Norwich Grammar School, his parents pai ...

, prominent in the

Norwich School Norwich School (formally King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich) is a selective English independent day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a traceable history to 1096 as a ...

; entitled ''Boats on the Yare near Bramerton, Norfolk'', his painting is now in the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th V ...

in Cambridge. In Victorian times the inn possessed tea rooms and gardens popular with river-borne

day-tripper A day trip is a visit to a tourist destination or visitor attraction from a person's home, hotel, or hostel in the morning, returning to the same lodging in the evening. The day trip is a form of recreational travel and leisure to a location t ...

s from Norwich. The Woods End is still a popular spot for the mooring of pleasure craft and is also one of the few places on the

Norfolk Broads 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 North ...

where

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...

is allowed. Outside the pub (now renamed the ''Water's Edge'') is a statue of

Billy Bluelight William Cullum (10 April 1859 – July 1949), known as Billy Bluelight, was a popular English flower vendor and cult figure in Norwich. He was well known for his races, when he would run the 20-mile stretch alongside the steam pleasure boats besi ...

(William Cullum), who in the 1920s–30s used to challenge boat trippers to a race along the river bank. He is famed for his claim... "My name is Billy Bluelight, my age is 45, I hope to get to Carrow Bridge before the boat arrive." He is said to have remained '45' for many years. Bramerton Woods End Inn

Sports and recreation

Bramerton and District

Bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gr ...

club was founded in 1965, moving to its current location near the village hall in 1972. The village hall itself was erected by voluntary labour in 1988 after having been rescued from its previous existence as a Surlingham bungalow. The village hall is now the venue for a range of activities including a play group called Sunbeams, Brownies and

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

. Adjacent to the Bowls club is a children's playground with swings, climbing frame and slide. At Grange Farm Barns in the centre of the village is a Caravan Club certified location.

Transport

Bramerton is served by bus route 85 operated by Our Bus providing nine services a day into

via

Kirby Bedon Kirby Bedon is a hamlet in South Norfolk which lies approximately 3½ miles (5½ km) south-east of Norwich on the road to Bramerton. It covers an area of and had a population of 186 in 77 households at the 2001 census, the population incre ...

and to the neighbouring villages of

Surlingham Surlingham is a village and civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk situated on the Broads in eastern United Kingdom. It lies approximately 6½ miles (10½ km) south-east of Norwich on the south bank of the River Yare between ...

and

Rockland St Mary Rockland St Mary is a village in South Norfolk which lies about 6 miles (9½ km) southeast of Norwich between Surlingham, Bramerton, Claxton and Hellington. In the 2001 census it contained 325 households and a population of 824, falling to 810 ...

National Cycle Route 1 The cycle-path is located in the United Kingdom. Route Dover to Canterbury Dover , Deal , Sandwich , Canterbury Links with National Cycle Route 2, Regional route 16, and Regional route 17 in Dover. Leaves Dover passing Dover Castle. S ...

passes through Bramerton on its route from Norwich via Trowse and

Whitlingham Whitlingham is a small churchless parish and hamlet at the mouth of the River Wensum in Norfolk, England. It is located 3 miles (5 km) east of Norwich, on the south bank of the River Yare, reached from Trowse along Whitlingham Lane. Churc ...

and out to

Loddon Loddon may refer to: *Loddon, Norfolk in England, UK *Shire of Loddon in Victoria, Australia (since 1995) **Bridgewater On Loddon, Victoria in Australia *River Loddon, flows into the River Thames near Reading * Loddon River, flows north from south o ...

via Surlingham. The

Wherryman's Way Wherryman's Way is a long-distance footpath in the English county of Norfolk. Route Wherryman's Way is long, running between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. It follows the course of the River Yare where possible, with some significant stretches a ...

, a

long distance footpath A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking, cycling, horse riding or cross-country skiing. They exist on all continents exc ...

, passes close by at Woods End.

War Memorial

Bramerton's War Memorial is a stone

Celtic cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses e ...

located in St Peter's Churchyard.Imperial War Museum
Retrieved 7 November 2022. It bears the following names for the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

: * Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel John D. M. Beckett (1881-1918), 10th Battalion,

Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The regim ...

* Lance-Corporal Harry E. Doggett (d.1916), 8th Battalion,

Border Regiment The Border Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot and the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot. After service i ...

* Lance-Corporal H. S. Hayes (1890-1916), 9th Battalion,

Royal Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

* Lance-Corporal Frederic W. Perfitt (1894-1918), 11th Battalion,

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to ...

* Leading-Stoker John H. Osborne (d.1914), '' HMS Hogue'' * Private John P. Debbage (d.1915), 1st Battalion,

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

* Private Percy W. Norman (1894-1916), 10th Battalion, Essex Regiment * Private Samuel J. Daynes (d.1917), 1/4th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private Arthur S. Frost (1897-1916), 8th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private W. A. Daynes (d.1919), Royal Norfolk Regiment

References

External links

{{Authority control Villages in Norfolk South Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk