Heacham River is a small

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in the

King's Lynn and West Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk is a local government district with borough status in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in the town of King's Lynn. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 147,451. History The district was ...

district of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 No ...

.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 250 - Norfolk Coast West''. . Its source is near the village of

Bircham Newton Bircham Newton is the smallest of the three villages that make up the civil parish of Bircham, in the west of the English county of Norfolk. The village is located about 1 km north of the larger village of Great Bircham, 20 km north- ...

, 25 metres above sea level. The river is long from the source to the

outfall An outfall is the discharge point of a waste stream into a body of water; alternatively it may be the outlet of a river, drain or a sewer where it discharges into the sea, a lake or ocean. In the United States, industrial facilities that discharg ...

Heacham Heacham is a large village in West Norfolk, England, overlooking The Wash. It lies between King's Lynn, to the south, and Hunstanton, about to the north. It has been a seaside resort for over a century and a half. History There is evidence o ...

beach, which discharges into

The Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk, England, Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it i ...

at low tide.

Course

From its source at a pond near

the river flows towards Fring where it is crossed by

Peddars Way The Peddars Way is a long distance footpath that passes through Suffolk and Norfolk, England. Route The Peddars Way is 46 miles (74 km) long and follows the route of a Roman road. It has been suggested by more than one writer that it was n ...

and then runs across open countryside in a north westerly direction. Over the years this part of the river has been heavily modified but without any significant

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

defence. After 2 miles the river runs through a shallow wooded valley south of the village of

Sedgeford Sedgeford is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, about 5 miles south of the North Sea and east of the Wash. It is 36 miles north-west of Norwich. Its area of had a population, including Fring, of 613 at the 2011 Ce ...

. From Sedgeford the river slowly curves north west towards

crossing under the B1454 road and then turns west towards the only mill on the river. Just past the road bridge the river divides into two: one branch which once fed the millpond for the

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

, and the other running past the mill.

Heacham Watermill

Caley Mill - home of Norfolk Lavender, Heacham, Norfolk - geograph

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

or Caley Mill, as it is also known, looks very different from most other mills in

, being

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

revival in architectural style and built of local

carrstone Carrstone (or carstone, also known as Silsoe, heathstone, ironstone or gingerbread) is a sedimentary sandstone conglomerate formed during the Cretaceous period. It varies in colour from light to dark rusty ginger. Used as a building stone it can be ...

. It was also unique in Norfolk for having its

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

on the outside of the building. Originally used to grind corn, the building is now owned and has been used by

Lavender for

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...

production since 1932. After the mill the river passes under the A149 coast road and then skirts around the northern side of the village of

. The river then flows through Heacham Park where a channel from it feeds a small lake. After the lake the river goes north for a couple of hundred feet before turning west again crossing low-level meadows. The river ends up against the tidal flaps at South Beach between

Snettisham Snettisham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located near the west coast of Norfolk, some south of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, north of the town of King's Lynn and northwest of the city of Norwic ...

and

, where it fills a series of pools that run parallel to the coast. These pools discharge at low tide. The river supports a varied and diverse wildlife population including the water vole. There is also a small breeding

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

population in the upper reaches, while in the lower reaches

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

s can be found.

References

External links

*
Heacham – Community website

Heacham Online

William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1845

Norfolk Lavender
{{authority control Heacham, River

Course

Heacham Watermill

See also

References

External links