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Docking is a village and ancient
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...
in the north-west of the English county of Norfolk. It is near the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest.


Topography


Parish

The parish covers an area of (one of the larger ones in Norfolk) and had a population of 1,150 in 469 households at the 2001 census, including Barwick (which is, however, a separate historical locality). The population had risen to 1,200 at the 2011 census. Docking village in the centre of the parish is situated at an elevation of 82.7 metres (272 feet), which makes it one of the highest in Norfolk. It is surrounded by arable farmland having little woodland and is a nucleated settlement, with only one historical hamlet associated with it. This is Summerfield to the north-west, the site of a separate medieval village. The two modern hamlets in the parish are Burntstalk to the west around the former workhouse, and Docking Common to the south-east which postdates the enclosure of the village common in 1859. The village dominates the ancient road layout of north-west Norfolk, and has a total of thirteen old radial routes. These link to surrounding villages, as follows (clockwise from west):
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 201 ...
, Ringstead, The Drove (not a village, but the lane is evidence of a lost settlement on the A 149), Thornham,
Titchwell Titchwell is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the north Norfolk coast some west of the village of Brancaster, north-east of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, north of the town of King's Lynn and north-west o ...
(lane is now partly private farm driveways), Brancaster,
Brancaster Staithe Brancaster Staithe is a village on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. Brancaster Staithe merges with Burnham Deepdale, forming one village. Brancaster Staithe is in the civil parish of Brancaster, together with Burnham Deepdal ...
, Burnham Market, Stanhoe, Tattersett, Bircham Tofts (now a footpath), Bircham Newton followed by Great Bircham, and Fring.


Village layout

Docking is a linear or street village, in the shape of a crescent with three historical nodes. The central focus and the main road junction is accompanied by the church, and has three streets forming a triangular block. These are Well Street, the location of the village's former water supply, Church Place and Chequers Street. To the north runs Station Road, to historical North End and the former railway station. The village pub, the Railway Inn, is here. To the east runs High Street, arriving at the third node marked by The Green. This is a small triangular area now under tarmac, accompanied by a cluster of old houses around Middle Road. The "Docking Heritage Group" have been making limited archaeological investigations and collating evidence since 2012, and one conclusion is that the village's layout has changed little over the centuries. This is owing to the dearth of finds in neighbouring fields. However, earthworks within the present deer park of Docking Hall indicate that the medieval village additionally extended due south of the church.


Water supply

In the past the village used to be nicknamed "Dry Docking", as it had no water supply of its own except rainwater. This was owing to its elevation, which meant that the water table was deep and wells difficult to dig. A feature of the village landscape are several large surviving dew ponds, created as reservoirs into which rainwater was channeled. In the 1760s a single well was sunk some 230 feet down, which provided domestic water for the village at a farthing per bucket (the money went to pay an attendant who worked the windlass, since there was no pump). A water tank mounted on a horse-drawn cart also circulated around the village selling water to villagers by the bucket. The use of this well continued until 1936, when water was eventually piped into the village. Later, the well was closed and capped over to allow for the widening of Well Street.


History


Overview

Docking has been a farming community for its entire history, and has experienced no noteworthy historical events peculiar to itself. Archaeological finds in the parish have been numerous, but unfortunately these have mostly been loose artefacts and no site demonstrating
stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers ( strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...
has been excavated. The origins of the striking radial road pattern are unknown. It indicates that Docking was a very important location at one time, but even the millennium of this cannot be guessed at. Unknown also is the institution here which provided the importance, sited on its hilltop. The focus of the pattern is the present church, but this does not prove that the institution concerned was necessarily religious. However, there are no traces of any defensive earthworks appropriate to a putative
hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post- Rom ...
.


Stone Age

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymo ...
(10 000 to 4 000 BCE) flints have been found north-east of Summerfield (TF754 391) The "Norfolk Heritage Explorer" online database lists fourteen
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...
flint axes found individually in Docking parish, indicating the major clearance of primeval woodland by the first farmers after 4 000 BCE.


Bronze Age

A hoard of
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
metalwork, including axes, was found in a field north-east of the village by a metal detector in 2013 (grid ref TF 771 387). This had been disturbed by ploughing, and items had already been recovered on the surface. The total number of items is twenty. The hoard is now at Lynn Museum. An artificial hillock called "The Mount", in the grounds of Docking Hall, has been pointed out as a Bronze Age
round barrow A round barrow is a type of tumulus and is one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe, they are found in many parts of the world, probably because of their simple construction and universal purpose. ...
. However, this could be an 18th-century garden feature. The parish has three known ring ditches tentatively identified as ploughed-out round barrows. Two are close together just south-west of Summerfield (grid ref. TF 7468 3978). A third is east of Summerfield (grid ref. TF7603 3882).


Romans

A substantial number of surface finds, including coins, at Sunderland Farm (grid ref. TF 78 39) has been claimed as indicating the site of a
Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas ...
. However, the finds do not contain any architectural items indicating a high-status building. A very high-status 3rd century gold openwork ring set with garnet, green glass and pale sapphire was found in an unrecorded location in the Fifties, and sold at auction. Its present whereabouts are unknown.


Early Middle Ages

The present village has Saxon roots. The name is Old English, meaning either ''docce innung'' (newly enclosed land with dock plants), or ''docca ingas'' (Docca's clan). The latter is thought more likely, as there are several other place-names in Norfolk on this pattern. Early Saxon pottery, Middle Saxon pottery and a brooch and pin and Late Saxon pottery have all been found in the parish, close to the present village itself. The first documentary reference to the village is in the will of Aelfric bishop of North Elmham, who bequeathed it to Bury St Edmunds Abbey in 1038. The abbey soon lost ownership, because 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 ...
records the village as being in the possession of a private individual in 1086.


Docking Priory

There is currently a village archaeological project to locate the site of a lost priory believed to have been in the area during the 13th and 14th centuries. The existence of this presently (2019) relies on documentary evidence only, which describes an alien priory belonging to the abbey of Notre Dame d'Ivry at Ivry-la-Bataille in France. The latter had been founded by Roger d'Ivry, who had taken part in the Norman conquest of England. The church of St Mary belonged to the priory, but it is unknown whether the monks used it or had their own church on a different site. The priory was suppressed in 1450, and its property and the church ended up with
Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...
. The relationship, if any, to the priory of the farm called "St Catherine's Cross" is unknown.


Later Middle Ages

In the reign of King Henry I the Lovell family acquired the
manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...
at Docking, and held it for most of the Middle Ages. Their obscure origins were also at Ivry. They were later mainly based at Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire. The Lovell Lord of the Manor acquired a market charter for Docking in 1242, with the market being held on Thursdays. However, the venture failed and the village did not become a market town. Docking has two neighbouring deserted medieval villages. To the north-west is the hamlet of Summerfield, which used to be the village of Southmere with its own parish church dedicated to St Andrew (grid ref: TF 7479 3850). The village was abandoned in the mid 16th century, and the parish combined with that of Docking. The name of "Docking with Southmere" was then used for the latter until the 20th century. The other deserted medieval village is
Choseley Choseley is a tiny hamlet and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated between the villages of Titchwell and Docking and about from each. The town of Fakenham is to the south-east, the town of King's Lynn is to the south ...
on the lane to Thornham, which was also parochial. The church was abandoned probably in the 16th century, but here the parish was kept. The main cause of the abandonment of these villages was that the land around Docking was being converted from arable into pasture by the landowners. The south-east part of the parish was occupied by Docking Common, an extensive open-access area of grassy heath available as
common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has ...
for the use of the poorer people of the village. This was on both sides of the present B1454 road.


Post-medieval

The manor house was rebuilt in 1612, to become Docking Hall. Part of the village was appropriated for its grounds, and earthworks belonging to this are still visible. The hall grounds were extended to form a deer-park in about 1750. This had terraced formal gardens by the house, an avenue of trees focused on a temple (now gone) and "The Mount" a belvedere mound (thought by some to have been originally a round barrow). The work was instigated by Catherine Henley, who became Lady of the Manor in 1743. She also commissioned the digging of the village's well in 1760, together with four other wells on her estate for the use of herself and her tenants. She ordered the planting of 140 acres of trees -beforehand, the parish lacked woodland.


19th century

In the early 19th century, Docking was hosting a magistrates' court or Petty Sessions on the last Monday of the month at the Hare Inn, on the present Station Road. The same establishment, founded in the 17th century but renovated and extended at this time, was also the post-house or centre of horse-drawn public transport for the village. The village stocks used to be located outside the inn for malefactors found guilty, but these are now by the village sign. The "Cage" or village lock-up, a tiny windowless prison, survives from the same period and is at the west end of Chequers Street. The village's old stray animal pound is next to it. The Cage became redundant when a police station was opened in the village in 1854. The Docking Poor Law Union, a federation of parishes for the purpose of dealing with paupers, had a workhouse built on a green-field site in 1836, west of the village on the Sedgeford road. The architect was John Brown. The workhouse closed down at the outbreak of the First World War. In 1859, Docking Common was enclosed and privatised by an Inclosure Act of Parliament of 1845. Most of the common became farmland, but a strip of grass heathland was left along the south-west side of the present B1454. This was called "The Cover". A National school was founded in the village in 1860, the ancestor of the present school. The railway station opened in 1866. A Working Man's Institute was founded in 1869, and this is the ancestor of the present Village Hall. The village windmill, on Mill Lane off the High Street, was converted to steam power in the 1880s. The church and Hall were restored and extended by the architect Ewan Christian in the same decade (the work on the church began in 1875). The Docking Rural District Council was established in 1894, and lasted until 1974.


Earlier 20th century

Thirty-one local men were killed in the First World War, and thirty of them were listed on a carved grey granite
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 ...
war memorial in the churchyard. The one left off by mistake, Edward Dudley Twelvetrees 1918, is commemorated by a plaque in the church. Also in the latter is a plaque to John Burgis, a soldier who was killed in the Maritz rebellion in South Africa at the outbreak of war. The workhouse was sold by its
Board of guardians Boards of guardians were '' ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930. England and Wales Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the p ...
in 1920 to the Rural District Council, which converted it into twelve
council house A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...
s. Thus was created the hamlet of Burntstalk (this is now known as Norfolk Heights after the property was sold to private developers). The
United Automobile Services United Automobile Services was a bus company, which operated local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It provided bus services across a wide geographical area, str ...
, a geographically sprawling bus company which began operations in Norfolk in 1912, established its route 31 in the Twenties. This ran from Norwich through Fakenham and Docking to Hunstanton. In 1931 the Norwich operations became the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company, which operated
double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...
es on the route.


RAF Docking

Fourteen local men died in active service during the Second World War, and their names were added to the war memorial. RAF Docking was a former
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
airfield open from 1940 until 1958. During the war it was a satellite airfield of RAF Coastal Command and home to several Royal Air Force and
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environ ...
squadrons. Aircraft carried out Coastal Command patrol duties and meteorological flights. RAF Bircham Newton and RAF Sculthorpe were also nearby but are also now inactive. RAF Bircham Newton (partly in Docking parish, despite the name) now houses a campus of the National Construction College, run by the Construction Industry Training Board. During their RAF enlistment actors Richard Burton, Robert Hardy, Warren Mitchell and footballer
Danny Blanchflower Robert Dennis Blanchflower (10 February 1926 – 9 December 1993) was a former Northern Ireland footballer, football manager and journalist who played for and captained Tottenham Hotspur, including during their double-winning season of 1960� ...
were based at Docking Hall. The Hall at that time was being used as RAF accommodation and continued to be used after the end of the war to accommodate enlisted personnel whose services were not required and were awaiting demobilization. Burton's brother recalled that Burton's nickname was: 'The Squire of Docking'. The presence of the airfield, as well as the village's proximity to the coast, meant that the latter was provided with substantial defensive works much of which survive. Notably it has four
Norcon pillbox The Norcon pillbox is a type of British hardened field defences of World War II, hardened field fortification built in Britain during the British anti-invasion preparations of World War II, invasion crisis of 1940–1941. It was a small circular ...
es, three loopholed walls, one Blacker Bombard pedestal and two very rare
Tett turret __NOTOC__ The Tett turret is a type of hardened field fortification built in Britain during the invasion crisis of 1940–1941. It was a small circular pillbox named after its inventor H.L. Tett and manufactured as a private commercial venture by ...
s with underground passages.


Recent times

Mechanisation of the parish's farmland, and conversion of pasture to arable, has meant the loss of many
hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoin ...
rows and the grubbing out of some of the small 18th century woods since the Second World War. "The Cover", the surviving remnant of Docking Common, was ploughed up except for a small wooded area by Docking Common hamlet. In 1952, Terence Rowland Wagg, as the chairman of T R Wagg (The Baker) Ltd, built a large bakery in the village. His family used to run the village windmill in the late 19th century, and he had run a bakery in a village shop since 1930. His firm was the only Docking business which made an impact outside the village, as he established a chain of bakery shops with attached coffee houses in west Norfolk towns as well as selling wholesale. His business only survived two years after his death in 1975. The railway closed to passengers in 1952. The major recent event affecting the village was the collapse of its bus services, when the
Stagecoach in Norfolk Stagecoach in Norfolk (formerly Norfolk Green) was a bus operator based in King's Lynn in Norfolk, England. It operated public bus services in the counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire as well as numerous school and college servi ...
bus company shut down in 2018. No commercial bus company was prepared to take on the routes, so an emergency non-commercial arrangement had to be set up by Norfolk County Council.


Governance

In Saxon times, Docking had its own small hundred. This was annexed to Smithdon Hundred in the late 11th century. The Hundred remained as the local authority unit until the formation of the Docking Rural District Council in 1894. Before this, the Docking Poor Law Union operated from 1836, and the Docking Rural Sanitary District from 1875. For the purposes of local government, the village now falls within 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 ...
of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. This was set up in 1974, annexing the Rural District Council. The village's ward has the title "Docking and Burnham Market". This ward had a population of 1,937 at the 2011 Census. Docking Parish Council has a limited responsibility for some local amenities, such as the playing field and meeting hall. and also raises matters of concern with the District Council and other appropriate authorities.


Places of worship

The Anglican village church is dedicated to St
Mary the Virgin Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother ...
, and is mostly 14th and 15th century in date with
Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. It was not the same proce ...
s. The
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...
is earlier than the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...
. The two 19th century restorations were by Frederick Preedy and Ewan Christian. There is a very good late mediaeval font with figurative carving featuring saints, and notable modern stained glass The parish clergy here used to be responsible for services at the "Docking Union Chapel", which was part of the workhouse facilities until the workhouse closed down in 1914. This had its own cemetery. Presently (2019) the Docking parish clergy belong to the "United Benefice of Docking", which also includes the neighbouring churches of Great Bircham, Bircham Newton, Fring, Sedgeford and Stanhoe. In the 19th century the village had three
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
chapels, but the last closed before 2009. This started life in 1836 as the Primitive Methodist chapel, and was at Chapel Cottages on the High Street just west of the Docking Fish Bar. The Wesleyan Methodist chapel was earlier, 1821, and was located a few yards to the west. The two denominations were united in 1932, but the subsequent history of the Docking chapels is not clear. Finally, the Wesleyan Reform Preaching House was located near the large pond to the west of the playing field, and was opened in 1851. The site is now under grass. There has not been a
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
place of worship at Docking since the Reformation.


Pubs

The village had four pubs in the mid 20th century, but three had closed down by 2010. The survivor is the Railway Inn, which is also the terminus of the village's bus service. The pub was opened in 1868 by Truman's Brewery of London. The three older pubs were all owned by Bullards Brewery of Norfolk, taken over by Watneys Brewery in 1963. The Plough in Chequers Street (late 18th century) was closed in 1969, and is now "Horseshoe Cottage". The Hare in Station Road (17th century) closed in 2005 and the King William at The Green in 2009 (now demolished and redeveloped). A new pub, the "Pilgrim's Reach", opened on the High Street in the 1980s but was shut down in 2006.


Facilities

The Docking Primary and Nursery School is on Chequers Street. The Bayfield Surgery occupies a new building off the High Street, east of Bradmere Lane. The SPAR village shop with Post Office is on Station Road. The Playing Field, with a simple skateboard ramp, is on Bradmere Lane. On the High Street is a fish and chip shop, "Docking Fish Bar" and a car body repair workshop, "Dennis Wright". The Village Hall, formally named the "Dr W.E. Ripper Memorial Hall", is also on the High Street and hosts an indoor market on Wednesday mornings. As Docking is close to the coastal resorts of Hunstanton, Heacham and Brancaster, there are several bed-and-breakfast establishments in the village.


Noteworthy buildings

Docking has fifteen
listed building 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 ...
s, all Grade II except the church which is Grade II*. Already mentioned are the church, with its 1875 lychgate and War Memorial (separately listed); Docking Hall with its gateway (separately listed); the lock-up; the stocks; the two Tett turrets (listed together), and the two former pubs The Plough (now Horseshoe Cottage) and The Hare. The other five buildings are domestic residences: * "Bank House", High Street (next to Mill Lane junction), decorative shop front in stucco c.1840. Formerly H.E. Marsh Hardware. * "Holland House", Chequers Street. Mid 18th century. * "Manor Farmhouse", between Well Street and Pound Lane, early 17th century. * "Manor Cottage", opposite Well Street north end. Late 17th century, although with datestone reading 1742. * "The Coracle" with "The Lodge", on Well Street. Late 18th century, two dwellings in building.


Transport


Roads

Docking is on the B1454, running from Fakenham to Hunstanton. The B1153 crosses this at the village, running from Brancaster to Narborough, and the B1155 runs from the village to Burnham Market.


Railway

Until 1952 the village had its own Docking railway station, on a railway between
Heacham railway station Heacham was a railway station which served the seaside resort of Heacham in Norfolk, England. Opened in 1862, the station became a junction where services left the King's Lynn to Hunstanton line for Wells on the West Norfolk Junction Railway, wh ...
and
Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada * Wells, British Columbia England * Wel ...
. This line was opened by the West Norfolk Junction Railway in 1866, and passenger services were run as a shuttle from a bay platform at Heacham to Wells-next-the-Sea. Connections were available at Wells for onward travel to Fakenham and Norwich, and at Heacham for King's Lynn and Hunstanton. However, the need to change trains for the towns meant that the service was vulnerable to bus competition. As a result, the village's station was closed to passengers in 1952 along with the rest of the line, as part of the first set of cutbacks of Britain's railways after nationalisation in 1948. The station remained open for goods trains until 1964, after which the track was lifted.


Buses

As at 2019, the village's bus service was the 21 running from King's Lynn via Flitcham and Great Bircham and terminating at the Railway Inn near the old station. This had a basic service of three each way (two on Saturdays), with two extra buses on schooldays and one on Tuesdays only. This service was part of the "Go to Town" outreach, a non-commercial venture by the West Norfolk Transport Project which is a registered charity. This arrangement has been in place since the shutdown of the
Stagecoach in Norfolk Stagecoach in Norfolk (formerly Norfolk Green) was a bus operator based in King's Lynn in Norfolk, England. It operated public bus services in the counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire as well as numerous school and college servi ...
bus company in 2018. Additionally, in 2019 the Lynx bus company were running a school bus through the village from Dersingham to Wells-next-the-Sea early in the morning, and back in mid-afternoon. This was for the benefit of pupils of the Alderman Peel High School. The service had a number, 414, and was available to the general public also despite only running on schooldays. Before 2018, the village was served by a loop of the so-called Stagecoach "Coasthopper" service, running from King's Lynn to Cromer. Some buses on this ran from Brancaster through Docking to Heacham instead of via Hunstanton, and provided the village's route to King's Lynn. The village was also on the route 31 from Fakenham to Hunstanton, allowing for connections to Norwich at the former place.


Mythology

On 19 June 1969 at 12.25am, Robin Peck, a radio and television engineer, is alleged to have witnessed a bright-blue object shaped like an ''inverted mushroom'' that hovered around 40 metres high in the air at a distance of 400 metres. Adding to his claims are alleged
electromagnetic interference Electromagnetic interference (EMI), also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electrost ...
effects from the object that caused his Ford Thames van's electrical system to completely cut out when in the object's presence; he felt a lot of static electricity in the air. Bircham Newton airfield squash courts are allegedly haunted by the crew of a bomber which crashed here, and who were fond of playing the game.


Notable residents

* Saint Henry Walpole, Jesuit priest and martyr, born in Docking in 1558. * Rev. George Smith, defender of Rorke's Drift during the 1879 Zulu War, born in Docking in 1845. * Nick Aldis,
professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...
and 2008 Gladiator on the UK version of the show. * Richard Burton, served at former RAF Docking and lived in Docking Hall. * Warren Mitchell, served at former RAF Docking and lived in Docking Hall. * Robert Hardy, served at former RAF Docking and lived in Docking Hall. *
Danny Blanchflower Robert Dennis Blanchflower (10 February 1926 – 9 December 1993) was a former Northern Ireland footballer, football manager and journalist who played for and captained Tottenham Hotspur, including during their double-winning season of 1960� ...
, served at former RAF Docking and lived in Docking Hall.see 5


Notes


External links


Parish Council website

Docking Heritage Group


{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk UFO sightings in England