Neaves Norfolk Coach Hire & Travel Blog

Neaves Coaches have been providing coach and minibus hire to and from Norwich for more than 50 years.

Norwich is the commercial and cultural capital of Norfolk and East Anglia. It’s the most complete medieval city in Britain and appeals to many tastes in tourism and entertainment.

Norwich was founded in Anglo-Saxon times on the banks of the river Wensum. In medieval times Norwich grew into a bustling town. The city’s wealth was based on wool and on trade down river and across the seas to Europe.

Norwich Cathedral is one of the great treasures of Europe and enjoys a five star rating as a tourist attraction. The Cathedral is located within a large walled precinct (known locally as the ‘Close’) together with many other ancient buildings including the Bishop’s Palace. The houses and gardens of the Close provide a magnificent backdrop to the Cathedral.

Close to the Cathedral gates is the Maid’s Head Hotel, said to be the oldest inn in Britain and original starting point for the old stage coach hire Norwich to London service.

From the Maid’s Head you may wander down to the river or up into the old cobbled lanes of Elm Hill with its half timbered houses, speciality shops, cafes and restaurants.

Not far from the Cathedral is the Castle, which is Norwich’s other five star tourist attraction. Norwich Castle now serves as a museum and art gallery. Here you may learn about the history of the Castle, the Anglo-Saxons and Boudicea.  And here too you may see the collections of the Norwich School of painters.

Another 900 year survivor is Norwich’s open-air market. Unique in Britain the market boasts over 190 stalls and is the largest 6 day market in the country.

Norwich is also the modern cultural capital for the region. The Theatre Royal offers West End productions and performances by international stars. In May each year the Norfolk and Norwich Festival provides an explosion of street events, music and the arts. And in October the annual Norwich Beer Festival is held in Blackfriars Hall

Finally, Norwich is the principal gateway to the many attractions of rural Norfolk – its towns and villages, stately homes, north Norfolk coast, nature reserves, and of course the Norfolk Broads.

Above all, Norwich and Norfolk are places of great beauty and interest and a real pleasure to visit.

Neaves Coaches provide minibus and coach hire in Norwich, Norfolk, East Anglia and throughout the UK. Please contact us for assistance with your group travel arrangements. 

More tourist information and suggestions for great days out  in Norwich and Norfolk are available on our website.

Houghton Hall, home of Sir Robert Walpole and his descendents, is a masterpiece among England’s stately homes – a grand Palladian mansion in west Norfolk and not to be missed by visitors to the County.

The Hall was built by Robert Walpole, ‘great man’ of 18^th. Century England, first British Prime Minister and still the longest serving Prime Minister of Britain.

Born in 1676, educated at Eton and Cambridge, Walpole became MP for Castle Rising in 1701. He was a shrewd and assiduous administrator and rose to become Treasurer of the Navy for the Whig government. When the Tories came back into power, Walpole was briefly imprisoned for corruption.

When George I came to the throne the Whigs returned to power with Walpole as one of its leading lights. Walpole was propelled to undisputed power by his handling of the financial crisis known as the South Sea Bubble. His great influence stemmed from his popularity with both King and people.

In his role as Prime Minister Walpole is credited with keeping Britain out of foreign wars, with low taxes and with reducing the national debt. Thus he set the political and economic stability which underpinned Britain’s growth as a world power in the following century. 

Many of the features of the modern British political system can be traced back to Walpole. He was the first prime minister to live at 10 Downing Street. He lived there in his capacity as First Lord of the Treasury and that is still the title on the door of Number 10. ‘More fundamentally, Walpole was the first leading minister…who maintained his position by his ability to dominate the House of Commons, rather than through the favour of the monarch’.

During his time in high political office, Walpole acquired great wealth. He was determined to build an impressive new mansion filled with magnificent treasures. Colen Campbell was principal architect for the building and William Kent designed the interior in lavish style as a backdrop for Walpole’s collections of pictures, sculptures and tapestries.

Houghton Hall came to reflect the flamboyant character of one of England’s most brilliant politicians. While the exterior of Houghton Hall is both ‘grand and restrained’ the interiors are ‘colourful, exuberant and opulent’.

Many of the state rooms retain their original furnishings. The V&A Museum acquired a number of state beds, tapestries and suites of gilded furniture to be carefully restored and preserved for the nation in their original places at Houghton Hall.

Shortly after Walpole’s death, debts forced the sale of his picture collection to Catherine the Great of Russia. The collection is now on display in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

Happily, the estate and its furnishings were rescued by the 4^th. Earl of Cholmondeley who inherited it through descent from the marriage of Walpole’s sister Mary to the 3^rd. Earl.

The house and grounds of Houghton Hall are all in beautiful order. Notable features include:

• 5 acre walled garden
• Model soldier collection with battle scenes
• St Martin’s Church where Robert and Horace Walpole lie buried
• 4,500 acre deer park
• Restaurant with waitress service (pre-booking advised for groups)

 Houghton Hall welcomes visitors and provides good facilities for group travel. It is an excellent destination for coach hire in Norfolk. Please contact Neaves Coaches for further information or assistance with your coach travel arrangements.

Horatio Nelson was born in 1758 in the village of Burnham Thorpe, close to the North Norfolk coast in the East of England.

Burnham Thorpe lies to the south-east of the better known village of Burnham Market where the old coach hire Norwich used to stop. Burnham Thorpe is smaller and tucked away along narrow lanes and behind tall hedges. As the birthplace of such a notable British hero, the village 'wears its fame quietly'.

Horatio’s father Edmund was Rector of Burnham Thorpe. The Rectory where Nelson was born is no more but his father’s church, with font where he was baptised, is there as is the old pub where Nelson met friends and wrote letters to the Admiralty. 

The Nelsons were not a wealthy family though his mother was well-connected. With the assistance of his uncle, Horatio joined the Royal Navy at the age of 12. 

The most momentous years of Nelson’s naval career were the 12 years which followed the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. Nelson rose swiftly through the ranks to become a Lord and later Commander in Chief Mediterranean Fleet in 1803.

During these years Nelson won several decisive victories. In each encounter Nelson exhibited forms of tactical expertise and inspirational leadership which became known as the Nelson Touch.

In 1978 Nelson was sent to destroy the French fleet supporting Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. The enemy fleet was found lying at anchor in Aboukir Bay. In a night attack a group of British ships broke through one end of the French line while the rest of the British fleet proceeded down the other side. The enemy fleet was caught in deadly cross-fire and systematically destroyed. Napoleon was forced to abandon Egypt and his army.

In 1801 Nelson was in the Baltic. In the middle of a battle with the Danish Fleet at Copenhagen, his commanding officer flew a recall signal. Knowing that this was no time to flee, Nelson raised his telescope to his blind eye saying “I really don’t see the signal”. The Danish fleet was defeated, the Baltic re-opened to British trade, and Nelson became a public hero.

The Battle of Trafalgar was the finest exposition of the Nelson Touch. In October 1805 a combined fleet of French and Spanish ships laid at anchor in Cadiz. On 21 October the Franco-Spanish fleet came out of port and was promptly engaged by Nelson’s fleet.

This was a moment for which Nelson and his captains were well prepared. Naval battles at the time normally consisted of two lines of ships facing and firing broadside at one another. Nelson wanted to make better use of his ships’ gunnery and close fighting skills. The Nelson Touch at Trafalgar was to cut through the middle of the enemy line and to use his entire fleet to destroy half the enemy fleet before the remainder of the enemy fleet could turn around and join battle.

The outcome of Trafalgar is well known – the enemy lost 18 ships, the British lost none. The battle secured supremacy of the seas for Britain which lasted more than a century. The British however lost their commander. Shot through the chest by a mast-top sniper, Lord Nelson died later that day.

Nelson’s body lies in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral in the central position beneath the dome among the tombs of the great and famous in British history. In the stakes for ‘Second Greatest Englishman’ Nelson holds pride of place.

“Blogs are the greatest breakthrough in popular journalism since Tom Paine broke onto the scene”. So wrote Arianna Huffington, who knows a thing or two about blogging.

Tom Paine was an Englishman born in 1737 and raised in Thetford, a small town in Norfolk in the East of England.

Tom later moved to Lewes on the south coast. It appears that Tom’s time in Lewes shaped his political views – he left England head stuffed full with radical ideas. 

There is now a statue of Tom in Thetford, at the top of King Street, on the old coach hire Norwich and Norfolk road. His bronze effigy clutches a pen like a weapon - an evident reminder that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Tom Paine arrived in America in November 1774 at the age of 37.

By then there had already been several years of unrest in the North American Colonies. The source of discontent was unpopular taxation imposed by a British Parliament in which the colonies had no representation. 

In January 1776 Paine published a pamphlet which attacked the British monarchy and advocated independence of the Colonies. It swayed public opinion at a time when many Americans retained personal loyalty to the British Crown.

During the War of Independence Paine wrote a further series of pamphlets designed to sustain support for the revolution through a prolonged and difficult war.

At a low ebb in the American Revolution George Washington instructed that words from Paine's pamphlets be read to his soldiers:

“Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it”.

In February 1943, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Franklin Roosevelt gave a rallying speech to the nation. He closed his address with quotations from Paine:

“These are the times that try men’s souls” … “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the sacrifice, the more glorious the triumph.”

In his inaugural speech Barack Obama said:

 “I stand before you as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders is alive in our time”.

It was Paine and his forthright rejection of discrimination to whom he referred..

Tom Paine once wrote: “Let us reason the matter together”.

As a champion of clean and open government this man would have made a mighty blogger.