Lost Norwich - Hellesdon, Drayton and Taverham

Venturing outside the city via the former train route from City Station, this video returns via the villages of Taverham, Drayton and Hellesdon, taking in pubs, churches, schools and street scenes. It was done at the suggestion of residents of Brooklands care home, who wanted to see the story of the area in which they live.

[@maryhairy1]

Nice bit of history

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@johnnywarnerperfectroad66]

Excellent video many thanks 👍

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it 👍

[@johnnywarnerperfectroad66]

@@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich Indeed I did, I hope you are doing one from Drayton to Reepham to follow this one. Loved the comparison photos you used very interesting 👍

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

@@johnnywarnerperfectroad66 thanks, one day maybe!

[@williamm3820]

Lovely upload. My family have had established connections with Drayton since the early 1900's.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you - glad you liked it.

[@rossfiddes4930]

Cheers, I grew up in Drayton/taberham/thorpe Marriott. When I was a baby, only my parents road had been built and the rest of thorpe Marriott was a big field. Thanks for the info.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

you're very welcome. These areas have seen a lot of changes!

[@alanlake5220]

The animal pens in the 1912 picture @0:44 ,where the GN wagon on the right of the picture are still there.110 years later !! Great video .

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, you've added a great detail there!

[@Inzaghi50]

I was born in Drayton, I've lived in Hellesdon all my life and spent a lot of time in my early years at my grandparents house in Taverham. I always enjoy your videos and nice to see some familiar places in earlier guises!

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, glad you like the videos and that this one is closer to home!

[@Tiggysmum]

I grew up in Hellesdon, and went to school at Heather Avenue. I first learnt to ride a 2 wheeler bike on the concrete outside what was the Mace shop, now a house. I rember watching Mac Donald’s being built, and The Boundary roundabout disappearing.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, great comment. I don't remember the Mace. You must remember Ken's Corn Stores too! (That just came back to me!)

[@Tiggysmum]

@@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich The Mace shop was opposite Heather Avenue road, and Spar shop was on next corner of next road up on left. Can’t recall Ken’s store, where was that? I rember the florists, post office which I think is still there, doctors that’s now something else not sure what. Dixons shopping centre and dentist right at end of Reepham road.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

@@Tiggysmum that's brilliant, brings back a lot of memories, as I used to live on Middleton's Lane. Ken's Corn Stores was on Reepham Rd, near the boundary. I imagine they sold corn!

[@Tiggysmum]

@@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich I went to Kinsale Middle for a couple of years but then we moved. There was a hire shop at the end of our road. I lived on Overbury Road. JPH I think it was called, i rember it had a bouncy castle outside once. Me and my brother went and tried it out.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

@@Tiggysmum I remember Kinsale though I was only there as an infant before going to Firside. So many shops in those days!

[@James050]

My whole 18 years on this planet has been spent in Drayton & Taverham. Thank You for this video ❤

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you. Great comment! Most of these pics were from way before your birth!

[@SarahJane-u8j]

Thank you very interesting. Must have been a lovely line to travel on in its day. Glad you can still walk along it.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

I agree. I tried to visualise it as I walked it. We don't know what we've lost till it's gone. But as you say, at least it's now a walk.

[@lukewolsey]

Great video John - my paternal family moved from the city to Hellesdon mill in the 1940s and then on to Drayton in the 1950s. Been here ever since (apart from a few years away at university and then in a flat in the city in my twenties), I now live with my family in my grandparent's old house in Drayton.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thanks so much for sharing those details Luke. To live in your grandparents' house is quite something. Pretty special.

[@geoffpoole483]

You've surpassed yourself with this one, John. I've cycled along the Marriott's Way hundreds of times and it's fascinating to see how things have changed along or near the route. On a poignant note, there's a memorial beside the platform at the former Whitwell station commemorating the men who boarded trains in 1914 to go and fight in WW1.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thanks Geoff, that's a very kind comment - and thanks for adding the comment about Whitwell Station. In that connection, you might like this little video I was involved in many years ago, which features Whitwell station. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnSTfHWjZ8ishbM

[@richardnorman1158]

Great video I regularly walk down Marriott way , such a great walk and I always imagine the train coming down

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@Ionahaifa]

Thank you for the video.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you 😊

[@Bearss]

That was amazing! A real treat. I walked the route with my dogs when I lived in the area. Thank you for yet another amazing video.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you! Glad you liked it.

[@traceyculyer5811]

Thankyou John, very interesting and loved the train journey.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thanks Tracey, it was fun trying to make that train journey work!

[@peterjameson321]

Thank you John for another informative video. I loved the sound of the steam train and I as a boy remember trains running along the track as it was then on the now Marriott's way. Because I'm so young (😂), the trains in my day were only for freight I think, but the previous generation would have boarded as passengers from Norwich City Station. I've walked Marriott's way to Hellesdon, Drayton and Taverham before but as always following your videos, I'm going to have to do the walk again with hindsight and soak in all that lovely history.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you so much Peter. Enjoy the walk - it's quite a way, and to be hones I cheated a bit!

[@sharonfive]

Thank you John for another informative video.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you Sharon. Happy New Year!

[@adrianrutterford762]

Thank you as ever for an informative video. Cheers

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

And thanks for your comment, much appreciated.

[@IDreamOfGaming]

Another fantastic video. Big fan of Marriots Way and it's history. Thanks.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, I have a very vague memory of trains there (freight only I think) in the mid 1960s.

[@marielsdaylife6330]

Hello john i enjoy watching your great video

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you very much! Glad you liked it.

[@mariuszzaborowski]

As always, very interesting

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@camelia9802]

Very interesting indeed, thanks for uploading.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@mariuszzaborowski]

I recommended your channel to my colleagues from work. Some already watched it before.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you!

[@The_Brit_Girls]

I enjoyed the train ride along the Marriott's Way. I walked along part of that route not so long ago, which I'm sure you'll remember! It was so interesting to see how the three villages looked from back in the day. They have changed so much since then. Fascinating that they actually moved The Cock further back from the road. I enjoyed learning about the Beech trees they planted after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Thanks for another great video!

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you! Always good to imagine trains along that route. What were villages are now suburbs, but interesting to see what hasn't changed.

[@redesunited429]

Another great production thank you so interesting!

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@davegoldsmith4020]

Thanks John, after missing a couple of your videos, I enjoyed watching this one, especially the Marriotts way, my wife and i walk sections of it now and again, we normally walk a 5 miles section, and then walk back. it was nice to see some of the bits off the rail track area, and to see how much the city has grown in the last century.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you Dave, I'm pleased you liked the video. Enjoy your next walk!

[@terryabbey4209]

When I was in the RAF I caught a train from Leicester to Norwich, it started with 8 coaches, we went all over Norfolk it seemed, when we got to Norwich City station, much to my surprise I was the only passenger and only one coach left I lived in Hellesdon on Links Avenue, later stationed at Horsham St Faith, quite often used the Firs pub commonly called TheTwig by the RAF lads I recall the round about at the Bull inn, the roundabout was built to a severe accident between a bus and Austin 7 Had a few pints in the Bull, as kids after football, we would pop into the off license and have a shandy, happy days

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you so much for adding all these details. It helps to build a picture beyond the video - especially for people like me who used to live near the Bull but had no idea of the accident !

[@martinthirkettle599]

As a Hellesdon ‘boy’ I absolutely loved this video. Both my parents are buried in St Mary’s churchyard, I worked behind the bar at the Man on the Moon pub, I saw the last two years of the fabulous Norwich Stars speedway team and I had my first ever beer at the Bull (on my way to youth club at Hellesdon Community Centre). Discounting the three pubs in your video (and also not counting the Whiffler) I wonder if any of your viewers can name the other two pubs that were once located in the Parish of Hellesdon?

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Great question, and thanks for the comment. I can name one, and think I might know the location of the other, but won't spoil others' enjoyment!

[@Inzaghi50]

The Falcon and Bishops (or The Bignold Arms as it was when I was very small!)

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

​@@Inzaghi50I believe you're right....

[@martinthirkettle599]

@@Inzaghi50 Correct

[@terryabbey4209]

Just to add when I was 3 years old, I lived in Overbury RD, my grand mother who lived in Newcastle was very ill, so my mum took my sister and I to visit, while we were there a bomber crashed on our house, I have never got the whole story as my mum would never talk about it, if anyone has any info I would be pleased to hear it

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thanks Terry, you may find something on this site. www.invisibleworks.co.uk/the-norwich-bomb-map-digitised/

[@benziescha5438]

I remember doing some fundraising for Norfolk orbital while I lived down there. Hope they're still around, it's a really good cause in my opinion.

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Yes, I see occasional Facebook posts and other things from them.

[@ryanpotter9152]

I like the choo choo noises

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Thank you. I tried! 🤣

[@Arhats_Corner]

5:47 Surely it can't be the national speed limit down that road?

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

Very observant! I had to look carefully to see that. Looks like that was the case.....

[@Inzaghi50]

Some people still think it is in 2023 even with traffic calming in place!

[@JohnAtkinsLostNorwich]

@@Inzaghi50 I was going to make that point!