Belaugh

The Church Above the Water Meadows

The church of St Peter stands high on a steep slope above the water meadows, and its tower is a prominent sight from the river and the fields. John Betjeman saw it too. The outline of that church tower against the sky, he recalled in his 1974 BBC programme A Passion for Churches, was what first gave him his passion for churches.

Inside is a 15th-century rood screen with twelve painted panels of the Apostles. A 17th-century soldier, remembered locally as a godly trooper, scratched at their faces, and the damage is still there. Below the screen sits a squat 12th-century font of blue stone, its bowl ringed with shallow blind arcading, and the old rood stairs survive in the wall. It is the only nationally listed building in the village.

Belaugh occupies a bend of the River Bure and, unusually for Norfolk, sits on a hill. Lower Belaugh is a small, quiet cluster of houses, a boatyard, a staithe and the church. Visit East of England calls it "small, quiet, and unspoiled."

Two Staithes and the Walk to Coltishall

There are two public river landings. Commissioner's Staithe, where hay and coal once arrived by wherry, now has free 24-hour moorings and a small mown green where people fish, picnic and sit by the water. Church Staithe was created in 1977 to keep the old approach open, up Pilgrim's Path from the river to the church door.

The village has no pub and no shop. What it has instead is Coltishall, about a mile and a half away by a field path, which makes a pub lunch or a loaf of bread something you walk to. Coltishall keeps three dining pubs — the King's Head, the Red Lion and the Rising Sun — along with a post office and store, a butcher and a greengrocer.

Riverside Food and Village Provisions

The Rising Sun stands on the Bure at 28 Wroxham Road, with seating outside by the river. The kitchen runs from Norfolk sausages with creamy mash to miso-and-honey glazed salmon, a mixed fish and smoked-fish pie, moules marinière, a chickpea and sweet-potato coconut curry, and wood-fired pizzas; the Calabrese comes with nduja, burrata and hot honey. Adnams and Woodforde's are named local real ales, subject to change. Dogs on leads are welcome in the bar and bar-dining rooms, though not the restaurant.

For provisions, Hewitt and Grant is a butcher and village store at 21 High Street, established in 2016; Tom Grant says the name honours the Hewitt family, who had run the butcher's since the 1970s. The Bake Shed, started by Jade in 2024, does cakes, scones, traybakes and cookies from a home kitchen.

Paths, Railway and River Folklore

The Belaugh Circular is an easy 6.6-kilometre loop of about an hour and a half, leaving from the moorings and threading through fields and riverside paths beside the narrow-gauge Bure Valley Railway. Parking is scarce down in Lower Belaugh, so it is better to start from Upper Belaugh. The railway's own path runs a mostly traffic-free nine miles between Wroxham and Aylsham, walking and cycling, with a request stop at Coltishall.

One local story clings to the river. Richard Slater, a servant said to have drowned struggling with the rector in 1695, is supposed to rise from the Bure, dragged back down by the loot he stole. It is a ghost tale rather than a matter of record.

Deep History and Getting Here

The place is old. Roman pottery and coins have turned up here, and in 2013 metal detecting produced a medieval rotary key, a buckle and a weight. Domesday recorded it as Belaga, though the place is known today as Belaugh, with two mills, woodland for thirty-four pigs, and a value on the largest holding of five pounds, one shilling and twopence. Top Road was once Butt Lane, after the field where villagers practised Sunday archery. Four farms were still working into the mid-1980s, and the village school, closed in 1936, is now the Church Rooms.

The nearest railway station is Hoveton & Wroxham, on the Norwich–Sheringham line, unstaffed but with a ticket machine. Top Road runs out to the B1354, and the 70A bus makes a limited weekday circuit through Hoveton, Belaugh and Coltishall. Down at Commissioner's Staithe the green is mown and there is room to sit.