The boatyards sit at the bottom of the village, on a low promontory where the land stops climbing and drops to the River Yare. Marinas, moorings and marine-service sheds line the water, and one yard has been building boats there since 1898, when Charles John Broom began turning out what the firm still describes as "beautifully crafted sailing cruisers for gentlemen." Broom ran a hire fleet from 1912, built a thirty-foot Morris-powered motorboat between the wars, and took Admiralty contracts during the Second World War. Broom is still active in Brundall.
Brundall runs east to west along a ridge. The Street follows the high ground, with the railway and the A47 echoing the same line below; the farmland is up top and the water is down the slope to the south. It is a linear village, easy to read once you know which way is downhill.
Beside the station and the boatyards is The White Heron, a refurbished riverside pub with a drinkers' and sports bar, a restaurant and a good deal of outdoor seating along the water. It was The Yare before this, and the Queen Elizabeth until 1978, and Broom Boats owns the freehold. Breakfast runs to the Big Brundall and the Heron Breakfast; there are burgers, chicken, loaded fries, Sunday roasts and Little Herons plates for children. Adnams Southwold Bitter and Ghost Ship are the regulars, with changing beers that have included Humpty Dumpty, Woodforde's Wherry and Wolf's St George's Ale. Dogs are welcome if well behaved, and the pub is card only.
Up on The Street at number 108 is The Ram Inn, a two-bar village local with a large garden and children's play equipment. The menu lists Norfolk produce built around a ham, cheddar and brie ploughman's, gammon with egg and chips, pan-seared sea bass in a lemon, caper and dill sauce, hand-battered haddock, slow-roasted pork belly and a chickpea tagine, with the house burger listed as the Ram It In, with bacon-and-chilli jam. You'll usually find Purity Gold, Adnams Ghost Ship and Timothy Taylor's Landlord on.
For breakfast or a takeaway loaf, East Hills Café and Bakery sits down at Brundall Bay Marina, with daily bread, pastries and cakes from Easters Bakery in Costessey. There are sausage rolls, pasties, Scotch eggs and filled baps, homemade waffles and Norfolk Tea Co loose-leaf, and an afternoon tea that gathers sandwiches, a sausage roll, a fruit or cheese scone and a chocolate mousse. Kiin Thai Street Food, run from a family home, cooks Thai food to order for collection and delivery.
The parish church, St Lawrence, is thirteenth century, flint with stone dressings under a double-arched bellcote. Its Grade II* listing rests on the font: a thirteenth-century lead bowl decorated alternately with the Crucifixion and fleur-de-lis knots, and the only lead font in Norfolk.
The one place the village meets its own riverbank is Church Fen, a short circular path through tidal alder, willow and ash beside the Yare. Water vole and otter use the dykes, Cetti's warblers breed in the scrub, and Chinese water deer come through the carr. Further east, 1.4 miles on foot, RSPB Strumpshaw Fen opens out into reedbed and orchid meadow.
Getting here is unusually easy for a village this size. Brundall has two stations, on the Wherry Lines to Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, and the Green Line bus reaches the city up to every half hour. Norwich itself is seven miles west. The moorings are a natural place to pause and watch the boats go out.