Hoveton

Wroxham names on Hoveton's riverbank

Roys of Wroxham is in Hoveton. The department store, food hall, garden centre, DIY store and toy shop stand on the north bank of the River Bure, in the parish across the water from the village whose name they carry. Brothers Alfred and Arnold Roy started in Coltishall in 1895 and opened here in 1899; railway deliveries addressed to "Wroxham" fixed the label, and the name stuck. In the 1930s Town and Country magazine reckoned the shop sold "everything from a topsail to a tin-opener; from a mainsail to a match." A fire destroyed the store in May 1995 and it was rebuilt the following year. The delicatessen carries handmade pies, pastries and sausages from Tavern Tasty, a Norfolk supplier working with traditionally reared meat.

The Kings Head sits on the same bank, with a beer garden overlooking the river. It is a Greene King house, serving hand-battered fish and chips, steak-and-ale pie and stacked burgers, with Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale and a Thornbridge collaboration called Genevieve on cask. Dogs are welcome on leads in the designated areas. Its licensees can be traced back to Job Jenkinson in 1707; in 1794 John Patteson bought it for £500.

Waterside menus and garden paths

The Wroxham, a hotel and restaurant with a waterside terrace, is despite its name also in Hoveton. Its January 2026 menu included examples such as seafood-and-smoked-salmon linguine with lime, chilli, coriander and ginger, Chinese five-spiced pork belly with chilli noodles, a nut-roast Wellington, and a pizza called the Three Little Pigs.

Up at Hoveton Hall, the Flora Café is run by three friends — Laura, Kim and Emily — and does seasonal lunches, homemade cakes, coffee and local wine. The hall's gardens hold woodland paths, an 18th-century lake, an arboretum of more than 200 specimen trees and a listed ice well.

Two churches and onward connections

The village keeps two starred churches. St John has a 12th-century nave and chancel under a tower of 1765, and a 15th-century octagonal font with crudely carved angels. St Peter is the rarer of the pair: a brick church of 1624, thatched, with stepped gables and a florid monument to Mary Aufrere, cherubs and drapery and all, from 1750.

Trains run from Hoveton & Wroxham station, in the village, towards Norwich one way and Cromer and Sheringham the other. The centre lies on the A1151, and First's Pink Line buses reach Norwich as well.

Family adventures and the railway path

Families have a good deal to choose from. BeWILDerwood, on Horning Road, is an outdoor adventure park built around Tom Blofeld's children's books. Wroxham Barns, on Tunstead Road, has independent studios and an Adventure Farm with animal handling, mini golf and jumping pillows. The Broads Authority's solar boat, Ra, leaves Riverside Park for quiet trips towards Coltishall.

For walking, the Bure Valley Path runs nine miles to Aylsham, mostly traffic-free, following the narrow-gauge railway past Coltishall, Brampton and Buxton; you can walk one way and take the steam train back when the timetable allows. The railway's southern terminus is here in Hoveton, with a working turntable, water cranes and a bookshop called Buffer Stop Books.

The trail reached only by boat

The quietest walk is the hardest to reach. Hoveton Great Broad Nature Trail is accessible only by boat, from free moorings, and a kilometre of sleeper path crosses alder carr, reedbed and broad edge; it is too narrow for wheelchairs, and dogs are not allowed except assistance dogs. Dr Martin George laid it out after a view through maiden alder carr caught him. The staff carried the railway sleepers out two at a time on a homemade cart, and the trail opened in 1969.