Between two quiet Broads
Ormesby St Michael
A small A149 village framed by clear water, reedbeds and wet woodland, with a waterfront pub and a flint-and-thatch church.
- Best for
- Broad views, wildlife and quiet
- Water rule
- No paddle craft on the Trinity Broads
- Bus link
- The X6 calls at Eels Foot Road
The Fox verdict
Come for the water, reeds and unhurried village scale
Ormesby St Michael pairs a Broad-facing pub and a medieval church with short wildlife walks and useful nearby stops.
The village sits between Ormesby Broad and Ormesby Little Broad, two of the landlocked Trinity Broads. Clear water, reedbeds and secluded wet woodland set the tone; The Boathouse, St Michael's church and nearby walks give a visit its shape.
Where to go
Places in Ormesby St Michael
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesTrinity Broads short walks
Public footpaths provide a series of short walks with Broad views across a landscape of clear water, reedbeds and secluded wet woodland.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Filby Bridge
- Access
- Dogs are restricted to assistance dogs on the reserve, and no paddle craft are allowed on the privately owned Trinity Broads.
Ormesby St Margaret Village Walk
An easy 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometre) circular walk from Memorial Green, with about one fifth soft surface and four fifths firm surface.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Memorial Green, Ormesby St Margaret
- Access
- The route is about 20% soft and 80% firm surface.
Hirst's Farm Shop
A farm shop, café and in-house fishmonger, Dabs 'n' Crabs, offering locally sourced produce, home-reared meat, fish, breakfasts, lunches, cakes and scones.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Mill Farm, North Road, Ormesby St Margaret
Food & drink
1 placeThe Boathouse
A waterfront country pub and gastro restaurant with exposed brick, oak beams, open fireplaces, Broad-facing bay windows, outdoor space, boutique rooms and woodland lodges.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Eels Foot Road
History & heritage
1 placeChurch of St Michael
A flint-and-chert church with a thatched nave, medieval tower, chancel and nave, an octagonal font with Purbeck-marble columns, and three Henry Holiday chancel windows.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Ormesby St Michael
Things to do
1 placeThrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens
A family wildlife park with snow leopards, red pandas, crocodiles, treetop walkways and an adventure play area.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 120 minutes
- Locality
- Thrigby
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Three ways to explore Ormesby St Michael
Signature outings
Broad-facing tables at The Boathouse
Eat with views over Ormesby Little Broad, choosing from roast dishes, fish dishes and a sweet-potato and wild-mushroom loaf.
Eight centuries at St Michael's
Look for the medieval fabric, the octagonal font ringed by Purbeck-marble columns and three chancel windows by Henry Holiday.
Snow leopards and treetop walkways
Thrigby Hall combines snow leopards, red pandas and crocodiles with treetop walkways and an adventure play area.
The village story
Ormesby St Michael Village Guide
From a Broad-facing pub to a thatched medieval church, this is a small village shaped by water, wildlife and long memory.
The Boathouse and the pub that closed
The Boathouse stands on Eels Foot Road with its bay windows turned toward the Broads, close enough that you eat lunch looking at the reeds. Inside there is exposed brick, oak beams and open fireplaces; outside there are tables set for the view, with rooms upstairs and lodges in the woodland behind. The Sunday menu runs to roast beef and roast leg of lamb, sea bass with king-prawn-and-clam linguine, beer-battered cod, and a sweet-potato and wild-mushroom loaf for anyone skipping the meat, with a heritage-tomato salad in summer.
It is the only pub in the village now. The Sportsman, later the Sportsmen's Arms, closed in October 1948; among its licensees were the farmer Jeremiah Shalders, who kept it through the 1860s and 70s, and Samuel Richmond after him.
Broad waters, wildlife and short walks
Ormesby St Michael is small — a scatter of houses along the A149, wedged between Ormesby Broad on one side and Ormesby Little Broad on the other. These are two of the five Trinity Broads, and they are landlocked: no navigable connection links them to the main Broads network, and no paddle craft are allowed on the water, which is privately owned. What that leaves is clear water, reedbeds and wet woodland, and the wildlife that comes with quiet — otters, water voles, wintering wildfowl. Norfolk Wildlife Trust calls it "a haven for wildlife."
For walking, public footpaths give short circuits with Broad views; the main way in is at Filby Bridge, though dogs other than assistance dogs are not allowed on the reserve. A gentler option runs next door: an easy mile-and-a-half loop from Memorial Green in Ormesby St Margaret, mostly on firm ground. That neighbouring village also has Hirst's Farm Shop at Mill Farm on North Road, with a café, home-reared meat and an in-house fishmonger called Dabs 'n' Crabs; breakfasts, lunches, cakes and scones are the order of the day.
St Michael's church and older traces
The church of St Michael repays the short walk. It is flint and chert with a thatched nave, the tower and chancel dating from the thirteenth century and the nave from the fourteenth. The font is a plain octagonal C13 basin ringed by eight columns of Purbeck marble. Three windows in the chancel are the work of Henry Holiday, made between 1898 and 1920. The village sign shows the Archangel Michael in the act of killing a demon.
People have lived here a long time. A 2010 dig turned up Early Neolithic pits and, rarer, securely dated Middle Bronze Age field systems, along with loom weights and a whetstone. By 1086 the Domesday surveyors were counting ploughs and meadow — thirty-four acres of it on the main holding — in the hundred of East Flegg.
Walter Westgate and the road to the coast
There is one resident worth naming. Walter Westgate grew up in the village, went to the Somme to tend horses with the Army Service Corps, was gassed, came home and served as an air-raid warden at Blofield, and lived to 86. His medals turned up years later at a recycling centre and were returned to his family, who said they were "absolutely delighted to have these family heirlooms back with us, safe and sound."
Great Yarmouth and its seafront are about six miles off, with the A149 running straight there and the Sanders X6 stopping on Eels Foot Road. Thrigby Hall keeps snow leopards and red pandas a short drive away. But the reason to be here is the water, and the reeds moving on it in the wind.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Boathouse — visitnorfolk.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St Michael — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Trinity Broads short walks — norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Ormesby St Margaret Village Walk — visitgreatyarmouth.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Hirst's Farm Shop — visitgreatyarmouth.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens — thrigbyhall.com operator, sector body or destination organisation