Smallburgh village guide
Smallburgh
A dispersed, low-lying village with a farm brewery and medieval church, close to Wayford nursery produce and the working waters around Wayford Bridge.
- Brewery
- Wildcraft moved to Smallburgh in 2022
- Church
- St Peter's medieval tower fell in 1677
- Waterway
- The canal opened in 1826
The Fox verdict
Come for local produce, church detail and working-water history
Smallburgh's brewery and church pair with nearby Wayford Nurseries, the Mill Lane footpath and waterside stops at Wayford Bridge.
The Crown and Wildcraft offer a village pub and brewery tap, with A. G. Meale's farm shop nearby. St Peter's preserves medieval details, while Mill Lane and the two Wayford Bridge waterside sites connect Smallburgh with the River Ant and canal.
Where to go
Places in Smallburgh
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesA. G. Meale & Sons / Wayford Nurseries
A family-run farm shop, plant centre and pick-your-own operation selling its own seasonal fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes from April to October.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 45 minutes
- Locality
- Wayford Nurseries, Stalham
Wayford Bridge Parish Staithe
The surviving parish staithe below Wayford Bridge has a public slipway and mown grass and belongs to the working-water landscape of river, canal junction, dykes, marsh drainage and staithes.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 30 minutes
- Locality
- Below Wayford Bridge
- Access
- Free 24-hour moorings are on the separate Stalham-side frontage north of the bridge.
BeWILDerwood Norfolk
A family woodland attraction centred on treehouses, rope bridges, slides, zip wires and a maze, with dedicated areas for younger children.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 150 minutes
- Locality
- Hoveton
Food & drink
2 placesWildcraft Brewery Tap Room
A small brewery-side tap room with rotating taps, relaxed seating and a garden. Usually at least six Wildcraft ales are served, while food often comes from pop-up stalls.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 60 minutes
- Locality
- Unit 3, Church Farm, Knowles Lane
- Access
- Dogs are welcome inside and outside; food is often supplied by pop-up stalls rather than a permanent menu.
Vera's Coffee Shop
The on-site coffee shop serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, cakes and savouries made on the premises, using nursery produce and local ingredients where possible.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 45 minutes
- Locality
- Wayford Nurseries, Stalham
- Access
- Dogs are allowed in the outside areas but not in the coffee shop or farm shop.
Walks & outdoors
2 placesStalham-side Wayford Bridge Moorings
A separate waterside frontage on the Stalham side north of Wayford Bridge, with Broads Authority 24-hour free moorings.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 30 minutes
- Locality
- Stalham-side frontage north of Wayford Bridge
- Access
- These 24-hour free moorings are on the Stalham-side frontage, not at the parish staithe below the bridge.
East Ruston Old Vicarage
A 32-acre modern garden in an exposed coastal landscape, divided into herbaceous, gravel, sub-tropical, Mediterranean, rose, woodland and other garden rooms, with a tea room.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 150 minutes
- Locality
- East Ruston
History & heritage
3 placesChurch of St Peter
A flint parish church with ashlar quoins, a 14th-century font, 15th-century south door and four painted saint panels. Its medieval tower fell in 1677 and the west bell-cote was added in 1902.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 35 minutes
- Locality
- Smallburgh
Mill Lane Staithe Footpath
A surviving public footpath leading towards the site of the old staithe on the north side of the now-lost Smallburgh Broad; the historic staithe is now in Dilham after boundary changes.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 60 minutes
- Locality
- Mill Lane
- Access
- The public route follows the Mill Lane footpath towards the old staithe and does not continue as a public canal towpath from Smallburgh.
Museum of the Broads
A museum telling the stories of Broadland people, landscape, wildlife and boats, with family trails, several display buildings and river trips.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 75 minutes
- Locality
- Poor's Staithe, Stalham
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Three ways to explore Smallburgh
Signature outings
Wildcraft Brewery Tap Room
Wildcraft's Laurate malting barley is grown within 50 metres of the brewery, and its small on-site tap room usually serves at least six of the brewery's own ales.
Church of St Peter
St Peter's listed details also include part of the old rood stair and a slate memorial to Robert Bono dated 1753.
Museum of the Broads
Children can crew a playboat, try tying a nautical knot and weave on a loom among the museum's hands-on activities.
The village story
Smallburgh: barley, staithes and a village spread across low ground
Smallburgh links a working brewery and medieval church with old staithes, the River Ant and nearby gardens and family days out.
Beer brewed beside the barley
Wildcraft's Laurate malting barley grows within fifty metres of its brewery at Church Farm on Knowles Lane. The business moved to Smallburgh in 2022 and opened the tap room in 2023. The small room has relaxed seating and rotating taps, usually offering at least six house cask ales alongside occasional guest and keg beers. Its IPA, lager and pale ale are vegan and gluten-free. There is a garden, and dogs are welcome indoors and out.
Pop-up stalls often supply food, with a wider choice at larger summer events. The shop behind the bar stocks beer, the brewery's own coffee blend and locally sourced spirits. The brewery also sells cask, keg and canned beer and offers tutored tours.
Nursery produce and Vera's table
A short way off, A. G. Meale & Sons runs a farm shop, plant centre and pick-your-own at Wayford Nurseries. They grow their own: tomatoes from April to October, then strawberries, raspberries, sweetcorn, pumpkins, beetroot, courgettes, kale and runner beans as the season turns. Cromer crabs sit in the farm-shop chillers, and a fish van calls twice a week with fresh and smoked fish and shellfish.
Vera's Coffee Shop serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and cakes made on the premises, using nursery produce and local ingredients where possible; the same "Baked by Vera's" goods appear in the farm shop. There is table service, a covered patio facing the garden and a lawn to sit out on. Dogs are welcome outdoors but not inside the coffee shop or farm shop. Smallburgh's Fairview Garage also houses a Premier convenience store.
The Crown and St Peter's church
The Crown Inn is again a working pub in a thatched, timber-framed former fifteenth-century coaching inn. Jeremiah Hannant, a joiner, held its licence in 1845–46.
The church of St Peter stands in flint with ashlar quoins. Its medieval tower fell in 1677; the west end was rebuilt in 1902 with a bell-cote. Inside are a fourteenth-century octagonal font, a fifteenth-century timber south door and four painted saint panels on the dado of the old screen; the rebuilt west end carries crossed keys, St Peter's emblem.
Staithes, river and canal
Smallburgh is a dispersed, low-lying village straddling the A149, its northern and eastern edges drawn by the River Ant and its dykes; the name means the bank or hillock of the Smale, an older word for the river. Mill Lane runs out to a public footpath and the site of an old staithe on what was once Smallburgh Broad; the broad is gone, and the staithe now falls the far side of the parish boundary in Dilham. At Wayford Bridge, where the A149 crosses the Ant, the parish staithe has a slipway and mown grass, and free twenty-four-hour moorings lie on the Stalham side.
The North Walsham and Dilham Canal opened here in 1826, Norfolk's only artificial locked sailing canal, running from Antingham Bone Mills to Wayford Bridge. When the first laden wherries set off in June 1826 they went with "music playing and flags flying". The coal trade it was built for never came, since carting coal inland from the coast was cheaper, and it carried corn, timber and cattle cake instead. The four-storey brick tower at the bridge is a drainage mill of 1847, converted in 1978–79 and now offered as holiday accommodation.
Connections and village life
The nearest station is Worstead, unstaffed and single-platform, on the Norwich–Sheringham line; Sanders buses 6 and X6 serve the Smallburgh Crown stop, about fifteen minutes' walk from the brewery. Stalham, close by, has the Museum of the Broads at the Poor's Staithe, with river trips and family trails; East Ruston Old Vicarage has a thirty-two-acre garden and tea room at East Ruston, and BeWILDerwood's treehouses and rope bridges are over at Hoveton.
The village hall and its playing field are held by a local charity, and the parish council looks after the staithe, the moorings, the burial ground and the war memorial. They are the working parts of a village spread thin across its low ground.
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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.
- Wildcraft Brewery Tap Room — wildcraftbrewery.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- A. G. Meale & Sons / Wayford Nurseries — agmeale.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Vera's Coffee Shop — agmeale.co.uk other published source
- Church of St Peter — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Mill Lane Staithe Footpath — broads-authority.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Wayford Bridge Parish Staithe — broads-authority.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Stalham-side Wayford Bridge Moorings — broads-authority.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Museum of the Broads — museumofthebroads.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- East Ruston Old Vicarage — eastrustonoldvicarage.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- BeWILDerwood Norfolk — bewilderwood.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation