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Just under two miles inland from the North Norfolk
coast is the unspoilt village of Langham with its traditional Norfolk
cobbled cottages lining its main street. Its a village with a strong
sense of community where locals sit swapping yarns in the village inn.
Every other year a traditional Olde English Fayre is held in this small
village complete with stilt walkers, jugglers and a band. Gaily
coloured stalls selling anything and everything line the entire high
street.
The welcoming Bluebell Inn whose history extends back over four hundred
years, can be found in the main high street, the publicans adopt the
moto 'There's no such thing as a stranger - just a friend we've never
met'. During the Second World War there were over two thousand service
personnel stationed at Langham and the inn contains lots of mementoes
from that time.
The village has no shop so for the shopping
experience visit the lovely Georgian town of Holt, seven miles
inland. The popular coastal villages of Morston and Blakeney with their
regular boat trips to see the colony of four hundred common and grey
seals, both are less than two miles away.
The famous Langham Glass attraction was once located in the village but
it moved in 2006 to a new location in East Rudham.
Down the road is Stiffkey which clings to a ledge
above the river of the same name, Stiffkey Marsh a continuation of
Morston Marshes contain some of the oldest saltmarsh along this historic
coastline.
In the churchyard at Langham is buried
Frederick Marryat (1792-1848). He was an English naval officer turned
novelist who settled in Langham Norfolk in 1848. One of his novels was
The children of the New Forest published in 1847. This was a historical
novel set in the times of Cromwell and Civil War. Another of his works
was The Little Savages published in 1848 about a young boy and cruel
sailor on a deserted island.
It is said that a wife and her husband who
were visiting the old Airfield at Langham stopped off in the church.
Whilst there the wife came face to face with a ghost of an Airman.
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