Whitlingham
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Whitlingham is a small churchless parish, 3 miles (5 km) east of Norwich, on the south bank of the River Yare, reached from Trowse along Whitlingham Lane.
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[edit] Church
The Church (St. Andrew,) was dilapidated about 1630, and now forms a picturesque ruin, near the verge of a lofty precipice, overlooking the river. The tower collapsed in 1940. See Whitlingham Church for more details.
[edit] Broads and Country Park
The Great Broad at Whitlingham Park has been created through the process of gravel extraction. The extraction work at Whitlingham began in 1990 with the creation of the Little Broad. In 1995 work began on the Great Broad, with the quarry removing around 220,000 tonnes of material a year.
Gravel from Whitlingham has been used to build projects in the city such as the Castle Mall, The Forum and more recently, the redevelopment of the old Nestlé site into a major new shopping facility Chapelfields.
An Outdoor Education Centre has now been built on the South bank of the Great Broad 'offering a wide range of land and water based activities', see Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre.
The Little Broad has a beach and swimming is permitted in the designated area.
[edit] Woods
Situated at the lower end of the country park, this area has a history of mining, including flint-knapping from 4000BC, up to the 18th century. Archaeologists have found a number of artefacts in this area, including humanly struck flint flakes and part of a chipped flint axe-head from the Neolithic period, along with an iron-stained flint blade dating back to the Paleolithic period (500000 BC to 10001 BC). From the 18th century until the early 20th century the area produced chalk and lime, the deep chalk pits are still present though overgrown and a Lime kiln is reached by a signed footpath from Whitlingham Lane. Since the then this area has been developing from open landscape to the woodland of today.
[edit] Railway station
Whitlingham railway station used to be served by trains out of Norwich, but is now closed.