| Brancaster | |
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Brancaster
Brancaster shown within Norfolk |
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| Area | 21.43 km2 (8.27 sq mi) |
|---|---|
| Population | 897 |
| - Density | 42 /km2 (110 /sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TF775438 |
| Parish | Brancaster |
| District | King's Lynn and West Norfolk |
| Shire county | Norfolk |
| Region | East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | KING'S LYNN |
| Postcode district | PE31 |
| Police | Norfolk |
| Fire | Norfolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| List of places: UK • England • Norfolk | |
Brancaster is a village and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. The civil parish of Brancaster comprises Brancaster itself, together with Brancaster Staithe and Burnham Deepdale. The three villages form a more or less continuous settlement along the A149 at the edge of marshland fringing Brancaster Bay and the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve. The villages are located about 3 miles (5 km) west of Burnham Market, 22 miles (35 km) north of the town of King's Lynn and 31 miles (50 km) north-west of the city of Norwich.[1]
The civil parish has an area of 8.27 square miles (21.43 km2) and in the 2001 census had a population of 897 in 453 households. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.[2] The Clerk to Brancaster Parish Council has recently reached 40 years of service in this post.
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In the 1950s and 60's, Brancaster was seriously mooted as a possible location for the launching site for the British space programme.
This idea was further expanded to include the village becoming the base for a facility that could be used by a spy plane to undertake secret flights over the then USSR to take photographs and observe industrial and military build up.
Naturally, such a development would have meant that the village itself would probably have been razed to the ground and the villages rehomed. However preposterous it may sound, this was seriously considered at one time, along with other sites in the Outer Hebrides and Australia, although the latter would only have been used for rocket launches.
The eventual installation of oil rigs in the North Sea saw the idea shelved, the thoughts being that the risk, however slight, of atmospheric re-entry material hitting, or being in close proximity to the rigs, was too great a gamble to take.
A petrified forest can be seen on the shore near Brancaster at low tide.
There was a Roman settlement here named Branodunum. The Saxon Shore fort at Brancaster, and accompanying area (much of which was destroyed during the construction of a locally opposed housing development in the 1970s) is not visible now, and remains mainly untouched. The garrison at Brancaster was made up of cavalry from Dalmatia. Native Roman centurions and officers were rarely posted to such remote places unless deemed necessary for disciplinary reasons.
Numerous theories exist as to what the Roman presence would have made or exploited in the area, in particular, the natural harbour that the fort would have been very close to at that time. Theories have connected it with amber although a more likely cargo would have been grain and oysters.
The church of Burnham Deepdale St Mary is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk.
The wreck that can be seen off the harbour is the coaster SS Vina which was used for target practice by the RAF before sinking in 1944. The Vina was built at Leith by Ramage & Ferguson in 1894, and was registered at Grangemouth. She was a coast-hugging general cargo ship which would have worked the crossings between the east coast of England and through to the Baltic states.
As she neared the end of her useful seagoing life in 1940, Vina was requisitioned as a naval vessel for wartime use, carrying a crew of 12. With Great Yarmouth being a strategic port on the east coast, the ultimate fate for the ship would have been to have had her hold filled with explosives, and destroyed at the mouth of the harbour, thus blocking entry in the event of Nazi invasion. However, as this threat passed, she was taken out of service and towed up the east coast towards Brancaster where she was used as a target for the RAF before the planned invasion of Normandy.
The ship was subsequently sunk and the wreck remains on the sandbank to this day. Numerous efforts have been made to retrieve the wreckage as the ship was not only a danger to navigation, but also an attraction to the holiday makers on Brancaster beach who regularly walked out to the vessel's remains at low tide. Lives have been lost due to these ill-advised actions and the local lifeboats and RAF rescue helicopters have been pressed into service on many occasions each summer. A warning sign on the wreck advises anyone reaching it to return to the beach immediately.[1]
Removal efforts have long been abandoned due to the excessive costs involved. One ambitious suggestion involved blowing the remains up, but it was calculated that so much explosive would be needed, the subsequent explosion would have broken every window in Brancaster and Brancaster Staithe. A touch apocryphal maybe, but, even so, the wreck is destined to spend many more decades on the sands before time and tide eventually erode it completely.
The village is home to one of the most famous links golf courses in the UK. Known as the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club, it is a 6457 yards long, Par 71. In general golfing standards, this is not considered as being particularly long, however, the closing nine holes can often be played directly into a strong westerly wind which can more than make up for this lack of length.
The Royal West Norfolk Golf Club was founded in 1892, its design being from a Mr Tiny Large. There has been little alteration to Large's design which can be seen at the Clubhouse along with Tiny Large's photo. Many of the original holes are still played today. Two holes in particular, the 8th and 9th, are played over salt marsh, which can be flooded to some considerable depth when the tide is in.
The course is one of the last remaining "Artisan" clubs in the country, this being the original right of the working men and women of Brancaster and Brancaster Staithe to play on the course themselves, the right coming from the fact it was built into common land. The Village club was formed to accommodate the village players, and relations between them and the parent, Royal West club, are mostly cordial and positive.
Despite the courses renown and reputation, its inaccessibility and lack of surrounding land means it will never hold a major championship. Rising sea levels mean that it is expected to be lost completely to the North Sea by around 2015-2020.
Admiral Horatio Nelson is said to have learnt to sail, as a young child, in the gentle creeks and channels near to Brancaster.
The ghost of his nurse is said to haunt the remaining village pub, "The Ship".