Heydon a hidden village..

NOW: A very similar scene today, apart from the modern motor cars and a solitary television aerial. But why the white posts and chains? To keep the parked cars off the grass perhaps, although there is a perfectly good car park to the rear of the Earle’s Arms, which visitors are encouraged to use – and that goes for the pub as well, of course!

THEN: Heydon, a very private village, as seen through the lens of a roving photographer’s camera many years ago.

A timeless scene; a church by the village green, an old pump and a series of old buildings and, against this backcloth, a Corona lorry is being unloaded.

HEYDON tends to keep itself to itself, lying well-hidden off the B1149 and only accessible down quiet country lanes. Somewhere, off the Holt to Norwich road, close to Cawston, is this little gem seemingly untroubled by the passage of time. It may be difficult to find but, once there, it’s all worth it!

Over the years, Heydon has attracted much interest from the media. No more so than in 1966 when it became the fictitious‘Weavers Green’ in the Anglia Television serial of that name. This was to be Anglia’s first ‘soap’ and by all accounts it was an ambitious production, calling for many Outside Broadcast units as a large proportion of the programme had to be filmed outdoors. How they stood up to the ravages of some typical Norfolk weather has not been documented!

Many of today’s TV personalities appeared in Weavers Green, but then relatively unknown; Susan George, Kate O’Mara and Wendy Richards provided the glamour, with Dennis Waterman being expected to master the local dialect – and ending up like ‘North Mummerset’! In those days, Heydon must have been bursting at the seams with all the newcomers, unlike today!

Heydon is one of only a handful of villages in private ownership, and is on the estate that has been in the Bulwer-Long family for the past 360 years.

The Bulwer-Long’s are still in residence in Heydon and own all the houses, three shops – the village shop, a hairdressers and an old-world tea room – and a traditional blacksmith’s and the local public house, The Earle’s Arms.

The Smithy
Still looking like a traditional blacksmith’s shop, the Smithy displays an outstanding horseshoe sculpture of a mare and her foal.

The Main Street
Heydon gives the appearance of a sleepy little village that time forgot.

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Wooden effigy on wall.

The Earle’s Arms
Just the place for a quiet drink or two in front of a good old-fashioned log fire during the colder winter months.

The wooden effigy, above, is attached on an outside wall of the Earle’s Arms, but the Author was unable to discover anything about it.

Perhaps you can help?.

The magnificent hall was built in 1582 by Henry Dynne, and, at one time, during the early 1970s, was almost in a state of dereliction. It had been much added-to over the years, especially in Victorian times, but, thankfully, the hall has now been renovated with the later additions removed and is now to be seen its original condition, much as it would have been during Elizabethan times.

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