The East Anglian Perambulator: MR James' 'Suffolk and Norfolk'

I live and wander in East Anglia. None of these are new, but these pictures are all of locations visited by ghost story master M R James in his ‘Suffolk and Norfolk: A Perambulation of the Two Counties with Notices of Their History and Their Ancient Buildings.’

Perhaps no overtly supernatural leanings, but hopefully a vibe of the landscape that impacted him so. All captions are taken from James’ wonderful guide.

"Aldeburgh...has a special charm for those who, like myself, have known it since childhood; but I do not find it easy to put that charm into words."

"The good town of Aylsham would make a convenient centre for exploring much of the country with which I have been dealing."

"The vast dead inland flats from Yarmouth are very impressive."

(Castle Acre): "...no finer ruin is to be found in Norfolk."

(Attleborough): "Here legend says that St. Edmund resided for a year, and learnt the Psalter..."

(Dunwich): "How much of this once populous city with ''fifty-two churches' is left at the moment I will not undertake to say."

"Of the many modern attractions of Lowestoft I need not speak."

(Norwich): "...I imagine that both this [panel] and the other at St Peter Mancroft belong to a Last Judgement."

"A merman was caught at Orford in the thirteenth century, and kept for some time."

"Walberswick, a haunt of artists, also had a very large church."

(Watton): "Undistinguished except that near it the death of the Babes in the Wood is located, in Wayland or Wailing Wood."

Forewarned Is Forearmed: ROC Watton (Up Top)

A lonely former Royal Observer Corps site in the middle of overgrown, muddy fields, outside Watton. An interesting relic from the Cold War days - in a more exposed spot, this would have been trashed, spray-painted, and ransacked, yet items still remain down in the bunker, not terribly interesting in themselves yet thrilling in their context. Civil defence magazines. Rotting toilet rolls. Paperwork. A (now torn) banner from a group calling themselves Thetford CND, who visited in April 1987 - whilst, presumably, the site was still in use.

Following the end of the Second World War and the RAF's increasing reliance upon more sophisticated methods of aerial observation, the main objective of the ROC - overwhelmingly comprised of part-time civilian volunteers - was to provide authorities with data about nuclear explosions and projected radiation fallout patterns. Following the end of the Cold War and the UK government's 'Option for Change' defence spending review, the ROC was disbanded in 1991.

Anyhow. In the quiet fields, abandoned traces of a war that never came.

Forewarned Is Forearmed: Watton ROC (Down Below)

Apologies for the flash used down here. But, you know, it was dark.

The Norfolk Loch: Loch Neaton, Watton

Initially glimpsed on an OS map and the cause of a sudden burst of bafflement and excitement - a loch? In Norfolk? - yet the reality wasn't quite the hidden, ancient, Celtic-magickal body of water I had been imagining.

The creation of Watton's Loch Neaton is traced back to the 1875 extension of the Thetford - Watton railway line to Watton - Swaffham. Massive earth excavations were needed to build the track up over the low-lying land of a nearby hamlet - Neaton - and the area of the excavation would become an entire leisure park by the early twentieth century, the craters being filled with water from the River Wissey. During its history, the park has hosted tennis courts, a bowling green, fishing, boating, swimming, even (when winters were winters) skating.

Today, of course, there remains little of any note. A picnic area. Beer cans around the charred remains of (prohibited) barbecues. Dead pigeons. Signs warning against swimming, unlicensed fishing, rats spreading disease. The weather didn't help my mood: heavy grey skies, greasy late-spring drizzle, lake water the colour of cold tea. Other, more photogenic, images online suggest the lakeside can be as picturesque as anywhere else, but today, the magick was definitely lacking.

Oh, and the 'loch'? In honour of the Scottish labourers who excavated the site all those years ago.