Additional information
Terrain
- Field paths and tracks
Landscape
- Parkland and wooded farmland
Dog friendliness
- <p>Dogs under control and on leads near livestock</p>
Parking
- <p>National Trust pay and display car park at Felbrigg Hall</p>
Toilets en route
- <p>At Felbrigg Hall</p>
About the walk
Some families gave their name to a place while others took what was already there, which is what happened at Felbrigg. The name, which has Scandinavian origins, was adopted by the Bigods, a Norman family who had fought alongside William when he landed at Hastings in 1066. For his services, Roger... Bigod was rewarded with several manors in East Anglia, including Felbrigg, at one time one of the largest estates in Norfolk. The Wyndham era Subsequently, the estate became associated with the Wyndhams, when it was bought by John Wyndham in the 15th century. The present house dates from the early 17th century, when Thomas Windham began the splendid Jacobean south front after he had inherited the estate in 1599. Subsequent generations contributed to its gradual evolution with the west wing, and then refurbishments in the 18th century by William Windham II, which were influenced by his Grand Tour in 1741. It was during the 19th century that things began to go wrong when the estate fell to William Fredrick. A naïve eccentric, he ran up insurmountable debts and the estate was eventually sold in 1863 to John Ketton, a Norwich merchant. However, by the First World War, the house was falling into decay. A new beginning In 1924, it passed to his great nephew, Wyndham Cremer. As a condition of acceptance, he was obliged to adopt the Ketton name and became Windham Ketton-Cremer. He began the task of restoration, a baton taken on by his second son Robert Windham Ketton-Cremer, an historian and writer. He did much to preserve the house and gardens, including the establishment of the Victory V plantation, which commemorates his elder brother, killed during the Second World War in Crete. Robert never married and left the house to the National Trust in 1969. Three churches Each of the churches passed along the way also has something of interest to see. That at Sustead has a round tower, originally Saxon and inaccessible from the church. Within the church is a 17th-century 'wineglass' pulpit decorated with the carved heads of angels, and a brightly painted roof above the chancel. There are colourful Victorian and Art Nouveau windows, as well as fragments of medieval glass depicting St Katherine and St Mary. St Andrew's at Metton has a square tower, but that too is separated from the church, this time by a covered passage, supposedly created to allow the congregation to process around the church. An unusual relic displayed inside is the village policeman's truncheon, which dates from the 1830s. Dedicated to St Margaret, Felbrigg church now stands in isolation at the edge of the park. The village that once surrounded it has long gone, its population having been taken by the plague. Inside are 18th-century box pews and around the walls are impressive funerary monuments to various Windhams. The real treasures, however, are scattered about the floor, protected by carpets from the tramp of visitors; engraved brasses, commemorating the successive generations of de Felbriggs who held the estate.
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